Page 45 - Special Issue: Healthy Baby

Fertility drugs like Clomid, which are often fertilized egg toward the uterus in the event A woman
prescribed “like water” when pregnancy is de- that conception does occur;
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sired, hyperstimulate the ovaries to mature many  Preventing buildup of the uterine lining, and who takes the
more follicles than normal. In turn, the follicles thereby inhibiting implantation of a fertilized pill for two
produce three to four times more estrogen than egg in the event that one arrives in the uterus. 4 years before
in pretreatment cycles.
Are these pharmaceuticals dangerous to the It’s worth noting that the mini-Pill, a pro- she’s
women who take them? To their offspring? Are gestin-only pill, may not suppress ovulation or twenty-five
they changing the way we think about repro- conception from occurring. and before
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ductive health? Are safer alternatives available In the Breast Cancer Prevention Program,
to those who seek to prevent pregnancy or to Sam Epstein, MD, writes, “more than 20 she’s carried a
become pregnant? well-controlled studies have demonstrated the pregnancy
What can a woman do if she feels that her clear risk of premenopausal breast cancer with to term
health has been compromised by taking the pill the use of oral contraceptives. These estimates
or a fertility drug? indicate that a young woman who uses oral increases her
I imagine that people take hormonal drugs contraceptives has up to ten times the risk for risk of breast
for several reasons: it’s become normal to take developing breast cancer as does a non-user, cancer
them; information about their hazards is usually particularly if she uses the pill during her teens or
posted in fine print; doctors (including alternative early twenties; if she uses the pill for two years or tenfold.
practitioners) are typically not taught natural more; if she uses the pill before her first full-term
methods of family planning in medical school— pregnancy; if she has a family history of breast
and they cannot give clients what they don’t cancer.” Thus, a woman who takes the pill for two
know; and consumers frequently take prescrip- years before she’s twenty-five and before she’s
tion drugs and vitamins without researching their carried a pregnancy to term increases her risk of
effects—because “they worked for my neighbor.” breast cancer tenfold.
Advertising is another factor. Barr Laborato- A study conducted by the World Health Orga-
ries engaged in a multi-million dollar campaign nization found that women who carry the human
to promote Seasonale, their new oral contra- papilloma virus (HPV) and who have taken the
ceptive, which gives women “the convenience pill for five to nine years are nearly three times
of only four periods [sic] each year” with just more likely as non-pill users to develop cervical
“all of the warnings and contraindications . . . cancer. (HPV affects a third of all women in their
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identical to any other oral contraceptive.” There twenties.) Women with HPV who’ve taken the
are currently sixteen million women on oral con- pill for more than ten years are four times more
traceptives in the U.S.; Barr Labs aims to secure likely than non-users to develop the disease.
90 percent of this market. Women who have a history of migraine head-
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aches and who take combined oral contraceptives
SOME PROBLEMS WITH are two to four times more likely to have a stroke
HORMONAL CONTRACEPTIVES than women who have migraines and don’t take
Oral contraceptives are made from artificial the pill.
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steroids that mimic the effects of estrogen and Women who use low-dose oral contraceptive
progesterone. The pill works by: pills have a two-fold increased risk of a fatal heart
attack compared to non-users. Women who take
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 Suppressing the release of hormones that oral contraceptives and smoke have a 12-fold
trigger ovulation; increase in fatal heart attacks and a 3.1-fold
 Stimulating production of thick cervical mu- increase in fatal brain hemorrhages. Women
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cus, which prevents sperm survival and ability who use the pill after the age of 45 have a 144
to travel to a ripe egg in the fallopian tube in percent greater risk of developing breast cancer
the event that ovulation does occur; than women who have never used it. 11
 Disrupting the ability of the cilia (whip-like Because of blocked hormone production,
cells that line the fallopian tube) to move a women who take the pill have decreased sensi-

Wise Traditions 43