Summary
The chapter mainly explores the decision to be a parent and the aftermath of the decision. Everyone is different in how they become pregnant; planners, fate accepters, ambivalent couples, and the yes-no couples. No matter how they react to the pregnancy, there were many costs and benefits to having children. The benefits and costs vary by the couples’s age, their financial stability, outside factors such as the economy, and the mother’s potential high-risk behaviors while pregnant. Some couples weigh the pros and cons of all these factors and choose to wait to have a baby, while others who want to have children may unfortunately be infertile. Males and females may be infertile for many reasons and may not even know until they begin trying. If the couple accepts the infertility, many choose to adopt or begin high-tech treatments to have their own child. The high-tech treatments include in vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogacy, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). On the opposite side of this, many people decide to have an abortion for a reasons relating to age, marital status, and cost. Overall, couples may or may not decide to have children, but if they do it is life changing and a turning point in many people’s lives.
New, Interesting, or Unusual Items Learned
The table 11.2 on Pg. 312 was very informative and is scary to think that when driving a car you have a 1 in 6,000 chance of dying and that having a legal abortion is safer. It was also interesting to think that having children when you’re older in life may be a financially smart decision, but the relationships with older family members especially grandparents would be limited – I never thought of this consequence.
Question/Concern
Many women use oral contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and the risk of dying is 1 in 16,000 for those who smoke and 1 in 63,000 for those who are nonsmokers – why are these so dangerous? Are other forms of contraceptives this dangerous and why or why not?
Brian Bitner
Oral contraceptives generally contain some artificial form of estrogen. Estrogen is the main female reproductive hormone that is found at varying levels during a menstrual cycle. Contraceptives override the variation of the natural hormone and keep the level constant, whereas the variation of estrogen is essential for ovulation to happen, thus inhibits ovulation. However, estrogen has other functions in the body as well, including the production of blood clot components. Blood clots actually have good intentions, they try to seal up injured sites of arteries or veins but unhealthy levels may block circulation. To keep the level of this estrogen hormone at a stable (slightly) high level also results in increased chances of getting blood clots that in turn can block blood flow somewhere in the body. And of course eating a horrible diet (thus having high levels of cholesterol, which in turn loves binding to blood clots at injury sited of circulatory system) and smoking increase this risk greatly. If it happens near the pump (heart), it may lead to a heart attack; if it happens in the brain, it may lead to a stroke. Some strokes lead to instant death and some lead to paralysis or less significant problems depending where in the brain it happens, but most of the deaths (thus warnings on the labels that tell not to smoke while taking oral contraceptives) are due to this increased risk of circulatory problems.
ReplyDeleteOh, also oral contraceptives do not protect against STDs, I am sure there are people who regret why they didn't buy a condom instead. In this case condom is a physical barrier and shall not have any side effects except if the user is allergic to latex, which is not dangerous, very rare, and can be tested easily. Intrauterine devices may also be safer but comes with other problems such as increased risk of ectopic pregnancies which in turn may be fatal if not terminated (but I can't find stats) and doctors won't install it to women who did not yet have a child.
Here is the link from National Institute of Health oral contraceptive information page:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a601050.html
Eser Y.
I think that the fact that the risk of dying is only 1 in 16,000 for those who smoke and 1 in 63,000 for those who don't smoke actually means that it is not all that dangerous. I think there are risks for any decision you take involving something that is going to affect your health. Perhaps it is important to make sure that oral contraceptives are used with caution and avoided by people who have pre-existing condition.
ReplyDelete-Ali Mosser