 |
Looking to leap into something
to help your endo? Well please do
look carefully before you leap. |
“JUST GET PREGNANT and have a
baby!”
That was the exact advice given
to a friend on how to combat her chronic endometriosis ... by her
obstetrician-gynaecologist.
Think I’m kidding?
So you can take pills for a
headache, to combat depression, heck, even to get a boner, but for endo you
have to resort to childbirth?
Okay, so let’s say that does
cure your endo, there’s the the little matter of NOW YOU HAVE A CHILD.
The next real issue with the
good (guffaw) doctor’s advice is that this woman might actually have been trying to get pregnant.
It’s a fact that many women first find out they have endo when they seek
professional medical help with fertility problems. Endometriosis is a major
contributing factor to infertility, affecting some 40% of women who have the
disease. (More about this pressing issue in later posts)
“Advice” like up top would
effectively be: “Fix the problem you came in for by doing the thing that the
problem you have is preventing you from doing.”
MINE OVER MOTHER
It is appalling that with all
the paths blazed by scientific research and discovery a specialist doctor – and
female, no less – would be spouting this utter rot to a patient who has placed
trust in her.
The glaring truth is that there
seems to be a societal conditioning that has problems with a woman committing to, "I am going to take control of my health and well-being." People are so busy still trying to keep us
pregnant (even if shod), they’ll try to pass it off as some kind of quick-fix cure-all for a
perfectly treatable ailment. “You know
pregnancy can prevent cavities.”
Should all we endo-copers rush
to follow that advice, what’s going to be the result? Real question.
The endometriosis- sufferer,
like all people combating a chronic illness, should be allowed to focus on herself,
rather than being told to take on responsibility for another human being.
Aside from which, pregnancy is
no guarantee cure for endo. Ask the millions of mothers around the world whose
interactions with their families are affected by challenges and struggles with
endo.
There is nothing wrong with not
having a baby until you choose. (If you are trying and endo is preventing you,
work to fix your endo and the baby will follow, rather than the other way
around.)
HER STORY VS HISTORY
It is largely myth spurred by
historical bias that insisted women who delay childbearing are at higher risk
for endometriosis. The “career woman’s disease” they called it.
To quote the book Coping With Endometriosis by Robert H.
Phillips, Ph.D and Glenda Motta, R.N.:
“This myth was perpetuated by
uninformed physicians and reinforced by a lack of research.”
Recent studies clearly expose there
is no difference in the occurrence of endo among women who have been pregnant
and those who have not.
Placenta produced hormones
prevent ovulation, and this can reduce or stop the endo progression during pregnancy. Researchers still
conclude that pregnancy offers no
protection against getting the disease.
There are easier methods that can, and do often, offer fortification against
endo. Instead of waiting around with fingers crossed and legs uncrossed (wink,
wink) hoping for a miracle or some’at, why not give some of these tried and
true techniques a go first?
ABC:
Endo will keep you in
the know.
In beauty may you walk
Care to read more about
Trinbago culture than just health approaches, hit the link: Trinbago Come Good
