Nexus - 1002 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

THE MEDICAL ASSAULT ON YOUNG WOMEN ASSAULT THE MEDICAL YOUNG WOMEN Whether to control painful periods or even acne, young women are increasingly being prescribed the contraceptive Pill and antidepressant drugs, despite the cost to their long- term hormonal and mental health. he Berlin Wall of hormone replacement therapy came tumbling down in July 2002 when the most prestigious study ever conducted on HRT found that the steroidal hormones, oestrogen and synthetic progestins caused breast cancer, strokes and blood clots. It's been a downhill slide for HRT (and drug profits) ever since. The real lesson from that study is that, for 40 years, menopausal women were in fact the uninformed guinea pigs trialling dangerous hormonal drugs that made an unprece- dented fortune for drug manufacturers. The world was shocked with the findings from the study, and millions of angry women defected from the HRT ranks. Women and many doctors had been cleverly convinced that menopause was an endocrinopathy—an oestrogen deficiency disease. Women were further advised that they must be saved from nature's inherent design fault—the total decline and disinte- gration of their hormonal health as well as their faculties—with toxic, untested steroid hormones. The folly of medicalising menopausal women has at last been revealed. Unfortunately, the use of untested and dangerous steroidal hormones and other drugs still continues. This time, however, the medical fraternity and pharmaceutical corpora- tions have set their sights on young women. Medicalising our Daughters Being a teenage girl is challenging at the best of times. These days, it seems to be even tougher for both teenagers and their parents. Peer and social pressures, economic concerns, health problems, school work and family tensions all tilt the stress barometer into the dangerous red zone. Skipping meals, eating junk food and going on starvation diets is a way of life for teenagers these days. More than ever, teenagers seem to be burning the candle at both ends. The behaviours and decisions that young women make directly affect their physical and emotional well-being for the short and long term. As a result, their hormonal health is under siege. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), painful periods, irregular or absent periods, ovarian cysts, polycystic ovaries, fibrocystic breast disease (lumpy, painful breasts), endometriosis, hormonal migraines, acne, allergies, fatigue and mood swings are occurring in young women at epidemic rates. Many girls try to ignore their health problems, hoping they will disappear. Others schedule an appointment with their doctors. Odds on, they will leave the office with either a prescription for a drug or some variation of the Pill. Modern science, rather than perceiving hormonal imbalances as aberrations created by the many abuses of modern-day living, has convinced women that the underlying problem is menstruation itself, and that natural reproductive cycles are dangerous and disease-producing and must be medicated. Women are also told that their reproductive system has become the enemy and is the primary cause for all their physical problems and emotional turmoil. The solution: shut it down. The method: steroidal hormones. A long history predates this particular perspective. The venerable Greek fathers of medicine held similar views. Hippocrates posed the question, "What is woman?", and then supplied the answer: "Disease!" He also argued that fermentation in the blood precipitated menstruation, because women lacked the "male ability to dissipate the impurities in the blood gently and sweetly through perspiration". To his way of think- ing, menstrual blood had a "noisome smell". Galen, another famous Greek philoso- pher, believed that menstrual blood was the residue of blood in food, which women, having inferior bodies, were unable to digest.' by Sherrill Sellman © 2002 GetWell International PO Box 690416 Tulsa, OK 74169-0416, USA Email: golight@earthlink.net Website: http://www.ssellman.com NEXUS +17 by Sherrill Sellman © 2002 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2003 www.nexusmagazine.com