#birth control mention

[lieutenantselnia]

Imagine your scientist f/o inventing a new kind of birth control for the two of you. They'll do everything they can to come up with something that's easy to use, and most importantly, doesn't have any health risks or bothersome side effects. They'll try to come up with something that you don't have to keep track of all the time, but only has to be renewed once every few months or so. Maybe they even manage to create something that can be used regardless of which biological sex a person has, so you're free to decide who of you is going to take it, or maybe you want to take turns or both of you use it to make sure. And should you decide one day that you want to have children now, it will be completely reversible without issues, and you can start your family together.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

FOR A BEAT OF HEART, THE BREATH IS SHOT. AND WITHIN A BREATH, THE HEART IS CAUGHT. THE PIPES ARE BURSTING, UNDER GREAT STRESS, BOLTS TORN ASUNDER, MAKING A MESS. A FINAL COUGH, A FINAL RETCH, A GOREY SLOUGH, CLAIMED BY WRETCH.

[myokk]

Being this close to her mother, Eloise was struck by their physical similarities. As a young girl, it had been impossible to see, but now that she was a young woman they were striking. She felt as if she were looking in a mirror, but a twisted mirror: everything that was warm about her appearance was turned cold in her mother: hazel eyes to a frigid silver, unruly brown hair to straight black; her mother’s skin was somehow even more pale than Eloise’s, as if she were cut from marble. Everything soft about Eloise was made sharp in her mother, and Eloise wondered what had made her this way. She was terrified that in twenty years’ time, the two of them would be indistinguishable.

Had Elladora Black always been like this? Eloise couldn’t imagine any time when her mother might have smiled, or even huffed in quiet laughter. No moments where she had been caught staring at her husband with love and warmth in her eyes. Eloise had only ever known her as an ambitious, cold woman who was always striving towards some goal, even if it was known only to her.

Someone couldn’t spend their whole life like that, could they? Even growing up at the manor, Eloise had always had Leo to confide in and love unconditionally. Had her mother ever had something - or someone - like that?

“Soon, we will be the family we were always meant to be,” Eloise’s mother said, causing Eloise to startle out of her thoughts and stare her mother in the eyes. They were filled with longing. They were mesmerizing. Eloise shivered under the intensity, but couldn’t tear her eyes away. “Soon, we will be back on our way to being the most prominent pureblood family in Britain, with the help of you and your brother. You can’t fail us. You can’t.”

From chapter 23 of my fic, Before It Felt Like A Sin

this post is dedicated to @elliecutte the only other person who is as crazy about Elladora Black as I am😌🙏

[arrowmaker15]

(Steph, Jason, and Tim sitting on the couch in Wayne Manor)

Steph: So, why did you and Rose break up?

Tim, curious:

Jason: Well, we broke up for the reason every other couple breaks up. We weren't having the amount of sex required to ignore the bad things about each other.

Tim: ....what...?

Jason, not stopping: It's just like this one phrase; "Love is blind. Lust is Hellen Keller."

Tim, spitting coffee out: JeEZus!

Steph: We don't have that problem, do we?

Jason: Oh, hell no. Three times a day is perfect.

Tim, partially choking: STOP TALKING-

[cardsharksplayingames]

.

[leupagus]

Say what you will about Martin's writing style (and I've said plenty) but I do think he's got the White Walkers' mythos worked out for a future book and IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO NICE IF THE SHOWRUNNERS HAD DONE 1/100TH OF THAT WORK SETTING THEM UP

Gus: I am mad all over again that there was absolutely zero explanation given as to why/how the Night King operates or how his powers work or why he chose now to attack or ANYTHING ELSE

Gus: on the plus side it means I get to make up a whole subplot that, not to brag, I'm comfortable saying is at least as good as anything D&D could've made up IF THEY HAD EVER EVEN BOTHERED

Gus: but like - okay so craster's infant sons get sacrificed to the Night King, who them magics them into White Walkers as babies

Mardia: Yep yep

Gus: so does that mean there's a white walker nursery

Mardia: Omg

Gus: do they have to change diapers

Mardia: LOOOOOOOL

Gus: is there a white walker daycare center

Gus: how does the night king TEACH his lil adopted monster babies

Gus: is there like storytime around the - well not fire

Gus: does the Night King remember what it was like to sit around a fire?

Gus: does he miss being a human and all his rage at the spell the Children of the Forest put on him to kill the First Men has curdled his brain?

Gus: what was he DOING for like 8 millennia, just hanging out?

Gus: did he get really good at ice fishing?

Gus: DO THEY EAT?

Gus: where the fuck do they get their snazzy outfits from

Gus: are there white walker tailors

Gus: what's the currency situation

Mardia: Lololololololol

Gus: I'M JUST SAYING

[horny-deadcat]

Kinda a vent: The struggle about bc as a trans masc… first of all you have to be on one if you’re going to start t, since having a kid while taking T can lead to all sorts of side effects.

There are two kinds of birth control: estrogen based and progesterone based. Estrogen is the generally feminizing hormone, whereas progesterone is what the body produces when pregnant so that fluctuating estrogen levels don’t cause you to release more eggs.

You’d think, oh, I don’t want more estrogen in my body if I’m going to be taking T, cause that may hinder some of the effects, so I’ll take a progesterone one… thing is, progesterone based bcs don’t stop your period, and can in fact make it longer. The last two months my period has lasted for 2 weeks ish. It’s probably gonna happen again this month. I got maybe a week and a half of not bleeding. And yes, I have cramping and unstable hormones the. Entire. Time.

I’ve switched to pretty much only tampons because they make me less dysphoric, but even going to get them feels awkward. I hate the fact that there’s pretty much nothing I can do now to lessen my period. I cant even be on t because of various things. I can’t do any of my hobbies too much because the cramps hit out of nowhere and I’m doubled over in pain. It even happens at work.

Idk… I’m tired of my body’s bullshit, and if I could id get the fucker ripped out of me (the uterus I mean)

[doomdaysdecays]

contraception should be just as much if not MORE the responsibility of men. its their fuckass sperm that invades and causes pregnancy in the first place yet all theyre expected to do is put some rubber over their dick for like 15 minutes if they even make it that far

[semiotomatics]

lol. i think ive reached my limit.

[jennifersbod]

so tired of birth control (medicine) shaming. Like yes it’s a band aid fix in some cases but we do very much USE band aids?

[tpup]

You fantasize a lot about being a trans woman. That puffy nipples post you made in march made me do a double take when I saw your url was tpup (trans man url.)

Interesting interpretation of my posts! I specify that I'm TME in my bio; I don't wanna mislead people. My posts are not about me fantasizing about being transfem 🤷‍♀️

A lot of posts of mine are made with transfems in mind; I was in a long term relationship with someone while she was transitioning & a lotta my posts come from me enjoying being part of that. I'm also for the first time in my life feeling comfortable as a woman, and enjoying that exploration, but I always try to mention I'm TME so as not to mislead TMA people.

I'm t4t, a lesbian, and generally more comfortable & feel most sisterhood with transfems. I don't identity as a trans man (although I have in the past) I guess I'm something closer to a cisgender transsexual lately. I'm a woman, I like being on T, and I think I want to pursue phalloplasty some day.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Major conservative influencers on social media platforms such as Twitter and Rumble have coalesced in recent months around talking points that connect birth control with a variety of negative health outcomes, which experts say instill fear in women who could otherwise benefit from using birth control.

But the information the influencers are referring to lacks crucial context, says Dr. Danielle Jones, an OB-GYN, and they fail to include recent scientific developments that challenge their narrative.

Tim Pool, Ben Shapiro and Steve Bannon have all made anti-birth control content in the past six months. Sometimes, they feature female conservative personalities who make content about women’s issues.

Alex Clark, who hosts a pop culture show for the youth conservative messaging organization Turning Point USA, is one conservative woman who has railed against hormonal birth control in recent months. The progressive watchdog publication Media Matters for America first reported that Clark said her “mission” is “to get young women off this pill.” In a response sent in a direct message, Clark wrote “Birth control can be right for some in some cases, but we shouldn’t just take it blindly because of acne and we shouldn’t treat it as the default for all women.”

While some strains of conservative politics have spent years attacking birth control, the more recent resurgence of anti-birth control talking points comes alongside a broader push from online conservative creators against the medical establishment and treatments from vaccines to gender-affirming care, all of which have been recommended in certain circumstances by the American Medical Association. In her response, Clark called birth control “synthetic,” as opposed to pregnancy, which she called “natural.”

The social media trend of attacking birth control has also coincided with legal and legislative efforts targeting birth control access, most notably emergency contraceptives. In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling that revoked the constitutional right to an abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court “should reconsider” other decisions, including those codifying the right to contraceptive access.

Jones, who is also a YouTube creator with 1.2 million subscribers, has made multiple videos discussing the rhetoric around reproductive health. In an interview, she said the primary tactic she’s observed on social media to undermine birth control has been “to take a study that backs up what they’re saying, then use that to draw some extravagant conclusion.”

“It’s thinly veiled, but it’s veiled enough that the average person often doesn’t identify it,” she said.

Many videos point to a 2018 study that found an association between taking hormonal birth control and suicide attempts and suicide in women in Denmark. But researchers and physicians who have cited the study have urged patients not to stop using hormonal birth control. Rather, health care experts have said that doctors should discuss any potential mood effects of the medication with patients, as other studies have contradicted the 2018 study, and pregnancy can also have mood side effects.

Ashley St. Clair, who has more than 673,000 Twitter followers, referred to the association suggested in the study in a tweet in which she said “Did you know the birth control pill increases risk of suicide and suicidal ideations?” In June, Twitter owner Elon Musk liked a number of anti-birth control tweets, including St. Clair’s tweet.

Jones said the 2018 Dutch study into suicide and hormonal birth control was “really important and well-done.”

But she said just reading the 2018 study’s abstract and drawing conclusions from that alone is lacking crucial context when making medical decisions. Primarily, she said, the risks of contraceptive use are not compared to the same risks in pregnancy, which she said are higher. The 2018 study specifically acknowledges that pregnancy also has association with higher rates of suicide.

In a phone interview, St. Clair said she believes women are being put on birth control at a young age without being told the risks of depression and suicidal thoughts.

“I was on it at 14 and I wasn’t told these things,” she said. “I really believe there needs to be more education for women around this.”

Similarly, Clark wrote in her response to NBC News that she wants patients to be “radically thoughtful” about making medical decisions.

“That starts with understanding the potential side effects, not downplaying them,” she wrote.

Jones tells her own social media audience to consider the motivation of people who post about birth control online. Oftentimes, they’re coming from a religious or political perspective, or they’re trying to sell something, she said, adding they are neglecting the scientific consensus in favor of alarmist sentiments. She pointed out that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended that birth control be offered over the counter to anyone.

“There’s extensive data on this,” she said. “If birth control is safe enough to advocate that it should be over the counter, there’s absolutely no reason it should start to become a topic of legislation about who can access it and why.”

Still, Jones said, the way conservative influencers weaponize research about birth control's side effects has a real-world effect.

She said it is a daily occurrence for women at her practice to decline using hormonal birth control out of fear that it will cause permanent changes to their body and fertility.

“You basically are scaring people out of using birth control and not even comparing it to pregnancy,” Jones said.

In place of birth control, she said, many conservatives have taken a page from the natural health community and promoted cycle tracking and other fertility awareness methods. Several of the female conservative influencers write for and share articles from Evie Magazine, a media company whose founder also created a cycle-tracking startup called 28 by Evie. Conservative billionaire tech titan Peter Thiel has invested in the startup and more recently in fertility companies targeting international markets. During her interview, St. Clair also suggested that women should be taught to track their cycles as an alternative to medication birth control.

But, Jones said, fertility awareness methods to prevent pregnancy could fail “even in the most experienced person.” They require taking the temperature every day before getting out of bed, monitoring cervical mucus and knowing exactly what to look for, keeping track of all of these things on a chart, and avoiding intercourse or using another method to prevent pregnancy within the fertile window, she said.

According to the Mayo Clinic, fertility cycle tracking is among the least effective types of birth control, and that effectiveness varies by couple. It said that as many as 24 out of 100 women who use natural family planning will become pregnant within the first year. A 2021 study of period-tracking apps for fertility planning found that out of 10 apps used, all of them gave conflicting dates of fertility, most of which were incorrect.

“People get pregnant because they didn’t know they had to do all these things to make that effective,” she said.

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

thinking about fallout 4 against my will

[forgotten-daydreamer]

vent moment but my health is a bit worse than i let on, which is weird ik since it seems like complain about it all the time here, and apparently i also look sick, because two separate people in their 40s or 50s asked me, 24, if i needed their seat on the bus. kind of them. but humiliating nonetheless.

[marcusbrutus]

UGH the lead-in-tampons shit makes me so mad, this would have been solved yesterday if it happened to men. i hope they realize how much western medicine caters to them specifically. they have like 16 different prescription and non-prescription pills for erectile dysfunction but things common among women like PCOS and endometriosis and PMDD remain a ~mystery~, usually treated by hormonal birth control that we will probably lose access to next year.

[wishesofeternity]

“Warwick launched his final bid at kingmaking, this time in alliance with Margaret of Anjou to restore Henry VI. He and Clarence landed in Devon while the King was in Yorkshire. Elizabeth (Woodville)’s initial reaction was to prepare for a siege in the Tower of London where she had already retired in expectation of the imminent birth of another child. But on 1 October news reached the capital that the King was preparing to set sail from Bishop’s Lynn, abandoning his kingdom. With no hope of imminent rescue, Elizabeth moved swiftly into the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey with her mother and her daughters. She sent Abbot Thomas Millyng to advise the Mayor and Aldermen that she was surrendering the Tower, and consequently Henry VI, into their custody.

- J.L Laynesmith,  “Elizabeth Woodville: The Knight’s Widow” in “Later Plantagenet and Wars of the Roses Consorts” / “The Last Medieval Queens, English Queenship 1445-1503″

"Elizabeth (Woodville) at first fortified the Tower of London against the approaching Lancastrians, but then decided instead to hand over custody of the Tower to the mayor and aldermen of London while she went into sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. It was a move which not only protected her daughters, who were with her, but also saved London from attack, which perhaps explains some of the praise she later received. The author of 'The Historic of the Arrival of Edward IV, who claimed to have witnessed much of what he recorded, stressed

the right great trowble, sorow, and hevines, whiche [the queen] sustayned with all manar pacience that belonged to eny creature, and as constantly as hathe bene sene at any tyme any of so highe estate to endure; in the whiche season natheles she had browght into this worldc, to the Kyngs grcatystc joy, a fayrc son.

...When Edward (IV) arrived, there was a scene of family bliss, in which the queen's vulnerability and domesticity could be contrasted with his heroism.  The king was thus presented in an unusually human guise, which might appeal to readers familiar with such partings themselves throughout the civil wars:

The king comfortid the quene, and other ladyes ckc;  His swete babis ful tendurly he did kys;  The yonge prynce he behelde, and in his armys did bere. Thus his bale turnyd hym to blis.