The Pill

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1277929/New-study-shows-Pill-affects-womens-libido.html

Time to whinge again I am afraid. Another essay on the demise of female sexuality which I am not going to let pass by without comment! Seriously, it’s not that bad but I do worry about the way issues such as this as portrayed in the press.

This week, the Daily Mail reported once more on the fact that the female contraceptive pill apparently causes a decrease in libido. It states that this is a new study but when you Google the subject it appears that there is very little that is new in this piece of research. Scientists have acknowledged for some time that there are significant side effects of using the contraceptive pill and that a decrease in sexual drive can be one of them.
The female contraceptive pill is fifty years old this week, hence the fact that it is back in the news.

The first thing that I am going to have to say now is that within this writing, I know I am going to appear to contradict myself. Firstly, I question the findings of this research mainly because I know that there has been insufficient research in the entirety of female sexuality. I suspect that there are hidden causal factors to decreased libido that may be blamed on the pill yet may be not caused by it. That is for starters. However, having said that, there is certainly some truth in the side effects of taking the pill and it never ceases to amaze me that a male counterpart has never been developed successfully. The cynic, the conspiracist and the feminist in me might go as far as to say that men produced the pill in the first instance and know all too well about the potential side effects which is why they do not want to produce one for themselves but that could be being a trifle unfair.

But let us start with the headline of this piece. “Why the pill is a passion killer: It may have sparked a sexual revolution, but a new study says the Pill has ironic side effects”.
Ho, ho, ho! How funny that a pill introduced to empower and protect women could potentially take away their very desire for sex? Isn’t that hysterical?
NO! If it is true, then it is far from hysterical. IF it is true, then why the hell are scientists not out there trying to do something about it, and whilst they are at it, perhaps they could look in greater detail at a much required complete study of female sexuality as a whole. If it is true, then why is the feminist movement prepared to sit there are let such a “new study” go by without so much as a whiff of objection or comment?

If it is true that women’s sexual desire is extremely diminished by taking the Pill then this needs to be looked at AND resolved as a matter of urgency. If a male Pill brought about flaccidness, believe me, it would soon be withdrawn, if you excuse the pun.
Women deserve more than this. Women deserve to know that the chemicals that they are placing in their bodies are not going to have a detrimental effect on their libido.

The Pill did mark a sexual revolution. Women were liberated. They were free to express their sexuality, especially at a time before the threat of illnesses such as HIV. They had choice; about their bodies, about the men that they chose to have sex with. It was the most wonderful and liberating thing. To think that it also robbed some women of their sexual drive is abhorrent.

So let’s think about this a little more carefully.
Clearly and stating the bleeding obvious, women use the pill during their child-bearing time. They may use it first when they are students, living life to the full, sleeping too infrequently, working hard (!) for A-levels or degrees. They may be using it first when they start a job at sixteen or eighteen once their days at school have finished. Both scenarios are hardly the most relaxing of times. Life changes such as these can be thoroughly exhausting. Life changes such as these decrease not only libido but all forms of energy.

Some women decide that they will stop using the Pill when they want to conceive. They only return to it once their ‘families’ are complete or in between a series of conceptions.
Now I don’t think I am abnormal in stating that the thought of sex a few weeks after childbirth was not actually the priority of the moment. Thought of conception at that time is pretty abhorrent even though many of us go for seconds, dismissing the horrendous pain of childbirth.
This is a time in life when, quite frankly, you are knackered, and that tiredness has little to do with sex. The libido is almost non-existent because you are simply too exhausted to breathe let alone invite a desperate cock inside you.
At a time when women start using the Pill again, they probably have young babies or toddlers to contend with.

And so women meander through to the last years of menstruation. Often periods at this time are heavy and unbearable. Sometimes, women at this time of their lives are pretty unattracted or unattractive to their partners so the sexual urgency of previous years, if indeed it existed then, is not present. But simultaneously, this could also be the time when women are about to come into their sexual prime, just at the time they might also be giving up on the pill.

The point I am making albeit clumsily and unscientifically is that there could be a multitude of reasons why a woman’s libido decreases at certain times in their lives and that it is a mere coincidence that they happen to be on the Pill at the time.

If you take this argument a logical step forward, it could appear that the Pill has become a sort of scapegoat rather than addressing the real reasons why a woman’s libido might have decreased and what is even worse is that if we can apportion blame to a medical intervention then we can by default solve it with one!
This excuse also leads to inertia. There could be a mere acceptance that the Pill is the reason for the low libido but it is simply a price to pay.

None of the above is acceptable.

Women should not accept reduced sexual desire at any cost, not even for all of the benefits that the Pill brought along. It is too easy to dismiss this with a laugh and a whim and a “oh well, never mind” because what that is actually saying is that women’s libido is not that important. We can live without it. We can still have sex without it – we just don’t enjoy it as much.

No, none of this is acceptable. It is time to make it very clear to men and to women that everyone has a right to a fully operational libido and if the contraception pill is doing something to suppress this then it needs looking into.

However (and I said I might be contradictory) is it really the pill that is responsible for this or is it just another instance of women not really knowing their sexuality and not having an opportunity to explore it? Just a thought.

The rest of the article had a couple of interesting statements.

Here’s the first.
“Other hormonal methods, such as implants, had the same effect. Yet the researchers found that condoms and other barrier methods boosted users' levels of arousal more than those who used no contraception at all - perhaps, the scientists speculated, because of the comforting knowledge that they are protected from getting pregnant.”
Well, this is interesting. Really it is. I’m not sure that protection from pregnancy is the biggest turn on that I have ever had. Personally, condoms do not suit my needs whatsoever. I want my cock next to my skin. I want total nakedness thank you very much and all I can ever think about when a man is wearing a condom is how annoying it must be for him. That can hardly be a turn on!
I cannot imagine why barrier methods are hornier than the thrill of the skin on skin feel of cock and pussy that the oral contraceptive allows. Then again, you get that with a coil too. All this leads to the argument that it is the pill that is causing this problem.

“The researchers believe that in preventing ovulation, the Pill also lowers testosterone - the hormone responsible for sex drive.”
I’m sorry but isn’t this stating the bleeding obvious as well? Surely people know this. But once more, if this is known to be an issue, surely in the fifty years since the Pill was first launched some sort of changes might have been feasible to ensure that there are changes to ensure the estrogens and testosterone levels are balanced to give protection but ensure that motivation is not lost.

The other thing that needs to be noted is that each individual case needs to be considered.
If the pill is responsible for a lowering of libido then I must be the archetypal antidote. My libido has gone through the roof since I returned to the Pill as my main form of contraception. This seems to comply with the argument that protection against pregnancy is an arousal in itself but contradicts this idea that the pill is a passion killer.
Isn’t some of this about mind over matter? If you have a sensible attitude to sex, if you have a real affection and desire for your sexual partner surely this will be enough to counteract the negative effects of the pill.
If my libido has been slightly suppressed by going on the pill, then I am almost relieved. The disappointment of unfulfilled pussy might be too much for me to bear. Perhaps being on the pill enables me to cope with the lack of sex on a daily basis. I’d be willing to test that one out and contradict it.

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Synchronicity? Irony? Who knows but I started writing this piece on Friday and then discovered that a far more capable writer was responding as I would wish.
Switch to the Guardian and Libby Brooks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/14/pill-50-years-freedom-from-conception

This article is much more celebratory of the oral contraception whilst recognising its pitfalls. It is not sensationalist or scare-inducing. It is a good, reasoned account of the Pill and the criticism it received but ultimately concludes that the freedom it provides is sacrosanct.
I couldn’t agree more because ultimately if we are truly to embrace female sexuality, this liberty has to be a central theme as well as a decent dose of knowledge about the sexual capabilities of the female body.

One of the things that has enabled me to reach towards my sexual peak has been the removal of the very many shackles that were standing in my way and preventing the enlightenment that I so clearly needed and wanted. The Pill has helped, especially since I am such a cock-loving woman and want to feel my man between my legs, uncovered in rubber accessories, but the real freedom has come with the constant reminder that I am a sexual being and that what my body is doing, what it is discovering about itself is perfectly normal and that my desire is perfectly normal too.
Not only that, but the real freedom has come from allowing myself to be free, recognising that nobody has the right to suppress my sexuality, not man, not pill, not expectation from society or family.
And still I keep some shackles on but they will be removed one day. After all, this is a journey.

So to conclude, the Pill has been a great liberation for women despite its flaws. Funnily enough, the first time I plucked up enough courage to get to the clinic to join the sexually free women, I did so with great excitement only to be dumped by my boyfriend two days later; before I’d even had time to test the damn things out!
The pill could possibly have some problems and there may be some women who have suppressed libido because of it but we should not hide behind this. There is every possibility that their lack of sexual drive comes from some other causal factor and to place the blame at the feet of the pill alone means that once more we will not tackle the other significant issues. Neither will we be able to begin to open these women’s minds to the sort of sex that every woman should be entitled to – the sort of sex that I am lucky enough to have, and that is with the pill to douse me too!

Once more, there needs to be more work done on raising women’s awareness of what their bodies are capable of and secondly enabling them to be sexually liberated with or without the pill, and that means opening minds as well as bodies.

The pill was a great invention. It liberated and has done so for 50 years but let us not settle for this as the final liberation. There is still so much more to be done in the name of sexual liberty and female sexuality.