Holly Grigg-Spall (@hollygriggspall) is a British feminist who last year published a book called Sweetening the Pill: or How We Got Hooked on Hormonal Birth Control. The term “hormonal birth control” includes not only The Pill, but also Depo-Provera and Yasmin/Yaz, the latter of which is the target of lawsuits that blame side effects of the drug for causing nearly two dozen deaths.
It would seem to be just common sense that the long-term use of artificial hormones — for birth control or for anything else — could have harmful side effects. When I was in college, a guy who was into weight-lifting called me over to his dorm room one afternoon and asked me to read the very detailed warning included with the steroids (Dynabol, as I recall) he had somehow obtained on the black market.
These warnings were written in a lot of scientific jargon that my buddy didn’t understand, and he asked me to translate them into plain English. So I was reading along through this lengthy list of potential side effects and reached the phrase “testicular atrophy.”
Oh, hell, no.
Do you see what I mean about common sense? You don’t have to be a research scientist to figure out that if “testicular atrophy” is a potential side effect of a guy injecting himself with synthetic male hormones, maybe it’s not such a good idea for women to be gobbling down a daily dose of synthetic female hormones. Even if it weren’t for my other concerns about the Contraceptive Culture (see “Sex, Science, Nature and ‘Choice’“), I would still be dubious about hormonal contraceptives on the basis of common-sense health issues.
But don’t take my word for it. Let a radical feminist explain:
My own experiences with HBC began in my teens when I began taking it for acne. I remember that once I started taking it, it took me about a month for my over-the-top emotional hormone swings to lessen. . . .
Once my emotions leveled out, I was very good at taking the pill once per day at the same time every day. . . .
I stayed on the pill for a decade at least.
I discovered radical feminism in 2011 and, like so many of us, it changed my life. . . . About that same time I decided to go off the pill. The last straw came when doctors thought I had had a pulmonary embolism, which is a condition made more likely by HBC. A CT scan indicated that it was actually pneumonia, but that was a very scary experience for me. I decided to finish my pack and be done with the pill.
Over the next year as my body detoxed from the pill I developed acne all along my jaw/chinline that hadn’t been there before. Large bumps protruded on my face, which was embarrassing as I was well past adolescence. I also experienced weight gain, which I was told wasn’t a *real* side effect of going off the pill. It was frustrating not to [be] believed when I reported my symptoms.
Think about it: If the Pill is powerful enough to prevent pregnancy and relieve adolescent acne — i.e., to make a woman’s body stop doing what it normally does — what kind of less noticeable changes does it also cause? What are the potentially harmful side effects of using these synthetic hormones on a daily basis for 10 years or more? Holly Grigg-Spall started asking questions about this and guess what the reaction was from the feminist establishment?
Liberal feminists have called her book “dangerous” and use name-calling techniques in attempts to push Griggs-Spall to the margins of feminist discourse. As many of us know, being insulted and told to keep quiet are tools used to keep us away from discovering truths and maintain the status quo. Grigg-Spall is referred to as a “crank” (how feminist!), and potential readers of her book are warned that discussing female biology and women’s experiences is inherently “essentialist”. . . . There are several critiques of this book that have similar tones and I found the pro-pill apologism quite transparent.
My belief is that the pharmaceutical industry is threatened by Griggs-Spall’s book and that discrediting her is a way to maintain the status quo. I also contend that rejecting the pill goes against sex-positive/mainstream feminism, which is why there’s push-back as well from its representatives.
Hmmm. So the radical feminist believes that the arguments of “sex-positive/mainstream feminism” are just coincidentally aligned with the interests of the pharmaceutical industry that promotes hormonal birth control. I’d bet that if a diligent researcher looked closely at the financing behind institutional feminism, they would discover that this alignment is not entirely coincidental, like how “mainstream feminism” sold out to the porn industry in the 1980s. People need to be more skeptical. Not everybody who says they’re your friend is actually your friend.
Scientists could find a direct link with birth control pills and early death, and the feminists would suppress that, because nothing, nothing! is more important than making sex of as little consequence for women as for men.
[…] Update: TOM: Feminist attacked by feminist after telling truth about birth control […]
Sex is of little consequence to men? Surely that’s the whole point of marriage!
I thought feminists were mostly lesbians. Why the need of birth control?
There have been studies which show an increased risk of breast cancer for women who take the pill, especially over a long period of time. (There have been other studies which find no such correlation.)
The fundamental point of feminism, as currently constructed, is assuring that women never, ever face the risk of pregnancy. They must be out in the wider world, rather than mothers, to be truly equal to men.
[…] Yet when I try to explain to “feminists” why I refuse to pump my body full of artificial hormones every single day for twenty years straight, they go crazy. Stacy McCain explains how the same thing happened to Holly Grigg-Spall, who had the temerity to crit…. […]
Why are conservatives so threatened by female sexuality? I’m guessing it has something to do with the Bible, and that whore Eve.
Why are you so threatened by logic, reason and common sense? Oh yeah, because you are a leftist douchebag.
It’s insane that we take a sixteen year old girl and put her on hormones that alter her body’s chemistry and keep her in that state for the next fifteen years.
No, you’ve confused anxiety, and moral panic with logic, reason, and common sense as conservative douchebag’s usually do. There is nothing logical about railing against something as benign as contraception for decades, calling women that use it whores, and assuming that everyone should have your moral outlook on sexuality. I’d also gamble you were(or still are if you’re no post menopausal since the nasty is only sanctioned for those making babies) lousy in the sack. Anyone that sees sexuality as threatening as you do is nine times out of ten a boring, vanilla lay.
Yeah, better she get’s knocked up, and her life is destroyed.
I am all for you and your ilk voluntarily restricting your genes from passing on to future generations. I am willing even to pay for it, just to make it so.
I most certainly did not call women who use birth control whores. That is your baggage Mr. Lefty Douchbaggier.
But I also recognize that some have a moral objection to certain forms of birth control that are abortifacient (causing a miscarriage early in a pregnancy), and I respect their right to opt out.
If you really believe those are the only two options then you’re mentally deficient.
OMG, we wouldn’t want her punished witha baby. Here is another option. She wait at least till she gets out of college and then has kids in a marriage. And if she wants sex before then, well not necessarily go on the pill continuously for ten or fifteen years.
[…] The Other McCain has the skinny. […]
An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers
Being a 16 year old single mom is a punishment. Wait until she at least gets out of college to have sex? LOL! Come back to modern reality. This is not 1955 where men had to beg just to cop a feel. Teens, and young adults are sexually active now, and there’s nothing wrong with that either. I’d rather they take proper precautions like the pill, and not wind up saddled with a child, rather than praying abstinence can counter biological determinism, or pulling out. This is what I’ll never understand about your mentality: you’re against abortion, but teens are mostly likely to have them, and they’re the group you want to keep away from birth control? Oh, right, they just shouldn’t have sex. Well, wake up! They do! It seems that you want them punished for that just like you guys want to see anyone who makes choices you dont agree with punished. It;s who you are.
Anyone that sees sexuality as threatening as you do is nine times out of ten a boring, vanilla lay.
I am going to guess you are fatter, smellier, and have more back hair than I do. Which is saying a lot given I am a Scottish Highland cow. Thanks but no thanks on the offer, the idea of being with you is birth control in itself! It is enough to put me off my feed too.
Yeah, us poor “empty vessels” who think sex can exist outside of marriage, and for fun.
You’re a sanctimonious little twat. Bugger off back to your celibacy.
I have been on the Pill for all of three weeks in my life (medical issue), which I paid for out of pocket, and have never been knocked up.
How do you think that happened?
What would it matter if my “ilk” didn’t pass on our genes? Doesn’t mean conservatives are going to outlive liberals because your ideas are dead, and whether we procreate at large numbers, or not, means nothing.
Better question: why are liberal men so terrified of women’s fertility?
Every drug on earth has side effects, despite our manifest desire to pretend it isn’t so.
The fear of child support payments–it cuts into their recreational weed money.
Yeah, yeah, I know, you hate breeders. Stop huffing the amyl nitrate and get back to us when you are sober.
Were not. It’s just idiotic, and highly irrational to think every sexual act has to be committed for the sake of pro-creation. And it’s a woman’s choice as to when(if ever)she wants children.
The worst lays I ever had were feminists. They just lay there and whine because you’re taking too long. ( I always thought that was a good thing IYKWIM.)
I don’t smoke weed, and that comment speaks volumes about the narrow minded, silly place you’re coming from. Contrary to popular belief, breeding is not a great virtue, nor a big deal, especially when you see all the irresponsible assholes with kids all over the place. I’m all for population control, too.
Let us know when you get the plutonium to get you back from 1955.
What makes you think conservatives are celibate? I have to say, I am not into auto erotic asphyxiation/masturbation and or fecephiliac stuff like you are, but you can do what you want provided it does not hurt me.
If you know anything about math, yes it does. Liberals quit breeding as conservatives keep having wondrous sex and making babies…pretty soon, no more liberals.
Every drug indeed has side effects. If aspirin were coming on the market today one would be hard pressed to persuade the FDA to allow it to be sold over the counter.
So (as is everything in life) it’s a question of weighing risks and benefits. For OCPs, the biggest risks are DVT and (perhaps) a small but measurable risk of cancer later. I respect what Ms. Spall is suggesting, and I don’t doubt that OCPs have these other effects, at least in some women.
Counter-balancing that: for over 90% of women, OCPs taken daily are highly, highly effective birth control.
If you’re informed enough to understand the benefits and risks then it’s your call, as it was for Ms. Spall. If not then you’re like the dude in the dorm room hoping someone smarter is around to read the fine print.
All of this is besides the point of Hobby Lobby: who pays? Given that a high-quality, generic 2nd generation OCP is less than $10 a month cash-delivered price at the local pharmacy, for me that’s an easy call. One gives up a couple lattes, switches to a cheaper call plan for the smartphone, etc.
Indeed, that’s what most rational (non-liberal) women who want highly effective contraception DO. They aren’t waiting for government or their employer, they’re getting a script from the OBGYN and heading to the pharmacy themselves.
Women should use OCPs if they want effective contraception and they’re fully informed of the benefits and risks. That’s as it should be. Given the modest expense, I don’t see why government, or employers, have to pay for it.
They wanted to get it over with because you suck in bed, and have a tiny cock. It was just like “oh, god, would this loser just hurry up, and cum already!”It’s gotta to be drag fucking someone whose idea of good sex is missionary with the lights off, and wont do oral.
Wow, you really know a lot about me! And I didn’t say you were celibate, just vanilla, which is just as bad.
Yeah, all liberals will cease breeding because of birth control, and a lack of Jesus! Go back to your bubble. And again, its not numbers, its ideas, and yours already lost.
It’d be interesting to see correlation, if any, between the alarming rate of breast and ovarian cancer, and the long-term use of HBC.
More inane stereotyping, this time about drugs that were popular in a 1970’s disco. Your age is showing, and this why conservatives lost the culture war. Also shows youre of the limited mentality that claims recreational drug use is synonymous with addiction. Enjoy your bourbon, idiot.
Ack, don’t feed the trolls…
Straw man. I never said that every sexual act is for the sole purpose of procreation. Try addressing the actual issue.
You must be a Common Core student. Math matters.
You are really insulting the bedroom skills of people you’ve never met, let alone “known”.
Shall I speculate as to why you use that particular insult? 🙂
Studies have shown a link between abortion and breast cancer too.
Sad to see so many women who have bought into the lie of feminism. Life is short and to spend it following a lie is a tragedy.
I’m reminded of a Mark Steyn quote: “The future belongs to those who show up for it.”
Say what Syphilis Lips? I can’t understand you with those d!cks in your mouth.
Why don’t you go play somewhere else…you’ve worn out your welcome.
Clearly it’s because you’re lying and are really secretly a slut who is just afraid of your conservative friends disowning you or you’re a prude who refuses to explore your sexuality by being a total slut. /sarc
In all seriousness, those of us who aren’t constantly contemplating the next time we’re going to be doing the horizontal mambo as we do our gender-specific version of the genital monologues know exactly how you avoided getting knocked up. I’m going to go out on a limb and say self-control and responsibility played fairly major parts in it.
Discussing the effects birth control can have on a woman’s body the same way we do with any other prescription drug (and the same way pharmaceutical companies are actually legally required to do in any prescription-drug ads) is seeeeexist. Also, abortions tickle.
No, if you actually think that way, you’re a moron.
You give me too much credit. To me, having sex when you’re not ready to have kids is like driving drunk, doing drugs, or sleeping through classes in university: it’s just risky behaviour that is going to derail your plans for the future and hurt other people in the process.
If “vanilla” is not putting my nipples in a vice…count me guilty of being vanilla.