Right Mothering

My second cautionary tale has made it into the mainstream press, but that does not necessarily mean it has made it into the mainstream consciousness.  First, check out this old interview of Dr. Drew by Tucker Carson.  (Just gloss over Dr. Drew’s statement that “pregnancy is a diseased state and can be quite dangerous to women”) and this almost three-year old article from the New York Times based on the publication of then-recent research.

Now, my pill-clouded experience of long-term relationships was not the most positive.  Passion subsided soon after the first flush of excitement, and now I know why –  the pill.  I was lucky to escape those relationships, but I was even luckier to have been off the pill when I met my husband.

Since being off the pill for many years, I now appreciate the natural hormonal fluctuations of my body.  When I am ovulating, arousal is wonderfully overpowering.  I do not know how a marriage would remain physically fulfilling without this monthly ebb and flow of desire.  And more importantly, how can one truly fall in love if ovulation and its accompanying hormones and the resulting arousal are suppressed?

And we should not forget yet one more generally unacknowledged danger of the pill: as a contaminant of nature.

** Update **

Just came across this old news about how the pill interferes in other chemical ways with falling in love.

I spent a good chunk of my twenties on the birth control pill, and given the lack of an open discussion of its downsides (see the recent article in the New York Times) and the concomitant promotion of its supposed benefits in advertising, this should pose no great concern.

However, I wish I had known what I know now, and I will share this knowledge with my daughter when she comes of age.

First, a little over one year ago, my not-so-conventional doctor tested me for various food sensitivities and found that I had an overgrowth of Candida. I had noticed no digestive problems, and my complaint was severe seasonal allergies. Mainstream doctors will not diagnose Candida, nor its less flattering name – leaky gut. Well, I healed my gut through a diet eliminating yeast and anything that feeds yeast as well as all the foods to which I apparently had sensitivities, and my seasonal allergies disappeared, never to return, even after returning to my pre-diagnosis diet.

Now, of all the possible causes of Candida, my instinct tells me it was my multiple years on oral contraception. Playing games with your hormones comes at a cost. (See the following article on the website of Dr. Mercola, a great source for information on alternative medicine).

The pill is not harmless, and the trumpeting of its benefits in commercials and the mainstream press does, at least thus far, immeasurable harm to women.