The Greatest Story Never Told
Leslie Carol Botha: The FDA and women’s health in the same sentence makes me nervous. I think it is pretty clear that the FDA does not hold the health of women – nor anyone else for that matter- as a priority. It has become pretty clear that they are the government puppet for the pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Elizabeth Kissling wrote an excellent highlighting some of the FDA’s obvious disregard for the health of women.
In this revealing work, a medical writer and an internationally-known physician team up to explain the controversy over medicine prescribing estrogen for perimenopausal women in North America, and to detail why progesterone is actually a far more effective, and a far less risk-ridden, approach.
Need proof that women are sometimes desperate for information and support when it comes to quitting hormonal contraception? You need look no further than the 100 plus comments in reply to an old blog posting at Our Bodies Ourselves: Questions About Side Effects of Stopping Contraceptive Injections. The comment stream – a litany of woes concerning women’s discontinuation of Depo-Provera – has been active since Nov. 2, 2009.
Teen girls are getting pregnant, in part, because they don’t understand their menstrual cycles. It’s time for sexual health educators to step up and teach girls the primary sign of fertility.
On February 10th, the Washington Post published an op-ed piece by Rachel Maddow. In this she outlines how there are Republicans who don’t want birth control covered by insurance, they don’t want Planned Parenthood receiving federal funding, and they want an embryo to be considered as a person with rights. She highlights that this last issue threatens the legality of hormonal birth control. In the final paragraph she states:
“Time will tell on the political impact of this fight, but the relevant political context here is more than just a 2012 measure of Catholic bishops’ influence on moral issues. It’s also this year’s mainstream Republican embrace of an antiabortion movement that no longer just marches on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade to criminalize abortion; it now marches on the anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, holding signs that say “The Pill Kills.”
The philosopher of science Mary Midgley (1995) doesn’t mince words. She tells us: “The theory of evolution is not just an inert piece of theoretical science. It is, and cannot help being, also a powerful folk-tale about human origins.” Along these lines, stories about reproductive physiology are important folk-tales about what’s natural for women and what their life course should be.
Society for Menstrual Cycle Research re:Cycling January 20th, 2012 by Laura Wershler Is there a woman over the age of 18 anywhere who doesn’t know that taking the birth control pill can make her periods lighter and less painful? Most women know this, but not many know why. The news stories swirling around a new study Continue Reading …
Society for Menstrual Cycle Research re:Cycling Guest Post by Holly Grigg-Spall January 12, 2012 “Less stressed, thinner and more interested in sex.” – but not buying magazines. In a recent issue of the UK’s Stylist magazine — a weekly women’s glossy that is available for free at tube stations and selected clothing stores — there Continue Reading …
Society for Menstrual Cycle Research re: Cycling January 11th, 2012 by Laura Wershler The Internet abounds with articles, posts and forum discussions about coming off the birth control pill. Women are looking for information and advice. Many are trying to get pregnant, others are just done with hormonal contraception. It’s a topic that interests many Continue Reading …
Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
re: Cycling
November 16th, 2011 by Laura Wershler
Of the growing list of reasons why women might want to reconsider using birth control pills, this could well be the strangest.
Researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto published a study on Nov. 15 in the BMJ Open Journal in which they found a “strong correlation” between the use of birth control pills and the incidence of prostate cancer worldwide.
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