Broken Rubbers

Pills for pigs

Alex — Thu, 22 May 2008 05:58:01 +0000

What might have been news bizarre elsewhere was a top story on my Houston Chronicle the other day. The wild pig population in Texas is out of control and researchers are looking to oral contraceptives to combat the problem:

The Texas AgriLife Extension Service estimates the hogs cause $50 million in damage each year.

But the answer may be coming from a lab at Texas A&M University, where a team of researchers is testing an oral contraceptive for the hogs and other pests. It may even become applicable for pets like cats and dogs.

Duane Kraemer, a professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology who heads the team at Texas A&M, said ranchers and farmers who hear about his research want to know more, “but development of an oral contraceptive for an animal that people eat and is to be released into the environment is a complex issue, no question about it.”

The contraceptive, called a phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitor and in development for about a year and a half, is now in a capsule form and has been fed to captive pigs at the university’s research facility.

“It does appear to be effective,” Kraemer said, in preventing the females’ eggs from maturing.

“The animals can continue to cycle and breed,” Kraemer said. “Their behaviors are the same, except they don’t get pregnant.”

It’s also important to note that test pigs have gobbled up the pill mixed with Oreos.

Walgreens: 1. CVS: 1.

Alex — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:18:13 +0000

As far as birth control goes, I used to always make an effort to spend my money at Walgreens instead of CVS. CVS keeps their condoms locked up to prevent theft, which also means to embarrass people. I can testify. Walgreens lets their condoms be free and lo, the company hasn’t been run into the ground by thieves. Imagine.

After a conversation about birth control prices with a friend of mine who’s also on Yasmin, I decided to transfer my prescription from Walgreens to CVS. When I refilled my prescription today, I paid 50% of what I paid at Walgreens last month. I don’t know how that could have anything to do with my insurance, but I’m also writing this post before I do any research about this at all. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for Walgreens to mark up prescriptions either, but at least for now, I’m spending money against my conscience. Will research and follow-up soon.

My love for Jenna Bush spills over into my blog

Alex — Sat, 17 May 2008 21:37:37 +0000

Jenna Bush has been in the news and blogs a good amount lately due to her wedding last weekend. A lot of the blogs I read and most of the blogs I avoid have talked about Jenna only to make fun of her, so I just want to come to her defense and point out what a smart, pro-contraception lady she is.

A lot of people still picture Jenna as a chronic underage-drinking party girl, and I don’t think they’re to be blamed. That’s the image that a lot of liberals love because they disagree with her father’s policies and think that means they should make fun of his daughter too. What Jenna has really been up to lately is interning for UNICEF in Latin America and writing books. Her book Ana’s Story is about a 16-year-old HIV-positive mother who is based on a girl Jenna met while working for UNICEF. In the book, Jenna writes that abstinence is great, but that it’s important to use condoms if you do decide to have sex. That makes so much sense coming from her because she’s smart, savvy, and maybe even a little bit progressive. She also surprised what seems like everyone but me the other day when she appeared on Larry King and said she hadn’t decided who to vote for in November.

I’m totally using Jenna’s pro-birth control stance as an excuse to defend her here, but I really do think it’s important that we start divorcing her politics from her father’s because they’re hardly even similar. Jenna does good work and I hope she’ll continue to be a powerful voice for comprehensive sex education.

License to pill pt. 2

Alex — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:00:49 +0000

I’m glad that I used probably the best headline I’ll ever think of on a post that got so much attention. Birth Pangs put together a list of all the pro-choice bloggers that wrote about the American Life League’s The Pill Kills campaign, including this one, and I thought I’d link to all those fine blogs myself. Below the fold you’ll find a pretty comprehensive list of pro-choice resources on The Pill Kills.

Melanie’s Blog of Good Stuff

Ravings of a Semi-Sane Mad Woman

Broken Rubbers

Democratic Underground

What’s good for the goose isn’t always good for the next goose

Alex — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:56:41 +0000

Public Citizen, a public interest non-profit, is petitioning the FDA to ban the Ortho-Evra patch. They go into great detail comparing the patch to the pill, with a couple major complaints:

60% more estrogen on average exposure;
greater variability in estrogen levels;
a possible two-fold increased risk of venous thrombosis (typically, painful blood clots of the leg which can travel to the lungs and cause death);
increased risk of side effects such as breast discomfort, severe menstrual pain, nausea, and vomiting;
a 50% increased likelihood of discontinuation;
no improvement in contraceptive outcomes.

I think on the surface, it looks like Public Citizen brings up a good point that if the efficacy doesn’t increase with the risks, using the patch doesn’t make sense. But it’s definitely true that some women have better results (fewer side effects) with the patch than they do the pill, just like when you compare any hormonal contraceptives. That’s even the case with different oral contraceptive brands. So with that in mind, I think it’s a better idea for Public Citizen to try to raise awareness about the risks involved with different contraceptive options without trying to limit choices.

Take another picture with you click click click click camera

Alex — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:00:07 +0000

I promise that I didn’t start a blog just to link to my friends, but how can I help it when they’re such good photographers? My girl Meredith started a photo blog with pictures she’s taken at concerts. Meredith is a nice girl who shares my well-cultivated appreciation for LOLcats, regular cats, and keeping in touch poorly. Check her out!

License to pill

Alex — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:22:47 +0000

Feministing has a poll up about birth control methods that got a lot of interesting comments, especially about some that are more innovative or long-term like the implant, sterilization, etc.

H/t to another of my A-list blogs, Pandagon, for directing me to The Pill Kills. It’s an online campaign to make birth control illegal because it’s dangerous for women’s health and it hinders the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus (i.e. kills babies). The best estimate I can find for the numbers on breakthrough ovulation and rates of fertilization says that this occurs maybe 1% of the time. A lot of feminists, like in Amanda Marcotte’s post, believe that the real motivation behind things like this is to keep women from controlling their fertility. I think it’s true that in a lot of cases, a scary video and a dramatic list of side effects are a cover for a thoughtless, across-the-board opposition to birth control. I also don’t think the pill is quite so liberating as some feminist writers believe. The control that it gives a woman over her fertility also comes with the burden of birth control being placed entirely on her–remembering to take it every day, paying for it, dealing with the side effects, etc.

I’m not meaning to say that I think the pill is bad or that it’s a tool of oppression or anything like that, and I obviously don’t think it should be illegal, but reading about this campaign just led my thoughts this way. This is just to say that it’s hard to liberate women from every kind of oppression when it comes to birth control, and even though I and most women don’t feel particularly burdened by taking the pill, there is some unfairness to it. Male birth control, anyone?

Menstrual suppression: empowering or dangerous?

Alex — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:42:21 +0000

I don’t remember how my power-browsing got me to The Well-Timed Period today, but I’d be tipping my hat accordingly if I did. I think it’s pretty much common knowledge that women can use birth control pills to skip inconvenient periods. What I didn’t realize is that there are people who advocated doing it all the time, and it seems like a very emotionally driven campaign. NoPeriod.com, a big menstrual suppression site, is a little bit low on facts but really big on horror stories about terrible periods coming at the wrong times. All of the empowering language is weird too and almost anti-feminist, really. It’s not like menstruation is forced upon women to oppress them, and since it’s a natural occurrence, it seems like feminists would be more inclined to embrace their periods as a sign of what a woman’s body is capable of. That’s probably further than I’m willing to go in loving being a girl though. I don’t like my period, but I’m not sure I’d want to run the risk of filling my body with more hormones to get rid of it forever.

This is really different than the controversy over pills like Seasonale and Lybrel. For one, those are FDA-approved. The FDA won’t approve monthly-cycle birth control pills for non-stop use, and there are a lot of risks involved in long-term menstrual suppression. Most of the writing on these risks is about pills like Seasonale and Lybrel, and I wish I could find something good about renegade use of monthly-cycle pills. I guess it’s safe to assume that it’s at least as dangerous as the normal use of other pills.

NoPeriod.com is a decent resource, even though it doesn’t quite bring the facts about menstrual suppression like I want. Their useful period planner says I’ll be on my period on my birthday, so I’m thinking about using the pill to skip it then for just the one month. I’ll report back on that in a month and a half.

On an unrelated note, I got a lot of hits yesterday from people browsing the “safe sex” tag on WordPress. That warms my little heart.

Quick hits

Alex — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:49:56 +0000

A couple things that aren’t big enough for their own posts, but worthwhile and interesting nonetheless:

A man in South Africa bungee jumped using a rope made of condoms. “Latex is latex. But the cord was based on a mathematical formula and although I was 99 per cent sure that it would work, my stomach was in a knot for a month before the jump.” Sounds a lot like having sex.
A pharmaceutical company is working on getting generic Yasmin on the market. Bayer, the company that makes Yasmin, is putting up a fight.
Good post with good links about birth control options and prices. She talks about cost per year where I would be more interested in cost per sexual encounter.

It’s a Newmanium party

Alex — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:21:18 +0000

So as to avoid giving the impression that all male college journalists are idiots, I give you A Newman Scorned. It’s notable that I suggested Newman start a blog about TV before I even met him, and I’m delighted to be called one of the godparents of the most successful three-day-old blog on the internet. I can’t even watch TV when I try to, but I’m impressed so far in post quantity and quality, so check it out.