Great article, which even (especially) I can value as a man. Living like a human is a great mantra. I can also appreciate the point about women in particular needing to feel safe before they can function as they are supposed to. Especially before they can reproduce. (Men, I think, may have a somewhat greater tolerance of danger.) Whereas modern life and culture and "healthcare" seems determined to put women into a permanent state of mental and physiological stress. Getting beyond this paradigm is clearly essential for the continued survival of our civilisation. To put it another way, we need to help women to be and to feel safer overall.
You are SO right TD! Men have a different physiology and we need it functioning well for our physiology to work right too. The men’s testosterone and fertility story is a really important one to be told as well.
So, I was thinking about your post and had an idea: every shift in the ER, I see how important it is for women (and all patients) to advocate for themselves - to ask the right questions and to navigate the situation from an empowered place. And, I see how essential what you called "medicine for humans" is as a way to avoid the ER and to invest in vibrant health.
I would love to interview you in a video or collaborate on a written piece about this: medicine for humans and women's advocacy when seeking medical support. By combining my perspective as an Emergency Medicine Physician with yours, I really think we could offer something incredibly interesting and meaningful.
Is this something you'd be open to? Let me know! Either way, keep up the great writing!
This is interesting and I certainly do not buy into the current western medicine prescriptions. Hormonal birth control has been demonstrably harmful. IVF is equally, or maybe even more destructive and harmful.
But this idea of needing to “live like a human” and “needing to be safe before one can reproduce”… how is that working out for the pregnant homeless women, or drug addicted women. Or I think about our sisters in Christ in Nigeria, or countless other places where they are clearly not safe, either due to persecution or lack of resources. Are they experiencing a fertility crisis? I don’t know the answer to that, I am asking a question.
What I observe in pictures on the news leads me to think, “no, people in extreme stress and lack situations are still conceiving and giving birth to live babies”. So why, in the wealthiest nation in the world, are the women with the most resources struggling? What is different for them? How are women in the wealthiest nation of the world living in “survival mode” more than women in poverty and crisis around the globe?
Wow, Halee, you're really hitting on something important here, that I didn't pull the thread on in my piece. You're right, of course, that women's bodies CAN be crazy-resilient and can cook up babies in the most appalling conditions of stress, overwhelm, addiction, scarcity, etc. And yet women in the wealthiest, empirically safest conditions appear to be the ones struggling with fertility the most. I'm wondering if it's one of two options: 1) a mindset issue, the power of beliefs over our bodies is a vast field to be mined by science still. Are there certain mindsets or beliefs that these women have that other women in other situations don't? and 2) certain environmental factors that wealthier women have that poorer/disadvantaged women don't. Is it certain *types* of stress? Is it hair dye? Tons of plastic? Fragrances that are filled with endocrine disruptors? A sea of electromagnetic radiation from our multi-device, wifi-riddled homes? Is it all the fluorescent lighting and no sunlight that we get in office jobs? Something like that...
I don't know the answer but I really appreciate the question. I do know that when I've worked with women to re-humanize their lives, their bodies very often (not always) resolve infertility (and other health problems). So it's at least the first thing I try to recommend to rule out.
I lean toward the theory of environment for why we are experiencing so much infertility.
I know that all the factors you mentioned can be at play (hair dye, food, fragrances) but the thing I believe is highest factor is the hormonal birth control conveyer belt.
Antidotally speaking, every girl I knew was placed on hormones in high school for one reason or another, and they stayed on these hormones for the better part of a decade, if not longer.
It didn’t solve anyone’s problems of course, it just hid them as they grew and festered. Lara Briden’s book was helpful to me in my 20s trying to sort out my hormonal problems, things that doctors just didn’t care to deal with, like plummeting progesterone causing migraines and vomiting each month.
Even now, dealing with skin problems, the dermatologist asks me why I don’t “just go on birth control” the universal bandaid.
I got off the conveyer belt early, I learned that HBC is abortifacient and wanted nothing more to do with it but what if I hadn’t…
I was in a church in my early 20s where more than half the women were infertile. They all had resources, and community… and I don’t know all their stories…. But I would guess they also had manipulated their hormones like so many others I had known.
Another thing that lingers in my mind as a factor is the ever increasing manipulation of the immune system with vaccinations. I have no evidence… just a speculation that it may not be as harmless (or beneficial) as mainstream medicine has believed.
Thanks for thinking this through with me! Yes I totally agree that BC doesn’t help the underlying problem one bit and the endless festering can lead to lots of issues later. The problem with the BC-as-cause theory is the chicken-egg. We’re put on BC for symptoms of endo or PCOS or whatever they’re calling it at the moment. So the BC isn’t the cause of those symptoms. Are you saying that the cause of those symptoms isn’t the same cause of the infertility? And that BC independently is causing the infertility and that the symptoms it’s suppressing are unrelated to the infertility?
I think that for some they are given BC to mask symptoms, and the endometriosis (or whatever it is) runs wild in the background, and I think for others, like myself they have no menstrual symptoms to speak of but they have acne so they are given BC either as its own treatment or they are also taking accutane.
Other girls were put on BC because their parents assumed promiscuity, other girls obtained BC because they were in fact promiscuous and wanted to hide from their parents.
But the long term results were likely the same for many, regardless of the underlying reason.
I think that many girls were having normal cycles and cramping and not endo but treatment was the same regardless. I don’t know many, less than 5, who actually ever had exploratory procedures to confirm endo… the treatment is so cheap and easy, doctors just assume a complaint of cramps or irregularity equals that.
And that reminds me of all the girls I knew who were told by doctors in high school that they were infertile and then… lo and behold found themselves mysteriously pregnant. They believed they were safe from pregnancy due to that quick and unexplored diagnosis.
All that rambling to say that I think the end result is that birth control causes problems by either causing problems that weren’t there to begin with or by allowing preexisting problems to fester in secret.
I’m remembering another book that I found helpful a decade or more ago, called “Sweetening the Pill”. The author and I have pretty disparate worldviews. She is an advocate for abortion and I find the abortifacient mechanism of HBC to be a top reason for being in the against camp, but she also has provided quite a bit of information on how these little pills harm women.
Yes, right on. It's also true that we're such complex creatures that it could be that some underlying cause of inflammation is causing the symptoms, then the BC exacerbates the problems that lead to infertility at the same time. Meanwhile, someone else gets put on BC for "unrelated" symptoms, which also exacerbates the problems that lead to infertility, even if she had normal periods.
I think birth control plays a big role. I also don’t know that it explains secondary infertility. I know women who have been unable to conceive and I know just as many women who had one baby and then were no longer able to conceive a second time (my experience also). I’ve never taken hormonal birth control and find that my experience is not uncommon!
A poignant, eloquent and timely article. Thanks for the read. I am 31, experiencing secondary infertility and feel empowered to improve the quality of my life by simply living more like a human. I also really appreciate the resource for restorative reproductive medical options 🤍
You’re on the right path!! RRM and endo surgery did help my sister with secondary infertility. But she definitely wasn’t living like a human. We need all the tools in the toolbox. Praying for you, sister!!
Great article, which even (especially) I can value as a man. Living like a human is a great mantra. I can also appreciate the point about women in particular needing to feel safe before they can function as they are supposed to. Especially before they can reproduce. (Men, I think, may have a somewhat greater tolerance of danger.) Whereas modern life and culture and "healthcare" seems determined to put women into a permanent state of mental and physiological stress. Getting beyond this paradigm is clearly essential for the continued survival of our civilisation. To put it another way, we need to help women to be and to feel safer overall.
You are SO right TD! Men have a different physiology and we need it functioning well for our physiology to work right too. The men’s testosterone and fertility story is a really important one to be told as well.
Thanks Katy. I look forward to hearing that story too. We need to embrace our differences, and we need to understand them.
My friend @TiffanyRyder already wrote it! https://open.substack.com/pub/tiffanyryder/p/testosterone-isnt-about-sex-its-about?r=ov0mx&utm_medium=ios
Many thanks! I'll take a look.
Such a powerful and personal reflection on fertility, self-advocacy in medicine, and embracing life. Thank you for writing this, Katy
thank you so much Brian!! (PS I love how my auto-correct tried to name you Brain. That's a great superpower!)
Haha that is funny!
So, I was thinking about your post and had an idea: every shift in the ER, I see how important it is for women (and all patients) to advocate for themselves - to ask the right questions and to navigate the situation from an empowered place. And, I see how essential what you called "medicine for humans" is as a way to avoid the ER and to invest in vibrant health.
I would love to interview you in a video or collaborate on a written piece about this: medicine for humans and women's advocacy when seeking medical support. By combining my perspective as an Emergency Medicine Physician with yours, I really think we could offer something incredibly interesting and meaningful.
Is this something you'd be open to? Let me know! Either way, keep up the great writing!
Thanks so much for the outreach. Would love to do something on this topic with you. Will DM you.
This is interesting and I certainly do not buy into the current western medicine prescriptions. Hormonal birth control has been demonstrably harmful. IVF is equally, or maybe even more destructive and harmful.
But this idea of needing to “live like a human” and “needing to be safe before one can reproduce”… how is that working out for the pregnant homeless women, or drug addicted women. Or I think about our sisters in Christ in Nigeria, or countless other places where they are clearly not safe, either due to persecution or lack of resources. Are they experiencing a fertility crisis? I don’t know the answer to that, I am asking a question.
What I observe in pictures on the news leads me to think, “no, people in extreme stress and lack situations are still conceiving and giving birth to live babies”. So why, in the wealthiest nation in the world, are the women with the most resources struggling? What is different for them? How are women in the wealthiest nation of the world living in “survival mode” more than women in poverty and crisis around the globe?
Wow, Halee, you're really hitting on something important here, that I didn't pull the thread on in my piece. You're right, of course, that women's bodies CAN be crazy-resilient and can cook up babies in the most appalling conditions of stress, overwhelm, addiction, scarcity, etc. And yet women in the wealthiest, empirically safest conditions appear to be the ones struggling with fertility the most. I'm wondering if it's one of two options: 1) a mindset issue, the power of beliefs over our bodies is a vast field to be mined by science still. Are there certain mindsets or beliefs that these women have that other women in other situations don't? and 2) certain environmental factors that wealthier women have that poorer/disadvantaged women don't. Is it certain *types* of stress? Is it hair dye? Tons of plastic? Fragrances that are filled with endocrine disruptors? A sea of electromagnetic radiation from our multi-device, wifi-riddled homes? Is it all the fluorescent lighting and no sunlight that we get in office jobs? Something like that...
I don't know the answer but I really appreciate the question. I do know that when I've worked with women to re-humanize their lives, their bodies very often (not always) resolve infertility (and other health problems). So it's at least the first thing I try to recommend to rule out.
I appreciate the dialog. Truly.
I lean toward the theory of environment for why we are experiencing so much infertility.
I know that all the factors you mentioned can be at play (hair dye, food, fragrances) but the thing I believe is highest factor is the hormonal birth control conveyer belt.
Antidotally speaking, every girl I knew was placed on hormones in high school for one reason or another, and they stayed on these hormones for the better part of a decade, if not longer.
It didn’t solve anyone’s problems of course, it just hid them as they grew and festered. Lara Briden’s book was helpful to me in my 20s trying to sort out my hormonal problems, things that doctors just didn’t care to deal with, like plummeting progesterone causing migraines and vomiting each month.
Even now, dealing with skin problems, the dermatologist asks me why I don’t “just go on birth control” the universal bandaid.
I got off the conveyer belt early, I learned that HBC is abortifacient and wanted nothing more to do with it but what if I hadn’t…
I was in a church in my early 20s where more than half the women were infertile. They all had resources, and community… and I don’t know all their stories…. But I would guess they also had manipulated their hormones like so many others I had known.
Another thing that lingers in my mind as a factor is the ever increasing manipulation of the immune system with vaccinations. I have no evidence… just a speculation that it may not be as harmless (or beneficial) as mainstream medicine has believed.
Thanks for thinking this through with me! Yes I totally agree that BC doesn’t help the underlying problem one bit and the endless festering can lead to lots of issues later. The problem with the BC-as-cause theory is the chicken-egg. We’re put on BC for symptoms of endo or PCOS or whatever they’re calling it at the moment. So the BC isn’t the cause of those symptoms. Are you saying that the cause of those symptoms isn’t the same cause of the infertility? And that BC independently is causing the infertility and that the symptoms it’s suppressing are unrelated to the infertility?
I think that for some they are given BC to mask symptoms, and the endometriosis (or whatever it is) runs wild in the background, and I think for others, like myself they have no menstrual symptoms to speak of but they have acne so they are given BC either as its own treatment or they are also taking accutane.
Other girls were put on BC because their parents assumed promiscuity, other girls obtained BC because they were in fact promiscuous and wanted to hide from their parents.
But the long term results were likely the same for many, regardless of the underlying reason.
I think that many girls were having normal cycles and cramping and not endo but treatment was the same regardless. I don’t know many, less than 5, who actually ever had exploratory procedures to confirm endo… the treatment is so cheap and easy, doctors just assume a complaint of cramps or irregularity equals that.
And that reminds me of all the girls I knew who were told by doctors in high school that they were infertile and then… lo and behold found themselves mysteriously pregnant. They believed they were safe from pregnancy due to that quick and unexplored diagnosis.
All that rambling to say that I think the end result is that birth control causes problems by either causing problems that weren’t there to begin with or by allowing preexisting problems to fester in secret.
I’m remembering another book that I found helpful a decade or more ago, called “Sweetening the Pill”. The author and I have pretty disparate worldviews. She is an advocate for abortion and I find the abortifacient mechanism of HBC to be a top reason for being in the against camp, but she also has provided quite a bit of information on how these little pills harm women.
Yes, right on. It's also true that we're such complex creatures that it could be that some underlying cause of inflammation is causing the symptoms, then the BC exacerbates the problems that lead to infertility at the same time. Meanwhile, someone else gets put on BC for "unrelated" symptoms, which also exacerbates the problems that lead to infertility, even if she had normal periods.
I'm with you on the abortifacient issue. I wrote about this problem a decade ago here: https://thefederalist.com/2015/01/05/ladies-is-birth-control-the-mother-of-all-medical-malpractice/
And here: https://thefederalist.com/2015/01/22/miscarriage-of-justice-is-big-pharma-breaking-your-uterus/
Thanks for the thoughtful exchange!
Thank you Katy. I appreciate your work.
I think birth control plays a big role. I also don’t know that it explains secondary infertility. I know women who have been unable to conceive and I know just as many women who had one baby and then were no longer able to conceive a second time (my experience also). I’ve never taken hormonal birth control and find that my experience is not uncommon!
Zoe, to your point, I think that our bodies are quite complex and there’s rarely just one thing going on.
A poignant, eloquent and timely article. Thanks for the read. I am 31, experiencing secondary infertility and feel empowered to improve the quality of my life by simply living more like a human. I also really appreciate the resource for restorative reproductive medical options 🤍
You’re on the right path!! RRM and endo surgery did help my sister with secondary infertility. But she definitely wasn’t living like a human. We need all the tools in the toolbox. Praying for you, sister!!
You should write Cliff Notes professionally!! Thanks so much for the feedback, you nailed it!