The Doctors' Case Against the Pill

If you've read other books by Barbara Seaman (and you should take a look, if you haven't), you know that she is a crusader for the health of women. She will tell you the truth about what birth control and other hormones are doing to your health - and about the side effects of the pill that your doctor isn't likely to mention. Please, if you're going to take hormones, inform yourself as fully as possible about what you're really signing up to do. I came close to losing my life from side effects of the birth control pill and "natural" progesterone cream. Don't let it happen to you - Barbara Seaman is a great resource.

In the late'60s and early '70s sexual liberation was in the air. Many -- perhaps even most -- well-heeled Americans welcomed the loosening up of sexual restrictions that had been so oppressive during the postwar era. The sexual double standard was waning, young people were being told that they had the right to sensual experimentation before and outside of marriage,and making it all possible were the new miracle contraceptives: the iud and the pill. Times had changed for the better, and it was a new epoch of progress,right?Wrong. Journalist Barbara Seaman had the courage and insight to peer behind the happy facade that characterized the first wave of American sexual liberation,at some troubling realities. She asked simple questions -- the kind that annoy everyone,because they're unanswerable. Why was so much research being done on female contraceptives that were potentially harmful,with none being done on male contraceptives? (The condom STILL remains the only male option.) Since sexual intercourse is generally more pleasurable for men than women,why didn't men introduce harsh chemicals and dangerous contraptions into their systems? If the pill was so safe,why was it making women feel so sick? Why were patients who reported their symptoms told that it was all in their heads? Why were the physicians and chemists behind all these products male? _The Doctor's Case Against the Pill_ compresses many of Seaman's findings and inaugurated her career as a lifelong whistle blower and advocate of women's health. Like her later work, _Free and Female_,it is a pathfinding book that exposes the ideology behind the health industry and the self-interest of so many medical practitioners. It reminds us how easily retrograde assumptions are recycled into the most seemingly progressive and forward-looking social initiatives. Like most pioneering works,its results still brace and shock; the expanded edition incorporates Seaman's more recent research. This is a must-read for anyone interested in women's health and women's history. As many people know, because of this book,there are now warning labels on packages of birth control pills. Thirty years ago,Barbara Seaman had the courage to play that most thankless role:the party-pooper. In the swinging '60s and '70s, her findings met with a cold reception. But because of her work,women today lead healthier and safer lives.

A mere thirty years ago, the Pill's dosage of estrogen was dangerously high, resulting in side effects such as strokes, depression, obesity, blood clots, and heart attacks. Yet gynecologists at the time brushed off women's concerns, telling them that they were nothing more than "psychological." Enter Barbara Seaman, whose 1969 book The Doctors' Case Against the Pill warned women about the health risks and held doctors and pharmaceutical companies to task for their sexism -- as well as for their greed and incompetence. Her book prompted the Senate to hold hearings investigating the safety of the Pill. As a result, the Pill today is much safer, and each packet comes with a warning about potential side effects and contraindications. Well, that was thirty years ago... why buy the book today? First, because it is an important historical record of the way female patients have been mistreated. And second, because Seaman has updated it to include new information about the Pill's pitfalls over the years as well as an excellent chapter about Norplant, a contraceptive used widely around the globe even though it causes its own host of health problems. No wonder Gloria Steinem has called Seaman "the first prophet of the women's health movement."