POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND THE PILL

This article about hormone replacement therapy and endometrial cancer reminds me again of how much I dislike the idea of healthy women taking hormones.  I forget it sometimes because I spend a lot of time these days telling people that being pro-life does not mean I want to deny women access to contraception.

I had a discussion once with Cathleen that actually sensibly explained why Catholics might consider the pill to be an abortifacient while most Protestants don't.  But as much as I advocate for women to have access to the pill and health insurance coverage for it, my personal feelings about the pill are more in line with the views of Dr. Christiane Northrup:

But these are all made from synthetic hormones. It's the same stuff that we found didn't work so well in the women's health initiative.

(. . .)

Ideally, women would value their bodies so much that they would say to any prospective sexual partner, "I don't want to be on the pill. I don't like what this does to me. If you value your relationship with me you will use a condom." Also, one of the problems with the pill is it can decrease libido, and it puts you out of touch with your lunar cycle. Instead, you get in touch with the cycle of the pharmaceutical company! It kind of puts your pelvis to sleep for a while.

I completely support the right of women to use hormonal contraception.  When I worked in the gynecologist's office, I wrote pill prescriptions.  But I would never put that stuff in my own body, and I think most women would be better off using barrier methods.

Can people read this and understand that it's an opinion about a health issue and not a moral or legal principle?

Comments

[Gun-Toting Liberal]

"Can people read this and understand that it's an opinion about a health issue and not a moral or legal principle?"

Yep. You are a great writer and my favorite LA mommy...

It's not a popularity contest... it's the truth. And that's what counts when it gets down to it.

[Ol Cranky]

"Can people read this and understand that it's an opinion about a health issue and not a moral or legal principle?"

of course we can (though don't forget, a lot of women take the pill for medical purposes as well as contraception)

Thanks for being able to separate out your personal feelings/beliefs from other things (there are too many who cannot and who would deride you for doing so).

[LAmom]

(though don't forget, a lot of women take the pill for medical purposes as well as contraception)

Yes, indeed. I used to suffer horrible menstrual pain, and it's possible that it may have been from endometriosis. I know that some women have been helped greatly by using the pill or other hormones, even though I decided I would prefer the pain. Maybe a part of my decision was the fact that I knew I definitely wanted to have babies someday, and knew that pregnancy often provided a cure in itself, so I just waited until I could give that a try. In my case, it worked perfectly.

I remember a patient during my midwifery training who had suffered huge mood swings all her life, until she went on the pill. She was more emotionally stable on the pill's hormones than she had ever been on her own natural hormones. She had considered switching to the Depo shot for more convenience, but changed her mind when she heard that the shot used a different combination of hormones than the pill. She didn't want any change to her current hormonal balance.