The reason why some of us aren't babydaddies turns 50.
 

(CBS) This week is the 50th anniversary of the pill, a medical breakthrough that has changed society and the sexual landscape forever.

It still has critics, but 100 million women around the world use it to control when and how many times they become pregnant.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told CBS News, "The invention of the birth control pill revolutionized life for women in America. It's completely changed women's options."

The Pill promised to free women from biological bonds, and it did just that.

In the 1950s, women made up about a third of the workforce. Today, women hold nearly half of all U.S. jobs. In the 1950s, American women on average had 3.8 children. Today, that number has dropped to 2.1.

Richards said, "It made them able to pursue high education, pursue careers and plan the size of their families, which was something they could never do before."

For the first decade after its creation, the pill could only be legally prescribed to married women. However, even with that condition, it was condemned by the Catholic Church and many conservatives.

Historian Ellen Chesler, author of "Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America," said, "It was really considered immoral to suggest that women's primary role should not be that of wife and mother, but rather that women should have rights to experience their sexuality free of consequence, just like men have always done."

Gloria Steinem, a longtime leading feminist, said on "The Early Show" Thursday that sexual acceptance with The Pill was the subject of her first piece in Esquire magazine in 1962.

"I ended up saying that the problem was the acceptance of women's sexuality, as much as the women's ability to control it. Were there enough liberated men to go around to the newly liberated women? Which turned out to be kind of prescient."


link

The title of this thread is a thread in and of itself. LOL.

Haha, I'm pretty sure whatever madmax is calling himself will show up and make some silly racialist comments.

LOL. That's one of the topics.

I was thinking more along the lines of "where's the condom?"

i had to read it twice to understand it. but that could be because i'm on my nth glass of crown royal & coke w lime :o

where is my glass?

I wonder how many woman take it for reasons unrelated to pregnancy, like endometriosis, PCOS, dysmennorhea, regularity, acne, cramps, being able to skip a month for vacation, and so on. I don't know a lot of women who take the pill/path/ring just for birth control, and many use condoms anyway because of STDs and a back up barrier method.

"The reason why some of us aren't babydaddies" ... interesting way of putting it. It's also the reason why some of us aren't babymamas, the reason why some of us haven't had to seek (or had our partners seek) illegal abortions and suffer through the complications thereof, and the reason why some of us don't have more children than we can support financially and psychologically.

Me!


Ironically, a few of my friends who are pregnant now, were on BC when they got pregnant. Reminds me of the Friends episode when Ross & Joey find out that condoms are only like 97% effective lol.

Welcome to Sex Ed!

The video that I watched earlier discussed how the pill marked the symbolic end of women being relegated to barefoot and pregnant status.

If you've ever seen the TV version of David Halberstam's book The Fifties, they talk about The Pill in one of the episodes. The impetus for it was married women and women in underdeveloped children who didn't want to have any more kids - NOT for a sexual revolution for young single women. One of the unintended consequences was that the daughters started taking Mom's pills and replacing them with aspirin, leading to a very surprised Mom when she subsequently got pregnant.

^^ Oh snap!

The pill only permitted for married women for the first decade or so. Interesting shift in norms.

I wish I could find the videos from the 50th anniversary story that I saw earlier. It showed the first sitcoms ever and how they referenced the pill.

But, when they talk to some gynecologists they are told that disclaimer is only a disclaimer and it only applies to a small % of Pill-antibiotic cases.

I'm stealing this just so you know. :)

Oh, and don't take Pill and St John's Wort. Neither will work.

Also the topical medication for the sometimes resulting yeast infection from antibiotics breaks down latex, so condoms, diaphragms, and the ring all lose effectiveness. The diflucan pill is a great for women in those situations, and it is also prescribed for men with fungal infections, since often men get yeast infections from their partners and need treatment to stop reinfecting their partner.

Honestly? I think most of the people who say things like "the condom broke," or "I was on antibiotics" aren't telling the truth and just don't want to admit that they just weren't careful that time. I know that there are legitimate cases of birth control failure, but not as many as our peers would have us believe!

There are some great articles out this week in various magazines about the impact of the Pill on women's lives.

THIS!

I Love, Love, LOVE my pill! Thank you to the makers of LYBREL! No period since July 2009!

Well, I had two legitimate birth control failures. One resulted in a miscarriage since I was on the pill. That one had to do with trying one of the tricyclic pills when they were still pretty new. Problem was, I ovulated twice a month almost every month and the tricyclic one only stopped one of them due to the expected timing of ovulation being skewed for me. I still don't understand how my daughter is here though :) Condoms and foam together, every single time, no antibiotics.. no clue how that happened. But, she's wonderful and our wedding was already planned so we dealt with it.

I think the number of women who claim to be on the pill for reasons other than birth control is what's really inflated. I think women are still afraid to admit that they just want to be protected any time so that they can do what they want. I had several friends in college claim they were on it for cramps when they didn't have boyfriends. I think it's ok for women to say "Look, I'm on it because I want to make sure I don't get pregnant if I decide to have sex." Maybe that's changed some since I was in college, but I still think a lot of women say that to justify being on birth control.

Double posting but, I do have to say, I loved the 5 years that I was on the Depo shot :) Not having a period for 5 years was absolutely wonderful! Then I hit 40 and no doc would give me anything hormonal anymore thanks to my dad's heart disease (even though ALL my numbers are great and I've had an echo that shows I do not have his heart disease for sure).

I should be almost done with them altogether. I'm thick into perimenopause and went 3 months last time. I was actually starting to think that maybe I was done. It's been 2 months since that time.. maybe I'll go even longer this time! w00t!

Look, I didn't discount actual birth control failures. After all, all methods are pretty clear that the risk of pregnancy is still there, even with "perfect" use. I just don't think everyone who says "oh, I was on antibiotics" or "the condom broke" is telling the truth. It happens, but maybe 3-5 percent of the time, as opposed to the 25% or so my friends have reported. :)

I do agree that not as many people are taking the pill for cramps, acne, or the other stuff. Part of that is a lot of insurance carriers didn't always cover the pill for contraceptive uses only, so doctors would diagnose something else. I think that's less of an issue now than it was even 10 years ago, though. Also, keep in mind that when the Pill first came out, many doctors would only prescribe it to married women who had a history of "irregular periods." Apparently, the rate of women who reported "irregular periods" doubled from 1960 to 1970.

I know you didn't :) I wasn't taking it personally.

I hadn't thought about the insurance aspect for having another reason to "need" them. I've been lucky to have my insurance cover them or, when it didn't (like in college), I went to Planned Parenthood or WomanCare for them and only paid like $4 a month then (while battling my way through the line of abortion protestors, I might add... dang they used to piss me off!)

I also think that there is a large proportion of women who do not take their pills correctly, ie. skip doses, don't take them at the same time every day. These little things will make your hormones fluctuate and can allow you to ovulate. If you don't take your pills right EVERY time, you MUST use a second form of birth control, ie. condoms!

I went on it for purely contraceptive reasons, but my first doctor told me that if my insurance ever gave me grief, she would say that it was for cramps. She had been practicing for about 25 years at that point and knew which companies wouldn't cover it. She was great--she ended up retiring because of how expensive malpractice insurance was for Florida OB/GYNs. :(

I can't stand those protesters. I used to volunteer as a clinic escort at a place that did early abortions and D&Cs (along with other procedures--it was a normal clinic). It would suck to have to go in for a post-miscarriage D&C or even like a broken toe and have protesters yelling at you.

I've had condoms break before but it did not result in pregnancy. I'm not on the pill, either, so... it was a very nervous couple of weeks.

Damn, you read my mind.

The ooops baby thing isn't a 20something thing. It began before these 20somethings were born and has impacted particular demographics.

And, they make emergency contraception for these oops moments! Plan B doesn't even require a prescription anymore. Pharmacies are required to carry it. If you take it within 72 hours of unprotected sex, it has a very high rate of preventing an unwanted pregnancy. It is NOT an abortion, but only a very high dose of birth control pills.

But if you were on the Pill and end up with a true oops pregnancy, this kind of emergency contraception wouldn't help. Sure, it's great for "I wasn't careful" kind of moments, but not for "my Pill, which I took as directed, failed" kind of moments.

...and quite a few 30somethings and 40somethings with "oops babies" too. :) I don't think either set of my grandparents were exactly planning to have another baby when their oldest kids were in college. We're not Catholic or Orthodox Jewish or even Duggars!

No...I was talking about the "I know I screwed up and didn't take my pill or the condom popped or forgot I was taking antibiotics" kind of screw ups which are the most common kinds of birth control failures. The pill is over 99% effective if taken correctly which makes it VERY rare for those oops to happen.

Ooops, I did it again...
I played with your heart...
Got lost in the game...

Sorry.

Oh Britney...you oops'd twice!

This reminds me of the sex ed scenes in The 40 Year Old Virgin.

Yeah, it happens. I never said it didn't. I just don't think everyone who blames a pregnancy on a condom breaking is telling the truth. I think the NIH reports the condom breakage rate at somewhere between 2 and 3 percent. In my peer group it's allegedly 25%, LOL.

It's kind of like deviated septums and nose jobs. I'm sure there are people out there whose septums really were deviated and they needed that nose job! For most of them? Not so much.