Holy Hormones Honey! Are we risking our daughter’s fertility by putting them on Implanon – a synthetic hormonal drip placed in a woman’s arm for 3 years? The trend in birth control is moving in this direction. More effective – yet a potentially dangerous synthetic birth control with unknown long-term results. Birth control is the largest uncontrolled medical experiment in history.
Under this news story is a blog post by a young woman who had to have the stick taken out and replaced. Read her ordeal. Her muscles actually grew around the Implanon stick – virtually making the device a part of her arm.
Health officials debate cost of teen pregnancies
Braselton News Today
Mark Beardsley
Friday, May 4. 2012
It’s hard to put a price on unplanned pregnancies, particularly among teenage girls, but public health officials apparently see doing just that as a useful strategy to promote family planning.“Family planning is our top priority,” reported Dr. Claude Burnett, director of the Northeast Georgia Health District at a meeting of the Jackson County Board of Health on April 25.
By family planning, Burnett means preventing unplanned births, especially among teenagers.
Since half of babies born in Georgia are paid for by Medicaid, preventing pregnancies “saves a lot of money,” Burnett noted. That is particularly true, he said, for low-birth-weight-babies, which account for 10 percent of births and whose care can cost $40,000 to $70,000 or more. Burnett pointed to $15 million “saved” in the health district by birth control efforts, based on a $3,000 delivery cost and 10-percent low-birth babies. Burnett called the $15 million savings “a very conservative figure.”
Board of health member Brad Morris pointed out that Burnett’s “savings” do not include other costs often incurred with teenage pregnancy, such as welfare payments and other social services.
The regional director also reported that the district has a new, highly effective method of birth control available for patients.
Implanon, a version of Nexplanon, is more effective in preventing pregnancies than even male sterilization, according to statistics Burnett presented.
The device is small, tube-like, a little over an inch long, and is surgically implanted under the patient’s arm. It provides protection for three years.
Of 10,000 women using the device, Burnett’s statistics claimed, only five per year would get pregnant. That compares to 15 per year with male sterilization, 800 per year with “the pill,” 2,100 per year among condom users and 8,500 a year for sexually active women who use no birth control.
“If we have a lot of young ladies in high school who are sexually active, we would like them to use Nexplanon so they can stay in school, graduate and be able to get a job,” Burnett said.
Implanon also produces milder side effects, according to Burnett, and its users report less weight gain than those using the DepoProvera three-month shot that is popular among teens.
Finally, it was over. She inserted another stick, (which hurt, but I was ready for anything at that point) and I was done. She bandaged me up, wrapped me in gauze, and suggested I cancel my horseback riding plans for the night. No shit. I knew it would be harder to take out than to put in, but I did not realize that the implant would essentially become a part of my arm. The tissue literally grew around it and attached to it like ivy on a fence. So I came home and slept, awoke with pain, took Motrin and slept. Woke up again around noon, and ate my breakfast of jalepeno poppers and strawberries while watching an old Jerry Springer rerun. I can’t work out, shower, or even fold laundry really. All I can do comfortably is sit on my arse and not lift a finger. I should be grateful, and in a way I am. I am grateful that I don’t have to go through that again for another three years…
Hey there, You have done a fantastic job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I am sure they’ll be benefited from this website.
I’m not sure which is scarier, pregnant teens or the prevention of pregnancy by this new Implanon, Has anyone ever considered teaching girls how to recognize when they’re fertile? or considered having discussion groups on sexual literacy? I don’t know how else we prevent unwanted births, unless you marry them at puberty, like in the bad old days. More knowledge, more talking together amongst women, and more boys being aware of their role in conception….less alcohol? More mothers and fathers speaking with their teens about responsibility? Or we just mass sterilize?
Excellent comment and insight Jenn. Have you read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale? The book was published originally in the 1980′s and republished in 1998. Atwood’s prophetic book discusses follows a young handmaid responsible for bearing children for the often infertile wives sterilized by environmental toxins. Implanon can certainly be considered an environmental toxin.
[...] to get the HPV vaccines, Gardasil or Cervarix – or the ones who want to inject or implant synthetic hormones into every teen girl – even if she is not having [...]
[...] careful about condom use, and many girls and women forget to take their pills.¬† What is now being prescribed to adolescent girls¬†– whether or not they are sexually active — are implants and injections. Health [...]