Let’s talk about birth control.

I went to get my IUD removed yesterday, because having an estrogen secreting foreign body inside a human body with estrogen receptor positive cancer is a dumb idea. 

It did not go well. Suffice it to say that I got shot up with toradol and Valium so I could be transferred to an ob/gyn office 25 miles away to get the damn thing out - all the while having what felt like contractions every 6-8 minutes. Finally after a local nerve block they were able to get it out with an assist from me where I launched off the guerney and my IUD went with the forceps.

It occurred to me after hours of suffering yesterday that for thirty years I have put foreign bodies in, mucked with my hormones, or put in hormone-mucking foreign bodies to control my fertility. Why aren’t there male birth control pills? Why aren’t there more options for the other 50% of humanity responsible for making babies? Why do women have to manipulate nature and our insides so disproportionately? 

I don’t have answers to this, but I do have a suggestion - for all the men out there who might read this, if you really want to do something special for your woman this Valentine’s Day and you’re done having kids, go get a vasectomy. Hell even if you do want kids - it can be reversed! No hormones or foreign bodies necessary. Call it a Valentine’s Vasectomy.