January 22, 2005

The Media and Infertility

We all know that the media regularly addresses infertility in an unbiased, educated manner so that all of us can learn more about this epidemic, right?

All right, all right, stop laughing. Last night I had the news on while making dinner, and the announcement of a story about a new infertility treatment caught my ear, so I sat down to watch it. It was a report about a new drug, Leptin, which apparently helps start ovulation. Yay, right? Yay! Now, that really is a good thing, and I'm not knocking it by any means. However, the news story really irked me. The reporter had managed to find a woman to interview who needed Leptin--a model who was tall and gorgeous, and who didn't ovulate because she worked out constantly and was so skinny that she hadn't menstruated in fifteen years. Are you fucking kidding me? Now, I know there are high-metabolism folks out there who are naturally underweight, and I'm sure it's a serious problem, but couldn't they find an interview subject whose anovulation couldn't have been solved by simply EATING?? And maybe not spending six hours a day at the gym? How about someone who is at the correct weight and is perfectly healthy but didn't have a period for a year for no fucking reason whatsoever? How about her?

2 comments:

LilySea said...

Unbelievable.
After a backlash goes on this long, isn't just, you know, a LASH?

Nico said...

Hi Queenie!

I'm tickled to have found your blog. I'm in a similar boat - went off the pill last July and have not had a period since. After more tests than I've had in my life I've been diagnosed with hypothalamic amenorrhea... and am now working on figuring out how to get pregnant / have a baby (reading all these infertility blogs I've definitely learned that just being pregnant is not enough!). I haven't had a chance to read your whole site yet, but as soon as i've finished the work I have to do tonight I'm going to dig right in.

If you'd like to check out the things I've found out, I'm at http://noperiodbaby.blogspot.com. :-)

I have found a bunch of articles talking about the leptin / amenorrhea connection, and it definitely sounds like although it is correlated with weight, there are people with normal BMIs who have amenorrhea and low leptin levels.