I recently read a really good story about a young woman’s journey on the contraception highway – and her ultimate realization that women are viewed by the pharmaceutical industry – and most doctors – as “defective.” In her own words –
“I was advised by a doctor to go on the Pill for six months for medical reasons, assured that this would set my health right. I lasted on the Pill for six weeks, during which I experienced violent side effects including severe depression, migraine, dizzy spells and vomiting. When I staggered back to the doctor, I was told to stop taking the Pill immediately and was warned that I could never be prescribed it again for any reason.
“It was difficult enough to have to deal with side effects like that while taking drugs intended to assist my health (though I was later told that taking the Pill is very rarely necessary for medical reasons) but when a male gynecologist glanced at my notes and pompously instructed me to ‘learn to tolerate the Pill’ on the grounds that I would need it as a contraceptive one day, it riled the feminist…in me Why on earth, I thought, should a woman put her health on the line and render herself sterile when I knew now that were were practical reliable alternatives? If the medical profession were so keen on women’s empowerment, why not make the effort to give women full information about the alternatives rather than trying to bully them into living with the side effects of powerful drugs?
“…Years later, the question persists: can being dependent on doctors or more broadly, the pharmaceutical industry, really be seen as a way of empowering women? …it is difficult not to get the feeling that the widespread acceptance of contraception represents a failure to trust women to manage their own fertility independently. It is uncontroversial to state that education marks the most important step to personal freedom and NFP (Natural Family Planning) offers precisely that education. It is pointless to talk about women ‘controlling their own bodies’ if they are kept ignorant of the natural functions of their bodies and encouraged to see themselves as physically defective for being female and fertile.”*
Our fertility is not a disease – yet it is treated as though it were. Sadly, this young woman’s experience with doctors is all too common – I hear the same story over and over again. Rather than find the problem and really fix it, most doctors are simply too lazy to do that – or thanks to managed care, have to cut back on the tests that would help diagnose the problem – and find it easier to just put women on the Pill – the “magic cure-all.” What they don’t consider is that the Pill comes with a myriad of risks and side-effects – birth control can pose serious – life threatening risks!
Natural Family Planning is risk free – is easy to use – and is as effective as any other form of “birth control” on the market! Women who use NFP are empowered – they understand their fertility – they learn to appreciate their bodies – and they because they know their bodies so well, they know when something’s not right.
If you want more information about NFP, please contact me! I am a certified Billings Ovulation Method Instructor, and I LOVE empowering women – and helping couples plan their families using a method backed by DECADES of scientific research!
Sharon Pearce
619-422-0757
svoices@pacbell.net
*Fiorella Nash – Discovering NFP – CANFP News/Spring 2015/www.canfp.org
“I was advised by a doctor to go on the Pill for six months for medical reasons, assured that this would set my health right. I lasted on the Pill for six weeks, during which I experienced violent side effects including severe depression, migraine, dizzy spells and vomiting. When I staggered back to the doctor, I was told to stop taking the Pill immediately and was warned that I could never be prescribed it again for any reason.
“It was difficult enough to have to deal with side effects like that while taking drugs intended to assist my health (though I was later told that taking the Pill is very rarely necessary for medical reasons) but when a male gynecologist glanced at my notes and pompously instructed me to ‘learn to tolerate the Pill’ on the grounds that I would need it as a contraceptive one day, it riled the feminist…in me Why on earth, I thought, should a woman put her health on the line and render herself sterile when I knew now that were were practical reliable alternatives? If the medical profession were so keen on women’s empowerment, why not make the effort to give women full information about the alternatives rather than trying to bully them into living with the side effects of powerful drugs?
“…Years later, the question persists: can being dependent on doctors or more broadly, the pharmaceutical industry, really be seen as a way of empowering women? …it is difficult not to get the feeling that the widespread acceptance of contraception represents a failure to trust women to manage their own fertility independently. It is uncontroversial to state that education marks the most important step to personal freedom and NFP (Natural Family Planning) offers precisely that education. It is pointless to talk about women ‘controlling their own bodies’ if they are kept ignorant of the natural functions of their bodies and encouraged to see themselves as physically defective for being female and fertile.”*
Our fertility is not a disease – yet it is treated as though it were. Sadly, this young woman’s experience with doctors is all too common – I hear the same story over and over again. Rather than find the problem and really fix it, most doctors are simply too lazy to do that – or thanks to managed care, have to cut back on the tests that would help diagnose the problem – and find it easier to just put women on the Pill – the “magic cure-all.” What they don’t consider is that the Pill comes with a myriad of risks and side-effects – birth control can pose serious – life threatening risks!
Natural Family Planning is risk free – is easy to use – and is as effective as any other form of “birth control” on the market! Women who use NFP are empowered – they understand their fertility – they learn to appreciate their bodies – and they because they know their bodies so well, they know when something’s not right.
If you want more information about NFP, please contact me! I am a certified Billings Ovulation Method Instructor, and I LOVE empowering women – and helping couples plan their families using a method backed by DECADES of scientific research!
Sharon Pearce
619-422-0757
svoices@pacbell.net
*Fiorella Nash – Discovering NFP – CANFP News/Spring 2015/www.canfp.org
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