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Thursday,
May 18, 2006
*facepalm*
Great. The WaPo's headline "Forever Pregnant" blares that the CDC's latest report is recommending that women between menarche and menopause consider themselves "pre-pregnant" and take care of themselves accordingly. The actual CDC report also recommends that women space their pregnancies out, poor women should be provided with health care, and other logical suggestions. Still, I don't see any suggestion that men should consider themselves to be "pre-insemination" and I'll be damned if I'll consider myself a walking support system for my uterus.
A friend pointed out some VERY pertinent sections (boldfacing mine):
"Certain women and men need additional counseling and interventions. For example, women who have conditions treated with medications that are known teratogens (e.g., anticonvulsant or anticoagulant medications and isotretinoins) might need to change prescriptions. Women with medical conditions associated with increased risks for morbidity and mortality to mother and fetus (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, rubella sero-negativity, thrombophilias, dental disease, or obesity) need to control these conditions. Women with behaviors associated with increased health risks for the fetus (e.g., smoking and alcohol and illicit drug use) also need targeted interventions. Another group with specific counseling needs includes prospective parents with a family history of inherited (i.e., genetic) disorders.
"The preparers of this report analyzed the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (168) and demonstrated that diabetes affects approximately 1.85 million (21 per 1,000) women in the United States aged 18--44 years, and that preconceptional diabetes management has the potential to reduce the risk for pregnancy loss and congenital malformation for approximately 113,000 births per year. Anti-epileptic/antiseizure drugs are prescribed for approximately 1 million women (19 per 1,000), potentially affecting an estimated 75,000 pregnancies. Approximately 7 million (125 per 1,000) women of childbearing age are frequent drinkers, and without preconception interventions, alcohol misuse might affect approximately 577,000 births per year (168). Women with chronic medical conditions and their specialty providers should take advantage of every opportunity to discuss preconception health and risks. These conditions and risk factors affect substantial proportions of the approximately 4 million pregnancies that occur in the United States each year."
What the FUCK? So if you have epilepsy, or high blood pressure, or clotting problems, you're supposed to stop taking the drugs that can control these issues EVEN IF YOU DON'T PLAN ON HAVING CHILDREN?
I wish those alternate universe scientists would find the President Gore world already, especially after Saturday Night Live's latest opener. *sigh*