Birth Control

[flyingfish]

Instead, after some blood sugar tests, the issues with PCOS were related to that. So I am on blood sugar meds that cures the PCOS issues. The blood sugar thing is a struggle to fix, but that is my own willpower and a longer story that doesn’t fit here.

Do you have diabetes? Would abnormal blood sugar been noticed during a physical exam?

If you don’t have diabetes but are taking blood sugar medication, are you sure that the side effects of this medication are better than the pill’s?

Likewise for the progesterone. Is it safer to take than prozac? Didn’t the link hormone replacement therapy given to menopausal women to cancer?

 

[agapewolf]

Do you have diabetes? Would abnormal blood sugar been noticed during a physical exam?

If you don’t have diabetes but are taking blood sugar medication, are you sure that the side effects of this medication are better than the pill’s?

Likewise for the progesterone. Is it safer to take than prozac? Didn’t the link hormone replacement therapy given to menopausal women to cancer?

I’m not on hormonal replacement therapy. It is NATURAL progesterone. All it does is make the body start producing more of its own at the right time.

No, I don’t have diabetes, and I don’t have side effects from these meds. It’s not about which side effects are worse, its about which is HEALTHIER.

The pill’s side effects: make my reproductive system SHUT DOWN and stop working and can cause permanent infertility .

The blood sugar meds: make my blood sugar even out better, help my reproductive system work correctly, etc…

You are so missing the point. its not prozac vs progesterone.

THere are 2 different kinds of treatments here…one COVERS it up.

The other FIXES it

 

[flyingfish]

I’m not on hormonal replacement therapy. It is NATURAL progesterone. All it does is make the body start producing more of its own at the right time.

No, I don’t have diabetes, and I don’t have side effects from these meds. It’s not about which side effects are worse, its about which is HEALTHIER.

Why shouldn’t it be about which side effects are worse? Isn’t that how “healthier” is defined? If the medication that corrects your blood sugar and makes you produce more progesterone ends up giving you severe consequences, does it really matter if it masks your symptoms or treats them?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like taking medication myself, and I don’t take it unless I absolutely have to (precisely because of the negative effects it has), but personally I wonder what a regular doctor would say about prescribing blood sugar medication to a patient who doesn’t have diabetes and so on.

If this treatment is really better, why isn’t it widely used?

 

[agapewolf]

Why shouldn’t it be about which side effects are worse? Isn’t that how “healthier” is defined? If the medication that corrects your blood sugar and makes you produce more progesterone ends up giving you severe consequences, does it really matter if it masks your symptoms or treats them?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like taking medication myself, and I don’t take it unless I absolutely have to (precisely because of the negative effects it has), but personally I wonder what a regular doctor would say about prescribing blood sugar medication to a patient who doesn’t have diabetes and so on.

If this treatment is really better, why isn’t it widely used?

I have blood sugar issues, I already said that. Its not diabetes.

No it isn’t about which side effects are worse. You are completely missing the point. Yes it matters if it is masking vs treating.

Take my headache example. You keep taking bigger doses of pain meds, you mask the symptoms of pain that are telling you you have a tumor. Chemo and surgery have a lot bigger side effects but they FIX the problem and make it stop rather than just stopping the pain…the very thing GOD gave to tell you you have something wrong with you.

This is what is so wrong with the view of health today— pain is there for a reason. Symptoms are there to tell you there is something wrong that needs to be fixed. Don’t just treat the symptoms.

If one has an infection and has a fever— don’t just take fever meds and cool the body, Get the infection treated.

 

[flyingfish]

I have blood sugar issues, I already said that. Its not diabetes.

No it isn’t about which side effects are worse. You are completely missing the point. Yes it matters if it is masking vs treating.

Take my headache example. You keep taking bigger doses of pain meds, you mask the symptoms of pain that are telling you you have a tumor. Chemo and surgery have a lot bigger side effects but they FIX the problem and make it stop rather than just stopping the pain…the very thing GOD gave to tell you you have something wrong with you.

This is what is so wrong with the view of health today— pain is there for a reason. Symptoms are there to tell you there is something wrong that needs to be fixed. Don’t just treat the symptoms.

If one has an infection and has a fever— don’t just take fever meds and cool the body, Get the infection treated.

Personally I think the only thing that should matter are outcomes: how long you live, how good you feel while you live/whether you’re able to function normally.

If you have some unpleasant condition that isn’t harmful (like say severe menstrual cramps will make your life hell but they won’t kill you), and the medication that masks those symptoms isn’t going to shorten your life or give you some other disease, why not take it?

If another medication corrects the problem, but in the process messes up something else and shortens your life/harms your health, then why would you take it?

Are you going to need to take the blood sugar/hormone medication for a long time? If so, it’s not even correcting the problem but also masking symptoms. Correcting the problem would be taking something once and having it fix the reason your blood sugar/hormones are off.

Have you researched whether the pill or the hormones/blood sugar medication have a higher/lower chance of giving you bad side effects?

 

[agapewolf]

Personally I think the only thing that should matter are outcomes: how long you live, how good you feel while you live/whether you’re able to function normally.

If you have some unpleasant condition that isn’t harmful (like say severe menstrual cramps will make your life hell but they won’t kill you), and the medication that masks those symptoms isn’t going to shorten your life or give you some other disease, why not take it?

If another medication corrects the problem, but in the process messes up something else and shortens your life/harms your health, then why would you take it?

Again, you are completely missing the point.

THe point here is that it would correct the problem to make a person healthy again.

These things that mask symptoms of something more serious are going to possibly shorten life and cause harm.

are you purposely being dense? I can’t believe that someone can’t understand this after all of these examples because its so simple.

 

[flyingfish]

Again, you are completely missing the point.

THe point here is that it would correct the problem to make a person healthy again.

These things that mask symptoms of something more serious are going to possibly shorten life and cause harm.

are you purposely being dense? I can’t believe that someone can’t understand this after all of these examples because its so simple.

I’m honestly not being dense on purpose. Since birth I’ve had struggles with various types of allergies/asthma, and my parents took me to about every specialist (conventional and otherwise) in an attempt to cure me.

One time we went to this traditional Chinese doctor who claimed to be able to fix things without using steroids. So he gave something that was supposed to be herbal, but turned out to have a really high dose of steroid. (As an example, I’ve also been to homeopaths, have had acupuncture etc. list goes on.)

I am very skeptical of non traditional treatments as a result. There is a reason why the medical establishment is not using those treatments.

The stuff you’re taking also masks your symptoms. Something that would fix the problem would be a one time treatment that would make it so you never have blood sugar imbalances or hormonal imbalances. If you’re needing to continue to take the treatment, it’s just masking the symptoms (the abnormal blood sugar/progesterone) rather than fixing the cause.

 

[NEWCATHOLICJEFF]

My cramps have made me vomit from the pain and caused my legs to become numb. I’ve stayed in bed all day before, missing important classes and calling off work. I save up my sick days and unexcused absences, because I can see the day coming. For me, I still think that the costs of birth control outweigh the benefits. I said myself that it might be different for someone else. Everyone is different, and they can assess the risks themselves. This is not a moral judgment, it’s a prudential one after all. Alas, we are a pill-popping society. I really don’t want to fight about this, though. Because, you’re right, the OP’s case might be worse. My cramps have gotten much better over the last few months (I think) because I’ve been taking prenatal vitamins, exercising more, and cutting the caffeine (DH and I are TTC).

I am a new Catholic and while still a practicing Lutheran my wife was on YAZ and she did end up having her Gall Bladder removed. She also gained a lot of weight and her health just fell generally. After reading about NFP and all the benefits I honestly think it is the way to go. We have been using NFP and her health is much better now.

That being said if now other way exists to treat the medical condition then according to the CCC it is acceptable to use hormons for treatment. Notice I did not say Birth Control as once you apply that term you have just crossed a line…

 

[stadre]

OP, ultimately you need to do what you feel is best. It has already been demonstrated that it is morally acceptable to take the Pill in your situation. Here are a couple of other things to think about:

1. There is a medical reason for your problems. Has your doctor discussed your diagnosis with you? How will the Pill fix the problem?
2. What will you do when you want to get married/have children? If you go off the Pill then, how will anything be better?

This is a big thing for me. If you are feeling this poorly now, how will it help you when you are ready to have children to go through this again? OTOH, if you do as some posters suggest here (and in this case I highly recommend Fertility Care and PPVI Institute - www.popepaulvi.com.), you will start getting REAL answers and REAL treatment very soon. This way, you don’t ever have to deal with the side effects from the Pill AND you will also be healthy and ready to have children when you are married and ready for that.

One last thing, especially for FF, it is easy to see that the Pill doesn’t treat anything. Artificially shutting down your reproductive system is not a sign of health. We are suggesting that the OP check out options that will give her health not destroy her fertility (even temporarily). And, agapewolf has insulin resistance which is exactly what the “diabetes” drug she is taking is treating. It would not benefit her to take insulin for insulin resistance, which is what I take for diabetes. OTOH, I do not have insulin resistance so the meds she is taking would not have helped me treat my PCOS. The best the doctors could offer me was to take the Pill to make it look like I was in cycles and then give me lots of meds/use ART to conceive. Instead, I saw a doctor who looks for diagnoses and true TREATMENT and I had surgery which actually cured my PCO and conceived naturally on my own.

 

[kage_ar]

I find it quite interesting that every time someone on these forums asks about the pill to treat symptoms of their period a bunch of posters jump in a tell them that it just masks the symptoms and is not a cure.

Well I guess a lot of medications like blood pressure med’s just mask the symptoms, my blood pressure is normal if I take it, high if I don’t. Its not a cure but I can get by and live a healthier and hopefully longer life with it.

Another way to look at it is that it does cure my problem when I am on it. It seems that this is what these other posters are saying.

First, official teaching documents of the Church do not say that meds for high blood pressure may be morally used if they cure your illness.

Second, menstruation is not a disease. Women get cramps and discomfort and pain before/during their period - especially women who have never had a baby. That is part of life. One of two things are happening in the modern world.

A. There has been something that has caused many women to become “abnormal” and be actually debilitated by cramps.

B. We have become accustomed to taking a pill for every little inconvenience and think that normal cramps are somehow abnormal. Since we now go run to the doc for an RX to make our eyelashes thicker, I am leaning toward B.

Most women get cramps. Cramps hurt. That does not mean you curl up in a ball and cry. You live your life, you work through the pain and you go on. It is NOT NORMAL that half the women one person knows have “debilitating” cramps. I think our standard for debilitating has gone very low.

 

[Emily2009]

I think passing out from pain would be considered dehibilitating. I’m pretty sure not being able to sit still and yet being unable to move because of pain would be, too. I’m pretty sure that when a TRIPLE dose of a strong pain medicine doesn’t work for the pain, it would be, too. No, I don’t think half the women in this world are that bad. In fact, I only know three or four people [besides myself] that are. No, I’m not on birth control for mine…I suffer and deal, but for each her own. I would like a large family someday and realized it would be miserable to have to start going through this again after a time off–I’d rather deal with it now. If the OP needs to go on the pill in order to live her life normally, then she may do so. The Church permits it.

OP-Have you tried heat? *. Or cuddling up under warm blankets can sometimes help. I know just having my boyfriend around helps me feel better…I don’t know. Perhaps there is something you have not tried that would work. Perhaps you’ve tried everything else. Don’t feel guilt in going on the pill to treat this if it is what you need to do in order to live your life. *

 

[kage_ar]

From what I have studied (as someone who lives with chronic pain) one passes out from pain that is at the level of surgery or torture.

Menstrual cramps of the most intensity are like labor - I remember when I was in labor my sis saying something about how bad labor pains are and I said “well, I’ve had periods with cramps worse than this”. Perhaps working to learn breathing techniques that are used during labor would help those with severe cramps?

 

[Seatuck]

I’ve struggled with this for years, and it’s proving to be difficult…I’ve tried so many things. This is what my doctor, who’s been caring for me since I was a baby, is telling me is best, however, I mentioned this solution to a Catholic friend and she looked at me like I had four heads.

I find it hard to wrap my mind around that God gives me these incredible pains with seemingly no cure, but the solution is also a sin…

Thank you for the (name removed by moderator)ut though, much much appreciated.

This is not a job for a pediatrician but for an experienced GYN doctor who has treated some difficult cases. The solution is not birth control but hormonal and other treatments. There is a solution but it might take some time and testing to find the right solution.
You are a big girl now and need a big girl solution.

Try to find one of the NFP only doctors in your area .
Here’s one searchable list.

onemoresoul.com/nfp-providers

 

[angelerulastiel]

From what I have studied (as someone who lives with chronic pain) one passes out from pain that is at the level of surgery or torture.

Menstrual cramps of the most intensity are like labor - I remember when I was in labor my sis saying something about how bad labor pains are and I said “well, I’ve had periods with cramps worse than this”. Perhaps working to learn breathing techniques that are used during labor would help those with severe cramps?

I vomit and pass out from the pain of my cramps. It means that I’ve missed parts of classes. I actually missed half of my senior retreat because I was busy throwing up in the bathroom and then had to stay in bed for 3 hours because the pain was so debilitating.

nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003150.htm
Prostaglandins seem to be the problem. Ibuprofen is a prostaglandin antagonist, so when that’s not fixing the problem, how exactly do you suggest that the underlying problem be treated?

 

[Kimothy80]

I’m probably going to get jumped on for this but here goes…

I got my first period at the age of 12 (March 18, 1992…scary that I can till remember it! ) and during the first 6-9 months I would bleed quite heavily. Eventually, my body calmed down to these changes and I had normal cycles each month. 4 years later (on June 14,1996) I received an organ transplant. As you would imagine, I’m on many types of medications. A few are anti-rejection but the majority of them are not. As you would imagine, these new drugs threw my system completely out of wack! My periods now only lasted 3-4 days each month and I was VERY happy! D)

A few months shy of my 10 year anniversary (March, 2006) I went thru my first bought of rejection. My transplant doctors decided to take me OFF of two of my main anti-rejection drugs (because I had actually become immune to them! ) and put me on some new stuff. Immediately, I started experiencing a horrendous side affect I never saw coming: hair loss.

Now, I’m sure that that wouldn’t be so bad (“hey! at least you’re alive!”) but you have to understand that I’ve always been known for my hair and to loose A LOT of it (more than half) in less than 6 months threw me for a loop emotionally and hormonally.

During the late summer/early fall of 2006, I became so stressed over my hair loss that I started experiencing never-ending periods. I’d maybe get some relief for a few days…but soon after it would come back in full force and leave me with ruined clothes and doubled over in pain.

I begged my doctor for some sort of relief (I kept on missing a lot of work over my periods! ). At first, the transplant team was hesitant on putting me on BC because of all of the medicines I was already on. After months of back and forth conversations with my transplant doctors AND OBGYN, I was put on the pill. It worked.

Fast forward to July, 2009. I was getting ready for work on a Friday morning and was experiencing horrendous chest pains. After calling my doctors, I was ordered to go to the ER. After an afternoon of tests, it was discovered I had blood clots in my lungs. OMG!!

I was hospitalized for the weekend but my doctors had a new rule: no more BC!! They figured that that might’ve been the culprit!!!

I am no longer on BC and (for the most part) my cycles have been regular.

I truly can sympathize w/ the OP and others who have difficult cycles.

 

[kage_ar]

I vomit and pass out from the pain of my cramps. It means that I’ve missed parts of classes. I actually missed half of my senior retreat because I was busy throwing up in the bathroom and then had to stay in bed for 3 hours because the pain was so debilitating.

nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003150.htm
Prostaglandins seem to be the problem. Ibuprofen is a prostaglandin antagonist, so when that’s not fixing the problem, how exactly do you suggest that the underlying problem be treated?

Seek out a specialist, go to the Pope Paul VI institute and find a doc who will treat the cause, not just put a bandaid on the symptom.

 

[angelerulastiel]

I have seen a specialist. The cause is too much prostagladins. The prostaglandin anatagonists don’t help. The pill does.

 

[kage_ar]

I have seen a specialist. The cause is too much prostagladins. The prostaglandin anatagonists don’t help. The pill does.

There will be rare medical cases, sounds as if you are one.

You do agree that this is not the case for half the young women out there today?

 

[CatofAlexandria]

Kimothy, why would you get jumped on? Blood clots are a known side effect of the birth control pill. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot! God bless.

 

[mskejj]

A natural herb which you might want to consider that had been used for thousands of years to treat hormonal issues is Vitex…from the Chaste Berry Tree. It has helped me avoid a hysterectomy due to fibroid tumors and it helps to eliminate or lessen cramping associated with your period. It works on the pituritary gland to help balance your progesterone etc and has no side effects. You can find it at the health food store…I take the one by Solaray but there are other companies that produce it as well. Try it for a few months and see if it helps before you try artificial means. Good luck!