For centuries, the female body, especially the reproductive part, has mystified men. There was a time when a woman who was in a bad mood was deemed “hysterical.” Do you know what that means? It means people thought her womb was wandering around, causing her to be off-center. The Greeks would put nice-smelling spices between a woman’s legs to lure the womb back to its rightful place, assuming that this would help the woman calm down. Women have been diagnosed as mentally ill when really their problem was a hormonal imbalance or severe PMS syndromes. A woman’s pain has, in fact, for many years, become fuel for dismissal. “She’s just upset because it’s her time of the month.”
Now, even with medical science where it is, women are being told that they don’t really need birth control pills, or if they do need them it’s because they’re sluts. “Put an aspirin between your knees,” we’re being told. This might all be great fodder for conversation but for one super huge problem. It is men who are leading and participating in these conversations. Women are not invited.
Luckily, I have my own blog, and even though I’m just a woman, so far my ability to write seems to go over pretty well, so I thought I would use this real estate to toss a few facts out there. From a female perspective.
It’s all in a name
Much of the conversation going on right now is about “birth control pills” or “contraception.” Did you know that the same pills can also be referred to as hormone replacement therapy or HRT?
The Mayo Clinic defines HRT as follows: “Hormone replacement therapy — medications containing female hormones to replace the ones the body no longer makes after menopause.” The National Institute of Health notes that there are generally two groups of women who use HRT:
Generally, health care providers prescribe HRT for two groups of women:
- Women going through menopause and who had already gone through it (called post-menopausal)—The natural levels of these hormones drop during menopause. This drop can lead to symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, and sleep disturbances. HRT may be used to help lessen some of these symptoms
- Women with certain health conditions—In some cases, women’s bodies don’t make normal levels of the hormones because of a medical problems, such as premature ovarian failure. For these women, HRT replaces the hormones that their bodies should be making.
Women who experience premature menopause or premature ovarian failure have a different set of health risks compared with women who reach menopause near the average age of about 50, including:
- A lower risk of breast cancer
- A higher risk of osteoporosis
- A higher risk of coronary heart disease (CHD)
In addition, hormone therapy appears to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and CHD when started soon after menopause in young women. For women who reach menopause prematurely, the protective benefits of hormone therapy may outweigh the risks.
If we ban HRT because “women can keep their legs closed” then women who are at risk for truly serious health conditions caused by failure of their reproductive organs (or other complexities) will be left without a way to protect or help themselves.
In case you think this is hogwash
There’s a lot of political vitriol around this issue, which can cloud a lot of the intellectual facets of the conversation. However, for a lot of women, this is not a political issue at all. It’s a personal issue. It’s a matter of well-being. It’s a matter of wanting the right to live the healthiest, longest life possible.
It’s a personal issue to me.
Due to things nobody understands, I was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure at the age of 14. By age 20, I was told I had the beginning stages of osteoporosis. There are millions and millions of women just like me. It’s not about sex. It’s not about babies. It’s not about politics. It’s about not wanting to experience crumbling bones and broken hips by age 40. It’s about not wanting to experience heart disease 30 years before what is deemed “acceptable.” It’s about our lives, folks.
This is not an easy post to write. It’s not something I would normally talk about. But my life and the lives of countless women – maybe women you know and love – are being attacked right now by men who do not understand what they are talking about.
This is not a political issue. This is a health issue. This is a personal issue.
Please stand with me and prevent this dangerous rhetoric from going any further.
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuscanss/6055656173/ via Creative Commons
Margie I am absolutely ashamed at the way suppposedly male leadership in this country are going about this. My wife, daughter, mom, sisters, aunts, grandmother and female friends are intelligent enough, strong enough, and reasonable enough to advocate and speak for themselves. I just wish they did not have to deal with this jackasses! Whatever movement woman have going to counteract the stupidity of these supposedly male leaders I back 100%! The woman lead I will follow. It is your body and your path, you know better than I. But they have my 100% support to take back their woman’s health rights!
@keithprivette Very well said, Keith. I am not really sure what is going on right now. A few years ago there were whisperings that violence against pregnant women seemed to be getting worse, but I never saw much come of that story. But now it feels like we are simply regressing as a society. It’s going to be tough for the US to go into Afghanistan or Iran and yell about the way women are treated there if we keep on the path we are traveling on here. Just saying…
I don’t understand why the notion of HRT belongs in politics at all? It is a viable alternative for many women. My sister had a hysterectomy at age 41 and decided to pursue therapy, where another friend had breast and ovarian cancer and must carefully avoid estrogen. These are just a couple of examples of it being up to the individual and nobody else’s business.
Thanks for a great post Margie. Sometimes the hard ones feel the best when they are put out there into the universe. Miriam
@mim.gomberg Thanks Miriam. I’m not really sure why it’s a political issue either. I think there is some confusion between HRT and the “morning after” pill, perhaps? The fact that Ron Paul, who was an Ob/GYN, keeps a lot of this confusion out there and doesn’t speak out against it is particularly disheartening. Although, the way politics is going these days, you don’t really expect any politician from any party to really do themselves proud, huh?
I get so tired of women’s health care getting tied up with morality, especially as the whole idea of sexual morality is fully equal-opportunity. Would anyone support legislation that would require men to prove they’re married before getting a prescription for Viagra? Because, really, no unmarried man should be having sex at all, right? It seems that all this rhetoric is just the same old effort to keep women in a lesser place. You’d think everyone would have outgrown that by now.
@sigonee That’s the point that keeps coming up over and over again. Where are the calls to limit use of Viagra? After all, if a man is older and is not in a position to reproduce, many deeply religious people would have to believe he was wasting his seed, as it were. Is that not a problem? If we’re going to go backwards in time, we should all go together.
Hi Margie,
Just read your post and I feel compelled to comment even if it means opening the laptop at night. I’m pretty angry that a ridiculous national debate (in the 21st century, no less) compelled you to share something so intensely personal. Clearly, when many insurance carriers cover erection enhancer the discussion about HRP for whatever reasons is stupid. Unfortunately when there is a large majority of people that want ME to be governed by THEIR religious values, this crap will continue. And the only place we part ways is that this conversation (along with a number of others) is also political. Many of the flagbearers against HRP (okay, a contraceptive pill) don’t give a rats ass about contraception one way or the other. The conversation about women’s self determination regarding their own internal organs will remain political as long as people continue to use social issues to provide cover on economic issues. I apologize for going global when your focus was intensely local but the two are tied together. Again sorry you had to share and thank you for doing so.
@barryrsilver Well, right. It *is* a political issue because it has been thrust onto that platform. But for me, whether it would be Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, or Martians proposing this stuff, my view on it would not change. That is what I meant. This does not (or should not) define a person’s political leanings. It should be a people thing.
I get so angry I could spit fire when men, religious organizations, government etc try to control a personal choice or issues! I agree with what others have so elegantly commented! I avoid usual political issues in social media, this is an exception because it’s personal! Thank You for bring the health concerns to the forefront!
@dabarlow I usually avoid these too, but given that there are so many women who could be swept under the rug by these actions, I felt compelled to speak. Thanks for commenting as always, Denise.
This is a phenomenally brave post, Margie, and one that I wish I’d had the guts to write. Thank you so much for bringing this to the table. It absolutely unnerves me when I think of how simple HRT is in preventing more serious complications down the road, and how, in the name of “religious morality” or whatever usually comes up in politics, some people want to take that away. None of that makes sense to me.
Very well said.
@writingrenee Thanks Renee. This is not something I ever really intended on talking about here, but as I said below, sometimes you have to use your own experience to make a point real. It probably still would not be enough to bring an intellectual element to the conversation, but one can hope, right? 🙂
Dear Margie –
One thing you could do is to send this post to your representatives in Congress. A lot o men do not understand this.
A close friend’s daughter had a similar condition. She has been on HRT since she was about 15.
That crazed Limbaugh thought women only took the pill when they were going to have sex. Like Viagra.
Most of us are being beseiged by pettions. I have signed all of them. If you are not, go to Facebook and find them. They are all posted there.
We must keep the outrage going.
Your story is important, Margie. I am thankful you were able to get treatment in time.
Thank you for sharing it. The world needs more people like you.
@miraclady Thanks Corinne. Yeah, there is such a stunning lack of knowledge about these things – that should be enough to scare people away from letting these guys make health decisions for women (or anyone else). But what can you say. Some people are salmon and will swim against the tide. Other people are sheep and will go wherever they’re led. We just have to try to convince the sheep that there are other shepherds out there.