My alternate title for this post was: Things that most middle school kids know that I don't.
Now, I think we're all at a level of maturity here where I can talk about Birth Control and not have any giggling from the peanut gallery.
Did you know that not all birth control (for women) works the same? I didn't.
Recently I was talking with a friend who told me that she gets one of those birth control shots (needle) every few months, instead of taking a daily pill. Now, this isn't a topic I talk about much... and I came to learn that I know very little about reproduction in general. And specifically that different birth control methods work differently. And I figure if something is news to me then it must be news to someone else. So why not blog about it?
Ok first, did you know that women release one egg each month? And then it sits there for about a week (I'm not sure where it sits). If it doesn't get fertilized then the body flushes it out. And that's what a period is. weird huh?
Now, if a woman takes birth control pills then they do something to the eggs. Like they coat them so they can't get fertilized. The egg is still released, and then ultimately gets flushed out each month unused. This is only 99.99% effective because the egg may not get coated properly OR some outside factors could interrupt the normal controlled process (like taking anti-biotics). Or they could face off against super sperm that laugh at the puny protective efforts of the birth control pills.
So then we have the shot. It's WAY cooler. When you take a shot, your ovaries stop releasing eggs. So the egg never comes out. It never waits around for a week in a public area waiting to meet some nice healthy sperm. And it never gets flushed out of the body (no periods). Since women only have so many eggs in their bodies, I would think they would all do this because then you'll keep releasing them later in life (I think). Also, taking other drugs doesn't affect the shot so you can mix and match your crazy drug habits all you want. AND you don't have to remember to take a pill each day. So unless they give this shot with a 12 inch long needle that goes in your eye-ball then I think this sounds much better than pills.
But what do I know? I'm just a guy.
And thus end-eth out lesson-eth of the day.
Now I'll just sit and wait for the comments to pour in from women who are going to point out all the problems with my post.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
All your eggs in one basket ...I mean... two ovaries
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2 comments:
First, there are problems with your post. Secondly... where to start.
Eggs wait in the fallopian tube, waiting to get fertilized, and they gradually roll on down to the uterus, where they could implant if they get hit by some spermification.
There are dozens of different means of birth control. Any way you cut it, though, a woman stops ovulating and loses fertility regardless of how many periods she has had. It's a product of pituitary regulation and hormonal changes induced by aging and non-egg-related factors. When it's over, it's over, no matter how stocked her ovaries may be.
I do agree that having fewer periods is the better way to go. There is a lot of evidence that the cycle of menstruation has gone through a major upswing in current female generations. Back in the day (like way back) women probably only ovulated a handful of times in a year. I don't know if that's only because they were pregnant a lot more often, but I've heard it's because we were more active.
Any athlete can tell you that when women start running/engaging in uber sports like, um... gymnastics, for example, they tend to drop off on the monthly periods. I'm going to leave my personal testimonials out of it.
Anyway, it may be much more beneficial not to have periods all the time, because every time your body has to refurbish the uterus, there is a lot of cellular growth/proliferation. And with these bouts of massive, fast, proliferation, there are more chances for mutations, leading to oncogenic issues, and possible cancer cells/dysregulation, etc.
That being said, of course taking shots of hormones and whatever are not so great for us. There's a lot of estrogenic molecules in our environment these days, like from microwaving food in plastics (long story), and from the breakdown of other pharmaceutical agents. Shots like medroxyprogesterone (Depo-Provera) are progesteronic treatments. Progesterone makes your body think you're already preggers and don't need to ovulate anymore. So there's this weirdo seesaw effect, that has not really been studied in seriously long-term patients. So effects may be delayed that we just don't know about.
Holy crap, this is along comment. Sorry. I went to Catholic school from K-12. I had sex-ed every year for 8 years. I kid you not. And I'm in the medical field now, so it's come up at work a few times. I hope this clears stuff up, D! And if my fellow readers spot mistakes, jump in with some help.
"Ok first, did you know that women release one egg each month? And then it sits there for about a week (I'm not sure where it sits). If it doesn't get fertilized then the body flushes it out. And that's what a period is. weird huh?"
OMG I'm almost wetting my pants laughing in my office. Did they not teach you this in Medford sex-ed??? This is like fertility 101...
As for active women getting less periods, I'm pretty damn sure that only happens when the women are psycho-active and have virtually no body fat as a result (long-distance runners, gymnasts, figure skaters, etc.). It's got more to do with body fat reserves than activity levels.
I've heard lots of pros and cons about the Depo-Provera. Me, I'm considering a IUD, which will piss off my uterus so much that it can't conceive!! Woot woot!!
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