First things first, I have been away in sunny California for a "career development institute" and so have been away from blog world. I promise to catch up on all of you as soon as I can!
Things on my mind:
1. This New York Times article on a new BCP that would completely eliminate periods. It freaks me the hell out, personally. To me, there is something so normal and natural and womanly about having periods. Having periods is powerful. Eliminating periods feels like a taking away of female power, like it is some creation by men* to keep women down, disguised in the talk of 'making our lives easier'. Clearly, this article has me on my feminist soapbox. But really, if you look at the history of female menstruation, men have been threatened by it for ages (e.g. biblical statements that women who were menstruating were 'ritually unclean'). A pill that stops periods completely takes away the threat. Voila. Your thoughts on this?
2. 8dpo, no symptoms that can't be explained by the progesterone suppositories. Lots of dreams, sore nips, slightly crampy. Feeling like this is not happening this month. Which is completely expected - after all, who really gets lucky on the first Clomid round? But, still, would be nice (understatement of the year).
3. Realized at the career institute that in order to succeed in this business of academia, I need to start working MUCH harder. There was a session on life/work balance. The woman chairing the session said that while she would have liked to have more, she only had one kid so that she could advance in her career. "And now I'm an associate professor!". Hold up. What? That is considered work/life balance?? There has got to be another way. On the other hand, she had this one kid at age 41, so methinks there was a little more going on with not having number 2 than just the career. Would have been nice if she had been honest about that.
Anyway, I'll catch up on all of you this weekend! Hope you're doing well and that spring has finally found you. It's sunny here, in the 70s this weekend. Niiiice.
* I'm sure there are female scientists who are working on this and who believe in it, believe they are helping womenkind. But why is menstruation an illness that needs to be treated? To me, it's the very definition of womanhood (hence my feelings of being less womanly for not bleeding on my own). If I had it to do over, I'm not sure that I would have ever gone on the Pill. If I hadn't, I would have known about the infertility and the PCOS a lot sooner. And I would have been in touch with my body a lot sooner and understood how my insides worked (or in my case, didn't work).
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Still searching the skies for that stork to appear with my baby dangling precariously from its beak.
About Me
- carrie
- an adorable girl (30) and her adorable husband (33). and the adorable cats (boo and nelly). but no adorable baby. and therein lies the rub. Now pregnant with a baby girl, due Jan 08!
Blogs I stalk
- A little pregnant
- All I Need Is One Good Egg
- Baby Blues
- Blonde Ambitions
- Blurb This!
- Dinner Table Talk... I Think Not
- Disenchanted with Reality
- Dooce
- Exile in Kidville
- Expecting a Baby, Someday
- Finding Equipoise
- For the Flavor
- Herveryown
- Infertile Fantasies
- It Could Take 3 Months
- Journeywoman
- Just Crazy Enough to Try
- Maybe Baby
- Me the Bumblebee
- Money Makes the Sperm...
- My Dear Watson
- My Perky Ovaries
- Olivia Drab
- Purgatory
- Serenity Now!
- Square peg, round whole
- Still Trying After All Those Pills
- Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters
- The Island
- The Oneliner
- The Secret Garden
- The Smarshy Files
- The Unlucky 20 Percent
- This, That,and the Mother Thing
4 comments:
i'm w/ you on the no periods pills. even those ones that give you only quarterly periods seem like too much mucking around with our fragiles cycles. we go too far for convenience i think, and this appeals to women who are so far removed from thinking about their fertility that may one day be so precious to them.
I know chuffin' loaaaadss of women who its worked for first time. My hubby used to tell me, "Just take Clomid!!" because everyone he knew that had problems took it and it worked first time. Holding thumbs it works first time for you too!!!
i don't know that i agree with you about the BCPs. being that the period you have when you're on the pill isn't a real period in the first place, i don't see a big problem with this. if you're already on the pill, the periods you do have are completely manufactured by the pill itself (product of a male-centered pharma industry), so for me that takes the power right out of it anyway. also, i read a story many many years ago in the new yorker that forever changed the way i feel about my period. john rock, the mastermind behind the pill, knew that it wasn't medically necessary for women to ovulate/bleed every month, but designed the pill with the placebo week to simulate a "normal" menstrual period anyway in order to please the church. the pill has always been able to stop your period for as long as you wish for it to, as long as you skipped the placebo week and continued with the medication. i won't go on and on, but it's a very interesting article. it's online too: http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_03_10_a_rock.htm
i can see the quandry of eliminating them for only because it's a "drag" to have your period, no need to medicalize what is supposedly a natural process, etc. but it could be really useful to some women. a friend of mine has severe endometriosis and would love to never have a period because hers are so very painful. a pill like this could be a boon to her. personally i don't think i would take it, but might consider it someday. my periods have never felt normal or natural. unless i was on the pill, they were never regular in the first place and always a source of anxiety. now they are still a source of anxiety and every one is a sign of failure to me....i'm waaaay off of your point by now, but i guess period talk does that to me. . . :)
keeping my fingers crossed for you that clomid is all you need and that this cycle is the one!
I think hind sight is 20/20 and if I had known then what I know now I would not have ever taken bcp. I have PCOS and birth control masks the symptoms. My liver was being compromised by the PCOS and if I had waited I would be waiting for a liver transplant now instead of waiting to ovulate. My question is this, For all those women out there considering this new pill, How will you know if you have a problem? and about the risks? You can get cancer from having prolonged endometrium build up. That stuff doesn't just go away! Any way, that's my 3 cents worth. Glad, the Clomid worked for you. I will be starting my first Clomid cycle in June.
-Anla
http://butterflyanla6318.blogspot.com/
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