Questioning the safety and, currently extensive, use of hormonal contraceptives (especially the pill) is not well accepted.
I think that I only truly grasped that fact after seeing the backlash from Sweetening the Pill: or how we got hooked on hormonal birth control by Holly Grigg-Spall. I followed her facebook page before the book was released and she would link to (few) articles about the book that were positive and (far more) about the book that were tearing into it.
I knew that there was a lot of bias towards the pill, obviously, but I was naive enough to not realize that many people didn’t even like to see the pill and other hormonal contraceptives questioned.
But the thing that really surprised me was that a lot of it came from feminists and birth control and reproductive choice advocates. Yikes! These are exactly the people that should be advocating for great safety of birth control methods, lots of testing, and certainly not brushing women’s experiences under the rug.
In today’s podcast you get to hear from Holly about the book and the hubbub around the book, as well.
Listen and learn…
♥ What caused her to write the book
♥ The problems we have with a lot of side-effect research currently out there on the pill
♥ Why it’s so hard for people to question the pill
♥ What might have to happen for women to get the pill under insurance with the Hobby Lobby decision
♥ The real purpose of her book and how it got “lost in translation” because of our social environment
♥ Why fertility awareness is awesome for women, even those who don’t necessarily want to use it as birth control
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I’d love to hear from you, now. Have you felt the bias towards hormonal birth control in your life, or do you also have a “coming off the pill” story to share? Let me know in the comments.
Holly Grigg-Spall is the author of the book Sweetening the Pill and works to expose the unexplored side of the hormonal contraception that is so popular and unquestioned in out society. You can buy her book here and visit her website for more information.
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As a Yaz survivor (who didn’t criticize the pill until after I was off it) and a feminist I’m disgusted by the way Holly or anyone critiquing the pill is pilloried (and the silence from NOW is revealing)! Why do these so-called feminists never talk about the MEN’S role in contraception?
I really liked this interview, I’m leaning closer to actually buying the book. I have been interested in it for a long while and I think I will splurge a little on myself soon :) I also want to get Woman Code, any other books you could recommend? I already have Taking Charge of Your Fertility.
Just horrid hearing about how women’s notions of having side effects have been ignored and completely put to the side as being delusionial. I was having side effects from the pill (increased cup size and weight, headaches, troublesome stomach, crying spells, irrational anger and generally being upset very easily) and the fact that there is so little general information out there about contraceptives that are NOT hormonal led me to denial for a long time, although it did take some time for the side effects to kick in, I will admit. Knowing that my boyfriend finds condoms extremely off-putting (as in not sexy at all, hello flaccid), I was even less inclined to listen to my internal thoughts and concerns and possibly going off the pill. For a long time I thought I would just have to toughen it out and deal with it or rely on abstinence, which is not an option for me because sex means so much to me. I don’t know how I stumbled upon it but I somehow read about Lady Comp online. Although I now realize it’s quite an unnecessary buy and less reliable than FAM, I am happy I came across it because that is what led me to find out about FAM :) Femcap (and Contragel) + withdrawal during the follicular phase and until confirmed ovulation, and nothing during the luteal phase. There ARE options other than condoms if you do not want to abstain, think about that, anyone reading this!
It’s funny, people either seem to have side effects right off or they take a while to develop.
Anyway. here are some of my favorite books in the women’s health realm: https://holistichormonalhealth.com/recommended-reading/
I don’t know why female barriers freak me out (as in, I’m scared I’d get pregnant using them), but then again I use nothing but withdrawal during my fertile phase so I know I am being riskier than others. I’m comfortable with 96% efficacy, though, and we are *perfect* users of withdrawal.
Would you like to expand a little on being perfect users of withdrawal? Just wanna make sure we’re on the same page about what that entails. I’ve heard people saying it means that the man has plenty of time to finish elsewehere (as in needing manual (by either himself or his partner) or oral stimulation), but the actual figure (seconds) has varied quite a lot. Minimum 10 seconds, some say, and some say you need at least 30 seconds, or else it’s not reliable. I just don’t know who to trust because I can’t see the difference from 10 and 30 seconds, shouldn’t it be enough with just not finishing inside of the woman? A little brief explanation of what’s perfect use to you and what you know about it (maybe some links? I’ve tried but the time spec is really boggling me, hard to find a credible source) would be highly appreciated :)
I really do get the fear you have for female barriers, because it *is* trickier inserting correctly, as the cervix is an internal organ as opposed to an external one. Seeing it properly and not having to fiddle around as much is obviously the difference. I do have to say though that practice makes perfect and I wouldn’t recommend anyone who’s got a FemCap in a suitable size at hand to have sex using it straight away, that would almost be like asking for trouble. Once you’ve given yourself the time you need to feel confident in placement and what you’re doing, it isn’t any less reliable than a condom, and if so, not by much. It’s certainly up there along with withdrawal (96%) and could in fact be 98% effective. Pairing it with withdrawal should make you safer than just using withdrawal alone :) That’s something a lot of people do, combine barrier methods with withdrawal. Using probability calculations, doing this would be over 99% effective. 2/100*4/100 (or 4/100*4/100 if you want to count the lowest)
FemCaps actually have dicey effectiveness studies. It’s not exactly known how effective they are. And diaphragms are less effective than withdrawal (94%). That’s kind of where my fear comes from. Of course, those+withdrawal would be much better for effectiveness.
“Perfect user” has less to do with time before ejaculation and more that pulling out before ejaculation ALWAYS happens and afterwards you aren’t letting the semen come into contact with the vulva/vagina at all. You just have to be aware enough to always pull out, not be one of those “just a couple more seconds” people, and then keep it away from your reproductive organs!
30 seconds is quite a while. Who even knows when they are going to ejaculate in 30 seconds? Ha.
The studies on pre-ejaculate are sparse, but the best one I’ve read says that they found enough good sperm in pre-cum to render 2.5% of women pregnant after a year of use. I assume that extra 1.5% that we have in perfect use may be due to the study being a bit off (small sample size) and mis-reporting of perfect use (i.e. “I swear I pulled out before ejaculating at all!”).
It’s interesting to note that you can’t prove perfect use with most birth control methods. Birth control efficacy studies are an interesting thing.