Another Reason Not to Use the Pill

[Duchess]

My sister-in-law just sent me this article to me regarding a study which found that the birth control pill could actually mess up a woman's ability to find "compatible mates".

Moral and religious reasons aside, the more I read about the side effects of the pill, the more it grounds my belief of how bad it can be for your body health-wise. Now, being a journalism major and a daughter of a doctor and nurse, I do realize that more study and probably research needs to be done for this, but this is an interesting article, none-the-less, and does give one pause to think. I also realize that some women take it for medical reasons and are not sexually active, but there really needs to be more research done to make better medicine or to help women work on making better health choices so that they don't have to take the medicine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...enpickbadmates

[Rach620]

Originally Posted by Duchess

My sister-in-law just sent me this article to me regarding a study which found that the birth control pill could actually mess up a woman's ability to find "compatible mates".

Moral and religious reasons aside, the more I read about the side effects of the pill, the more it grounds my belief of how bad it can be for your body health-wise. Now, being a journalism major and a daughter of a doctor and nurse, I do realize that more study and probably research needs to be done for this, but this is an interesting article, none-the-less, and does give one pause to think. I also realize that some women take it for medical reasons and are not sexually active, but there really needs to be more research done to make better medicine or to help women work on making better health choices so that they don't have to take the medicine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...enpickbadmates

I haven't gotten to read the article yet, so pardon me if this is redundant!

Dr. Janet Smith has been making the case for this point for quite awhile in her "Contraception: Why Not" talk (available on onemoresoul.org, I think...). Simply put, a previous study found that women on hormonal BC were attracted to "losers". I think they were told to either smell the clothes of a man or to look at his picture and tell which one they were more attracted to--the BC users generally chose the unemployed, not physically fit men, while the BC-free women generally chose the more attractive, educated/employed men.

I'm not sure who ever thought it was a good idea to mess with our hormones, but really it's such an intricate system that I would never, ever ingest a pill that could mess with it.

[agapewolf]

All NFP docs will tell you it is poison.

The pill has been declared a carcinogen.

It's very simple to me: In no other way do we take "medicine" to make the body stop working the way it is supposed to. It takes a functioning part of the body and makes it unfunctional. How can anyone think that is healthy?

For the "health reasons" that doctors prescribe it for, it only covers up and masks the symptoms, to make everything appear to be working, but in reality its making everything worse.

NFP docs will try to find the actual problem and fix the problem rather than mask it.

[Julie W.]

touche', agape (wolf)!!!!!!!

[Duchess]

Originally Posted by agapewolf

NFP docs will try to find the actual problem and fix the problem rather than mask it.

And that's very important. Of course, medication is created to change the chemistry in your body so that it works counter to what it is doing currently and sometimes the medication that may be helping one problem can actually affect another part of your body which was functioning well. That's a risk when a person takes medication. For instance, if you look in the Physicians' Desk Reference, there are other drugs that are also considered carcinogenic or have other side effects, but are still being used because the benefits outweigh the risks - and not to mention, it is sometimes the only medication out there to help.

BUT too many times, these girls/women are not given other options and are just told to take the pill as if it is the only way. They are hardly ever told what the risks could be, nor are they told that there could be other lifestyle choices or medications that could help them. More research needs to be done and more education of patients need to be made so that they can make better health choices. So to me, in the health reasons issue, The benefits in the long run do not outweigh the risks and other subsequent problems that could arise, especially when there are other options. Although I do know a couple of women who have had their periods regulated after being on the pill and getting off of it - but to me those risks are not worth it at all.

[lizaanne]

When I worked for a hospital, many years ago as an office manager for a fertility lab, one of the most frustrating things I would encounter was trying to get women to understand that they HIRE their medical professionals, just in the same way they HIRE other professionals to handle certain aspects of their lives.

Accountants, lawyers, construction contractors, etc. - you scrutinize their credentials, and when they aren't doing the job you pay them to do, you fire them. But for some reason, it is not the same with medical professionals. For some reason we trust blindly, and are so afraid and intimidated to question their actions.

We need to get to the point where we look on medical professionals as not only trusted partners in our lives, but also professionals to be held accountable to what WE expect from them when hired to handle our care. I think that this will lead to a much more healthy relationship between professional and patient, and hopefully more conversations about what ARE the options out there, and not just accepting status quo.

~Liza