Cost-Benefit Anaylsis

WARNING: This post contains girl stuff. Y'know, like discussions of periods and vaginas and things like that. Do not read this if you feel uncomfotable discussing the female body.

This article in the New York Times Magazine today had me worried, indeed. It discussed the health concerns that have been popping up over Yaz, the popular low-dose birth control pill that holds the majority of the oral contraceptive market share.

I don't use Yaz, but a LOT of my friends do, and not always for the reasons you'd think. A few use it for acne, for example, or to regulate their cycles, and of course, it doesn't hurt that it prevents pregnancy, either. But I wonder how many doctors are prescribing birth control without really thinking about the consequences.

What makes me wonder this is my younger sister, who, about a year or two back, went to the gyno for a routine check-up. After the awkward breast exam and the unpleasant pap smear (ewwww, does anyone NOT hate that?), her doctor asked if there was anything unusual about her periods. Well, no, she said, but her periods were kind of heavy, which was annoying.

Her doctor's response? Take some birth control pills.

Now, first of all, as many of you may recall, my sister is a lesbian. She's not really in any serious danger of getting pregnant by accident. Ever. So the contraceptive aspect isn't a boon to her. She's not a zit-covered teen, either— she's a twenty-year-old college student, so it's not like she needs acne help. The only reason her doctor wanted her to begin using synthetic hormones was...well...she had slightly heavy periods.

Now, I used to have heavy periods, so I know how annoying they are. I know how irritating it can be to go through a pack of pads or tampons in two days. But really— is it worth the side effects? Is it worth the risk of cardiovascular disease, however small that risk may be? Does my sister really need to put more pharmaceutical products into her blood stream just because her period is a drag?

She told me what had happened, and asked me, point-blank, what I thought she should do. And I told her that, honestly, I didn't think she should do it. I'm on the pill, and that's because I don't want to have a baby. A baby is a major life disruption, and I'd like to avoid that. Heavy periods are just kind of a pain in the butt.

I also told her about the symptoms I have on birth control: weight fluctuation, violent mood swings, crying spells, pain in my abdomen during ovulation. Then I told her about the side effects I had on the birth control pills to which I had bad reactions: the bloating, the sudden weight gain (and then sudden weight loss), the way my hair fell out, the way I was angry all the time. Is that worth that? Is a lighter period, or no period, worth all the added problems?

I'm wondering whether or not we're becoming an overmedicated country— whether or not we're trying to solve our problems with pills. Now, most drugs are very useful, and can improve and save lives— there's no doubt, for example, that anti-depressants can give people their lives back, and can help treat very serious medical conditions. But I think about the people who responded to an old post of mine (in which I expressed how sad and down I was feeling that day) with the advice to go and get some anti-depressants, and I wonder how many people are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. I've BEEN on antidepressants before— when I was still in the needing-medication phase of my OCD. Every night, I'd take that pill, and then ten minutes later I'd start to feel that stinging, stabbing pain in my stomach— the small-print side effect of Luvox, it turns out, was that it could make your stomach bleed. Who knew?

I don't need the OCD medication, anymore, and if I could get off of the pill, I would. (Actually, I might be off of it for good NOW; I couldn't make an appointment at Planned Parenthood in time to get a new pack for this next month, so we're just going to use alternative forms of contraception until my October appointment, and then hopefully I'll have a brand-new IUD!) I think medication is important in improving the quality of many people's lives, but that it shouldn't be your first choice for treating minor problems.

Who else has had crappy drug side effects?