Monday, November 30, 2009

Birth Control Pills Hurt our Bodies AND the Environment

I have to say, I'm rather baffled. I know a few of people who are obsessed with buying organic food and living an otherwise "green" lifestyle. And that's great. One of my splurges is organic whole milk, because my skin goes absolutely crazy every time I drink a single glass of non-organic milk. I've also realized that I get a migraine headache every single time I eat tuna. Because what goes into my body effects it! It's a fairly simply concept.

So what I don't understand is how people can be so concerned with the chemicals and hormones they're putting into their bodies through food, and yet they don't give a second thought to the effects of pumping artificial hormones into their systems through birth control pills.

I wrote about it earlier this year and talked a bit about the harmful side effects that many women accept without a second thought. They include increased risks of heart and blood abnormalities, breast cancer (a Swedish study found it was 5x higher in women who used the pill and that they tend to get it at a younger age), cervical cancer and cervical dysplasia, along with higher occurrences of other types of cancers. And that doesn't even get into less life threatening side effects, which include (but aren't limited to) depression, temporary or permanent blindness and temporary or permanent infertility.

Now if life threatening side effects aren't enough to stop you putting artificial hormones into your body you may want to take a look at its effect on the environment. Birth control pills hurt the environment too! And the news isn't new. Most of the studies I found were at least five years old and showed the serious effects that birth control pills are having on fish.

Take a look at this:
"According to the National Catholic Register, EPA-funded scientists at the University of Colorado studied fish in a mountain stream near Boulder, Colo., two years ago.

When they netted 123 trout and other fish downstream from the city's sewer plant, they found 101 were female, 12 were male, and 10 were strange "intersex" fish with male and female features.

It's "the first thing that I've seen as a scientist that really scared me," university biologist John Woodling told the Denver Post.

The main culprits were found to be estrogens and other steroid hormones from birth-control pills and patches that ultimately ended up in the creek after being excreted in urine into the city's sewers.

The Register says Woodling, University of Colorado physiology professor David Norris, and the EPA team were among the first scientists in the U.S. to learn a cocktail of hormones, antibiotics, caffeine and steroids is flowing through the nation's waterways, threatening fish and contaminating drinking water.

"Nobody is getting passionately concerned about it," Norris said. "It makes no sense to me at all that people aren't more concerned."

The problem is not just limited to Boulder. Similar stories have been reported from coast to coast.

In western Washington, experts found synthetic estrogen – commonly found in oral contraceptives – drastically reduces the fertility of male rainbow trout.

Doug Myers, wetlands and habitat specialist for Washington State's Puget Sound Action Team, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that in frogs, river otters and fish, scientists are "finding the presence of female hormones making the male species less male.""
And then there's this:
"For three years, Canadian scientists have put birth-control pills into a remote Ontario lake to measure this impact. The results: All male fish in the lake - from tiny tadpoles to large trout - were "feminized," meaning they had egg proteins growing abnormally in their bodies.

The experiment was intended to match the impact that the female hormone estrogen may be having on many American bodies of water, as city sewage systems empty waste into them that is contaminated with residue from birth-control pills.

One-third of male Pearl Dace minnows grew eggs in their testes. The entire population of the common Fathead minnow, once numbering in the several thousands, crashed to near zero because the hormone-stoked fish couldn't reproduce."
And it even effects cows.

I think that we don't hear about this issue because it would be inconvenient for all the hyper-feminists who are obsessed with controlling every aspect of their sexuality. They don't seem to understand that controlling nature has repercussions.

Or maybe this is the true litmus test for all the self proclaimed environmentalists out there. Can a person really call themselves an environmentalist when they're pumping poison into the environment on a daily basis? Just a thought.

And one last note: for women who use birth control pills for health reasons I would strongly suggest talking to a knowledgeable doctor about using NFP charting to determine underlying problems for the causes behind problems with reproductive systems. Google NFP, check out the Couple to Couple League or click on the NFP label on the right side of my page for more info.

10 comments:

  1. Yep. That's a real head scratcher there. And in northern California you must know all about whacko environmentalists.

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  2. Also, women whose mothers used the pill are more likely to be overweight and have fertility problems. I will try and find the article for that.

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  3. Very important information! It is most interesting that we've heard very little about this; I am convinced that those who are such strong proponents of "reproductive freedom" don't want this information to get out. (They're likely the same ones still pushing embryonic stem cell research despite the evident successes with adult cells.)

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  4. I go to an organic farm. You have hit the nail on the head with this one. Always makes me chuckle when I hear someone there talking about taking the pill, while buying organic fruit or veggies. It is like chain-smoking, and then going to the gym afterwards.

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  5. Hi Cliff-

    We have a lot of crazies here, but not as many as the famous pot growing county to our West. I spent the first seven years of my life in Humboldt county and it is CRAZY over there.

    Hi Nancy-

    Thanks!

    Hi Marie-

    I think there are definitely a lot of companies out there who have a vested interest in keeping this research quiet!

    Hi Kathreja-

    I hadn't heard about that yet! I would love to see the article if you find it!

    Hi Maria-

    It's so strange! I think there really is such wide spread ignorance on this subject that they don't see how ridiculous it is!

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  6. I find it amazing that the minute a girl complains that she has painful cramps or her cycle is messed up--BOOM! The doc just throws the Pill at her. There are natural ways to deal with these issues, but no doctor will talk about that.

    Excellent post. I completely agree with you--these nutjobs who complain that there might be traces of whatever in their food so they only buy organic blah-blah-blah food don't think twice when shoving chemicals into their bodies.

    I have horrible migraine headaches that cause me not to be able to form words, I go blind for a few minutes, etc. The doc found out about those and told me that if I DID ever ask for the Pill (which I never will) he would NEVER put me on it because I am one of those people that fall under the whole "danger of blood clots, stroke, etc. category."

    Dangerous stuff, man.

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  7. Thanks for posting this. I really liked how you stated this "So what I don't understand is how people can be so concerned with the chemicals and hormones they're putting into their bodies through food, and yet they don't give a second thought to the effects of pumping artificial hormones into their systems through birth control pills."

    I had never thought of it that way before and it makes so much sense!!

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  8. Hi Delena-

    I totally agree! I used to get migraines (although definitely not of the blinding magnitude, the main problem was their frequency at three or four times a month) and my doctor said the same thing. But that just seemed to mean that doctors would suggest the mini-pill, which is progesterin based (I cannot spell this morning!) and only works by causing abortions each time a baby is conceived. It's mind blowing!

    Hi Jennifer-

    I'm glad you enjoyed it! We have such a strange culture where people obsess over the one and ignore the other!

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  9. Great post, Cam!!

    This is so true! People don't really know how these pills hurt us, the environment, and how it kills newly conceived children! I know of a few women who refuse to belive they are abortificaient (sp?), becuase they have convinced themselves it only thickens cervical mucus or stops ovulation!! Plus, ever since they've been on them, theyve been emotional and have more medical problems, and they refuse to belive its because theyre on artificial birth control, and they wont use nfp because they belive their sex life will be messed up!

    (And on top of that, all the women I know like that say theyre pro life)

    And they don't care it hurts animals, because after all, they don't really care its hurting them, or the fact that it causes early abortions.

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