Meals, Snacks, and Obamacare

Hello everyone. I know, I've been a very irregular blogger of late. In the 5 years since I started this blog, a lifetime in internet time, blogging has become old school. It's too long-form. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest - they're what's happening. The fewer words, the better. The blog still has its readers, of course. But the FB page is where the action is. Do I think this march toward brevity heralds the decline of literacy and civilization itself? Why yes, I do. Am I guilty of it as well? Absolutely. I post on FB far more often than I post here. Usually just a link with a sentence or two. Blogs are meals. And most people are snackers.

Get your Facebook snack on.

Meanwhile, for you gourmands, here's something more substantial:

The Affordable Health Care Act (aka "Obamacare") is slowly coming to fruition, with many benefits already in effect and others not yet realized. It's a very detailed Act and few people go beyond the sound bites to actually learn what's in it. Today, August 1, 2012, a raft of benefits for women and children came into effect. Two organizations have been doing a good job of getting the word out about specific benefits for women. 

-We Are Ultraviolet has created a lovely graphic (below) which hits the highlights. It's too large to read properly in this space, so click on this link to see the whole thing. Or, you can view it (and share it) on Facebook. Sigh.

-And the wonderful folks over at the National Women's Health Network have created a 

site (actually, a blog!) which has been providing detailed coverage with analysis called Countdown to Coverage, with one post per day in the week leading up to today's rollout. Their name for the Affordable Care Act is Mamacare :)

Do the new regulations provide for free Fertility Awareness instruction? No. The Act only provides  free contraception in the case of FDA approved devices. Now, if you're among the fraction of people who receive FA or NFP education in a medical setting, your healthcare provider can code your visit in such a way that it's covered. That's been the case for years. And as more women gain health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, more women will be able to take advantage of that coverage. But the majority of women who practice Fertility Awareness to avoid pregnancy will continue to gain their instruction privately. (Or, frighteningly, practice without benefit of instruction.) 

The Affordable Care Act will thus probably not result in much greater numbers of women practicing Fertility Awareness. But with mandatory coverage and the elimination of co-pays for things like Pap smears, gestational diabetes screening, breastfeeding equipment and lactation support, and screening for domestic violence as well as counseling, the Affordable Care Act reaches far beyond "free birth control," and will result in vast health benefits for women and their children, especially those who currently face financial barriers to service. And that's something we should all be able to get behind.

 

Yet Another Disappointing Media Experience

FAM just cannot get a media break. About 6 weeks ago, I posted a call for interviewees for an article being written for New York Magazine. I had been interviewed and had spent a fair amount of time talking to and emailing the author (who was gracious and professional with me - no complaints there). Alas, the article came out, and I found it be tremendously disappointing, particularly in light of the fact that it was a very long article, the cover story of New York Magazine, which could have had some impact, had it been focused differently. If you missed the article, you can read it here:
http://nymag.com/news/features/69789/ 


The article does present a reasonably accurate description of how Fertility Awareness works. So what's my problem? 
-The premise is thin and faintly ridiculous, not to mention alarmist: that the Pill "creates" a type of infertility, by causing women to postpone having children, as if women are unaware that having children at an older age is more difficult.
-It completely trivializes the health risks and side effects of hormonal contraception. (It's as safe as taking a vitamin!)
-The author refers to Fertility Awareness as a more sophisticated version of the Rhythm Method. Which is sort of like saying that a car is a more sophisticated version of a bicycle. 
-The contextualization of Fertility Awareness is completely off-base. The article doesn't discuss FA for contraception, and only a bit as a tool for health, but primarily as the largest factor in a "cult market" [which] has cropped up catering to women in the process of rediscovering their bodies when they go off the Pill." 
-One final choice quote: "You're not going to find anyone, male or female, who isn't a little grossed out by the words egg-white cervical fluid, but it's just basic biology." 


Women, are you "grossed out" by the normal, healthy functioning of your body? Does talking about the evidence of your juicy fertility, which may be accompanied by feelings of sexiness, not to mention a little awe at the power you hold within you, disgust you? If you have a male partner, does he run and hide if you tell him about the clear, slippery fluid at your labia? I didn't think so. 

Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Pill

There are lots of pieces like this in the media right now, so I'm not going to post a ton of links - just do a search if you're interested. But I sent one link to blog subscribers, and someone asked me to post it on the blog proper. So here is that one plus a couple more:


First, a link to a CNN feature in which various people (writers, commentators, politicians, etc) talk about the significance of the Pill. Note stupid, uninformed comment about Fertility Awareness by Sara Benincasa:   CNN on Pill


Similar piece in Time Magazine:   Time on Pill

Rather different piece on Alternet re Pill's effect on population and water supply: Alternet on Pill and water

And if you missed the piece that "Need to Know" did end up airing, which was exclusively about the Pill, you can either watch it during the "full episode" video, on this page, and/or you can watch an extended interview with Erica Jong ("The Pill, Then and Now"), only part of which aired during the show, also on this page. If you're watching the whole episode, the Pill segment starts just before 43 minutes: "Need to Know" on Pill


Enough about the damn Pill! Next post will definitely be about something else. 

Nada. Zip. Zero.

That's how much time "Need to Know" spent on Fertility Awareness in their premiere (see post directly below). Terrific. The media blackout continues. Happy 50th birthday, birth control pill.

Male Contraceptive Shot Has Successful First Trial

Efforts to develop a long-term, reversible contraceptive for men have thus far been unsuccessful, but a recently completed study showed sufficiently promising results that further trials will no doubt soon be underway. The trial lasted 2.5 years and involved 1045 men in China. The mechanism by which this  contraceptive works is the same by which hormonal contraception for women works: if you interfere with the feedback loop that regulates the production of gametes (eggs and sperm), you can turn it off. In other words, you supply a form of the hormone that the body normally makes itself, and the body stops making it, and reproductive function stops. In this case, the men were given monthly administrations of a form of testosterone, which suppressed sperm production. Side effects were minimal, and sperm production returned to normal within 6 months of stopping the drug in all but 2 cases. But don't look for this to appear at your doctor's office any time soon. I found a nearly identical study conducted in 1996 that was also very successful.

Funny, one article describing the recent study said this:
"Previous attempts to develop an effective and convenient male contraceptive have encountered problems over reliability and side effects, such as mood swings and a lowered sex drive. "
Um, I'm sorry, but haven't women using hormonal contraception been putting up with those side effects, not to mention at least 2 dozen others, for, like, 40 years?

Giving Withdrawal Its Due

Those of you who have studied with me know that I consider withdrawal "legit" as a method of birth control, especially when used in conjunction with another method. Well a new article in the June 2009 issue of Contraception makes the same case. Unless you enjoy reading science journal articles, I suggest that you skip to the summary published on the Guttmacher website. (If you want to read the original article, you'll find a link there.) The article basically says that withdrawal has a perfect use rate of 96%, and a typical use rate of 82% (vs 98% & 83% for the male condom), making it a perfectly reasonable and cost-effective choice for couples not in need of STD protection, or as a back up to another method of birth control (such as Fertility Awareness! OK, Fertility Awareness is not actually mentioned in the article.) The article also examines why withdrawal is not perceived as a viable choice for contraception, and the consequences of that misperception.

Rare Slap on the Wrist for Deceptive Birth Control Ad

It doesn't happen very often, but ads for Yaz, the best-selling birth control pill in the US, were considered so misleading that the FDA actually stepped in and required the manufacturer, Bayer, to run a corrective ad campaign. 

Wait - you mean it's not a great idea to take hormones that cause you to stop ovulating and carry a risk of serious side effects in order to clear up your skin or improve your mood? 

Getting Off The Pill

One of my current students is actually blogging about her experience of getting off the Pill and learning Fertility Awareness. Normally I only get to hear about how FA has affected my students' lives AFTER they've learned it. It is absolutely fascinating to read about what it's like in the present tense, with all the nervousness and trepidation, not to mention the complete lack of affirmation from doctors, friends, etc. We who take FAM for granted can forget how scary it can be to give up the familiar and easy pharmaceutical control and take matters into our own hands. Do check it out, and don't overlook the comments that have been posted. Consider posting one of your own. Give this woman some support!
http://gettingoffthepill.blogspot.com/

US Statistics re Sex Education

Percentage of teens receiving formal education regarding birth control:
1995 – 87%
2002 – 70%

Percentage of teens receiving abstinence-only sex education (no information regarding contraception):
1995 – 8%
2002 – 21% of females, 24% of males

Percentage of sex education instructors teaching abstinence as only way to prevent pregnancy and STIs:
1988 – 2%
1999 – 25%

Percentage of Americans who believe that students should be taught about both abstinence as well as other methods of preventing pregnancy and STIs:
82%

Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute