Let's say someone told you that you could take a magical pill that would make you lose weight & keep you thin and you wouldn't have to diet or exercise. You would just be required to take this pill once a day, at the same time every day & in order to remain slender, you must continue using this pill for as long as you wanted to remain thin. The monthly cost of this pill would be around $40 or more. Of course, being that magical weight loss pills have come and gone, often with fatal results, your skepticism would prompt you to inquire about the risks and side effects of this pill, even if it was your doctor recommending this drug. And what if your doctor told you these were some of the potential side effects:
Taking this pill could also make you a target for:
Increased risk of cervical and breast cancers
Increased risk of heart attack and stroke
Migraines
Higher blood pressure
Gall bladder disease
Infertility
Benign liver tumors
Decreased bone density
Yeast overgrowth and infection
Increased risk of blood clotting
Would you then take the pill, gambling your health and hoping you wouldn't be in the percentage of people at risk for various health dangers? Or would you look at your doctor like he was crazy and say "No thanks."?
As much as I struggle with my weight, I don't think I would do it. In fact, and this is something I've never told anyone, I begged my doctor to put me on Phentermine last year after I got dumped. I was convinced I would be alone for the rest of my life unless I became skinny, and my doc at the time had prescribed my coworker the drug and she lost 50 lbs (she is now having serious health problems). I took it for a month and almost lost my mind. I experienced every possible side-effect the drug warned of: insomnia, dry mouth, digestive issues, mood swings, depression, nervousness and anxiety. Granted, the depression and mood swings were a part of my life at that time anyway, but the insomnia and anxiety and digestive issues (I ate next to nothing but felt like their was a boulder in my tummy 24/7-painful), were intolerable. The moment I stopped taking even the half dose, I started sleeping and feeling normal again. It wasn't worth it.
Yet, there are tons of women, women I know, friends of mine who go to the gynecologist or dermatologist and sign up for a pill without asking questions or researching the risks. And this pill, with these known side effects, are being recommended by doctor after doctor. Because the FDA won't investigate the risks or look at the long term implications, doctors don't see anything to be concerned about & they recommend the Pill and usually nothing else, for birth control in women.
Now if I can be so bold, let's look at this from a common sense perspective. You are taking a drug. This drug alters your body's natural cycle, the thing that makes us women (our ability to bear children) and tricks it into thinking it is pregnant, even though you are not. These synthetic hormones are essentially attacking your natural hormones and messing with your entire reproductive system. When most of us take drugs, we take them over the short term. Long term drug users are considered addicts and addicts have severe and often fatal health problems. How is it that we think taking a drug every day (or using a IUD or ring or a shot to deliver the drug) won't harm us? I'm not trying to be an alarmist here. I'm just being practical. Just remove the "BC is totally safe" filter from your brain for a second and evaluate this from an entirely common sense angle and I think you might bee a bit concerned too.
Here's the problem. I'm in a hypocritical and potentially judgemental position to be talking about this issue. I've never used birth control or had the need. I don't know what it feels like to have that anxiety or to be desperate for a solution to a problem. The solution most women have come up with is the Pill since hormonal BC was introduced in the 60's. It's known the be to most effective and convenient. It doesn't interrupt your life too much to pop a pill, but a condom in the middle of a passionate moment is. I get that. I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I'm just trying to be honest with other women about something that has serious potential health risks that most people ignore. Just because something is convenient and effective doesn't mean it is safe, and that is the impression many women on the Pill have. It's safe, my doctor recommended it, there's nothing to worry about. 100 million women use the Pill globally, so all those people can't be wrong...or can they? They can, and they are.
Heart disease and cancer are the top 2 killers of women, and those percentages have risen in the last 10 yrs, while heart disease has dropped in men. Those are potential risk factors for the Pill. Can no one see the correlation? There are serious health risks involved when many women start taking the Pill as early as age 15 and continue using it off and on THROUGHOUT their lifetime. I'm beginning to wonder if it will get so bad that the moment a young woman bleeds, she's on the Pill. When the concept of hormonal birth control was being developed by Searle, the pharmaceutical company noted that having a drug marketed to women that they would use throughout their lifetime would be monetarily advantageous. The companies that market hormonal birth control make billions of dollars a year. They market it for something as simple as adult acne now. They also have lawsuits that they settle yearly as well. Remember when the birth control patch came out several years ago and how heavily it was marketed on TV and in mags and women went out in droves to get it? Then the lawsuits started because the Patch delivered too much fake estrogen in a women's system, causing deadly strokes and blood clots. The Patch was pulled. There are similar lawsuits pending on a Yaz and Yasmine and yet it is still being prescribed by doctors and taken by women. Because it is still deemed safe by the FDA.
Ok so those are the health risks, which in my mind, are enough to cause serious consideration. But then, as a christian, I have to evaluate the moral/ethical implications that taking birth control poses. I'm not Catholic and I'm not going to go into a dissertation of why preventing the birth of a child is a sin. I believe for some people it can be. I am of the mind that if you don't want kids, you probably shouldn't be married, but that is me taking the bible pretty literally and I don't expect everyone else to. If you aren't prepared to to handle the implications of having a child, you aren't responsible enough to have sex, an activity in which reproduction is the end result. Children are a gift and in our culture they are almost viewed as the enemy - they take your time your money, your attention, your life. They should instead be shuffled off to day cares and schools to get them out of the way. It's really quite sad. Kids are so incredible. We as Americans should be ashamed at the way we treat, respond and think about children. Since I value children, conception is a big deal to me. The Pill is a known abortifacient. No matter what the percentages are, if you conceive while on the pill, the Pill has changed your body to be a harmful environment for your child and it will kill it. Plain and simple. Your body is a human furnace for your child and it will never get a chance to implant itself on the wall of your uterus because your uterus won't allow it to. Your child then dies. Yeah sure the percentages are small, according to the pharmaceutical companies, but the fact that it can happen, presents a serious ethical quandary. If I believe life begins at conception, as do many pro-lifers, then if I take the Pill, I am a hypocrite and potential murderer who is more concerned about convenience than life. I didn't really want to address this on this post, but I never knew that about the Pill until college when my Ethics professor introduced it. I didn't believe him, because it seemed preposterous. So many pastors tell engaged couples to get on the Pill for the first few years of marriage, why would they do that if the Pill could cause abortions? I researched and found my ethics professor to be right and that made my choice there. I have had several discussions with various engaged friends and the overwhelming choice for them is the Pill when it comes to birth control and even in the face of these facts, Christian women whom I admire, choose to take a drug that can kill a baby.
If we are going to say taking the Pill is about our bodies, our sexuality and being in control, then we really need to make sure we know what we are getting into. Your sexuality is in your control, but your libido is shot cuz you're on the pill. You are in control of your body, but not cancer or heart disease. We can't pretend we are invincible, even though we are women.
I'll get into alternative methods of birth control next week.
Sources:
http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/123783441267009Heart%20and%20Stroke%20Update.pdf
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/WarningLettersandNoticeofViolationLetterstoPharmaceuticalCompanies/UCM143477.pdf
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForWomen/ucm118465.htm
http://blogs.abcnews.com/health_insider/2009/01/think-birth-con.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_effects.html
http://www.news-medical.net/news/2005/07/11/11582.aspx
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