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The Pill turns 50: 'Pardon me if I do not attend the party'
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The "pill" and I are about the same age. The pill turned 50 this year --- meaning I pretty much have spent my entire life in the "age of the pill."
And yet, while 80 percent of women have been on the pill at one time or another in their life, I am among the 20 percent who have never taken it.
When 18 and preparing to be married, I asked my best friend and maid of honor what they used for family planning. The pill, she told me; her husband enthusiastically described it as the "best thing since sliced bread." Having a bit of a feminist streak, I was a little offended about the implication that there was something defective about me as a woman, something this pill would "fix."
I asked her if she had some information on it, and she rummaged and found the package insert. I took it, read it, and my (non-Catholic) husband-to-be and I discussed it.
I told him it struck me as an extreme remedy, since I thought I remembered hearing there were only a few days in the cycle that were fertile anyway, and all we really needed to do to space our pregnancies was figure out when those were. He breathed an audible sigh of relief, as he had been alarmed by what he read in the package insert, and said he was hoping I had come to the same conclusion.
The pill just did not make sense to me, on a gut level. I sensed it was not necessary, or wise, to ingest these chemicals and alter my body so dramatically. Being healthy and young when I married, it just struck me odd that getting married required taking a prescription medication.
And frankly, having a bit of a feminist streak, I was a little offended about the implication that there was something defective about me as a woman, something this pill would "fix." I knew there must be a better way --- and thus began our journey to responsible parenthood.
The wisdom of 'gut instinct'
With 35 years of hindsight, I can now see with more clarity the wisdom of listening to that gut instinct, and have even learned there is a name for it: Natural Law. We can discern truths that lie within us, through our own reason, intellect and instinct.
I certainly do not recall anyone ever explicitly telling me while I was growing up that the pill was not a good idea. Though educated in Catholic elementary schools and high school catechism, and raised in a Catholic family, I have no recollection of the Church teaching on contraception ever being mentioned. But with that same benefit of hindsight, I also know my parents did not themselves contracept, and possibly more importantly, did not unconsciously transmit a contraceptive mentality to their children.
And so, when introduced to birth control in public high school sex education in the early 1970s, and encouraged to use it by my friends and physicians, I can say it just did not resonate with me, though I could not exactly articulate why.
I stumbled about in my first few years of marriage, growing in knowledge of how my body worked, and was excited to eventually find that better way through a Natural Family Planning course. I quickly followed that with training to become an NFP teacher myself, to share what I had learned with others. It was only then that I started to fully understand all the implications of this better way, and to begin to be able to articulate what I knew intuitively was wrong with contraception.
The pill is presented as the solution for everything that ails a woman. From an early age, young women are taught they need not be inconvenienced with monthly periods, and can obliterate them until, and if, they want children some far-off day. What young woman would not be tempted to be free of cramps and inconveniently timed periods - with the added plus of clearer complexions?
'Do they know the risks?'
But at what cost? These young women just assume it must be safe or the doctor or clinic would not recommend it. Do they know their risk of breast cancer is now increased by 44 percent 1,2 and in fact the pill is now labeled a known carcinogen? Do they know they run an increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and cervical cancer, and may affect their fertility and ability to have children when that time comes?
And if these long term consequences are too far off and abstract to concern them, they will soon learn they are trading the inconvenience of menstruation for medication side effects, such as headaches, moodiness and weight gain. And even if a young woman goes on the pill for acne or relief from cramps or heavy periods, how does this affect her self- image at this crucial stage of maturation, and as she begins dating?
Young women are put on the pill in high school under the guise of "medical reasons. At this most vulnerable time of developing their feminine identity, and grappling with romantic feelings for young men, they are prescribed a medication that alters every hormone normal to women, and removes from expressions of sexuality its very meaning, to conceive and bear children. How confusing is that?
And do married couples realize a common consequence of the pill is decreased libido --- or that, on the pill, they may actually be undergoing chemical abortions? Typical low dose hormonal birth control formulations only prevent release of the woman's egg in about 65-75 percent of cycles.3,4 In these cycles, conception may occur, but the newly conceived life cannot implant in the uterine lining, which as a result of the pill is now too thin to support the new life.
Some of the consequences of oral contraceptives are immediate and obvious, like headaches and weight gain. Other consequences are real but remote, like increased risk of the top three health problems which claim women's lives: heart disease, cancer and stroke. But the most insidiously evil consequences are the most invisible, like the abortifacient mechanism of the pill, and the way it has permeated our culture, and altered our view of women, fertility and sex.
'Offered at every turn'
When I was a young woman, the pill was easily available, and offered to me at every turn by my physicians, including my Catholic doctors. But now, it is the norm. It actually has become so normal for women to be on the pill, and so completely separated our concept of babies from sex, that pregnancy is now equated with "not taking the pill," as opposed to "having sex." Young women must become strong and informed advocates for themselves, to escape being on some form of hormonal contraceptive.
One can hardly watch television without hearing beautiful young women gushing over its perceived benefits, while invisible voices meet legal requirements of stating health concerns. Every woman's magazine is filled with glossy ads touting its benefits, with small print filling the back side of the ad with its potential consequences. These ads are expensive, and reveal the profit-driven motives.
Women's natural instincts to be repulsed or offended by the concept of the pill have been drowned out by its widespread cultural acceptance. Women of today grew up in families and a culture permeated by a contraceptive mentality. They see contraceptive drugs and devices in their parents medicine cabinets, hear young parents of child bearing age talk of being "done" having children, are taught in schools that responsibility equals contraception, hear it advertised on TV, know most of their friends are using it, and have it pushed upon them by their trusted healthcare provider --- if not their gynecologist or family doctor, then their dermatologist.
More recently, new concerns about the effect of these hormones on our environment have cometo light, of. Many are outraged over documented feminization of male fish exposed to synthetic estrogens in the water supply, and their heightened risk of disease and premature death. We should be very concerned about these environmental effects.
But I must admit, each time I hear the outcry, I wonder: Why is there not that same outrage over how 50 years of these hormones are impacting women?
Using the pulpit
There was a time when the messages of society and Church were more in harmony, and so perhaps it did not seem necessary to speak often on the issue of contraception, sterilization and abortion. Or perhaps this shyness of the Church in speaking more openly on these issues from the pulpit, and in our schools and formation programs, permitted secular culture to get so lost, and left us women vulnerable to buying what society was selling.
But one thing is clear: We can be silent no more. The Church has never ceased to teach God's design for love and life, and these teachings reflect a beautiful vision that respects the dignity of women, and marriage.
We must give those teachings a voice. Our marriage preparation courses must boldly proclaim God's design for marriage, in all its fullness. But well before then, our young people must hear that they are beautifully and wonderfully made, and that the gift of sexuality is to be treasured and protected, and why contraception distorts who we are, harming not only ourselves, but those we profess to love, and our relationship with God. We must hear these teachings from the pulpit often, to awaken within us our awareness of that Natural Law which will guide us to recognize the truth.
We have a 50-year legacy of the pill to look back on, but little to celebrate. Women deserve better.
NFP in L.A.: Awareness Week in July, info year-round
Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, scheduled July 19-25, is a national educational campaign promoted through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which develops a poster each year as well as basic supportive materials.
It is the individual dioceses however, that offer a variety of educational formats in the local church to focus attention on Natural Family Planning methods and Church teachings which support their use in marriage. In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Office of Family Life coordinates educational programs and activities in English and Spanish at the diocesan, parish and (when requested) school levels.
Among the materials supplied to parishes by the Office of Family Life are CDs on NFP, intended for showing to engaged couples during their marriage preparation process; brochures and booklets including "Natural Family Planning: A Catholic Approach" by Mary Lee Barron; suggested homily notes and intercessions to use during NFP Awareness Week liturgies; and a listing of certified NFP teachers with the specific NFP method each teaches (Sympto-Thermal, Ovulation or Creighton).
Natural Family Planning Awareness Week highlights the anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25) which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, conjugal love and responsible parenthood, as well as the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne (July 26), the parents of the Blessed Mother.
For information, call the Office of Family Life, (213) 637-7250 (Candy Metoyer, English) or (213) 637-7561 (Graciela Villalobos, Spanish), visit www.archdiocese.la/prayer/sacraments/family/nfp/index; or write nfp@usccb.org.
1 Kahlenborn, C. Breast Cancer, its link to Abortion and the Birth Control Pill. 2000 2 Kahlenborn, C. et al. Oral Contraceptive use as a risk factor for pre-menopausal breast cancer: a meta analysis. Mayo Clin Proc. 2006: 81(10):1290-1302 3 Chowdhury V. et al. Escape ovulation in women due to the missing of low dose combination oral contraceptive pills. Contraception. 1980: 22(3):241-247 4 Baerwalk AR, et al. Effects of oral contraceptives administered at defined stages of ovarian follicular development. Fertil Steril. 2006 Jul: 86(1)27-35. Epub2006 Jun. 9. Sheila St. John is the executive director of the California Association of Natural Family Planning. For more information on NFP, call 1-877-33-CANFP or visit www.canfp.org.
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