• Debate|Contraception: Is it harmful to women? (Thomas Center, Boulder, Colorado) January 26th, 7pm
• Flyer
• Is the Pill Necessary for Women’s Health? In Introduction to NaProTechnology(Diocese of Richmond, Virginia) February 5, 10am
  

• “ENDOW in a day” One day study: Humanae Vitae (ENDOW, Denver) February 11
• NFP Medical Mini-Conference (Archdiocese of Detroit, Michigan) February 25
• Flyer
• Annual NFP Conference (Philadelphia NFP Network, March 24, 2012)
• Flyer

Dr. Steve Hickner is an NFP-only OB/GYN in Lander, Wyoming, and he will be giving two last talks in his fall/winter lecture series through Central Wyoming College’s Lander Campus. If you’re in the area, you should definitely check them out. If you’re not, make sure you spread the word for those who might be!

• Maintaining Cardiovascular Health in Menopause: Proven Strategies/   December 7, 2011, 7-8pm

• Thyroid and Other Hormone Dysfunction: Sorting through Fact and Fiction/ December 14, 2011, 7-8pm

Maybe if I put this journal article from the American Board of Family Medicine up in a weather balloon and claimed a child was in it, it would get a little more press and recognition. (H/T to Birth a Miracle blog for the journal link.)

It’s one of the better articles I’ve read, refuting point-by-point the major objections to Fertility-Based Methods of Family Planning (FABM’s) as a legitimate method of family planning and fertility treatment. 

One of the strengths of the article–and NFP fans may disagree–is it’s honesty about the lack of data on the benefits of FABM’s: increased communication, enhanced intimacy (the honeymoon effect), increased respect for their partner and other psycho-spiritual effects. While there’s loads of anecdotal evidence, it’s true that the statistical evidence is lacking. This doesn’t mean that the positive effects don’t exist; I believe they do. However, as I stated in a previous piece on promoting NFP, more studies are needed, and those studies need to be published.

I might know statistics and a fair study when I see one, but I don’t know the name of the grants and publication game. Any med students, doctors or academics out there who have any suggestions? 

One small step for NFP, one giant leap for NFP-kind. Keep it up, Drs. Pallone & Bergus!

 Developed migraines since starting the Pill? Have you had a pesky blood clot go to your lung or brain? Those darn birth control Pills may have been at it again!

I just found this great web site, a feminist support site devoted to educating people on the dangers of the Pill, aptly named “Ditch the Pill.” About the group whose entire non-sectarian goal is to empower women:

DitchThePill.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to the understanding, research and treatment of women’s health concerns caused by the toxic side effects of birth control pills (BCP’s).  It was created in response to what is becoming a growing epidemic of health problems in women over the last 50 years, beginning with the introduction of oral contraceptives.

DitchThePill.org strongly feels that women should have a vital part in managing medical decisions regarding their own health.  Prescription medications, particularly in the form of oral contraceptives, have unknowingly caused an epidemic of health problems in women since the advent of the Pill in the 1960’s.

Have you been told that taking BCP’s are the only way to prevent your family history of ovarian cancer? Oops, that’s not entirely supported anymore.

What’s the alternative, to a hormone-free, pro-fertility, pro-woman approach?

Shockingly (!), I’m going to suggest natural methods of family planning. You’re going to have to go elsewhere from this site to find information on Natural Family Planning (NFP), because, strangely enough, they don’t know all that much about modern NFP. Guess who’s going to give them a call today? Maybe you should too (281-962-4264).

NFP/ Fertility Awareness Resources:

• Secular NFP, or Fertility Awareness Method (FAM)–this is a great book and educationally amazing for women, although it advocates the option of using barrier methods during a woman’s fertile time, which some readers may be opposed to.
• NFP Background info–religious base (same science)

The Problems with The Birth Control Pill
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9RcwKnHbQw]

I’m grateful for drugs. I really am. I take them, some as prescription and some over the counter. They’re not my friends, per se, but in a fallen world we sometimes–oftentimes–need them. But guess what? For every action there’s a reaction, for every cause an effect, and it’s not news to us that drugs–pharmaceuticals, prescriptions, our little chemic companions, or whatever you call them–have side effects.

However, our friends at Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals are so concerned about women’s wellness with completely altruistic motives that they have created a birth control, evidently, with no side effects. Amazing, right!? OMG, as the kids say. Why is this not on the front page of every paper and being quoted on every blog? I mean, by the way their product was marketed, it looks like not only will it cure my PMS but it might even stop global warming, create the perfect bra, *and* discover who really killed JFK. Nobel Peace Prize, watch out!

Wait a second…I didn’t read the fine print at the bottom of the page, in light gray. Way to go, marketing professionals at Bayer. Turns out, not only did the FDA read the fine print, they realized Yaz wasn’t FDA approved to cure everything. Not only that, but the FDA in concert with attorneys general of 27 states (um, why not 50?) have required Bayer to run $20 Million worth of new advertising over the next six years correcting the misleading advertisements, explaining that women shouldn’t take Yaz just to correct their acne.

Right. Because Yaz is the first birth control brand to promise things either they couldn’t deliver or that mislead consumers. The only one. How many teens are on the Pill because they’ve got acne or 32 day periods or cramps?

This isn’t the first warning for Bayer. They bought the makers of Yasmin, the predecessor to Yaz, who were warned in 2003 for implying in their advertising that their BC was superior to all other pills, and maximizing the positive side effects while minimizing the potentially dangerous side effects.

Right now I’m thinking of a certain Dr. E in Austin Powers saying, “Twenty meeelllyon dollars,” thinking that the world million will knock us off our rockers. I’m thinking that’s not enough, and somebody else agrees,

Bruce L. Lambert, a professor of pharmacy administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago, lauded the F.D.A. for insisting this time that Bayer run a corrective advertising campaign. But he referred to the corrective $20 million ad campaign for Yaz as “chump change” and “just the cost of doing business.”

“I don’t think it is likely to stop,” he said, “unless there are more significant consequences.” (NY Times Advertising Section, 2/11/09)

What is a more significant consequence? Death perhaps? Probably not, since a number of women have already died as a result of using the patch and other birth controls. Did you know the makers of the patch continue to settle out of court with families? What’s 1.25 million times ten to a multi-billion dollar industry? That’s right, Mr. Lambert. Chump change.

I will close with the great wisdom of  lady doctors. Doctors of comedy, that is.

Dr. Thomas Hilgers is a rock star of reproductive health. Truly is on the avant-garde of  women’s health, and  his groundbreaking work is hidden from the masses. He approaches fertility as something beautiful and dignified,  rather than the disease that many people think it is. He’s the Director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and the National Center for Women’s Health in Omaha, Nebraska. Last year he teamed up with an Omaha radio station to produce a number of shows. This week’s feature is Contraception, Part1.

About Dr. Hilgers: Thomas W. Hilgers, MD, is the director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and the National Center for Women’s Health in Omaha, Nebraska. Working at the St. Louis University and Creighton University Schools of Medicine, Hilgers and his coworkers developed the Creighton Model FertilityCare System. Dr. Hilgers is currently a senior medical consultant in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine and surgery at the Pope Paul VI Institute. He is a clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska. In 1994, Dr. Hilgers was appointed to permanent membership to the Pontifical Academy for Life. In 2004, Dr. Hilgers published the definitive textbook on natural procreative technology, The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY.