This just in…
The Archdiocese of San Antonio is looking for an Associate Director/ NFP Coordinator. Pass this around to your NFP friends. The position is open until filled.
Sexuality in San Antonio
February 25, 2009 at 3:23 pm (News)
Tags: Catholic, Catholic Jobs, Employment, Jobs, San Antonio
Orgasmic Birth
February 24, 2009 at 7:54 pm (Birth, Health)
Tags: Birth, Family, Health, Madison, Natural Childbirth, orgasmic birth, Sex
A friend sent me the link to this up-and-coming documentary. I’ve not seen it yet, so I can’t give a commentary or full analysis, but I support natural childbirth. I *think* I understand where they’re going with the “orgasmic” parlance, but I’d like to see it before I make a judgement. The friend who sent the announcement to me is super excited, and hoping it really displays the sacred of human birth and life.
See Orgasmic Birth for more information.
It’ll be showing at the Majestic in Madison, WI Sunday March 8, 2pm. See the official web site for other shows.
Yaz Birth Contol nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
February 21, 2009 at 10:56 am (Cognitive Dissonance, Health, Morality & Ethics, News, Pharmaceutic Continuity)
Tags: Advertising, Bayer HealthCare, Birth Control, Contraception, Family Planning, FDA, Health, Humor, Humor/Wit, Women's Health, Yaz
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.
Marquette U. seeks Participants for NFP Study
February 12, 2009 at 5:54 pm (News)
Tags: fertility, NFP, Natural Family Planning, Research, Medical Studies, Marquette University
This just in…
The Institute of Natural Family Planning, College of Nursing, Marquette University, is launching an NFP study. This e-mail is to provide you with the information about recruiting volunteers for the study (see below).
The study is a randomized comparison of two Internet supported methods of NFP. This is the first randomized comparison study of NFP methods since the late 1970s-early 1980s.
All eligible participants for this study will receive a free ClearBlue Easy Fertility monitor (value, $200.00).
If you qualify, they encourage you or your married friends to consider taking part in this study.
Marquette University
College of Nursing
Institute for Natural Family Planning
Effectiveness Study on Two Internet-Based Natural Family Planning Methods
We are looking for couples who are interested in using natural family planning (NFP) to avoid pregnancy for at least one year and would be willing to participate in a study to determine the effectiveness of two NFP methods: 1) electronic hormonal fertility monitoring; and 2) self-observation of cervical mucus to estimate the time of fertility. Both of these methods will include the use of an online (Internet) charting system that automatically computes the estimated time of fertility.
To be eligible for the study the woman NFP user needs to:
· be between the age of 18 and 42
· be in a sexually active committed relationship with a man
· have a menstrual cycle range of 21-42 days
and
· have not used Depo (injectable) contraception for the past 6 months
· have not used oral or patch hormonal contraception for the past 3 months
· have not breast-fed baby for at least three months
· have no known fertility problems
· not be using medications that interfere with fertility
· not smoke cigarettes; and
· not be pregnant.
Her male partner needs to:
- be between the ages of 18 and 50 years-old
- have no known fertility problems, and
- be in a sexually active committed relationship with his lone woman partner.
The potential participants will also need to be open to a possible pregnancy.
When used correctly the NFP methods are estimated to be 98-99% effective.
When not used consistently and according to instructions, the methods are estimated to be 86-90% effective.
All participants will receive a $200 ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor and $10 for each menstrual cycle charted online. However, the participants who are in the cervical mucus observation group will only receive the fertility monitor after completing the 12 months of charting. Couples who agree to participate will be automatically assigned either to the fertility monitor or the cervical mucus group.
All participants will be asked to fill out a 10 item user satisfaction survey at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.
If you are interested in participating please visit this Web site: http://nfpstudy.marquette.edu
If you wish to immediately register, see:
http://nfpstudy.marquette.edu/portal/login.php
If you have further questions about this study please contact:
Dr. Richard J. Fehring, PhD, RN
414-288-3838
Women Healed: Infertility
February 12, 2009 at 12:23 pm (Birth, Health, I Heart My Fertility, Morality & Ethics, NFP Friends, Reason #323 Not to Use Contraceptives)
Tags: Dr. Thomas Hilgers, Family, Family Planning, fertility, Fertility Awareness, Health, Infertility, IVF, NaProTechnology
I nixed the Teens and Birth Control show on the FertilityCare iPod queue because it was more moral and cultural commentary than about diagnosing young women’s menstrual issues. It was a good show, and a little insightful into the average teen-and-mother/ doctor experience; i.e., what the doctor says when prescribing versus what he really things, and the general lack of knowledge into women’s wellness. What it comes down to is that typical Ob/Gyns are not prepared to identify, diagnose and treat girls’ or womens’ wellness issues without the Pill. There’s a lot of reasons for this–lack of education, contraceptive bias, pharma kickbacks for prescribing the Pill, etc.–but in the end, the Pill serves as a band aid over the underlying issue, which may persist for years and cause problems down the line. However, I was looking for more of the medical/ fertility commentary on that issue.
Which brings me to the next episode I’d like to feature: Women Healed: Infertility. In this episode Dr. Hilgers talks about FertilityCare vs. IVF, and why FertilityCare blows IVF out of the water, not only for helping people conceive, but also for treating their fertility issues. His years of research and medical practice developed into something called NaProTechnology, or Natural Procreative Technology. It’s a major breakthrough for reproductive science, offering real solutions to some real issues:
- Infertility
- Menstrual Cramps
- Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
- Ovarian Cysts
- Irregular or abnormal bleeding
- Polycystic ovarian disease
- Repetitive miscarriage
- Postpartum depression
- Prematurity prevention
- Hormonal abnormalities
…and so on.
It’s really quite astounding once one looks into NaProTechnology, which is a fertility-based women’s care, not fertility-control, or fertility-suppression methods. It works with your whole body because fertility is a state of wellness, not a disease to treat. Dr. Hilgers has put together a book of the same title of this post, which you can find here. Are you ready to find out more about being healed?
And Baby Makes How Many?
February 10, 2009 at 10:33 am (Articles, Birth, Population)
Tags: Children, Family, Family Planning, Jonathon Porritt, Kate Zernike, large families, Nadya Suleman, NFP, quiver full
This is a surprisingly quasi-balanced article from the New York Times on larger families and the struggles of prejudice they face. The author, Kate Zernike, like any good writer, hits pros and cons, works in the controversial buzz stories, like unwed and unemployed Nadya Suleman, the new octuplet mother (I’m not even going to begin my critique here), or British environazi Jonathon Porritt’s orwelian declaration that there should be a two-child limit imposed on families to save the environment, and anything contrary would be “irresponsible.” Don’t forget the mandatory Angelina Jolie brood mention.
She talks about how larger families don’t seem to be inherently immoral as Porritt suggest, but states, “If large families are the stuff of spectacle, it is partly because they have become rarer.”
I really like that Zernike delves into this topic with a sympathetic ear and a balanced pen, but the question she doesn’t ask–or at least doesn’t publish–in depth is why large families are rarer. Sure, she mentions the dawn of contraception and its widespread use, but she doesn’t get to the burning question at hand: why do large families forgo contraception, and what are the results, and the differences between them and the “average” family? A great follow up to this article would be a piece on the contra-contraception movement, which is made up of a diversity of advocates, large families and small.
Zernike does go the extra mile to show that these families are regular, intelligent people, and I like that. She also shows their sense of humor in the face of intrusive and rude comments about their family size, relaying any number of sassy replies.
Among her interviewees is Leslie Fields, author of “The Case for Kids,” whose brave and forthright testimony in Christianity Today drew all sorts of angry letters. (Thank you Lambeth ‘30 for planting those seeds.) Fields rightly notes that you can’t even enter into debate with people who are that angry and irrational (as we found out from the childfree comment-and-crucify session we had last year and the year before).
Some of my favorite quotes:
“How can you afford so many? ‘Lifestyles are expensive, not kids.’ “
“‘Children are a kind of wealth,’ Mrs. Curtis said. ‘Just not the kind of wealth our society tends to focus on.’”
FertilityCare iPod: Contraception, pt. 3
February 9, 2009 at 11:07 am (Health)
Tags: Birth Control, Contraception, Dr. Hilgers, Family Planning, FertilityCare, iPod, NFP
Henri Magritte, The Lovers
Have you listened to the previous podcasts with Dr. Thomas Hilgers? Your FertilityCare Consultant extraordinaire is back in show nine of sixteen, and the third on contraception.
In this show, host Chris McGregor continues her discussion with Hilgers on the dangers and ills of contraception, and will focus this time on barrier methods, which an additional overview of DepoProvera.
Condoms, female condoms and diaphragms are featured not only as purely contraceptive (contra–against, -ception–conception), which is slightly different than oral contraceptives, which have a contraceptive intent, but an abortafacient back up function.
So while barrier methods don’t have an abortafacient intent in their function, Dr. Hilgers speaks of the physical, emotional and spiritual barriers that develop as a result. The painting by Henri Magritte, above, to me illustrates exactly what a condom does in a relationship, whatever your religious or personal beliefs. Somebody else thought so, too, and graces the cover of Donald DeMarco’s “New Perspectives on Contraception.”
This is a fascinating insight which is being confirmed by studies that indicate that women who don’t use barrier methods during intercourse have much lower levels of depression. There is a chemical in semen that seems to facilitate lower rates of depression. Who knew? For more information on studies such as this (and a full bibliography), and you’re in the Midwest/ Madison, WI area, come to Vicki Thorn’s Lecture “The Biochemistry of Sex,” or what a friend calls, “What you didn’t learn in sex ed”!
Up next on the FertilityCare iPod: Teens & the Birth Control Pill.
Fill These Hearts
February 3, 2009 at 3:52 pm (Events, Humanae Vitae, Morality & Ethics, NFP Friends)
Tags: Christopher West, Events, Family Planning, NFP, Romance, Seminars, Sex, Theology, Valentine's Day
So I hope that if I publicize this talk by Christopher West in another city, people will still go to the Biochemistry of Sex talk the following week in Madison…
Wide in its scope, at once both modern and ancient, the Theology of the Body addresses the deepest questions of life. It proposes a vision of love for our times and experiences. Given as a series of talks by the late Pope John Paul II, the “Theology of the Body” is a profound reflection on the biblical understanding of love.It illuminates the meaning of our bodies, sex, and marital love. It emphasizes our dignity as men and women, the goodness of the body and sexuality, and our call to live in full freedom and joy. Through the mystery of the body, each of us can come to know our particular calling to image God’s love in the world.
Whether you are single, dating, married, or consecrated…whoever you are and wherever you are coming from, this message is for people of all backgrounds and walks of life.
About “To Fill These Hearts Full: God, Sex, and the Universal Longing” Valentine’s Day Workshop
Providing a rich, poetic backdrop throughout the event will be indie-musician Mike Mangione and The Band whose music explores the themes of the Theology of the Body in a subtle, organic, dynamic and expressive sound.
If you’ve never heard of the Theology of the Body before, this is for you.
If you’ve attended a Theology of the Body Workshop before, this is something new. Bring a friend, family member, or significant other.
Invite someone you know who just might be curious.
Expect a series of provocative talks that stir the soul, move the heart and pique the intellect. Through theological reflection, humor, and our everyday experiences, Christopher West will unpack for you the message of the Theology of the Body in a language and application that everyone can appreciate, whatever your background or beliefs.
