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| Contraception Isn’t Healthcare; It Isn’t Even Helpful On March 20, 2012 | By Jacqueline Harvey Although the exception rather than the rule, those demanding free oral birth control quickly and often point out those women who need birth control to treat their medical conditions. They become downright indignant and sanctimonious about those poor women, those poor women in pain, who will suffer if the government doesn’t force religious organizations to provide free birth control for everyone. You should know that I am one of those “poor women.” I’ve suffered for years from endometriosis, a prevalent disease where the endometrium (uterine lining) grows excessively and beyond the uterus, causing cysts and severe pain. When I say severe—from “bee sting” to “child birth,” it would be akin to taking a knife, searing it in an open flame until it glows red, thrusting it in your abdomen, twisting it, pulling it out and repeating the process several times each month. The scale of “happy face” to “frowny face” used at the doctors’ office just doesn’t cut it, unless the frowny face is also vomiting and has a word bubble showing that it is begging for death. My mother, a nurse, made valiant efforts to find a solution and after ultrasounds and diagnosis, the best our doctor could offer me at 14-years-old was a pack of birth control pills which I reluctantly took. The pain did subside, but I was an emotional, depressive wreck and I told my mother I’d rather endure pain for a few days than be crazy every single day. Some would argue then that my pain could not have been that bad if I opted to tough it out, but the truth is that my pain was bad, but the anxiety and depression was simply worse. My endurance for monthly agony finally wore thin after nearly a decade of being tethered to a heating pad and clutching a bottle of pain-killers. As a university student, I decided to seek a real treatment to address the actual problem. I saw several gynecologists and the best they, too could offer me was a pack of birth control pills, since an unintended side effect of the pill was relief from such pain at the expense of sabotaging my other lady parts that were functioning as designed. Every time I brought up the fact that I wanted to fix what was broken, not break what was working properly for temporary relief from my actual ailment, these specialists either tried to sell me on the pill (down to showing me how cute and decorative the pill compacts are!) to just dismissing me with “take it or leave it.” Something else to keep in mind that I was as working part-time in childcare with no insurance, and I used my $7.25/hour wage to pay for specialist after specialist who made more money in one hour than I did in a week yet could offer me nothing beyond a pill that would ease my pain, yet cause me more medical problems in order to do so. I couldn’t afford to keep having packs of birth control pills thrown at me or endure the pain any longer and although I was not Catholic at the time, I reasoned that if I found a Catholic gynecologist who didn’t prescribe contraceptives, they would be forced to give me an actual treatment for my condition since they lacked the pill as a convenient cop-out. I found one and luckily, the lifestyle and diet changes he suggested have helped significantly and I am not chemically dependent on carcinogenic and abortive hormones intended to prevent me from having children, something I actually wanted. It took money and time I did not have to find my treatment, but I found a treatment where one didn’t actually exist—with oral contraceptives thwarting my pursuit for health at every turn. Unlike Sandra Fluke, I know all too well about the medical “need” for contraception. I assert the medical need is not for contraception, but for real medical treatments. Instead, women are reduced to settling for the side effects of a drug that was not designed to treat any medical ailments, but intended to allow people to have sex without pregnancy, something that is intended to profit men just as much as women, since the last time I checked, it takes a man for a woman to become pregnant. The fact that men have treatments for legitimate disorders that affect men but women are forced to endure our medical problems or accept scraps rather than solutions just reeks of sexism. It baffles me that it is self-proclaimed feminists who are indignant about not getting free contraception somehow fail to see that women with real health problems are woefully neglected. The only way I can explain it is that women are forced to use socks as gloves when their hands are cold. Sure, the socks do warm the hands, but the fingers become useless. Likewise, the pill would have eased my pain, but my reproductive organs would no longer function. I was forced to choose between pain and health, when health itself would have relieved my pain. I was given a choice of infertility from my condition or infertility from my treatment. That was not an acceptable choice for me. The feminists angered on behalf of poor women like me who would suffer each month without the pill apparently don’t care very much, at least not enough to demand actual solutions. After all, this wouldn’t advance their cause. They would rather keep me in pain and use me and my disease as a sympathetic smokescreen to hide their true agenda. This isn’t surprising, as we have seen these women exploit rape victims as political props to get abortion-on-demand or over-the-counter emergency contraception for themselves. I will state the obvious: Contraception is about contraception, not my medical affliction. We’ve established that contraception is insufficient in addressing medical problems anyway and rather causes more medical problems, but even if it the pill did appropriately treat my medical condition, most women want contraception for contraception. If I were forced to use it for medical treatment, I would also be forced to use it also as contraception against my will because that is what it does. As someone who hopped from doctor to doctor in college with no insurance and a limited income, I can assure you that oral contraception is really easy to get. Real medical care? Not so much. It took significant time and money to address my health problem but and yet I did. It would take no such effort to get an oral contraceptive, especially with a medical indication. The controversy is not about medical treatment for women like me. It is about who pays for contraception for women like Sandra Fluke. Even those groups that oppose contraception will pay for contraceptives if there is an established medical reason. So again, those “poor women” like me who would, unlike me, accept contraception as a treatment, we are covered. And while I insist that it is an injustice that real treatments for female ailments don’t exist for women like myself (forcing me to find my own solutions at my own expense) I never complained about having to pay for my own healthcare. This battle that these so-called feminists are waging supposedly on my behalf is exploiting my disease so they can have free birth control. These are healthy women who want a pill to make their bodies unhealthy (and infertile) at their whim. Meanwhile, women like me with legitimate health problems who want to protect our fertility are left without acceptable options. This “poor woman” found and paid for her own treatments in spite of those who feign to care about her and are using her for selfish gain. I took care of myself. Since getting birth control is infinitely easier than what I endured, is it too much to expect these women to take care of themselves* as well? *If the answer is no, maybe I should dig up my old medical bills and see if Sandra Fluke and her ilk will reimburse me for them, since she cares so much about women like me. |
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| I Think Its Cute How Much Jezebel Loves Being Wrong About Things by Kristen Walker March 29, 2012 Walk with me down this path of rational thought, wont you? People who have sex for fun are having sex for recreation. Thats what doing something for fun is. I enjoy bowling, weaving, kayaking, and such. Some people enjoy sex. Whatever. Recreational activities should not be covered for free under any health care plan. But I could get an STD having sex without condoms! Yes, and I could bust my toe open bowling. Insurance plans will pay for my busted toe care and your shot of penicillin. But insurance wont and shouldnt pay for steel-toed bowling shoes. Why? Because bowling is a recreational activity, and so is non-procreative sex. Do you have a right to have sex? Sure! Why not? I have a right to bowl, eat spaghetti, drive a tractor, and thumb-wrestle with my coworkers during lunch. But no employer, taxpayer, or anybody other than me has the obligation to provide preventive care to make sure I can do those things without any repercussions which I may deem negative. This is why I have to buy my own bowling shoes, spaghetti bib, tractorhelmet?, and thumb-wrestlingcape. Yeah, cape. It all seems so simple! But what Sandra Fluke and others are screaming about is that women use birth control pills for things other than preventing pregnancy, such as regulating periods and correcting hormonal imbalances. Now, I know a little something about hormonal imbalances. I wont go into detail, but I experienced hormonal imbalance so severely that I experienced that time of the month non-stop for 18 months. (Looky there, I just went into detail.) I became severely anemic and very sick. I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and adrenal fatigue, among other things. I went to a few doctors. They all suggested birth control pills. I said no to all of them. My past experience with birth control pills led me to believe they were a temporary hormone Band-Aid that could correct my symptoms for a while but wouldnt fix the underlying problems. One doctor even smilingly suggested uterine ablation a procedure that would have left me infertile. At the time I was 28 and had told the doctor I wanted children. I realized I was going to have to do my own research, and I did. I spent months reading and talking to other women with my symptoms and eventually found that proper nutrition was the key to my problems. Four years later, I am 60 pounds lighter and much healthier. I also finally found a pro-life doctor, the only one I know of in my city Dr. Joseph Behan in Dallas who said he had never prescribed birth control pills and never would. He is also an infertility specialist and has helped lots of women regulate their cycles and get pregnant using natural methods. He has been a godsend for me. It is my firm opinion, based on personal experience, years of research, and countless conversations with women, that oral contraceptives and IUDs are not helpful to women they are harmful. No, I am not a health care professional, but I am the one who ended up helping me not the several doctors I desperately visited. Sometimes amateurs have it figured out in a way that professionals dont. Or, as the saying goes: amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic. Im afraid birth control pills have become a fall-back position for lazy doctors. Dont wanna get knocked up? Dont ask yourself questions about whether you should be having sex with the person; just take a pill. Bleeding uncontrollably? Take a pill. Cramping so badly you want to die? Irregular as all get-out? Missed your period for three months, but youre not pregnant? Pill, pill, pill! This argument that women need birth control pills to be healthy irks me. First, it is false. Second, it is a dishonest ploy to keep getting other people to pay for their fun sexy sex lives. Third, it is another attempt at social engineering: forcing other people to subsidize your behavior no matter their moral objections to it. Thats why I thought Arizonas proposed bill was a good idea. It said, basically: fine, if you need birth control for health reasons, well pay for it. So prove you need it for health reasons. What is the big screaming deal? Let the towering intellects at Jezebel tell you!
Let me explain this to you people again in very small words, very slowly: You. Dont. Get. To. Have. It. Both. Ways. If you want other people to pay for your crap, you thereby invite people into your crap. What about that is so hard to get? Youre not asking them to pay for your heart pills. Youre asking them to pay for your birth control. So if youre gonna claim its for your lady plumbing health and not consequences-free shagging, prove it. I think thats a perfectly sound idea. Republicans have been accused of waging a war on women, and theyre backing off hard by assuring everyone that contraception is safe, dont worry; were not gonna touch your pills, ladies. And I believe them. Unfortunately, down the road, Im afraid all of us as pro-lifers and that includes Protestants, atheists, and everybody else are going to have to take a good hard look at oral contraceptives and their abortifacient effects. If we truly believe that life begins at conception, a birth control pill is a little Russian roulette ball that could land on death anytime. I know thats a difficult fact to face, and we dont want to look like scary extremists, but the truth is the truth, and if we dont own up to it, we are doing ourselves, this movement, and the unborn a great disservice. |
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| Refusing to back down at the OB/GYN by Christina Martin Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:33 EST July 18, 2012 (LiveActionNews.org) - Like most women, Im concerned about my health. Thats why I recently made an appointment to see an OB/GYN. As I talked with my new doctor, I shared my history of severe menstrual cramps. As a remedy, she suggested I take birth control pills. I politely told her I was adamantly opposed to the pill; I took it as a teenager to alleviate cramps, though it proved ineffective. Aside from that, Im aware of the history of Planned Parenthood, which was formerly known as the American Birth Control League. I mentioned that Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist who plotted to use birth control as a means to decrease the black population. The doctor informed me that she had researched Sanger as well, yet she didnt refute what I said. Instead, she remarked, So you dont take birth control because of principle. Yes, I replied, but also because of the negative effects it has on a womans body. I mentioned there is a connection between birth control and breast cancer. Quickly the doctor denied that claim. She said research had proven those assumptions false. She told me the birth control pill could actually help prevent ovarian cancer. Then she said, If you could take something that prevents cancer, wouldnt you want to? Although my OB/GYN claimed the birth control/breast cancer risk was false, other doctors would disagree. The National Cancer Institute admits A number of studies suggest that current use of oral contraceptives (birth control pills) appears to slightly increase the risk of breast cancer, especially among younger women. However, the risk level goes back to normal 10 years or more after discontinuing oral contraceptive use. Their website has a fact sheet titled Oral Contraceptive and Cancer Risks, which references studies and research on the topic. Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy is a breast cancer surgeon, Founder and Medical Director of the Breast Service at Clara Mass Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey. Dr.Ruddy has been in practice as a breast surgeon for over fifteen years. In a 2011 article she writes: In 2007, the World Health Organization, after having reviewed the worlds literature, determined that oral contraceptives were Group I carcinogens, capable of causing several cancers in women, including breast cancer. As for the pill reducing ovarian cancer, there is research that shows women who use birth control for ten years or more may be less likely to contract that type of cancer. However the pills could increase their chance of getting cervical cancer. The American Cancer Societys website declares: There is evidence that taking oral contraceptives (OCs) for a long time increases the risk of cancer of the cervix. Research suggests that the risk of cervical cancer goes up the longer a woman takes OCs, but the risk goes back down again after the OCs are stopped. In one study, the risk of cervical cancer was doubled in women who took birth control pills longer than 5 years, but the risk returned to normal 10 years after they were stopped. I mentioned the other side-effects of the pill (mood swings, blood clots, risk of infertility) to my doctor but she didnt respond. She admitted it was refreshing to see someone who strongly stands for what she believes in. Yet she simultaneously continued to push me to change those beliefs. She insinuated that I got my research from unreliable websites, shared some myths against birth control, and finally warned me in her exact words to not cut off my nose to spite my face. Or, as she further explained, dont do destructive things for the sake of principle. After talking with some married friends, I realized that they also have felt pressure at their OB/GYN appointments. One of my friends went in for a checkup after finding out she was pregnant again. She became pregnant with her second eleven months after her first. The doctors response to her exciting news was, Weve got to get you on birth control! Another friend told me she went to her doctor for a prenatal exam with her second child. During the exam, her doctor spent 5 minutes of her 8-minute appointment telling her how to avoid getting pregnant in the future and asked her if she was interested in terminating the pregnancy or wanted to be sterilized postpartum. My friend switched physicians as she wondered, Where is the celebration of life? I live in Connecticut. The landmark case Griswold v. Connecticut struck down an 1879 law that stated, [A]ny person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purposes of preventing conception shall be fined not less than forty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days. The law also said that any person who assists, abets, counsels, causes, hires or commands another to commit any offense may be prosecuted and punished as if he were the principle offender. Prior to 1965 in my state, it was illegal for married couples to use forms of birth control. During that time, Estelle Griswold, the executive director of Planned Parenthood of CT, was arrested and found guilty for providing illegal contraception. She appealed to the Supreme Court and won her case. Im not arguing that selling birth control should be illegal again. However, I am commenting on the extreme change in mindsets and public opinion that has taken place over a relatively short amount of time. In just 47 years, we have gone from birth control being illegal for married couples to abortion on demand being legal. My doctor told me I was being destructive because I am opposed to birth control. Yet I am quite sure she wouldnt have argued with me if I told her I was pregnant and considering an abortion. If we want to label something as destructive, Id start with Roe v. Wade, which has led to over 55 million abortions in our nation. As pro-lifers, we must be armed with knowledge, bold, and unapologetic in our convictions. We cant always depend on our doctors, politicians, pastors, or even the president to help us make good decisions. We have to stand up for what we know is true, no matter what the cost. I kindly told my doctor that while I valued her opinion, I wasnt going to be changing mine. |
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| Shouting from the Rooftops! Written by: Marie In case you havent heard, the subject of birth control has been in the news lately. Before I get in to this post, Im going to add a clarifier that I am not a doctor or a pharmacist and the advice contained in this post should not be used to replace medical advice. But this is about really learning about what it is that you, our readers, put into your bodies. Now that Ive gotten that out of the way, I want to tell you something that gets under my skin like nothing else does. I bet that youve probably heard at least ten people in your life say it (or some variation) this last month. But birth control isnt all bad. I know someone whos taking birth control for medical reasons and it cured her. Show of hands? Who here has heard someone say that? Who has said it themselves? Let me tell you whats wrong with that statement. Ill start with the easy part. Birth control doesnt CURE anything! In consulting with Dictionary.com you find that the following definition of the word cure exists: Cure [kyoor] noun, verb, cured, curing. 1. a means of healing or restoring to health; remedy. 2. a method or course of remedial treatment, as for disease. 3. successful remedial treatment; restoration to health. 4. a means of correcting or relieving anything that is troublesome or detrimental: to seek a cure for inflation. 5. the act or a method of preserving meat, fish, etc., by smoking, salting, or the like. The one place where this definition falls short (in my opinion) is that it doesnt state that the means of healing or restoring to health should be specified as permanent means of healing or restoring to health. Someone whose cancer has been cured has been healed or restored to health permanently. Someone whose endometriosis has been cured has been restored to health permanently. Someone who is still battling cancer (or endometriosis) has not been fully restored to health and therefore cannot be considered cured. The conditions that the birth control pill is said to treat are painful periods/cramps, heavy or irregular periods, acne, too much hair, or severe PMS (mood changes, headaches, bloating, etc.). It is very discouraging to me that a woman with any or all of those symptoms would walk in to a doctors office and the doctor would just throw medication at the problem without taking the time to diagnose whats wrong. Yet thats what happens! That doesnt happen with other medical conditions, why female problems? For the last year I have been struggling with some incredibly awful heartburn, nausea, gas, bloating, and what I later learned was a swollen esophagus. The doctor wouldnt prescribe anything for me until shed run a battery of tests. She needed to figure out what the problem was (particularly making sure that I wasnt having any cardiac issues) before she started to treat me. Yet if I were to go to her and say my cramps are so awful that I can hardly sit up at my desk at work, and then when I do get my period I cant go anywhere or be away from a bathroom because I go through tampons so quickly, what usually happens (in most doctors offices)? I walk out with a prescription for birth control pills without having run a single test to determine what the problem is. I know thats what happens it has happened to me three different times in my life and it baffled me each time. Youre going to give me something to take before you tell me whats wrong with me? Now granted, if my doctor had talked to me about surgery for endometriosis when I was 21 years old I might have run for the hills, but I would have known the word endometriosis. I could have learned (at the age of 21) about the importance of eating natural foods (less processed food), reducing my salt intake the week before my period, trying to add an Omega-3 supplement in to my diet, and using progesterone. Heck! I would have learned about the hormone progesterone! Yes, when you have endometriosis all you want is relief. If someone would have told me that when you take birth control pills to treat the symptoms of endometriosis, the symptoms usually return and are usually worse, I maybe would not have gone down that road. In other words, when I was ready to finally have a child with my husband, there were more than a few months where I wondered if I could live with the cramps while we were trying to conceive. (I ended up having a laparoscopy four years ago, and probably need to have another one but dont want to deal with the recovery that I had last time) The other condition that a lot of the symptoms listed above (acne, irregular and heavy periods, too much hair) are symptomatic of is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). If youre not someone whos been around the Infertility community, or if you dont have a family member who has PCOS, youve probably never heard of it before. As many as 1 in 15 women have it, and its one of the number one causes of Infertility. I have five good friends who have PCOS and I know several other women who suffer with the disorder. Its a frustrating thing to deal with. PCOS is largely the result of Insulin Resistance (IR). Because the body cant process insulin correctly, the female reproductive system doesnt work quite right and instead of releasing an egg on a routine cycle (every 28 days for average women), the ovaries produce cysts and an egg is released on an unpredictable schedule. Often times reproductive endocrinologists talk about patients with PCOS having a string of pearls row of cysts in their ovaries. Women fall victim to thinking that birth control pills cure PCOS because they (generally) go to see their doctor about the fact that they never know when theyre going to get their period. The doctor gives them a prescription for birth control pills, which they take, and they get a period every 28 days. Its almost like a miracle for them they have predictable cycles, their acne starts to clear up, their cramps arent as bad, theyre not nearly as moody, they can walk past the ice cream case in the grocery store without filling their cart Life is almost normal. But then when they want to have a baby? They go off of birth control and their problem is back and even worse. God willing, they get someone who talks to them about the benefit of diet and exercise. There is a great deal of evidence that women with PCOS benefit from a diet like the PCOS diet or the Glycemic Index diet or being gluten free. They learn that just dropping 5% of their body weight has a profound effect on their fertility. Amazingly, when your body isnt working so hard to combat the roller coaster of Insulin Resistance, it can do a better job at fertility. But the medical community doesnt tell you that the only way to really cure PCOS is through diet and exercise (and not just eat less than 1,800 calories a day but eat the right things) because there are drugs they can throw at the problem. If you dont want to get pregnant you can take birth control pills. If you do want to get pregnant they can give you Clomid to force your body to ovulate. I hate to say it, but weve allowed ourselves (and I count myself in this group) to be tricked in to believing that birth control pills are the answer to all of our problems. In many cases, however, they complicate the problem further. I firmly believe (but cant find a doctor who will agree with me) that the five years I spent taking birth control pills caused my infertility. Those gastrointestinal issues that I referred to above? Turns out that theyre caused by Insulin Resistance (IR). I dont have PCOS, but I have something very similar to it, so Im learning how to eat right for my body. If someone had talked to me when I was in my 20s about IR I could have saved myself a lot of heartache (and chest pains). My body has lost the ability (also complicated by age since Im closing in on 40) to correctly produce progesterone, something that I believe was always there, but has been complicated by using birth control pills to regulate my hormone swings. My hormones dont know how to swing without help like the 6-year-old who sits on a swing and doesnt know how to pump her legs because someone has always pushed her. So whats the answer? If you know a woman of child-bearing age who complains about painful periods, irregular periods, heavy bleeding, acne, or excessive hair on her face, urge her (beg her) to ask her doctor what other options are available to her other than the birth control pill. If you yourself are on the birth control pill for medical reasons, please do your own research. Is continuing to push hormones in your body that just simply mask the symptoms rather than treat the problem worth it? Wouldnt you rather be truly cured? |
