Mother’s Little Helper

Female doctors use IUDs twice as frequently as the general population of women and many recommend it to their patients.

Interesting. My gyn and I have the same brand of IUD. I like it waaay better than the pill.

Best. Invention. Ever. And yes – if they had it for men, I’d take it.

@blogenfreude: But would women believe you, and do you have as much invested in contraception as women do? Not you specifically, but those are always the questions.

@JNOV: That’s why I don’t declare such things — too easy to take a stand when it doesn’t affect me.

(Hmmm… last time I took a stand, I ended up publishing a five-part series…)

@JNOV: @blogenfreude: There’s always the snip snip option, but after watching David Duchovny with a bag of peas on Californication, I’m not so sure. I don’t have to worry about being believed so much as certain other complications.

@Nabisco: I had it. Not that big a deal.

Hm. Somehow this post doesn’t pique my interest much.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: My procedure was shortly after the Rodney King riots in L.A. At one point, the doc was holding my nuts in one hand, a scalpel in the other, and making disparaging remarks about Black people. In those circumstances, I found it prudent not to call him a racist.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: Well, we have to wait until March 27, 2048, for the golden anniversary of Viagara.

@nojo: I haven’t been to scribd lately, but it was well over 10K views last time I checked. He ended up on HuffPo, and I’m not sure what’s next for him. It was a mitzvah, Nojo. Was there any fallout?

@Nabisco: I begged Husband #2 to get the ole snipperoo. Nope, he wasn’t having it. Two girlfriends after our divorce, ::snip:: and a bag of peas. He said it wasn’t that bad. I’d go into more detail about our shitty BC issues (let’s just say I think the asshole was poking holes in the condoms after he convinced me that my first IUD was poking him and needed to be removed). I knew I didn’t want to be tied to that fool for 18+ years.

@Dodgerblue: I’d kill to see a vasectomy. I saw adult, anesthetized circs and whenever I found something gnarly on an ultrasound, my favorite surgeon would let me observe him operate. I did miss seeing the teratoma, though. That would’ve been cool. It had teeth. Probably hair, too!

@JNOV: No problems that I’ve heard. Ted’s giving a talk at UC-Irvine tonight, AlterNet ran the piece, Colmes had him as a radio guest, and someone in Spain (if I recall) wanted to interview him for a paper there. I’m still holding out for Rachel eventually picking it up.

@JNOV: The tubes that the doc snipped out were a lot wider and, uh, beefier than I thought they’d be. I should have kept them in a bottle as a souvenir. Would make a great conversation piece, no?

@JNOV: Unfortunately, insurance companies will not pay for an IUD even though over the long haul they are pennies on the dollar compared to the Pill, not to mention a much lower failure rate than the Pill.

And don’t get me started on the doctors who will not do the snip-snip on a woman (i.e. me) because “you will change your mind” or “you will want a baby eventually” — making me feel like I was a 12 year old kid.

ADD: To the sandbox kids, I need some advice.

I got a vasectomy, just so Mrs would not have to deal with the chemicals messing with her hormones, its less painful and less a big deal than most dental work. Gave me an excuse to shave my balls, too, always wondered what it would be like to be less hirsute down there, no big deal, though.

But to threadjack, I am having a dark night of the soul. I so need a friend to talk to, and I don’t have a one in the world. Its humiliating to send this message out here in this forum. Nevermind.

@JNOV: @Dodgerblue: At the risk of inviting overshare, I was led to believe that a possible complication was less readiness. I’d geek out on watching the procedure as well, tho. Tried to observe Jr’s circ, but the doc in Japan (where they are rare) said no way.

@Promnight: We are your friends, hermano.

@SanFranLefty: I’m there.

@Promnight: Sandbox, kemosabe.

And “mother’s little helper” is so tied to Valium that it is jarring, Nojo, to see it referring to the Pill, not even as an intentional juxtaposition of different themes in one reference, with the term so associated with valium.

I have to also say, I think its complete bullshit, the commonly accepted folk-sociology meme that it was the pill that was responsible for the “sexual revolution,” as they used to call the generally socially accepted code of sexual morality that exists today.

I mean, what is it about modern mores that bother the christian religious right? In our culture, the predominant real practiced moral beliefs about sex, say that its okay for unmarried people to have sex, so long as its given some reverance as “special,” and not to be engaged in willy nilly. We believe its okay to live together before marriage, that even the formal recognition of marriage is unnnecesary. And we also believe that divorce should be available as an option, should a marriage not work and become harmfully dysfunctional.

Leave aside the politics of homosexuality, the current battleground, thats a recent entry into the culture war.

If you look at the culture war issue, the meme of the “sexual revolution,” ( a false conception, I believe, that there never was a real change in people’s sexual behavior, only a change in public acknowledgment and acceptance of what was and will always be what people do), it boils down to 2 things, premarital-extramarital sex, and divorce.

I just don’t see how the Pill was responsible for the change in view that occurred in our culture that manifested in the modern social mores concerning these two issues.

I think blaming the “sexual revolution” ( which, again, I don’t think was real, people have always done all the things they do now) on the Pill, is one of the most ridiculous facile folk-sociology memes to ever arise.

People like to fuck. They fuck before they are married, they fuck outside of marriage, people like to fuck, and they will and always have, done so in circumstances outside of the morally and legally defined boundaries society imposes.

The “sexual revolution” did not mark a change in people’s actual behavior, it only marked a point where public recognition, and honesty, about people’s behavior, became acceptable.

I’d hate to give the Pill credit for that, it seems to me more a victory over hypocracy and censorship, something more basic on a deep level.

@Promnight: not even as an intentional juxtaposition of different themes in one reference

I think I’m hitting three references with one toss, actually. Maybe four, depending how the judges rule.

@nojo: Four from this judging station.

@Nabisco: I did not detect any effect on readiness or woodiness. Not from the ectomy, anyway. Clearing the pipes for the post-op sperm count was amusing. However, aging, may I say, does not bring improvement in these nesses.

@Dodgerblue: Good news. Do they require a pre-op count as well, for baseline, and maybe last rites? It would be kinda cool to have a pic of the Last Seed.

@Nabisco: No. They probably figured that my two children were evidence that I was not firing blanks. What they look for in the post-op count is zero live sperm, as in none.

@SanFranLefty: The first IUD was on my dime, but the second one was fully covered — my employer at the time was a woman, and she provided full coverage for teh wimminz lady bits and covered our premiums 100%. Those were the days…

@Nabisco: [Insert joke about whacking off in the doctor’s office twice HERE]

@JNOV: Hay, guise, what’s goin’ on in this threa–*Turns and leaves the room*

@JNOV: Hrm, maybe the comments won’t be as bad as I think and I should give it anoth–

Who let the kid into the midnight show?

@nojo: Not my fault the people running this gig don’t know how to lock the doors.