I guess this is why I have a blog. So that when I torment myself post media interview, I can indeed get “the last word.” If that matters.
I just did an interview with Ed Hand at AM 1310 and Kimberly Taylor of the Radical Handmaids.
We discussed the three doctors who won’t prescribe the birth control pill here in Ottawa. I said they were doing so for medical reasons. I spoke of the significant and consequential “side effects” like death, of the Pill.
Kimberly, quite rightly, said that most drugs have repercussions and we take them anyway.
I agree.
Here’s the point I wrote down ahead of time and did not make.
The repercussions must be in keeping with the illness. Death, or deep vein thrombosis or other repercussions are warranted where the disease you are eradicating is worse.
Example: It is worthwhile to do chemotherapy to kill cancer. Chemotherapy is no walk in the park, but if you don’t do it, you may die. The cancer may kill you. So it is warranted to go through chemotherapy, for that reason.
The Pill has killed women in Canada–for what? For their fertility. For something that is natural and normal and most importantly, could have been controlled in a different, non-invasive way. If we took the time to bother examining it more closely.
I don’t know about you, but if my sister, niece, daughter or friend dies in “treatment” I want to know that it was in cause of something greater.
Women are NOT being told that in order to “treat” the “disease” of their fertility, there are x, y, z side effects, sometimes severe. They are not being given the options they should be.
I don’t want to throw words like misogyny around. But where women die in “treating” something that is not a disease, well, I think that word could apply.
Since I can’t go back and say this on air, I write it down here. It will help quell the post-media interview blues.
by 
Don’t beat yourself up Andrea. I am grateful that you stand up and speak on this issue, when so many don’t have the courage. And I am sure you will have another opportunity to say publicly what you wrote here.
I second Julie’s comments! Thank you, Andrea, for speaking up on this topic as much as you do.
I was thinking about this earlier today. I don’t know if I’ve told this story before or not, but I’ll tell it anyway.
My mum, (like many grandmas, I’m sure) has fairly serious arthritis. She was taking Vioxx for a long time, and was really, really ticked off when it was taken off the market. (It was taken off the market because it increased the risk of heart attacks.) She figured that the increased risk of a heart attack was worth it, if she could be pain-free and more mobile.
Now, I don’t know how the safety of Vioxx compares with that of the Pill. I suspect the Pill is safer, for the simple reason that it is still on the market. But there is a point where the risks of a drug outweigh its benefits, and we should all have that information available to us in order to weigh the risks and benefits for ourselves.
Good point, Melissa and thanks Julie and Mary. The post-media blues have entirely dissipated. I do always get them, but they always go away too. Thanks for your encouragement.
I guess I heard there was some ‘risk’ in getting the flue shot. Something like one in a million for the particular and potentially terminal neurological disease I got that ‘may’ have been due to the flu shot. I don’t get the flu shot any more.