What if your doctor insists on birth control before treatment?

[graceandglory]

When she asks you which two birth control methods you will use, answer, “Twin beds.”

It worked for Rob and Laura Petrie

 

[JRKH]

When she asks you which two birth control methods you will use, answer, “Twin beds.”

That one is cute.

Peace
James

 

[drafdog]

As my wife’s ob said under similar circumstances, “For your conscience, abstain. For me, swallow the pill.”
There is nothing wrong under these conditions with following the doctor’s orders.

Matthew

 

[sarah_anne_628]

As my wife’s ob said under similar circumstances, “For your conscience, abstain. For me, swallow the pill.”
There is nothing wrong under these conditions with following the doctor’s orders.

Matthew

I agree with Matthew here as well as the others…take the pill and abstain.

In my opinion, taking medication in of itself is not a sin. The sin would be if you abuse it. In the case of taking the pill, as a Catholic, engaging in sexual activity would be abusing it.

As much as consulting other Christians and Cathlolics can be helpful…your best source is God himself. Read the Bible and prayer. Speak privately with your priest about it…ultimately, you have to follow your conscience. But if you are in fervant prayer about it, your conscience will probably lead you to do God’s will.

 

[BlueRubies]

Well, if you are going to abstain anyway, what is the problem with using abc?

I know the doctor may not seem sympathetic, but he/she is probably just trying to protect a child from being born with severe disabilities or you from miscarrying a child and/or jepordizing your treatment.

If you have an infection disease, you should not be using NFP anyway IMO if there is a cure you can receive. I just don’t see a problem using ABC if you will be abstaining anyway.

 

[Linda_Marie]

I think it is absolutely appalling that the doctor insists that you take powerful artificial hormones in order to receive treatment for an unrelated condition.

Back before I was Catholic, I took the pill. It really messed up my entire hormonal system and I’m still suffering the side-effects some 30 odd years after stopping. I can’t take them because it is excruciatingly painful. My doctor here convinced me to try HRT which is a much much smaller dose and it still had the same effect. If you’ve never taken it, you don’t know if you will have an adverse reaction to it. Many women do.

Is there an Ombudsman for Health that you could consult? If the doctor continues to refuse treatment, check higher up with the NHS. It could be that this particular regulation is exclusive to this doctor.

I’d really go for the “I don’t want to introduce powerful artificial hormones into my system which have their own side-effects. My body will be under enough stress from the treatment without adding the additional problem of the Pill.” Cite the increased risk of heart problems, stroke, breast cancer, anything else you can get your hands on about the harmful effects of the Pill. Tell him you are adamantly opposed to taking the Pill for health reasons as well as for religious ones. It is hardly a harmless drug.

At any rate, it is not his baby that will be affected if you slip up, but yours. Perhaps he doesn’t realise just how much incentive this is for both of you to remain chaste.

Another thing to consider, if this treatment is like chemo, you will probably feel much too ill most of the time to have any desire for sex. Does he think your husband is so lacking in control or love for you that he is going to insist on his conjugal rights when you are so sick?

 

[HOPEFUL_IN_UK]

I have told the doctor that we will abstain and promised “not to have unprotected sex.” I made it clear that this was not the same thing as promising to use condoms. But, if it made her happy, we would buy a box to keep in our nightstand and promise not to have sex without them.

As it so happens, I’m not entirely sure I’m going to go for the treatment. We may just put it off for a few years, which is an option. (I’m not actually ill or dying, here. It’s just something that could kill me in 10-20-30 years.) I’m thinking that it may be better to wait until the kids are a little older. If they can wipe their own butts and tie their own shoes, etc, that would be better becuase the treatment is so debilitating.

And, we think we may just have another baby, first.

 

[down_under]

that will teach him. In fact go for a visit when nothing is wrong with you just to say hello with your new baby.

 

[brandymmiller]

The doctor says that the NHS requires patients to use two kinds of birth control before receiving this treatment. My husband and I use NFP. I know that the doctor does not respect Catholic beliefs based on something she said about my husband “refusing to protect himself.”

Pray to God that He help you find a doctor who is an advocate for NFP who can either help your doctor see reason or who can refer you to one who will.