Birth Control and Women's Health Issues: Should this have been Obama's Priority?

The entire debacle over the birth control issue has taken valuable time away from other, more important discussions, like the economy, people out of work, the possibility of Iran having nuclear weapons, and the real issues affecting the health of women. Frankly, I am shocked that anyone, including our President, but more importantly his own HHS secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, would think for one second that contraception is the issue that should receive this first priority, if any attention whatsoever. The Mayo Clinic, a respected medical research, diagnostic and treatment hospital, has outlined the top seven health issues affecting women today [1]. Contraceptives availability doesn't even make this short list. What does make the short list are the things that are actually killing women today: 1) heart disease; 2) cancer; 3) stroke; 4) chronic lower respiratory issues; 5) Alzheimers; 6) accidents; and 7) diabetes. For the record, this list came out in 2011 and was reported in the news by MSNBC so, I would assume the President and his appointees bothered to watch these reports? Well maybe not. After all, we're too busy ensuring women have access to the pill and other things, right? But wait! Are contraceptives good for women? If they're so important that this administration feels contraceptives take precedence over coronary heart disease [2] then shouldn't these contraceptives be good for women? If you listen to the ads for birth control pills and devices, the one thing you'll note is that there's always a caveat emptor attached. Yes, all pharmaceutical companies are now telling people the potential risks of medications, but the list of potential side-effects seems toxic: migraines increased blood pressure gall bladder disease decrease in bone density yeast overgrowth (candida) increasing risk of blood clots heart attack stroke [3]

Usually people take medications when the benefits outweigh the risks. But we're not talking about Digoxin for cardiac patients. We're talking about a drug which, in most cases, is an elective medicine. It's not something taken to keep a person alive or substantially improve an acquired disease. We're talking about something a woman ingests into her body, adding to her risk for

some of the various diseases which are killing women now more than ever, and for what? So she can safely have nookie? While the nation focused on, the liberals touted, and the President consoled one Sandra Fluke (and it seems no fluke that she just so happened to chose a University where controversy would be created over this issue) over statements made by one Rush Limbaugh, another woman wasn't able to testify about birth control pills and their availability and usefulness. That woman was Nicole McKeon. In 2007, Nicole McKeon, age 31, got up for work as usual and suddenly lost total control of the left side of her body. She realized she was having a massive stroke. A healthy woman, McKeon was rushed to the hospital but the left side of her brain began to hemorrhage as well and she died from the massive stroke. The doctors had tried valiantly to save her, to no avail. What was her risk factor for this stroke? According to the doctors her one and only risk factor was the use of a new generation birth control pill called Yasmin. [4] If you watch television long enough, you'll see attorney's offering to represent victims of these birth control pills. Citizens' watch groups, especially those monitoring contraception-related medicines, have long been sounding the warning alarm. But not even the FDA is listening. In 2011 the FDA refused Sidney Wolfe, head of the watchdog group, PRIVATE CITIZEN, a seat at the table to review the dangers of new generation birth control pills, including the medication YAZ. [5] A migraine sufferers support organization has also called attention to dangers surrounding the Johnson & Johnson patch birth control called Ortho-Evra because of its direct link to migraine headaches. [6] Ms. Fluke's testimony- one designed to evoke sympathy but not address the actual issue of women in general who use birth control, needs some examination as well. First of all, Ms. Fluke wasn't the victim. An unnamed friend was. Secondly, the friend allegedly was paying $100.00 out of pocket for her pills, which were prescribed for POS or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. One has to wonder why she wasn't getting her pills via Planned Parenthood or some other sympathetic provider of birth control. In 2010, U.S. News did a story about the cost of birth control pills. The report, citing none less than Planned Parenthood itself, stated: According to Planned Parenthood, birth control pills cost between $15 to $50 a month, depending on health insurance coverage and type of pill. On an annual basis, that means the Pill costs between $160 to $600. [7] Someone was either ripping Ms. Fluke's friend off, or someone was playing the hyperbole game. This same report also noted that abstinence, which is totally free,

was another birth control option. Gee, imagine! According to the Mayo clinic website, POS is not uncommon and is not usually lifethreatening to women. Complications come along later which can lead to some lifethreatening diseases, but POS can be detected and treated early. It isn't the POS that hurts the women, it's the affects of the POS, such as weight gain, which can lead to obesity and eventually type 2 diabetes or heart disease. Ironically the same problems which show up in women who use the pill for birth control! Let's look at some other elements of Ms. Fluke's testimony. Ms. Fluke, after making it clear that she holds a specific angst towards religiousbased colleges, states that it can cost over $3,000.00 during law school for a woman to pay for her contraception. This sounds like a lot of money until one realizes that law school can last between 5-7 years, and longer if you include the time before one goes to law school, or the time during which one obtains the obligatory Bachelors' degree. All total? Eleven years of education (give or take a year or two). Let's take Planned Parenthood's own information. At $160.00 per year, over 11 years, the grand total is $2,816.00. Close enough. But that's less than $14.00 per month. College students spend more at Starbucks in one week than that! And even if the student is Ramen-noodle dirt poor, Planned Parenthood could easily afford to cover the cost. But wait! The student could find themselves in a bind even with Planned Parenthood as well. You see, the poor student would have to cough up $155.00 to even be seen before they could get their pills. Yes, that covers an exam and consultation. But gee, guys! If the kid fork over $155.00 for a one-time meeting, couldn't they spend a little more and get their birth control for an entire year? Something simply isn't adding up here. Ms. Fluke did make an interesting observation: ...when you let university administrators or other employers, other than women and their doctors, dictate whose medical needs are legitimate and whose are not, a woman's health takes a backseat to bureaucracy focused on policing her body... Isn't that what Obamacare is proposing to do to the rest of us, Ms. Fluke? Do you want to force religious institutions to provide for your needs as if they were the federal government medical system forced on the general population? According to Ms. Fluke's story, the insurance company denied her friend with contraception because it felt she really wanted it to prevent pregnancy and not for the condition (this denial allegedly occurred in spite of evidence supporting a doctors' diagnosis).

She's gay, Ms. Fluke told the audience. So clearly, polycystic ovarian syndrome was a much more urgent concern than an accidental pregnancy for her. How would the insurance company know she's a lesbian? That's not usually something one needs to put on the insurance form. This is starting to sound fictional. The story concludes with the friend developing a cyst the size of a tennis ball. According to Ms. Fluke, her friend was sitting in a doctors office, trying to cope with the consequences of it all, while Ms. Fluke was supposed to be giving her testimony. Ms. Fluke knew she wouldn't be testifying, why didn't she go sit with her friend? And who was that masked lesbian? Why didn't she testify? Anyway, on the medical end, there are potholes in the story. To begin with, POCS is easily diagnosed and may even manifest itself shortly after a girl begins menses. But even if it develops later on, medical experts say the best way to prevent the condition from becoming a problem is to have a regular pelvic exam. Since the friend likely had to get such an exam before she could be placed on the birth control pill, the odds are that a doctor would have noticed a cyst growing to the size of a tennis ball. Unless she stopped getting her exams as well. Secondly, there's no hard and fast rule about treatment. Birth control pills are not the only resolution. In fact, birth control pills are only prescribed when the cyst is already functional and quite large in size. The idea is to knock back some of the male hormone and help prevent the growth of facial hair, onset acne, etc. Only in 4-10% of women is there a possibility of a serious issue arising. Many women, both with and without a diagnosis of POCS have cysts. Usually these rupture and the only medication required may be for pain. Ms. Fluke makes it sound like her friend was at deaths' door at any moment. Now the lament is that her friend, who had one ovary removed, is going through early menopause. Removal of an affected ovary is not a cause for early menopause. POCS, on the other hand, is. But her friends' POCS was cured by the surgery, wasn't it? This medical catastrophe sounds more like a manufactured medical fairytale. This may sound heartless, but there's just something not quite right about this entire thing. From Ms. Fluke decision to attend a religiously run university (when there are so many others in the D.C. area to chose from), all the way to the anonymous lesbian friend, there's just something rather odd about this vignette. Ms. Fluke then went on to conclude the sad tale: ...if my body indeed does enter early menopause, no fertility specialist in the world

will be able to help me have my own children. I'll have no choice at giving my mother her desperately desired grandchildren... Earlier Fluke stated that her friend was denied coverage of her birth control pills because the insurance determined she was using them to avoid pregnancy. To support her claim of unfairness, Fluke pointed out that her friend was gay and, therefore, couldn't possibly be wanting the pills to avoid pregnancy. Wouldn't being a lesbian also negate her having children anyway? Now she's all about making babies? The final part of the saga is her criticism of those who ask the sensible question: What did you expect when you enrolled in a Catholic university? I would suggest that she knew, before she enrolled, that she wasn't going to get the pill. How can I say that? Well, aside from Georgetown U. being a Jesuit facility, the premier health coverage plan is online. And guess what? It isn't only the sleep around gals who take it in the shorts. Not covered are: acupuncture; allergy related testing and treatments; biofeedback; adult circumcision; corn, bunion and callous removal; elective surgeries including abortion; hearing exams (for other than children); liposuction; organ transplants (talk about a REAL need!) and the list goes on and on (in fact, I wondered what they DID cover!) But it clearly says on there that contraception is not covered. So, if she knew this, why did she opt to attend there? To challenge a religious-based institutions' right to determine coverage according to their religious faith. And there's the bottom line. In keeping with the left's usual methodology of trying to tie-dye the fabric of American society, we see another manufactured medical emergency for American womanhood. Like the coat hanger tales and the using of Norma Corvey to push through Roe v. Wade, we now have the vanishing lesbian friend via her spokesperson, Ms. Fluke, testifying that without birth control given to them at the expense of murdering the Establishment Clause, women would be dropping like flies. If President Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, and even Ms. Fluke really care about the health of women, how about addressing the real issues instead of manufacturing one in order to bully a religious institution? Maybe then, people like me might believe you're genuine. Until then, people like me just see more of the same leftist hyperbole.
[1] http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/womens-health/WO00014 [2] Maybe it's about an ageist attitude, but Sebelius is no spring chicken herself, and she should be concerned when the data shows that 8 million American women have heart disease. Of that number, 435,000 have had a heart attack, 83,000 of whom are under age 65. Under age 50, a woman having a heart attack is twice as likely to die than her male counterpart. But lets worry about fertility, after all, we all know that pregnancy kills, right? [3] http://www.womensheart.org/content/heartdisease/heart_disease_facts.asp [4] http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/health&id=5303491 Nicole wasn't the only woman to develop a lifethreatening clot from using birth control pills. It's estimated that 15-30 out of every 100,000 women using oral

contraceptives will develop a dangerous clot. These numbers may seem low, unless it happens to you. [5] http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2011/12/fda_disqualifies_public_citize.html [6] http://migraine-headaches-information.com/blog/?p=20 [7] http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2010/08/27/the-real-cost-of-birth-control-