Who Needs Cycles? Women Do
The natural rhythms of women's hormone cycles are being threatened by pharmaceutical companies, and physicians who are pushing women into suppressing menstruation with artificial hormones. In an article at LadybugFlights. com, Leslie Botha, recipient of the 1st Edward R. Dewey Award from The Foundation for the Study of Cycles, for her research on the importance of the cyclical nature of women’s hormones, illustrates the dangers that menstrual suppression poses for women. Botha strongly urges women to not let their bodies be “medicalized” and shows the advantage of education and self-observation that will empower women when they learn about their own cycles.
Sonora, CA (PRWEB) May 17, 2006
Medications are now available that will allow a woman to menstruate only once a year. This allows them to avoid all the problems involved with their menstrual cycle. Right?
Wrong, says Leslie Botha, Women’s Health Educator, member of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, and nationally recognized expert on women’s hormone cycles, "Women's hormone cycles are not a problem, illness or a cause of disease." Instead, they are an important part of who we are as women, throughout our life, and must be accepted as such, not suppressed for the sake of convenience.
In a comprehensive article in LadybugFlights magazine, Botha
Reports on the medical treatment of women's cycles and related issues such as PMS. She traces the destructive attitude of society from the witch hunts of medieval days through the history of male dominance and violence toward females to the current menstrual suppression movement.
Drawing on her 20 years experience in studying how women’s hormone cycles affect women’s behavior, she draws an analogy between the importance of recognizing women’s cycles to their social status. It is undeniable that with the suppression of the hormone cycle, women’s cultural status has also been denigrated.
Botha is concerned that the new extended menstrual suppressants are being fast-tracked into the market without independent long-term studies. Since the advent of the birth control pill in the 1960’s, unsuspecting women have really been “the study”. Botha warns that researchers are just beginning to see the impact of long-term menstrual suppression with diverse and devastating side effects, which are not widely publicized. Dr. Susan Rako, author of No More Periods? The Blessings of the Curse, bluntly states; ’Manipulating women's hormonal chemistry for the purpose of menstrual suppression threatens to be the largest uncontrolled experiment in the history of medical science.’
"Women's hormone cycles are the foundation of their beings." This
Means that women need to learn how to live with their cycling, instead of against it. Botha cautions that not living with the natural ebb and flow of the hormone cycle, can have frightening effects on women’s well being – and is the primary reason why hysterectomies are so prevalent. She suggests that women need to understand their hormone cycle using simple tools such as education and charting.
Given the tools to understand how to live with their cycle and not against it, women will finally enjoy their lives – because they will understand and begin to trust their emotions and actions. Botha believes that by bringing the issue to the forefront of cultural awareness, women will reclaim their bodies and their health and well-being. If nothing else this needs to be done for the sake of our daughters.
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