Dolly Parton's "Female Problems" and What Medicine Offered Women in the 1980s
Dolly Parton broke a silence almost no woman of her fame would break, and the era still had only two things to offer her: quiet the symptoms or take the organ. ...
Take Action: Protect Women’s Healthcare Choices
What's happening in DC right now will decide the future of women's health. The multi-billion dollar industry backed groups (ASRM, ACOG, SGS, SMFM) are fighting to block restorative care for women: endometriosis, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS / PCOS), fibroids, tubal surgery, hormone/PMS support. Two of them, ACOG and ASRM, have made claims about Restorative Reproductive Medicine that IIRRM calls "erroneous." ACOG called RRM "an unproven concept." ASRM claimed RRM "typically excludes IVF and related treatments on moral or religious grounds, not clinical evidence." IIRRM answered ACOG and ASRM in an annotated response, which it also sent to the National Governors Association. There has been and continues to be a push in congress of bills like "S.2035 - Protect IVF Act" and others under a variety of names.
Bills like S.2035 endorse the current broken model. The Protect IVF Act (S.2035) says fertility treatment includes preservation of eggs (oocytes), sperm or embryos; artificial insemination; assisted reproductive technology, including in vitro fertilization (IVF); genetic testing of embryos; medications indicated for fertility; and gamete donation. A final clause adds other fertility services that the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines appropriate. Surgery is not named in that definition. S.2035 defines "widely accepted and evidence-based medical standards of care" as practices in accordance with the guidelines of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Under the bill, the rights to receive, provide and cover fertility treatment each apply to treatment in accordance with those standards. The medically accurate approach is missing: infertility is a symptom of multiple medical issues, often at once.
By defining fertility treatment in non-scientific and politically motivated terms, they will solidify once and for all the monopoly on women's bodies of the over simplified, binary approach: the fertility off/on switch, which ONLY offers birth control or IVF--aka a one size fits all profit machine. This will erase options for those who are morally opposed to IVF or want to seek true healing for their underlying issues.
The other dangerous outcome of focusing solely on IVF is that other surgical techniques will become extinct and once this happens, it is nearly impossible to get them back. We have already seen this with the decline in knowledge about how to unblock fallopian tubes (selective HSG) and ovarian wedge resections. A 15-year national study of US reproductive surgery found a significant decline in surgeries of the fallopian tubes and ovaries, coinciding with the increased use of assisted reproductive technology. This is the current fate of endometriosis excision if we do not act. There are simple surgical techniques that have very high success rates that are becoming less and less common, because doctors are only taught about IVF.
Once medical societies or doctors think IVF is the end all be all (similar to what happened with the birth control pill), they put blinders on and don't see the opportunities for innovation outside IVF.
So what can you do to help? Firstly, contact your Representatives and Senators. Ask them to support legislation that will expand RRM like the RESTORE Act and oppose bills like S.2035 - Protect IVF Act. If they are already doing so, thank them and encourage them to continue voting this way. Secondly, share this information with others! Follow us on Social Media and stay up to date on what is happening in congress.
Bills in Congress: RESTORE Act and Protect IVF Act
How to Contact Congress About Restorative Reproductive Medicine
- Contact your Representatives
- Example Letter from IIRRM
- IIRRM Response to Statements by ACOG and ASRM
Emphasize to your representatives and senators that Restorative Reproductive Medicine is about:
- CHOICE
- EXPANDING OPTIONS
- AUTONOMY
RRM is advocating for:
- Better knowledge of the female cycle
- Endometriosis excision
- Understanding and putting PMOS / PCOS into remission
- Fallopian tube correction, fibroid removal
- Improved quality of life & health
- Healthy mom/babies
- Enhanced epigenetics
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