April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

medicine

Cosmetic surgery or Genital Mutilation?

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orchid

Patients who sought genitoplasty “uniformly” wanted their vulvas to be flat and with no protrusion, similar to the prepubescent look of girls in Western fashion ads, pornography and on genitoplasty web sites.

LINK

Wonderful, what adult woman doesn’t want to help fulfil her partners daddy fantasy by looking like a little girl in her “special area”?

*excuse me while I go throw up

Here is a site that offers these procedures, and here is some of what they offer

Labiaplasty (labia reduction & beautification) and other female cosmetic surgical procedures including Vaginoplasty (rejuvenation or tightening of the vagina) and Clitoral Unhooding (Hoodectomy)

Here is the WHO fact sheet on Female Genital Mutalition
Type III – excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening (infibulation);

Hmm kind of hard to spot the difference.

Oh wait I see the difference the first is FGS while the second is FGM. So I guess all they really need to do is change one letter and hey presto they aren’t committing an indignity they are providing her with low cost plastic surgery. Maybe they could open shop invite a few North Americans over and in one swell foop become respected surgeons.

Female Genital Surgery (FGS)—of which Vaginal Plastic Surgery is part—is a demanding surgical field

According to a Swedish study;

RESULTS:47 women had been operated, more than 50% had been operated at two or more occasions. 11 patients had only vaginoplasty done and in the remaining women it was combined with clitoroplasty. The cosmetic appearance as well as the function of clitoris and vagina are often not optimal. There is also a need from these patients to be able to discuss former surgery, especially since it was common in this group to state that the functional result has influenced their sexual life negatively.

From the surgical site;

8. Could labiaplasty cause insensitivity?

There is no physiological association for sensory pleasure with the labia—that function is served by the clitoris. The only sensation elicited from labia is pain upon tearing or stretching. Labiaplasty can’t cause a loss of sensitivity when done correctly.

There is no sensation for pleasure in the labia??? Obviously spoken by someone who doesn’t have any.

and this assertion is repeated in CAPS just in case you didn’t believe it the first time. But it is ever so much more believable now that it is in bigger letters

14. I have read that after labiaplasty a woman can experience lifelong sexual arousal problems. Is this true?

No!! This is a common fallacy and it is completely wrong. The media, which at times misinterprets accurate medical information, commonly helps propagates this rumor as a means of creating controversy or sensationalism. It is well known MEDICAL FACT that the labia have sensory nerve fibers that ONLY transmit pain sensation, when stretched or torn. There is NO SEXUAL STIMULATION ASSOCIATED WITH THE LABIA MINORA.

The surgery to shorten the vagina boggles my mind. Really this surgery can surely be done for one reason only, to make him feel like he’s bigger than he is. And I suppose too it harkens back to the doing it with a prepubescent. I was just sick a little again.

In short ladies love your lips whatever size and shape they may be. Each and every vulva is a unique and beautiful thing and does not deserve to be sliced and diced.

If you are unfortunate enough to be saddled with someone who expects you to look like someone else cut him out of your life not your labia.

In Solidarity Sisters

Plows and other gyn procedures

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Ah Pat…never one to engage brain before opening mouth. On the subject of the Women on the Waves ship Pat had this to say;

“Just think of having rocking waves while you’re getting your insides plowed into by some doctor. That doesn’t sound like fun to me…”

Now since they are handing out Mifepristone –a PILL– one wonders exactly how Pat ingests his multivitamin.

Also from the story is a must read link to an article about doctors reaction to the new abortion ban;

Dr. Christopher Estes shared a story with PRCH about a patient he treated last year. In an op-ed he wrote for The Daily News, Dr. Estes recalls treating a woman he calls Lisa. She was pregnant with her third child, and suffering from a heart condition that developed during her last delivery.

“Her condition had worsened substantially within the last week, and we were not sure how much longer her heart could withstand the strain of her pregnancy,” he says. Dr. Estes believed the safest treatment for Lisa was an abortion using the method Congress has banned. “I will have to think long and hard about what I will do the next time I take care of a patient like Lisa. What am I supposed to say to her? ‘I’m sorry, but you’re part of the small fraction of women our laws ignore?'”

further;

The Supreme Court’s decision asserts many things that are simply not true. For instance, the ruling contends that because some women might regret having an abortion if they knew what was involved, the state should anticipate that and protect them. Essentially, this ruling says that untrained politicians can make medical decisions for all of America—even when doctors vehemently disagree with Congress’ supposed findings.

Interestingly many women regret their pregnancies, I hope the Daddies on the Supreme Court are planning to ensure that pregnancy is therefore similarly regulated.

You’re not having my baby!

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Interesting case in Britain.

A couple have embryos created via IVF, they subsequently split up, she has had surgery for cancer and is unable to conceive any other way, he however refuses consent for her to carry any of the eggs to term.

the law states

“However, the European Court of Human Rights has considered that both partners have equal rights over the embryos once created. This ruling supports the HFEA Act which requires both parties to consent or in this instance, withdraw that consent.”

If he had fertilized the eggs the natural way he would have no choice, yet in this case he is in effect choosing abortion.

It will be interesting to see if he receives the same types of attacks that women who choose abortion do.

Back Up Your Birth Control Day

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Today is Back Up Your Birth Control Day in America. This action is to draw attention to these facts among others;

– Most teenagers in the U.S. don’t have access to EC over-the-counter (but they do in areas of Alaska, California, Vermont, Hawaii, Washington, Maine, New Hampshire and New Mexico)

– Despite the over-the-counter status, low-income and immigrant women still have issues of access to emergency contraception

– More than 60% of voters say they do not know about EC or any product that has been proven effective in preventing pregnancy when used within days after unprotected sex

You can read Biting Beavers’ story of trying to get EC here

or this story

The conservative politics of the Bush administration forced me to have an abortion I didn’t want. Well, not literally, but let me explain.

I am a 42-year-old happily married mother of two elementary-schoolers. My husband and I both work, and like many couples, we’re starved for time together. One Thursday evening this past March, we managed to snag some rare couple time and, in a sudden rush of passion, I failed to insert my diaphragm.

The next morning, after getting my kids off to school, I called my ob/gyn to get a prescription for Plan B, the emergency contraceptive pill that can prevent a pregnancy — but only if taken within 72 hours of intercourse. As we’re both in our forties, my husband and I had considered our family complete, and we weren’t planning to have another child, which is why, as a rule, we use contraception. I wanted to make sure that our momentary lapse didn’t result in a pregnancy.

The receptionist, however, informed me that my doctor did not prescribe Plan B. No reason given. Neither did my internist. The midwifery practice I had used could prescribe it, but not over the phone, and there were no more open appointments for the day. The weekend — and the end of the 72-hour window — was approaching.

Or read the empathy and understanding for a rape victim

To add insult to injury, here’s what Dr. Joe Kearns, former medical director of Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon, had to say:

“People drive to Reading to buy jeans. Even if that were the case, that you had to drive to Reading to get this [prescription], to me that does not rise to a compulsion that you have to pass laws that [doctors] have to do something.”

I am struggling to understand how a woman–who has just been raped!–would find a trip to Reading to get a prescription for emergency contraception (EC) similar to a road trip she might take with her girlfriends to buy a new pair of jeans.

Although legally women in Canada are allowed to buy EC OTC there are many instances of pharmacies not carrying it or pharmacists exercising “freedom of conscience”.

And our current fundamentalist friendly government who have already shown themselves ready to turn back the clock with cuts to SWC and removal of equality from the mandate, would be only too happy to partner with these same groups to deny women reproductive choice.

Calgary women sent to Montana to deliver

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A.R. Media in Calgary reports;

Calgary-The streets are full of protesters upset that pregnant Calgarians are being sent to Montana to deliver their babies.

Alice McMommy head of R.E.A.L. women in Calgary issued this statement.

“How are we supposed to recruit members for FPC* when the government is making it look like having a baby might be difficult? After all we’ve done to support them.”

Cathy Lick opined,”I told my priest how the government was abusing mothers. He told me to treat them nicely and maybe they would stop. So I am going to the legislature with a cake today.”

The Right to Life groups have rallied around these women in an amazing way.

The situaton can best be summed up in the words of Femi Nist, “It is said a pregnant Mary travelled on a donkey,our pregnant women travel because of ass too.”

*FPC, Forced Pregnancy Crowd

Story also covered here

Medicine VS Forced Care

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The same day I read about surgeries being cancelled, I receive an article from Women’s eNews on the topic of Caesarean birth.

I am not a great proponent of sections, far too many are done unnecessarily and I think it is just another way women are taught to distrust their bodies and their abilities.

It is also interesting that there is space to do so many of these unnecessary surgeries yet cancer surgeries are being cancelled.

From the eNews article

At 30 percent of all deliveries, the current national Caesarean-section rate in the United States is twice the 15 percent maximum rate recommended by the World Health Organization and three times the preferred rate cited by many researchers.

This article shows the despite the claims that C-sections are better for baby and cause no harm to moms, in fact the opposite is true.

C-section rates are increasing worldwide, with one in four newborns in Canada now being delivered via an incision in its mother’s belly, compared with 17% in the early 1990s.
But a new World Health Organization-led study involving more than 97,000 deliveries in Latin America found that hospitals with the highest rates of Caesareans had higher rates of maternal death and illness — including conditions requiring blood transfusions — and had higher numbers of babies who died or were admitted to intensive care for seven days or more after birth.
The results, published online by the journal The Lancet, “show how a medical intervention or treatment that is effective when applied to sick individuals in emergency situations can do more harm than good when applied to healthy populations.”
While the study involved Latin American hospitals, the researchers believe the findings would hold true “beyond the participating institutions.”

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