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Happy Birthday Jackie O
July 30, 2009 - Thursday
Posted by Corey
This month would have marked the 80th birthday of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. I have always been fascinated with Jackie O – I’ve had two Jackie sightings in my life. One, on a beach in Negril (1975, wearing a tie dyed tee shirt over a bathing suit) and once on Madison Avenue (1977, wearing her signature large sunglasses and head scarf).
Jackie really was American royalty. Her outward persona when President Kennedy was assassinated has been discussed unendingly since 1963. Less discussed has been her miscarriage in 1955, and her still birth, in 1956.
Jackie has always fascinated me. Like all celebrities today, we know so many things about her that are simply none of our business to know. But having had a miscarriage myself, this has always been the piece of Jackie history that I have held onto when I needed to call up a bit of courage.
I remember years ago, speaking to Grandma Rita (Whelan) when she was in her early seventies. She started to tell me about her miscarriage, some fifty years earlier but couldn’t get through it because she choked up. It’s a horribly painful experience for a woman to bear, whether it is tied to a larger story of personal infertility or not. My own miscarried baby would have been a boy.
Those who miscarry are part of a large group, a universal family of women who know, and understand. I came across this list, by no means complete, of our more famous sisters who count this as part of their life experience:
http://in-their-honor.blogspot.com/
If you need to know the company you are in, please visit it, and know that you are not alone.
Happy birthday Jackie O. What a life you lived. Thank you.
Corey Whelan
Program Director
The American Fertility Association
Categories
Infertility •
Miscarriage •
Pregnancy Loss
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What do male frogs with eggs, genital defects and your everyday products have in common?
July 20, 2009 - Monday
Posted by admin
By: Heather Sarantis
Yesterday as I trolled the New York Times, I was excited to see that Nicholas Kristof was at it again. I am a fan of his under normal circumstances, but his recent columns focusing on hormone (or endocrine) disruptors just really hit the nail on the head.
Hormone disruptors are substances not naturally found in the body that interfere with the production, release, transport, metabolism, binding, action or elimination of the body’s natural hormones. They can scramble messages that natural hormones normally transfer between cells.
They are used in numerous everyday products, including plastic bottles, cosmetics, the lining of food containers, medical devices, pesticides and many others. And the vast majority of people are being exposed to them–some tests showing more than 90% of the people tested by the Centers for Disease Control having certain hormone disruptors in their bodies.
Kristof’s columns highlight several important trends. First, we are seeing evidence of hormone disruptors in wildlife, such as male fish developing eggs, which means their use is widespread enough that they are dispersing into the environment. Second, we are seeing evidence in humans – for example, baby boys developing genital malformations or young girls entering puberty prematurely, which means we are putting ourselves and our children at risk for reproductive and other health problems.
Researchers have known for years that hormone disruptors may cause health problems. For example, Bisphenol A, a hormone disruptor found in some plastic bottles (including some baby bottles), was known to have potential health problems as early as the 1930’s. But scientific consensus about chemical safety–and subsequent regulation–is often a tough row to hoe. Last month marked a big success in the struggle – the Endocrine Society released a ground breaking report stating that exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals are a growing threat to human health and well-being. Recognition from professional societies such as this is critical in tipping the scales toward better safety regulation of chemicals, and many of us who work on chemical safety applaud the Endocrine Society for taking a bold stand on this issue.
So, what do hormone disruptors mean in everyday terms? If you are reading this blog, you are likely either thinking about having children or are several months or even years into trying have children. This is a good time to be learning about these chemicals. What a woman is exposed to throughout her life, especially during pregnancy, can have long-term impacts on her baby’s health. There are too many hormone disruptors, and too many health risks from exposure to list them all here, but they can increase risk for a wide range of reproductive health problems, such as impaired fertility or infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, miscarriage, shortened lactation and breast cancer. For a more complete understanding of these issues, see Girl, Disrupted: Hormone Disruptors and Women’s Reproductive Health.
No formula currently exists that can determine the exact effects hormone disruptors will have on a person’s health. Research indicates that the effects depend on the potency and dose of the chemical, the timing of the exposure (especially if exposure happens during pregnancy), and overall health. Taking good care of your general health is important, and other ways to protect your and your potential future babies’ health include:
1. Support policies to prevent exposure to hormone disruptors and other chemicals that have not been proven safe. Current standards for chemical use do not adequately protect us. New national policies are needed to identify and phase out harmful chemicals and to require that safer substitutes be used.
2. Use healthier products when possible. There are many easy, affordable and simple changes anyone can make at home to reduce their exposure to environmental contaminants. For ideas on how to make these changes, please see www.womenshealthandenvironment.org.
Heather Sarantis is the Women’s Health Program Manager at Commonweal/Collaborative on Health and the Environment. She is the author of the women’s health and environment toolkit, works on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and does many other things to help people reduce the exposure to harmful chemicals.
Categories
Endometriosis •
Family Building •
Fertility •
Fertility and the Environment •
Infertility •
Miscarriage •
PCOS •
Pregnancy Loss •
Reproductive Health
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