It's always bugged me about how we try to manipulate our bodies in that way. In the early 70's, my dad had artery disease. In those days, it was a death sentence by the time you recognized any symptoms. So they kept medicating him to treat the symptoms. Almost every medicine had a side effect on another organ or system.
When I had my hysterectomy, you would not believe how much I mourned my reproductive system. I had a whole body system taken out!!!! I still mourn it 5 years later. If I had it back, I would let it work its way and listen to it and let it tell me how to make it better naturally.
I don't know if natural solutions will work as well on the specific issue but they are less likely to interfer with the subtle dynamics of the dependency of the rest of the body parts.
Nature has created the perfect machine, and every year we figure out a new way to screw it up in the name of convenience. Streams were meant to flow (sorry for the bad pun). You plug/dam one up, or redirect it, and you kill the life dependent upon it.
these are far from perfect machines we inhabit. Very easly broken and often come in less than perfect working order straight out of the box. (pun intended)
Its hard to imagine that there would not be negative side effects but all medicine is a collection of pros and cons. If the new problems are less severe than the old problems you take the new ones. Just like you dont give a person with a little trouble sleeping haloperidol, you dont deny the same drug even with its monumental side effects to a true schizophrenic.
I believ a lot more research is needed but barring the side effect of horrible grizzly fiery death it should be an option for those that tolerate it and chose to.
But the drug companies are infact evil and are rushing this through without doing the proper research.
Anyway I think Ill just go down to the old pub instead.
I have a non-working reproductive system. It has been broken in *very* unpleasant ways since I first noticed it's existence when I was 12. I would not mourn it's loss. In fact I have, on more than one occasion, Pleaded for a doctor to listen to me and take steps to remove the damned thing completely.
I am 29 years old. I do not want children and don't feel bad about that in the least. I have on occasions been treated by same said broken system to lovely 3-5 month stints of it at it's gorey, bloody best.
So.. for me this is a glorious thing, if it works. I want it, I want it now. I can stop bleeding, I can stop all the problems I have with a system that has been diagnosed by many doctors as nonfunctioning and unable to do it's intended job in the first damn place?? Hell yes. Sign me up!
Actually, I've done a lot of reading on the subject of menstruation and birth control in the past years, and I'm fascinated by the evidence that suggests that the monthly menstruation model may be wrong.
For one thing, the modern Pill was developed by a Catholic doctor who was looking for a form of birth control that was more effective than condoms, but would also be accepted by the Vatican as "natural." He based his idea of "natural" on both Christian theology and a mid-twentieth century model of female health - some of which ideas have since been overturned. Another consideration is that the modern diet, hormones and food additives, and poorly understood chemical interactions (medications, shampoos, pesticides, etc.) mean that modern women can start bleeding as early as 8 (!) and continue until their 50s - but until the last hundred years, a woman normally started menarche in her late teens and ended by her forties. Our bodies really weren't designed to have as many periods as we now do.
I used to have a lot of this research bookmarked, but I lost my IE and Firefox favorites when I reformatted my hard drive. The only one I can find offhand is here, but if you're interested I'll look for more.
Whether "ending the period" as described in this article is healthy or not - I don't know, but I don't have the knee-jerk objection that it isn't "natural." I'd love to do more research.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-12-29 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-29 04:17 pm (UTC)When I had my hysterectomy, you would not believe how much I mourned my reproductive system. I had a whole body system taken out!!!! I still mourn it 5 years later. If I had it back, I would let it work its way and listen to it and let it tell me how to make it better naturally.
I don't know if natural solutions will work as well on the specific issue but they are less likely to interfer with the subtle dynamics of the dependency of the rest of the body parts.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-29 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-29 07:43 pm (UTC)Its hard to imagine that there would not be negative side effects but all medicine is a collection of pros and cons. If the new problems are less severe than the old problems you take the new ones. Just like you dont give a person with a little trouble sleeping haloperidol, you dont deny the same drug even with its monumental side effects to a true schizophrenic.
I believ a lot more research is needed but barring the side effect of horrible grizzly fiery death it should be an option for those that tolerate it and chose to.
But the drug companies are infact evil and are rushing this through without doing the proper research.
Anyway I think Ill just go down to the old pub instead.
Oh, yeah... I want it.
Date: 2005-12-30 02:15 pm (UTC)I am 29 years old. I do not want children and don't feel bad about that in the least. I have on occasions been treated by same said broken system to lovely 3-5 month stints of it at it's gorey, bloody best.
So.. for me this is a glorious thing, if it works. I want it, I want it now. I can stop bleeding, I can stop all the problems I have with a system that has been diagnosed by many doctors as nonfunctioning and unable to do it's intended job in the first damn place?? Hell yes. Sign me up!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-30 02:18 pm (UTC)For one thing, the modern Pill was developed by a Catholic doctor who was looking for a form of birth control that was more effective than condoms, but would also be accepted by the Vatican as "natural." He based his idea of "natural" on both Christian theology and a mid-twentieth century model of female health - some of which ideas have since been overturned. Another consideration is that the modern diet, hormones and food additives, and poorly understood chemical interactions (medications, shampoos, pesticides, etc.) mean that modern women can start bleeding as early as 8 (!) and continue until their 50s - but until the last hundred years, a woman normally started menarche in her late teens and ended by her forties. Our bodies really weren't designed to have as many periods as we now do.
I used to have a lot of this research bookmarked, but I lost my IE and Firefox favorites when I reformatted my hard drive. The only one I can find offhand is here, but if you're interested I'll look for more.
I got this from section 2: ... "the basic pattern of late menarche, many pregnancies, and long menstrual-free stretches caused by intensive breast-feeding was virtually universal up until the "demographic transition" of a hundred years ago from high to low fertility. In other words, what we think of as normal--frequent menses--is in evolutionary terms abnormal." (The New Yorker, 2000)
Whether "ending the period" as described in this article is healthy or not - I don't know, but I don't have the knee-jerk objection that it isn't "natural." I'd love to do more research.