Is it ok to use birth control to

[underacloud]

From Humanae Vitae:

*Lawful Therapeutic Means

1. On the other hand, the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever. (19) *

The Church has never explicitly required a couple using hormonal treatment that happens to have a contraceptive (or even abortifacient) effect to abstain from sex. Some moral theologians argue that it is required; others argue otherwise. But the Church, via the Magesterium, has never taught specifically one way or the other on this issue.

The principle of double effect requries us to weigh the proportionality of the good vs bad effects. One might say that using an abortifacient “contraceptive” to treat irregular periods would not meet the requirement that the good (regular periods) outweighs the bad (possible abortions). One might say that using a “contraceptive” that has no (or low risk of) abortifacient effect to treat a more serious issue (POCS, endomitriosis, etc) would meet such a requirement. Whatever the specific issues, a couple should educate themselves on the particular medical concerns and the mechanisms of the treatments suggested by their doctor. Of course, given that good moral theologians can’t agree on this topic, it’s a hard one for faithful Catholics to work through.

 

[baltobetsy]

The person answering this question for herself must be completely and totally honest about her motive. “Regulating one’s period” is an issue that may or may not be truly medically necessary. There are people, and I make no assertion about ANYONE in this conversation, who blow way out of proportion the “need” to have regular periods. They get their doctors to inflate the “need” to regulate periods and recommend hormonal contraceptive pills as the best way of doing this, then they consult their priest in confession for “permission” to use the contraceptive pills which very conveniently render them sterile during a time when a pregnancy would not be acceptable to them. Underneath it all, the true motive is contraception, and one must be honest about that. It is not OK to use contraceptive medications in this case.

On the other hand, there are women who have serious medical conditions related to their periods, and it is possible that hormonal contraceptive medications really ARE the best treatment for the condition. Many of these women would gladly be open to the transmission of new life at any time and are grieved at the contraceptive effect of the medication. These women can use the medication with a clear conscience. (Ron Conte, I know you will disagree and I am not going to get into a fight with you on this issue.)

Then there are the mixed cases where there is real need to use the medications, but also some level of desire for the contraceptive effect. These are difficult situations which should be discussed with one’s confessor with total honesty. I have no idea how to solve this, and I would assume the rest of the contributors to this thread are in the same boat. We should leave this to the individual woman and her priest.

Most importantly, each woman must be completely honest about her motive. You can fool the doctor; you can fool the confessor; you cannot fool God.

 

[Bradski]

If you are not having sex, Catholic moral teaching leaves you free to pop birth control pills (or put on condoms) all day if you want to.

You can wear a condom as long as you don’t have sex? So maybe the church can start issuing condoms in the Third World if all the men agree not to have sex when they wear one.

I think that you’ll find that almost every Catholic woman of child bearing age has taken contraception at some point. I guess you’d argue that they were all doing it to control their periods.

 

[Suzyq1979]

I have read this entire thread… Very thought provoking…
However…

If one is in a situation where there’s serious risk of developing major complications if left untreated (i.e. reproductive cancers), and one does not have access to “pro-life alternative treatments” (due to financial constraints), what does the Church advise?

I ask because I may have endometriosis. It is to the point where I have resisted oral contraceptives, sought medical advice from NaPro doctors (who I cannot afford to go to!), and have reached a dead-end. I am now having pretty awful back pain, as well as other such symptoms we won’t mention

Does the Church really condone living as “brother and sister” for the next 20 years until I hit menopause in order to treat my Endo in the manner in which I can afford/access (i.e. the Pill and/or surgery)? I can see where this undermines the “unitive” nature of Matrimony and will not be good for our marriage and family at all… We already have 4 children, and issues with intimacy as it is!

Bottom line: I don’t want to be directly responsible for aborting an innocent life by taking the Pill and still being intimate with my husband. I cannot afford to see a pro-life doctor (our HMO is pretty strict), yet I need to do something before my reproductive issues get even more out-of-hand…

Any solid references (Canon law, Encylicals, etc.) would be much appreciated.

 

[1ke]

Does the Church really condone living as “brother and sister” for the next 20 years until I hit menopause in order to treat my Endo in the manner in which I can afford/access (i.e. the Pill and/or surgery)?

While the Church most certainly would condone it, the Church does not *require *it.

Form your conscience on the matter. I can suggest that you discuss this with your priest, contact the National Catholic Bioethics Center for their opinion, read Humanae Vitae, and read up on the Principle of Double Effect. If you feel your situation meets all four criteria of the Principle of Double Effect, make your decision accordingly.

 

[Nabooru]

I’m in an odd sort of situation regarding birth control as medicine. I’m going to be honest since nobody here knows me personally. I am very mentally ill. I was born this way, I inherited it from my mother and father - they’re managing on their own but when they came together, whoa! I got the full brunt of it.

I suffer from major clinical depression and anxiety - as of right now. It’s still present but controlled through therapy and prescription drugs. When I do not take my medication, my diseases go into full-blown psychosis and paranoia. I’ve been hospitalized three times for attempting suicide, and also threatening to kill others (which I took seriously at the time - I was locked up for others’ safety as much as my own). I cannot describe the torture of a dysfunctional mind. I know it’s easy for people who aren’t sick to just say, “Oh, just get control of yourself. It’s not that big of a deal.” That’s the thing: I lose control. It’s like being possessed and this other side of your mind controls you, what you think, what you do, how you feel. I have no way to exert any control over it without the use of drugs, in the same way that a person cannot just get control of their cancer and it’ll go away. My brain chemicals don’t work, so I have to add a cocktail of other chemicals to fix them.

Right now I’m on the shot because it stops periods, and when I was on my period it exaggerated my symptoms, and I also have a neurotic fear of undergoing those stronger symptoms during my period. Were I ever to become pregnant, I would have to stop all those medications. Which means that, since I’d be off them for a period of nine months, the chances are very good that I’d end up killing myself and the baby. Admittedly I am also on the shot because I have a fear of rape, and I don’t want to risk conceiving and carrying a child for the reasons listed above.

Does this count as a medical reason, and does it bar me from ever being married? It seems to me to be rather unfair of God to refuse me marriage due to being treated for conditions that were no fault of my own. For anyone who says that simply praying and using my own confidence and strength to overcome these diseases, I quite bluntly would have to say that you don’t know what you’re talking about. It was my understanding that even within marriage it is acceptable to use birth control for medical reasons, and although some people say otherwise - that a marriage must then be sexless - I don’t see that explicitly stated in any message from the Church itself, just that medical use of birth control is acceptable.

 

[1ke]

Does this count as a medical reason,

A legitimate medical use of these hormones would be to treat a diseased state of the female reproductive organs. Using them to prevent pregnancy is not a medical use with an unintended side effect, it is the direct purpose and is always immoral.

and does it bar me from ever being married?

That is a question we cannot answer here. You need to be under spiritual guidance of your priest. Some people have situations which make it prudent not to marry.

It seems to me to be rather unfair of God to refuse me marriage due to being treated for conditions that were no fault of my own.

Yes, Original Sin has profoundly disrupted all of creation and many people suffer physically, mentally, and emotionally through no fault of their own. Christ gives meaning to our suffering, but he does not take it away from us. Please get spiritual counseling.

It was my understanding that even within marriage it is acceptable to use birth control for medical reasons,

I think you are misunderstanding “medical reasons”. It must be a direct treatment for a disease, defect, illness. So if you had a hormone imbalance you could take hormones, for example. if you had a tumor you could remove your reproductive organs or receive chemo, etc. The unintended side effect might be temporary or permanent sterility. But that is not the purpose of the treatment.

What you propose is to prevent pregnancy because of your mental illness, that is contraception and not a medical reason to use the hormones.

just that medical use of birth control is acceptable.

Again, I think you are misunderstanding “medical use” and construing to mean you can contracept because of unrelated mental issues.

I would also suggest that through counseling perhaps you can overcome your fears. You could certainly marry and use natural family planning.

 

[Isitclear]

Nabooro. I think this issue is more prevelant than people may think. I wish more people would have responded to your excellent question. Being the male in my marriage with several of the same mental challenges you face (genetics, require medication), I’m sure my spouse takes contraception to protect me, though she was advised to take it to regulate her cycles and control acne years ago. It’s a triple affect, not double. We struggle with it all of the time. We have three teenagers now, but a fourth child would have seemingly required more drastic means to control mental health. I’ve talked to numerous priests with numerous responses. They’ve included: (1) double effect (really triple) is okay here and it’s not sin; (2) you were open to life for three kids so contraception is fine to use now; (3) your mental state (husband) makes it okay to use contraception; and (4) whatever you do in the bedroom is your business. I frankly think, with the possible exception of number 1 above, they are bad answers, especially if my wife takes the contraception not just for cycle regulation but also to aid me in the mental health arena. It’s a triple effect (control cycle primarily/acne; stablize mental health, residual effect is infertility). It’s hard to know precisely which is the primary reason at times. I think my father’s own mental issues and four kids lead to my parent’s eventual break up and subsequent collateral damage on us kids, which to some degree, trickles down to the grandkids. The only “in the trenches” solution that seems to make sense is to simply abstain until menopause kicks in. Being very scrupulous I find the mental torment of wondering whether it’s a mortal sin or not simply more troubling than just abstaining. Of course, that’s easy to say right after the act, it’s much more difficult days and weeks down the road when nature rears its head and wants to engage in the act again. It’s then that the heroic nature of abstinence is required. I haven’t made it there yet, but I think my wife would be on board with giving it a try. PS. I agree with you that unless you’ve lived with the troubles you’ve described, you couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like - maybe that’s why there appears to be such a lack of good Catholic writing in this area - I hope that changes - I dislike writing about it but wanted to support you - and I only do so because no one knows who I am.

 

[LaMusicaSenior]

I think that you’ll find that almost every Catholic woman of child bearing age has taken contraception at some point. I guess you’d argue that they were all doing it to control their periods.

I think we often forget that, with a woman’s cycle, irregularity is regular. There are very few women who have a “perfect” cycle, calander and physical-wise.

I also think the pill is a default answer to a lot of problems for women’s health. I had issues with my cycle, and I was told to go on the pill by the nurse, and my doctor had offered that option, of which I declined.

When I talked to a friend, a Catholic doctor, she was able to p(name removed by moderator)oint an iron defeciency and I was good - without using chemicles to solve a natural problem.

There are many alternatives to taking the pill - which has incredible health problems: cancer, infertility, hormone issues, etc.

 

[Isitclear]

For what it’s worth, my wife and I tried NFP extensively, going so far to have an NFP doctor cauterize some part of her uteris to make it more compliant if you will with the NFP model. My wife came home crying saying she will never do that again. It seemed ridiculous to take NFP to an unnatural end (ie, surgery in her case) to try and achieve an NFP compliant result, notwithstanding all of the other issues mentioned in my previous post. So NFP essentially failed for us when we got to the point of introducing an invasive surgical procedure that didn’t help. One could argue she should have kept at it, but I wasn’t about to encourage that given how much deference we’d already given NFP with a bad result. Our local NFP “expert” said she frankly counsels NFP to help people get pregnant, not use it to assist in infertile periods, or under circumstances such as ours. Certainly frustrating from a theological and practical standpoint.

 

[Listener]

I’m in an odd sort of situation regarding birth control as medicine. I’m going to be honest since nobody here knows me personally. I am very mentally ill. I was born this way, I inherited it from my mother and father - they’re managing on their own but when they came together, whoa! I got the full brunt of it.

I suffer from major clinical depression and anxiety - as of right now. It’s still present but controlled through therapy and prescription drugs. When I do not take my medication, my diseases go into full-blown psychosis and paranoia. I’ve been hospitalized three times for attempting suicide, and also threatening to kill others (which I took seriously at the time - I was locked up for others’ safety as much as my own). I cannot describe the torture of a dysfunctional mind. I know it’s easy for people who aren’t sick to just say, “Oh, just get control of yourself. It’s not that big of a deal.” That’s the thing: I lose control. It’s like being possessed and this other side of your mind controls you, what you think, what you do, how you feel. I have no way to exert any control over it without the use of drugs, in the same way that a person cannot just get control of their cancer and it’ll go away. My brain chemicals don’t work, so I have to add a cocktail of other chemicals to fix them.

Right now I’m on the shot because it stops periods, and when I was on my period it exaggerated my symptoms, and I also have a neurotic fear of undergoing those stronger symptoms during my period. Were I ever to become pregnant, I would have to stop all those medications. Which means that, since I’d be off them for a period of nine months, the chances are very good that I’d end up killing myself and the baby. Admittedly I am also on the shot because I have a fear of rape, and I don’t want to risk conceiving and carrying a child for the reasons listed above.

Does this count as a medical reason, and does it bar me from ever being married? It seems to me to be rather unfair of God to refuse me marriage due to being treated for conditions that were no fault of my own. For anyone who says that simply praying and using my own confidence and strength to overcome these diseases, I quite bluntly would have to say that you don’t know what you’re talking about. It was my understanding that even within marriage it is acceptable to use birth control for medical reasons, and although some people say otherwise - that a marriage must then be sexless - I don’t see that explicitly stated in any message from the Church itself, just that medical use of birth control is acceptable.

I’m sorry for all of your problems, and it is clear to me that the medication you’re taking to stop your periods is obviously being prescribed for medical reasons. It is very clear that the Church allows these hormones for medical reasons. You’re not even married, so how can people think of you as practicing birth control when there is no birth to control? I used to take the pill for a short time many years ago, but I ended up with a hysterectomy. I did not want to spend my entire life on the pill. Men have never had periods, so they have no way of understanding the type of hell that dysfunctional periods can put a woman through. Women who have normal periods can’t understand either. I agree that many people here are very unsympathetic, and they are apparently more Catholic than the Pope.

 

[haedron]

Been lurking around here for a while, but wanted to chime in on this thread with my family’s story.

My wife was prescribed hormonal birth control as a teenager to control irregular, painful periods. Because she originally started taking them as a minor, her parents sought a second opinion (which confirmed the original Dr.'s diagnosis) and she took them for years. She was told at that time that her future fertility might depend on taking birth control pills until such time as she was ready to have children.

Before we were married, she had 2 separate abdominal surgeries to remove ovarian cysts.

My wife stopped taking the pills in order for us to start a family, and has suffered through several years of debilitating periods while we used NFP. After having 1 healthy, happy child, my wife developed several ovarian cysts, lost one ovary during a 3rd abdominal surgery and we are now unable to have further children due to the damage to her body brought on by her menstrual cycle, hormones, etc unless we pursue IVF. We considered it, prayed about it, and ultimately decided against it despite our desire for more children.

We are still holding out hope for a miracle, but she has been advised by her doctor to resume hormonal birth control to prevent further cysts and other complications. Unless said miracle occurs soon, she will be doing exactly that.

The bottom line for us is that had she never taken the pill, we might never have been able to have the child that we have. Some may consider the pill “intrinsically evil”, but I thank God every day that my wife and her parents prayed about it and decided to follow the advice of her doctors all those years ago - otherwise my son might not be here.

 

[StacyP]

1. “To treat a medical condition” is the intention of the subject who acts, that is, the purpose for which the subject performs the act; it is the subjective goal (why we do the act). But a good intention is not sufficient.
2. The the objective act (what we do), must also be good. A correct choice of action is based on the object of the act. In this case, the chosen act is to take a pill which deprives sexual acts of their procreative end. When a person who is sexually active takes such a pill, the sexual acts are objectively contracepted. The chosen act has a contraceptive object, even if the intended end is not contraceptive.

In addition, chemical contraceptives are abortifacient. So the person is also choosing an act that is objectively ordered toward an abortive end, as wbyell as a contraceptive end. And this is what makes the act intrinsically evil.

1. Finally, we must consider the circumstances of the act, which include its consequences. One consequence of taking an oral contraceptive, over a period of time, while sexually active, is the death of innocent prenatals. This bad consequence outweighs the good of treating a medical disorder because the person could refrain from all sexual acts and take the medication, treating the disorder while avoiding this grave harm.

In cases where a woman must take a medication to treat a disorder, and the medication has an abortive effect, she can only take the medication if she refrains from all sexual acts.

Pope Pius XII, Address to Midwives:

"in these extreme cases, every preventive practice and every direct attack upon the life and the development of the new life is, in conscience, forbidden and excluded, and that there is only one way open, namely, that of complete abstinence from every performance of the natural faculty…

"It will be objected that such an abstention is impossible, that such a heroism is asking too much. You will hear this objection raised; you will read it everywhere…

“God does not command the impossible, but when He commands, He warns you to do what you can, and to ask for the grace for what you cannot do, and He helps you so that you may be able”

The pill cannot have an abortive effect as it prevents a woman from getting pregnant in the first place. I have a need to take birth control pills not to prevent pregnancy but to prevent painful and life threatening ovarian cysts. So if saving my life is intrinsically evil then so be it.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

Now, it would be sinful, for instance, to persuade your doctor to prescribe you some contraceptive like Yaz for the asserted purpose of preventing acne, when in reality the only reason you want Yaz instead of Proactiv is because it’s a contraceptive.

To do this would be really dumb. As my doctor informed me the dosage prescribed for “medical reasons” aside from contraception are of a low enough dosage that they won’t stop ovulation, thus won’t work as a contraceptive.

 

[edwest2]

I still suggest Catholics take the time to look into alternatives.

As far as some complications, most doctors have been taught that the birth control pill is the only remedy. There are Catholic doctors out there that can provide alternative treatments.

catholicpediatrics.com/articles/alternatives-adolescent-birth-control-pills

stlouisreview.com/article/2012-05-03/catholic-doctor

cogforlife.org/prolifephysicianlist.htm

crisismagazine.com/2012/good-news-for-women-as-more-catholic-physicians-follow-church-teaching

naprotechnology.com/

mysticalroseobgyn.com/what-is-napro/

Click on the two links for NaPro and Creighton Model.

For other problems that occur before or after the first child, I suggest women contact:

aaplog.org/ and onemoresoul.com/

Even if there is not a doctor near them, I think they should make a phone call, or, if possible, travel to one.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Suzyq1979]

I am in the process of consulting a NaPro doctor. Prayers please that my primary OB/GYN will sign off on the surgery for Endometriosis (so my insurance will cover an ‘out of network’ doctor and surgery)…

Please click on one of the links Ed provided… I was discouraged and thought the only way was by taking the Pill. I see an answer to prayer, and am encouraged that more docs will see the benefit of these alternatives!!!

God bless you all! I pray each one finds the answers you need concerning tough reproductive questions/problems…

 

[kozlosap]

Suzyq- My 28 year old daughter had the endometriosis surgery 3 weeks ago and already can tell a difference in pain levels. If you are rated a stage 3 or 4 it appears that most insurance companies comply with the OB/GYN request for surgical procedure. She was lucky because when she had appendicitis in February, the surgeon visually saw the lesions and the endos covered the appendix itself. Almost everything I’ve read describes the need of a laparoscopic procedure for a definitive diagnosis. I’ll be praying for you.

 

[SunnyMuffin]

Endometriosis is one thing… but ‘regulating your period?’ really? Whats wrong with irregular periods provided they aren’t painful or causing you to lose too much blood?