Barb's Daily Dose

The Birth Control Pill Helps Women

After working in women's health for close to 25 years, I've prescribed thousands and thousands of birth control pills and the NuvaRing to patients for a variety of reasons. With the recent increased focus on the Birth Control Pill, I thought it might be a good idea to review a few facts. In addition to prevent ing accidental pregnancy, which is a good thing, there are a number of other reasons that we prescribe the pill. Before I get to that, let's just do a quick review of some of the hormones and biology that influences a woman's life each and every month. This is by no means an all-inclusive or comprehensive list.

Menopause Explained - A Chinese Medicine Perspective

Our Featured Guest Writer Today is Ted Ray, L.A.c., DNBAO

Acupuncture, Herbs, Nutrition

Menopause Explained- A Chinese Medicine Perspective (Part I in a 3-part series)

Using acupuncture and herbal medicine can be a great way to manage the transition into menopause. This series of short articles will help you make an informed decision about the process.

While it is fairly well understood that the symptoms associated with menopause relate to shifting hormone levels, Chinese Medicine looks at this issue through a different lens. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the kidneys are largely responsible for the development and decline of female fertility.   In fact, the kidneys are so important, that TCM breaks them down even further in to kidney yin, yang, qi, and essence.

Scripts for Talking to Teens About Sex

Most parents would rather see the dentist than to even think about talking to their kids about sex. Many of us put off having “The conversation” so long that our kids are left to learn about their bodies from what they’re picking up from TV, movies, video games and their friends. This is not exactly the most accurate information and can lead to lots of confusion, questions and heartache.

Not Your Mother’s Treatment for Heavy Menstrual Bleeding: The 5-Minute Alternative to Hysterectomy

Final Edition to a Five Part Series

To Review the Series in Parts:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV

There’s one patient, Ellie (not her real name), who comes to mind whenever I think about how much things have changed in the last 20 years. I cared for 2 of Ellie’s 4 daughters during their pregnancies and really enjoyed their visits.  I was happy to be the person who did their first ultrasounds and printed up photos of their babies. One day, the oldest daughter called me and asked if I’d be willing to see to her mother right away as she was visiting from out of town. She was concerned about her mother’s repeated blood transfusions for blood loss from heavy periods.

How to Talk to Your Healthcare Provider About Your Periods?

“I was too embarrassed to talk about my periods with my doctor, and since none of my friends ever talked about their periods, I just figured that it was normal to bleed through tampons and pads and everyone was in the same boat."  Carly

If they don’t ask, you might not tell.  If a health-care provider doesn’t ask, you might not feel comfortable bringing up concerns about your periods.

Health care providers often assume that a woman’s periods are normal, unless she brings it up. We as health care providers aren’t asking, all the time. I understand. There’s lots of things to cover during an annual exam, and many of us have limited time with our patients.

Are My Periods Normal - Take the Quiz!

Have you ever found yourself in the drug store searching for super duper tampons and gigantic maxi-pads, wondering if you’re the only one out there dealing with heavy periods?

One Woman’s Story

This was the situation that Katie (not her real name) found herself in month after month. A mom with 3 kids, she was busy and didn’t need one more thing on her plate. At the same time, she was worried that there was something seriously wrong with her, but felt tired and discouraged from trying various hormonal treatments, having ultrasounds and trying to remember to take her iron tablet every day.  She felt discouraged, knowing that for a solid week each month, she couldn’t exercise, had PMS, wasn’t interested in sex and felt uncomfortable.  Katie had heavy menstrual bleeding.

What’s A Common Condition You Haven’t Heard About But May Be Affecting You Or One Of Your Friends?

Imagine not being able to leave the bathroom because the bleeding from your period was so heavy, ordinary sanitary protection was a joke.  Imagine missing your daughter’s soccer games, because you never knew if there would be a bathroom near enough to the field that you could change your pad and not ruin yet another pair of jeans.

These are just two stories that illustrate what millions of women experience each month; heavy menstrual bleeding.  In fact, 1 in 5 women experience heavy periods known as “heavy menstrual bleeding,” or what my patients call, “Periods from Hell.”

What is Heavy Menstrual Bleeding?

Heavy menstrual bleeding is defined as periods that occur at regular monthly intervals, with blood loss that is greater than 80mL or bleeding for > 7 days.  As a point of reference ½ cup = 60mL.

I counsel my patients to call me if they are soaking a pad and/or a tampon in less than 1 hour for more than 1 day. Many of my patients don’t realize that the period they’ve been putting up with month after month and year after year is not normal; it’s not just their bad luck and something with which they have to deal with, it is a medical condition called heavy menstrual bleeding.

NovaSure: A Great Solution for Heavy Bleeding

A patient said to me, "Barb, can you prescribe sleeping pills for me?"  I don't just write prescriptions without asking a few questions first and after a few minutes learned that this woman wasn't sleeping in her bed for 1-2 weeks each month.  You see her periods were so heavy that she had ruined too many sheets, stained the mattress and so when she had her period. she would sleep on a plastic sheet on the floor. She explained that rolling over made so much noise that she would wake up and she thought that sleeping pills might help her get more rest.

Lucky for her, there was another solution:  NovaSure, an endometrial ablation procedure that treats heavy bleeding and doesn't involve hysterectomy.  It's safe and effective.  In fact, it's so safe that recently the 1 millionth woman had a NovaSure procedure done.  NovaSure was recently featured on The Doctors TV show. 

The Pill Has Other Benefits

I prescribe the birth control pill almost every day that I'm in the office.  We've known for years that there are plenty of non-contraceptive benefits with the birth control pill, including:

• Decreasing menstrual pain
• Helping control acne, and
• Protection against certain cancers. 

I have patients with endometriosis who use the pill to keep the pain at bay.

Click here for an article on this topic that you may be interested in.

No Periods?

Yes, that's right, women who are on birth control do not need to have a period every month. 

How is this possible, you wonder? Well, as long as there is balance in hormones, then there is no risk of problems. I'll explain a little further.

The menstrual cycle 

If you click on the link above you can learn more about the menstrual cycle, which will make this easier to understand.