Can these two terms coexist?
In one of my two nursing careers, (before and after staying home with small children), I found myself called upon to give a long lasting birth control injection to a young, unmarried, woman.
The strong hormone was mixed in a heavy, oily substance, something like thick motor oil, allowing it to stay in the tissue for several months thus slowing absorption in order to achieve the desired 3 month, long term birth control. I dreaded giving these shots as anytime you inject something so incompatible with human tissue that it resists being absorbed there is usually some unhealthy insult to the tissues as they try to tolerate what is essentially a foreign if not hostile substance.
As I talked to the young woman before drawing up her injection, she complained to me that she had developed severe and chronic headaches which were probably related to a higher blood pressure than one should have at her age. I asked her if she was aware that the injection I was preparing to give her could cause side effect such as she was describing. She said no one had told her that. I asked her if she had ever considered another less drastic form of birth control and we discussed some other options that might work more compatibly with her own body. I suggested she ask the doctor about her options, esp since headaches could be considered minor compared to more serious risks like stroke, blood clots, etc. for some individuals.
When I talked to the doctor later about the discussion he "flew at me", furious that I had told her to ask about other options as he felt that people such as her (promiscuous) needed a birth control method that required the least amount of compliance on her part to keep her from coming back to us with an unplanned pregnancy.
Now I am a practical, "bottom line", kind of person but I wonder if this kind of approach is what helps society in the long run. While it does solve the immediate problem most efficiently, do we really help society by withholding information, education, and our trust from such individuals?
Are we so tired of seeing people make selfish and short sighted decisions that we have just resorted to control vs education? I invite you to weigh in on this.
The below link is an interesting article on the effectiveness of natural birth control when individuals are properly educated and use what they have learned responsibly.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6375261.stm
Here's a link to an organization that teaches this in the Portland area.
www.nwfs.org
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Thank you for the link to the article. It's the second time in forty years I've been given specific information on natural birth control - the first time when I asked my doctor. Why wasn't this part of sex education in high school?
I hope the young woman you counselled was able to use the advice. I hope she was able to find and choose partners who cared about her enough to cooperate. I can't sympathize with the doctor's reaction at all!
There are always extremes. Although I would like to "fix" some people so that they could not keep bringing unwanted babies into the world, I know that this would give way too much control to certain peoples of power.
Similarly, as Natural Family Planning seems to work well for some people, there are women who it does not work for at all. They physically are unable to do it and therefore would wreck their marriages if they tried.
In all things there is a balance. Part of being an adult is choosing ones priorities. If the choice is between the health of ones marriage and the possible risks of perscription birth control, I for one, would choose my marriage.
I was curious about the last comment (Jen?) didn't say if she and her husband had actually attended the training and support for NFP? (Normally a 6-8 week class.)
This is not a "do it yourself" kind of birth control..couples need the training and support of the classes to get off to a successful start. While I fully support their right to choose something else I hope they will not give up without the right training and should certainly not discourage others who may want to get educated on how to safely plan their pregnancies and space their families. Molly
Yes the two terms can and do coexist. This Doctor has lost sight of what it means to be a doctor, and should find a new career. Sounds like he would make a good car mechanic....
:-{
Post a Comment