There is a problem with birth control that the media doesn't like to talk about. While millions of women take birth control, almost all of them eventually (or immediately) hate the side effects. So most women take these awful drugs only because they are seen as the best way to prevent pregnancy.
Cruising over to reddit's /r/birthcontrol now, this submission was from 16 hours ago:
> So because I was losing hair after I got my Mirena IUD like a labrador in summer, my gyno decided to put me on beyaz (the top anti-androgen) to try and stop that. however, we didn't take out mirena because she "wasn't sure that was what was causing it"... so basically I'm wondering if anyone else is in that situation? [...]
>
> - https://www.reddit.com/r/birthcontrol/comments/4orqo1/im_on_...
Beyaz is not an anti-androgen, it is a drug that uses the synthetic xeno-estrogen ethinyl estradiol, and the progestin drug Drospirenone. Progestins are forms of 'fake progesterone', and usually cause the body's progesterone production to decrease dramatically. Progesterone is also a brain hormone, so this is why women on birth control frequently get depressed.
My girlfriend was hurt by her doctor with birth control maybe 10 years before I met her. They said the depo-provera induced bleeding would stop, eventually. She let them give her a second 3-month injection, then a third 3-month injection... Then she decided the doctors were stupid, and stopped after the 3rd injection. That would've been about a year of direct iatrogenic injury. Maybe this drug directly contributed to her later mental health struggles.
She's amenorrheic right now... 3 or 4 years ago, in her late 20's, some stupid endocrinologists said that her hot flashes were because she was "going through menopause" (maybe that's not what the doctors actually said, but they didn't do anything to help resolve the complaints, so their medical advice was quite harmful, imho).
I'm well aware the my girlfriend could very well pop an egg out at any time. I expect her periods will restart as soon as the underlying condition is addressed. So I've taken out my sperm production using the old heat methods. It works, I've checked.
I like this site's take on the problem:
> Women’s unique health concerns are seen by Wall Street as opportunities for obscene profit. The development of the ‘hormonal’ birth control (so-called) started with good intentions. Science’s understanding of the steroid system has advanced since the 1950’s, and real Scientists now know that the fake-hormones used as ‘birth control’ cannot improve women’s health. But Wall Street has FDA-approved pills to sell and investors’ dividends to pay. The drugs are reasonably-effective at suppressing women’s fertility, but are defective if women’s complete health profile is taken into consideration too.
> Apologists for the hormonal birth control peddlers acknowledge that these drugs have potent side effects. The thinking seems to be “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”: while women are still maimed and killed by prescription birth control, it’s more important that the women who (probably) won’t be killed right away are able to use these drugs to keep babies away.
> The most blatant of Big Drug’s ‘hormonal’ rip-offs are the so-called “emergency contraceptive” pills, where profiteers sell women 1.5-cents of active ingredients for $50.
> Almost all of them eventually (or immediately) hate the side effects
Any source on this? My wife took birth control because of ovarian cysts. She had issues with the first few types, but we eventually found one that has worked for nearly a decade, with no issues. I know of several other women with this same experience. Reddit (or any other forum used for complaints) is hardly a good example to support this.
> but we eventually found one that has worked for nearly a decade, with no issues.
Surely you'd agree that fixing the cause of ovarian cysts would be better than putting women on maintenance medication?
> Reddit (or any other forum used for complaints) is hardly a good example to support this.
Women who share their negative experiences are the Canaries in Medicine's coal mine. The few who are overtly harmed should warn us that there are problems with these prescriptions.
I don't think he/she is discounting the warnings, but simply that Reddit cannot be used to support the 'Almost all of them eventually (or immediately) hate the side effects' arguement and he/she is wondering if there is any data on that.
The cysts were the reason for her taking birth control to begin with, not the cause of the cysts. And cysts aren't something that it's easy (or perhaps even possible) to find a "fix" for.
>So I've taken out my sperm production using the old heat methods. It works, I've checked.
What does this mean? That you raise your .. body .. temperature to the point that potentially some sperm die?
In a consultation for a vasectomy, the urologist strongly wanted that alternative forms of birth control be used for several months as sperm already in the system - unless you're naturally not producing sperm, I doubt the viability of your methods.
Almost all? I think you might be falling victim to selection bias. Not many women cruise over to /r/birthcontrol to talk about how they've been on it for years without any side effects.
You're altering your hormones with everything but the paraguard. We know very well that hormone imbalances cause mood changes. We have no long term data about the mental health effects from birth control. People frequently describe feeling like a zombie or hyper aggressive, and only realizing after stopping their medication.
Seconded. My birth control works great for me, so I don't have any particular need to talk about it unless directly asked. If I was unhappy with it, I'd be much more likely to complain about it and ask other people for advice.
AFAIK, there are no long-term (30+ year) studies comparing women who have never-used, briefly-used, and long-term-used hormonal drugs to suppress their menstrual cycle. The Women's Health Initiative found that prescription horse piss (PREMARIN, made from PREgnant MARes' urIN) was not good for women's health.
I have personally used non-prescription Progesterone USP to recover from a head injury, so I'm inclined to believe the heretical scientists who heckle the birth control peddlers.
My wife has had issues with almost everything she's been on. The only thing remotely acceptable to her has been the depo shot but she still had to deal with migraines, mood swings, considerable weight gain, and body hair. I finally said enough is enough and took the high road: I apologized for the last decade she accepted as "normal human life" and requested her to stop her contraceptives immediately. I called up the doctor and demanded a vasectomy. Problem solved. She's much happier now.
edit: the number of side effects for some of these female contraceptives are staggering and many women aren't aware of the entire scope of possibilities. I suspect most women are affected and don't realize it, just accepting it as normal because their friends have the same issues.
Unfortunately, that headache, migraine, loss of sex drive, yeast infections, increased blood pressure and so on are often thought to be "normal". So many side effects are accepted as a fact of life and hormonal contraceptives as the source to those side effects is widely ignored. By both, women and doctors unfortunately.
Yes, but hundreds of millions of women also bounce around between different types of hormonal birth control (variations in pill type versus Depo shots versus NuvaRing versus Mirena versus the patch, etc.) because they have miserable experiences with physical and/or emotional side effects.
I know this is anecdata, but I know two different young healthy women who suffered strokes or Deep Vein Thrombosis before the age of thirty because of Yaz. (Both fully recovered, thank God, but will never be able to take hormonal pills again for life.)
> I know this is anecdata, but I know two different young healthy women who suffered strokes or Deep Vein Thrombosis before the age of thirty because of Yaz. (Both fully recovered, thank God, but will never be able to take hormonal pills again for life.)
The cause/effect relationship between elevated estrogen levels and clotting disorders is well understood by physiologists. All the old high-estrogen contraceptive pills have been pulled, because the data shows that they were not safe.
Well understood now, yes, but Yaz was heavily marketed to young women as being the latest and greatest thing on the market, and it passed FDA approval and came from major manufacturers -- yet it didn't get pulled off the shelves until 2011, after many deaths and strokes.
I support women having easier access to birth control, but my point is that even today, this stuff has a different safety profile than, like, Pepto Bismol or Advil.
(But then again, so does Tylenol, and that's legal, so...)
The alternative being primarily unwanted pregnancy or menstrual symptoms? I ask because there's a lot of good ways to prevent pregnancy but not as much for the latter.
Cruising over to reddit's /r/birthcontrol now, this submission was from 16 hours ago:
> So because I was losing hair after I got my Mirena IUD like a labrador in summer, my gyno decided to put me on beyaz (the top anti-androgen) to try and stop that. however, we didn't take out mirena because she "wasn't sure that was what was causing it"... so basically I'm wondering if anyone else is in that situation? [...] > > - https://www.reddit.com/r/birthcontrol/comments/4orqo1/im_on_...
Beyaz is not an anti-androgen, it is a drug that uses the synthetic xeno-estrogen ethinyl estradiol, and the progestin drug Drospirenone. Progestins are forms of 'fake progesterone', and usually cause the body's progesterone production to decrease dramatically. Progesterone is also a brain hormone, so this is why women on birth control frequently get depressed.
My girlfriend was hurt by her doctor with birth control maybe 10 years before I met her. They said the depo-provera induced bleeding would stop, eventually. She let them give her a second 3-month injection, then a third 3-month injection... Then she decided the doctors were stupid, and stopped after the 3rd injection. That would've been about a year of direct iatrogenic injury. Maybe this drug directly contributed to her later mental health struggles.
She's amenorrheic right now... 3 or 4 years ago, in her late 20's, some stupid endocrinologists said that her hot flashes were because she was "going through menopause" (maybe that's not what the doctors actually said, but they didn't do anything to help resolve the complaints, so their medical advice was quite harmful, imho).
I'm well aware the my girlfriend could very well pop an egg out at any time. I expect her periods will restart as soon as the underlying condition is addressed. So I've taken out my sperm production using the old heat methods. It works, I've checked.
I like this site's take on the problem:
> Women’s unique health concerns are seen by Wall Street as opportunities for obscene profit. The development of the ‘hormonal’ birth control (so-called) started with good intentions. Science’s understanding of the steroid system has advanced since the 1950’s, and real Scientists now know that the fake-hormones used as ‘birth control’ cannot improve women’s health. But Wall Street has FDA-approved pills to sell and investors’ dividends to pay. The drugs are reasonably-effective at suppressing women’s fertility, but are defective if women’s complete health profile is taken into consideration too.
> Apologists for the hormonal birth control peddlers acknowledge that these drugs have potent side effects. The thinking seems to be “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”: while women are still maimed and killed by prescription birth control, it’s more important that the women who (probably) won’t be killed right away are able to use these drugs to keep babies away.
> The most blatant of Big Drug’s ‘hormonal’ rip-offs are the so-called “emergency contraceptive” pills, where profiteers sell women 1.5-cents of active ingredients for $50.
> WOMEN’S HEALTH: A Modern Tragedy, http://swindledandpimped.org/womens_health_a_modern_tragedy/
(edits: clarity, typos)