The Debunking That Wasn’t
Follow Up on Birth Control, Depression, and Vetting Your Kid's Doctor
Over at The Federalist today, I continue my campaign against childhood’s oldest enemy, the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In it, I discuss that the modern medical establishment’s desires, in descending order of preference, appear to be as follows:
1. The patient kill her baby
2. The patient kill herself
3. The patient permanently sterilize herself
4. The patient be fruitful and multiply
Too hot a take? Please click over and read the article for yourself, and please do share it if you like it.
As I argue, there is a clear pattern of our medical betters supporting any intervention that either kills babies or causes sterility, while at the same time opposing any measure – even when proven to reduce suicidality – if it may lead to you cradling your grandchild in your arms one day.
At the risk of losing my top rated show at Fox, it is hard to imagine any non-spiritual-warfare explanation for the nation’s leading doctors so openly embracing a worldview that can be best described as the precise antithesis of the Book of Genesis. Is there an alternative explanation for our new medical cult of gender-denying barrenness?
One of the issues I discuss in the article is the link between hormonal birth control and depression in young women. This was established in a massive (million person plus!) Scandinavian study about a decade or so ago, though you’ll never find news of it over at the AAP.
In the interest of fairness, however, I though I’d share a contrary opinion on the matter from my own medical school. Here, in the words of Northwestern University, from 2020: “No, your birth control won’t cause depression.” The medical school’s press release goes on to claims its researchers have “debunk[ed] the common myth that hormonal contraceptives cause depression, suicide in women.”
Sounds quite definitive, doesn’t it? They even interview one of the researchers in the press release: ““When you review the entirety of the literature and ask, ‘Do hormonal contraceptives cause depression?,’ the answer is definitely no,” said corresponding author Dr. Katherine Wisner.” I mean, it doesn’t get more confident in a debunking than that, right?
Well, let’s just say I think the people who wrote the press release were really hoping nobody would read the study itself. A glance at the research involved finds those very same experts explaining that “[t]he impact of hormonal contraceptives on the risk for the emergence of depression is a complex topic without consensus” and concluding that “the potential for the development of psychiatric symptoms must be included in the discussion.” Hmm, odd. Not the most convincing debunking, is it?
Take an even closer look. The parts of the study that discuss depression and suicide are quite something. They acknowledge the existence of the massive, million-person, near-decade-long Danish study that found a tripled suicide risk among teen girls on the pill, but then say that, well, it’s complicated, because “contrasting findings have been reported by several investigators.” There’s just no consensus! To illustrate this lack of consensus, and I promise I’m not making this up, they write of the following study: “in an important randomized placebo-controlled trial, women were randomized to a COC or placebo for three cycles.” Yes, you read that right, three cycles. That’s 3 months. 3 months versus… 8 years. Surely there must have been a million women involved in the three month study, though, right? Not exactly. Look it up: 202. Not 202 thousand. Just 202 women. For 3 months. In a study whose very title is, and I quote, “Combined oral contraceptive use is associated with both improvement and worsening of mood in the different phases of the treatment cycle.” The Northwestern researchers weighed an 8 year long study of a million women in one hand, a three month long study of a couple hundred women in the other, and reasoned, well, it’s basically a draw. Then they put out a press release “debunking” any link between birth control and depression. Another victory for science!
This, people, is what we are dealing with, and what we’ve been dealing with for years. Believing in the possibility of a “neutral” worldview is what got us into this mess – and is the defining error of our age. Mollie Hemingway has written of her family’s great difficulty finding a single pediatrician in their neighborhood who believes biological sex is real. It’s only going to get worse from here; the rebuild will not be quick, or easy. In the meantime, do try to take my advice to heart, uncomfortable as it may be, and don’t take neutrality for granted anymore: do vet your child’s doctor, before it’s too late.
Thank you for reading and sharing, and don’t despair! Go back to Genesis; God does not forget His people and His promises. Don’t forget about Him!
This may be long, but here goes…
This is a topic of considerable consternation because my two daughters in their 20s are using these terrible hormones. Why? Well both would say they just find periods to be a hassle.
I also suspect that for my “older GenZ” there was the cultural myth that her cohort of college co-eds really believed: the high likelihood that they could be a date rape/rape victim, hence…the need for birth control.
When she began at “Flagship State U” dangerous frat parties and hook-up culture were still in full swing. (Of course, a few wise choices and this “problem” would, poof, disappear! But such reasoning did not hold much sway.)
Anyway come spring of her sophomore year and Covid rolls into town and dramatically limits — but does not completely kill off — this campus activity. But for all intents and purposes, it is back to “periods are a hassle.”
I have tried with both daughters to explain that (as they like to think of me) their “hippie mom” never used birth control —not only was I abstinent till marriage but (positively speaking) because I embraced the whole natural process of womanhood… “you will never feel better than when you’re ovulating” no matter how many cramps you have to put up with. (My engineering major was not swayed in the least.)
Interestingly, just this week I watched a YouTube “short” by a rather amusing female stand-up. The joke she made was: I’d like to quit using birth control (pause) because I’d like to meet myself. I thought, this young woman suspects that having an artificial, emotionally flat affect is not to know yourself (at the very least). Who knows, maybe she also experiences hormone- induced depression. Honestly every female needs to see some chart that correlates the huge rise in women’s depression with the growing use of birth control — one of the most suppressed medical facts out there.
And finally, there is the worry that my daughters have set themselves up for fertility issues down the road. Recently, thanks to Jordan Peterson, I watched the first part of the documentary, Unplanned Childlessness. The shocking factoid in the film is that 50% — 50% — of women who wait until 30 to conceive FAIL. One would assume that the vast majority were taking hormonal birth throughout their 20s, if not teens and 20s. I doubt we will see a peer reviewed study on THAT.
You if have gotten this far, thanks! My final word is one (I) must pray — even though it’s so hard to witness the state of the world into which innocent babies are being born. Still I must challenge myself to have faith that God still desires procreation and that it will be a blessing to my three daughters one day.
As a retired pediatric pulmonologist, I have become convinced that the blinkered, hard-working pediatrician can no longer hide behind her profession. The transgender craze represents the worst medical malfeasance of my recently concluded 40+ year career. As a retired person, I have availed myself of the in-depth perspectives of lots of skeptics, many of whom write on Substack. I am shocked at the cut corners, the lack of true informed consent, the disinterest in the data on detransitioning outcomes, and the deference to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the endocrine societies. I am not up to speed on OCPs and depression but find Adrian's overview compelling. I have opposed the AAP for decades. It has never been interested in really finding out what its members want. It goes with the leadership's bias and the "permanent" staff in Washington, DC.