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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions

is it a feminist issue that the average woman will spend years of her life being pregnant

59 replies

PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 14:54

and that none of the pharmacy companies seem to to care if we can take their sodding medicine?


Thread "inspired" by another thread. Some poor woman in chat can't take a lemsip because you can't find anything that says "yes, go ahead and take it" and doesn't pass the buck on to someone else.

I remember having a raging raging ear infection. Couldn't sleep couldn't lay my head down, and could not for the life of me get a doctor to prescribe something for the pain. Was left in a crying heap every night for days.

I realise there are ethical reasons for why they don't want to do studies..but the truth is there are woman taking them anyway can they not ask women who are going to take it anyway to give their info?


I recently have been researching cannabis for pain relief in labor and have found contrary to my previous belief that it must be fucking dangerous that it's actually had no real studies done on it to say it is dangerous for pregnant women and that case studies of women in areas where it is the life style... there is no real issue against it and the babies don't have a worse outcome than the babies who's mothers don't use it. Not to mention the coctail of real drugs and narcotics they give to laboring women that we actually know are unsafe!

AND it can be great for natural remedy for morning sickness!

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TheArticFunky · 15/10/2013 15:50

I don't remember there being a problem taking medication whilst pregnant. I know lots of women refuse all drugs but I was told I could take paracetamol and if it was necessary I took it.

Cannabis is a whole other issue and not a feminist concern in my view. There have been lots of people arguing that people should be able to take it for pain relief for conditions such as MS and arthritis.

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BoundandRebound · 15/10/2013 15:53

They can only confirm it is safe for pregnant women if they do trials on pregnant women

You cannot be advocating such testing

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LadyFlumpalot · 15/10/2013 15:54

I asked my doctor about safe antihistamines in pregnancy, he told me they are so wary because it is VERY hard to find pregnant women who will agree to let their unborn children be test subjects for medicines.

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Mollydoggerson · 15/10/2013 15:55

bonkers

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SirChenjin · 15/10/2013 15:57

Nope.

As in, nope, it's not a feminist issue.

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Ragwort · 15/10/2013 15:59

Really don't understand your thread title, I am not sure that the 'average' woman spend years of her life being pregnant Confused.

I only spent nine months.

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HowlerMonkey · 15/10/2013 16:03

I don't think it's a feminist issue.

However, I agree that it is frustrating that we have to rely on rumor and anecdote ('I took it and I'm ok') rather than being able to collect all the information together in one place and do some proper analyses on it.

Maybe some sort of questionnaire/list could be handed out to women as they leave the hospital post-partum, asking if they took any of the following during pregnancy. They could then be assigned a number. A follow-up questionnaire could ask about their baby's health at 1yo and those details could be linked to their personal number. That way, some of the dots could be joined.

I agree it would be a bit vague (I'm a scientist) but no-one is going to condone drug trials in pregnant women (nor should they) and this sort of data collection exercise would be better than nothing.

So I disagree with your initial question, but think it's an interesting topic Grin

Also, I don't think the op has advocated such testing at all.

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BerstieSpotts · 15/10/2013 16:06

Right, but cannabis is illegal, hence it not being approved for anyone, not just pregnant women.

Confused

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PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 16:10

The "average" woman in the world will have more than one child and spend 18 months + pregnant. Or do you assume\ because you only had one everyone else did? Confused

Thank you howler that is kind of what I was asking, women are taking medicine during pregnancy and many medicines have been taken for years so I can't see why this information can't be compiled.

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kim147 · 15/10/2013 16:11

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PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 16:12

berstie it has been legalised for medical use in certain parts of the world (including various states) but is not being prescribed to PG women.

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kim147 · 15/10/2013 16:14

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RunnerHasbeen · 15/10/2013 16:14

There are slight changes to the licencing that could help this without running extra trials. For example, there is an antihistamine safe in pregnancy prescribed for a histamine based rash that can occur in pregnancy. It is licenced for this condition. It has also been shown to work for hay fever in non pregnant people, however, it is not licenced for hay fever in pregnancy as that would be a separate category and not worth it to the company. It could be debated that being shown safe for one thing whilst pregnant is good enough?

Not sure it is a feminist issue exactly, I think it is fairly similar to the issues you might come up against if you have multiple conditions of any sort and that would be a better argument for opening the discussion than the fairly brief time spent pregnant.

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kim147 · 15/10/2013 16:16

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PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 16:16

I'm not a scientist Kim, but basically what HowlerMOnkey said.

They have decided alcohol is unsafe during pregnancy, so there must have been some research that found that in particular is the cause of FAS?

So how come they can't give me some odds on basic medicnes?

I don;t think it is fair that I have to stress over taking a bloody aspirin, when women have been taking aspirin for over a hundred years. If they know wine is bad how come I can't get a definite answer about aspirin?

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TheArticFunky · 15/10/2013 16:16

I personally feel that the issue of pain relief in labour and breastfeeding is more of a feminist issue.

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HowlerMonkey · 15/10/2013 16:18

I actually got given medication once by a pharmacist on the basis of anecdote.

I was 28 weeks pregnant with horrific heartburn and I BEGGED him for something other than gaviscon or calcium carbonate. He handed me a packet of zantac, saying 'I shouldn't give you this but my brother's a doctor and his wife's taken zantac for heartburn in all three of her pregnancies. So it's fine. You should get a doctor to prescribe it for you though.'

I could have kissed him.

Later on I went to the doctor and told him this story. He said 'fair enough' and prescribed it immediately. I went through 4 months of horrible heartburn for no reason at all!!

I knew better with DS2 - went to the doc and was prescribed it at 12 weeks pg Wink

A database of accumulated info from pregnant women who have taken these medications would be very helpful. I don't think you should take anything illegal though, even if it might be beneficial.

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PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 16:18

I was begging for domperidone during BF, it's known for it's effects of improved lactation. One gp said yes, when I went for a follow up prescription I couldn't get one because it hadn't been tested for BF women.

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PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 16:20

thearctic I was in pain for under 24 hours during labor, I spent days in agony with the earache. way worse than labor. For me it felt like I was being pretty badly discriminated against.

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kim147 · 15/10/2013 16:20

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UriGHOULer · 15/10/2013 16:20

Yes because they have studied such outcomes as Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.

For your ear infection, melt some raw virgin coconut oil with one drop of tea tree oil and run it into your ear.

There are plenty of remedies for all sorts of ills that are non invasive, safe and effective. Now might be a good time to say fuck you to the pharmacy and start looking for alternatives.

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5madthings · 15/10/2013 16:20

i think there is a big issue in medicine regards women such as treatment in opreg and specifically labour and the general assumption by many that 'womens issues' such as heavy periods, side effects from contraception etc are not a big deal.


an example is when my dp took anti deoressants for a while and they ermm dedtroyed his libido and ability to perform.. the dr straight away changed his meds and was very sympathetic.


then when i had meds for pnd and suffered lack of libido and coukdnt reach orgasm the same dr just dismissed it as not a big deal... i mean who cares if a woman isnt enjoying sex?!!

and meds in preg and bfeeding are tricky but often, esp with bfeeding there is info out there but many drs cant be arsed to try and find out.

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PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 16:21

I think a database would be amazing, it would put power in to the women's hands to decide acceptable risk the way you do with bagged salads/raw eggs fish/ alcohol etc

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TheArticFunky · 15/10/2013 16:23

In your situation I would have taken a paracetamol. I'm not generally a pill popper, I didn't need anything in my first pregnancy, second pregnancy I took a paracetamol for ear-ache. I was told it was safe. I think it's less than ideal taking medicine in pregnancy but one pill isn't going to be an issue.

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PumpkinGuts · 15/10/2013 16:24

UriGHOULer tea tree is my usal go to (didnt know about coconut) but it didn't do anything at the time tbh.. -turns out there was a piece of cotton bud stuck in my ear at the rot of the infection so was never going to fix it-- Envy


But even alternative medicines can be dangerous during pg, I have been told to take things only to find they are traditionally used as abortificants Shock

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