Contraceptives for other health reasons

[BrickRoux]

Sadly, I’m one of the ones who has so far not been helped by alternatives to the pill. I did very much go happily and bravely into treating my problems with other therapies, but noting worked and my symptoms got worse and worse - ironically, pushing my hormone and insulin levels further from fertility! I spent a fortune. Nothing. By going off the pill, I pushed myself to the brink of diabetes. Is this everyone’s story? Definitely not! I urge friends to consider alternatives to the much-overprescribed-pill all the time. But it is my story, and the writing’s on the wall: the pill may not be ideal, but it’s the only thing so far in years of experimentation that’s touched my problems.

There are some hard cases out there and I’m one of them. Please treat us gently! We haven’t given up on ourselves, and it is actually very emotionally painful for us. I was never even planning to use NFP as an avoidance method - I would have been so pleased with a dozen babies if God willed it - so I definitely am not “secretly happy” about the birth-control effects of these pills. Sometimes I feel very alone because NFP proponents have their belief that the pill is never warranted, and my non-Catholic friends think I should be happy about what they see as a “get out of jail free” card, a “loophole.” Sometimes I feel that nobody could understand. Many tears have been shed, but I’m trusting my doctor. He has warned me that given my age and history, there isn’t a lot of time to try this or that.

My hope is to keep taking the pill and then begin fertility treatments (obviously only those that are okay with the Church, e.g. drugs) after I get married; the ideal would be to never go through a cycle on the pill as a wife. Crazy as it sounds, doctors think my best option is to go pretty directly from life on the pill to a round of Clomid (the doctors I have are very understanding of my beliefs). I will do anything to avoid the abortifacient effects of the pill, and if that means immediately TTC actively with pharmaceutical assistance, then I’m of course open to that. If God creates this baby, I’m not sure what I’ll do about needing the pill after that pregnancy is over; I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Maybe, if my options are either the pill or being pregnant with help from Clomid, then I’ll just have to stay pregnant for the next ten years!

I guess I’m just sharing all of that so you can see the life of a Catholic woman who has been told that she’s one of the ones for whom the pill is the one treatment for her that really works, and that it’s definitely not a secret desire for birth control or an unwillingness to learn all about natural fertility.

 

[joanofarc2008]

What I did was contact my local Diocese that you may be surprised to find that there are actually fertility care partners who are nurses that can help you get set up with a doctor in your area who is trained in NaPro/NFP procedures. In our diocese we have actually doctors that offer these services on a sliding scale basis to women that can’t afford them - you know that argument that Planned Parenthood makes when we threaten to cut their funding.

 

[silentstar]

I think a belief that the pill is never warranted is too strong. There will be cases where it’s essential and I believe you when you say you’ve researched all of this. Diabetes is nothing to mess around with as you know. I am 42 and I have diabetes partly from taking Seroquel since 2005 for bipolar disorder. Diabetes raises the risk of many conditions including cardiac problems and cancer, it is viewed as comparable to smoking in terms of risk . I am working hard on losing weight and have lost over 50 pounds so far but when I went down on the medication I had another manic episode, even though I’m on additional meds for bipolar. I’ve been told this will come under control as I lose more weight and it was caught at the beginning but I don’t think it will ever go away.

Bottom line - I understand that medications can have a huge impact on health and if the Pill prevents you from getting diabetes that’s important information to have. If there is a way to work with the doctors you have about both being on the Pill and starting a family, in ways that agree with your beliefs, that’s a good thing.

I found the statistics on diabetes to be pretty shocking when I researched it after I was diagnosed. I had this idea it was not that common however this is from the american diabetes association website:

Total prevalence of diabetes

Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.

Diagnosed: 18.8 million people
Undiagnosed: 7.0 million people
Prediabetes: 79 million people*

New Cases: 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in people aged 20 years and older in 2010.

Under 20 years of age

* 215,000, or 0.26% of all people in this age group have diabetes
* About 1 in every 400 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes

Age 20 years or older

* 25.6 million, or 11.3% of all people in this age group have diabetes

Age 65 years or older
* 10.9 million, or 26.9% of all people in this age group have diabetes

 

[BrickRoux]

Silentstar, good for you for losing fifty pounds! That’s amazing! As someone who is insulin-reistant, I know that it’s even harder to lose weight when your insulin levels aren’t right. I wish you lots of luck with your diet and exercise. Diabetes definitely can be “beaten” in the sense that it can lie dormant if a patient can manage to get diet and exercise under control, but they are definitely much harder in these cases than for the average person wanting to shed some pounds.

I wish you much luck.