Good News!

I saw a new OBGYN today. She's new at the practice that I've been going to for about 3 years now. I needed to discuss birth control options with her. My dermatologist put me on antibiotics for a couple of months, and of course, that "may decrease the effectiveness of the pill", and I'm not using condoms for the whole 5 or 6 months I'm taking antibiotics, because then what'ss the point of being on the pill, right?

So I talked to her about different options. Implanon - no. Most women who try it have a lot of breakthrough bleeding, even after several months, so then end up having it removed and going to another method. Well, who wants to deal with that? Nobody.

Mirena - it's an IUD that also uses hormones to prevent pregnancy. For women who have not had kids, the insertion can be more painful, and there is a risk (although not a huge one) that you could expel your uterus. Yes, that's right. Your entire fucking uterus. I basically said "Okay, next option?"

Nuva Ring - this one I wasn't sure about. I thought I would worry about whether or not it was in right, etc. My doctor said there is no one "right way". You can feel to check and make sure it's still in. If it's in, as long as it's not uncomfortable, you're good. You remove it every 21 days to have your period. I asked if there was a risk of it coming out during sex. She said it's uncommon, but if it does happen, you rinse it off and put it back in. It can be removed for up to 3 hours without risk of pregnancy.

Wow, well, that sounds...really good! And easy! She explained how to put one in, then left me alone to try it. I happened to be at the end of my period now, so after putting it in and taking it out (to make sure I could), I put it back in.

I don't feel anything at all. I forgot it's there. So for the next couple of months (or until I plan out the rest of my vacation time for the year) it's Nuva Ring.

I did tell her that I don't want kids, and that I have known that for about 4 years now, and am very comfortable with it and sure about it. I'm 32, and the other doctors at that practice didn't want to do a tubal because I'm not married and don't have kids, and were afraid that I might change my mind later. Heh.

She didn't bat an eyelash, and said "At 32 you pretty much know your own mind." We talked about it a bit, and she asked some questions: how does my boyfriend feel? Would he consider having a vasectomy, since it's simpler and less invasive than a tubal? What if we broke up and I met someone who wanted kids? I said "But I still wouldn't want kids, so I wouldn't be with someone who wanted kids." She said take about six months or so to think about it, since it's irreversible, and then if after that, I still wanted to do it, she would do it!

I Heart Tina Fey

And this is why. I think I'm going to have a t-shirt made that says "Bitch is the new black!"

For Anyone Who Wonders Why Feminism is Still Necessary...

I'll try not to gag or barf as I type this:

• female golfer not allowed to compete in tournament at her own country club; club officials called HER FATHER, not her, to tell him of the decision. And this is in Massachusettes, the state that allows gay marriage!
  
• Ithaca College in NY considers drug use by RAs to be grounds for immediate dismissal, and did fire an RA for marijuana use, but allowed an RA who admitted to raping a student to keep his job.
  
• A private school asks a female referee to leave a game because they do not believe that women should be in a position of authority over boys. Props to her colleague, a male ref who also walked off the field with her.
  
• And it's not enough that some doctors and pharmacists HAVE the right to deny women contraceptives, but now, some doctors in Canada are refusing to do PAP tests because of "religious objections". WTF??? Then don't become an OBGYN! Gee, I wonder if they'd have regligious objections to treating a man with erectile dysfunction? Somehow I think not.

All I can say is...don't let anyone tell you that the struggle for equality is over, because that's bullshit. I need a drink.

Missouri wants PlanB Classified as Abortion Inducing

This is why all adults need to keep an eye on this stuff. Birth control matters. Reproductive health matters. If we don't pay attention, each state, one by one, is going to try shit like this.

OK, let me see if I have this straight. Based on what I have always read, heard and understood, the medical community considers pregnancy to begin when a fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining. There are plenty of times when eggs are fertilized, but do not implant in the uterine lining, and pass out of the woman's body without a pregnancy ever developing. That just happens naturally. That is not abortion.

In college I did a research paper on the difference with which pregnancy is described in regard to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and abortion. Women who undergo IVF have several fertilized eggs placed in the uterus to increase chances that at least one of those fertilized eggs will become implanted in the uterine lining. What blows me away is that right on the FAQ page of most sites for places which provide IVF, you'll find something similar to this:

What happens to any extra pre-embryos?
A: A maximum of four pre-embryos will be transferred to the uterus for possible implantation. Patients will have several other options regarding the disposition of the remaining pre-embryos. One option is to freeze pre-embryos for your later use. Other options are to donate or simply dispose of them. Excess pre-embryos, if any, belong to you, and you will determine what is to be done.

So if you do get pregnant and you have any leftover fertilized eggs, you can just toss those out or freeze them for later. It's totally up to the couple, since they "own" the eggs.

Uh, excuse me? How is it that couples who have "extra" fertilized eggs laying around, and just leave them in a freezer or toss them out and nobody gets all up in arms about it or tries to pass laws against it?

Not only that, but women who have 3 or 4 embryos implant can decide to have "multifetal pregnancy reduction", or "selective termination". Basically, abort some of the ebryos. Nobody gets upset about that either. That's okay, as long as you are having SOME babies.

OK, then how about this: instead of abortion, doctors can just "harvest" the fertilized egg and the woman can then decide if she wants to freeze it for later or just toss it out. Somehow, I don't think anyone would go for that. Because the truth is that the Right to Life nutjobs who support this kind of idiocy just don't want women to be able to take control of their reproductive health. They want a situation where women have sex only at risk of getting pregnant and carrying the pregnancy to term.

So women who don't want kids, have use birth control but have it fail - it's not okay for them to have abortions. But for couples who spend $10,000 and up on IVF, it's okay for them to toss out their extra embryos, nobody gets upset about that.

Greater Risk of Violence from Domestic Terrorist Groups

This article was a teeny tiny little sub-sub-sub headline on cnn.com this morning. Researches from various universities and institutions, including American University, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism in College Park, Maryland, the University of Oklahoma, John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, are seven times more likely than foreign terrorists to commit acts of violence in the United States.

Of course, since that doesn't help to justify the United States' military presence abroad, that article probably won't get a lot of attention.

I Can't Believe People Need to Have These Things Pointed Out to Them...

But, they do. A new department director in my company, who started two weeks ago and came from a company that rhymes with "schmay oh elle" (whose employees seem to be defecting to my company at an alarming rate), in his first three weeks at my company, has:

• shown up for work every day wearing ratty jeans, tennis shoes, a t shirt with stuff printed on it and a wrinkled button down shirt sloppily, partially buttoned over the t shirt
  
• failed to use his hair brush since starting this new job
  
• skin so pale I briefly wondered if his genius dad built an underground fallout shelter and he lived in it for the first 35 years of his life
  
• complained about having to be at work by 9 am today for a meeting
  
• showed up 20 minutes late to the 9 am meeting without calling or emailing to say he was running late, and without apologizing for keeping the rest of us waiting
  
• showed up without the document that was being discussed at the 9 am meeting
  
• argued that the document was never sent to him, and didn't admit he was wrong when it was pointed out that it was sent to him at 4:32 yesterday
  
• in his second meeting at his new job, used the word "douchebag"

Sigh...

Now, I'm no puritan, and I have a pottymouth. I have used vulgarity and done some creative cursing. HOWEVER - - NOT. AT. WORK.

I cannot imagine what was going through this guy's mind to blurt out the word "douchebag" in his second meeting in this new job. Then again, he loves the sound of his own voice, laughs really hard at his own jokes, and makes jokes about programming...I think I'm going to break out in hives from the nerdiness factor. Why do I have to work with so many fucktards? Why can't I just work with NORMAL PEOPLE??? Is that too much to ask???

Sex Toys No Longer Illegal in Texas

Check out this article. What I find particlarly telling is this excerpt from a brief in the case explaining why Texas has laws banning sex toys and until 2003, had a law prohibiting consensual sex between people of the same sex:

Texas has legitimate 'morality based' reasons for the laws, which include "discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation."

So basically, the state of Texas only wants people to have sex if they intend on making babies. Not to enjoy sex or experience intimacy with a partner or loved one. The thing that scares me is that this sounds a lot like the hard core pro-lifers who want to ban hormonal forms of birth control so that women can't protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy if they have sex, and also want to ban abortion. Gee, do you think they have an agenda?