|
MIDWEST CITY- At least one
Catholic doctor believes that the reason American society is obsessed
with the contraceptive pill is because it has been brainwashed by big
pharmaceutical companies. These companies have been successful in
pushing their agenda into America’s medical schools. Doctors now
prescribe the pill not only to prevent pregnancy but also to treat many
gynecological problems. Unfortunately, the pill treats only the
symptoms, not the underlying conditions, this natural planning doctor
contends.
There
are fewer than 50 natural family planning doctors in North America. The
state of Oklahoma has two. One is in Tulsa; the other, Dr. Mary
Martin, has been practicing in the Oklahoma City area since January
2004.
Before
coming to Oklahoma, Martin practiced obstetrics, gynecology,
infertility, and Natural Family Planning (NFP) outreach in Hammond,
Indiana, at Saint Margaret Mary Health Care.
A job with
Renaissance Physicians of Midwest City brought her here from Indiana.
All Renaissance Physicians, including Martin, are Board Certified or
board eligible.
The
Renaissance Physicians were looking for someone to fill a niche for a
more natural approach to fertility, gynecology, and childbirth, Martin
said. She answered their call.
Martin has not
always been a supporter of NFP. Although a cradle Catholic, in 1995
when she started her practice in Warrenton, Virginia, she routinely
prescribed contraceptives. In 1999, that suddenly changed as she
underwent a conversion experience. She said a Catholic priest in the
Confessional made it her penance to research whether contraceptive
agents could cause abortions. Martin said she was shocked to find out
that, yes, contraceptives do have the potential to do just that. She
immediately stopped prescribing contraceptive agents for any reason.
As part of her
research, Martin observed first hand, via ultrasound , that
contraceptive agents do not suppress ovulation, reliably. “The failure
rate of the pill is roughly 10 percent,” Martin said. She cites the
Trussel study from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth.
When a
woman, who is on birth control pills becomes pregnant, “the
contraceptive makers always blame the woman and say she has not been
careful enough in taking the medicines, but the data is clear,” Martin
said. “I observed still developing follicles, (egg cells) and ovulation
in women on the pill, as witnessed by ultrasound.”
The contraceptive
companies say that ovulation does not occur. And perhaps that was the
case when the amount of hormones in contraceptives was much higher. But
the amount of hormones in birth control pills has steadily decreased,
and the new low-dose formulations certainly do not always suppress
ovulation, Martin said.
“Most troublesome is
what it says on the package of contraceptives. It states that the
endometrium [the lining of the uterus] is thinned by hormones in the
contraceptives to prevent the implantation of a baby. [In other words,
if ovulation does occur and results in pregnancy, the baby will be
prevented from surviving.] In my mind, this is the same as an early
chemical abortion. If that only happened one time in my career, I
wouldn’t want to be responsible,” Martin said.
Martin said she is
also concerned about couples with infertility problems. “Most infertile
couples are never properly diagnosed. They are simply told their best
chance of having a baby is in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is not only
prohibitively expensive, very invasive, and not covered by most
insurances, but it is also morally suspect,” she said.
Because of her Catholic faith teaching, Martin does not believe that
physicians should insert themselves into the creative act. She believes
that is exactly “what doctors do when they separate the marital act from
fertilization by IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART). I
respect the marital act. I’m not going to intrude on that,” she said.
Typically, the
doctor involved with in vitro fertilization asks the husband to collect
a sperm sample, and then, the doctor retrieves the woman’s eggs through
artificial means. The egg and sperm are combined in a test tube or Petri
dish. The resulting embryos are graded and frozen or simply thrown away.
“How are the husband and wife co-creators with God in this?” Martin
asks. “It’s completely a laboratory procedure.”
Unlike other
obstetricians and gynecologists in the U.S., Martin uses the research of
several doctors in Australia to help her treat infertility and other
gynecologic disorders. One of these methods is the Billings Ovulation
Method.
“Brown’s Ovarian
Monitor” was developed by Professor James Brown of Melbourne, Australia.
He is an Australian PhD., bioengineer who has done foundational work in
human reproduction,” Martin said. “He developed bioassays, which are a
way to measure the hormones in the blood stream and urine.”
Brown was associated
with two other Australian physicians, Doctors Lyn and John Billings, a
husband-and-wife team, also from Melbourne. A priest, Father Maurice
Catarinich, had asked the couple if there were a scientific way to
determine when a woman is fertile. The Calendar-Rhythm method of NFP was
unreliable, and Father Catarinich hoped that a more dependable, natural
method could be developed.
The
Billingses had discovered in the early 1960s that changes in
cervical/vaginal mucus indicated when ovulation had occurred, ovulation
being the time in a woman’s cycle when she is most fertile. Dr. Brown,
soon thereafter, developed bioassays. In the past 50-plus years, over
one million of these hormone assays, or tests, have proven that, as the
Billingses had discovered, changes in cervical mucus correlate exactly
with ovulation.
In the
1960s, the Billingses and Dr. Brown joined with Dr. Erik Odelblad, M.D.,
PhD., who Martin said was considered the world’s foremost expert on the
cervix and cervical mucus. His work tested what the Billingses had
suspected and Brown had proved: it is the pattern of change in the mucus
symptom that indicates that ovulation has taken place. Doctors can now
use these findings to help parents plan families and aid women with
infertility problems, without using IVF or artificial contraception,”
Martin said.
“Both
Brown and Odelblad had been on pharmaceutical teams that developed the
contraceptive pill,” Martin said. “Neither are Catholics, but both saw
the potential for misuse of the birth control pill; Now, in their mid
80s, both are still actively researching. The Billingses, who are
Catholics, put their lives into the science on which modern NFP is
based,” Martin said.
Martin
corresponds regularly with both Brown and Odelblad. These scientists do
not publish in the United States; they prefer European journals, such as
British Medical Journal and Lancet. Odelblad, a Swede, prefers Acta
Scandanavia, a Swedish journal. Both Brown and Odelblad have
collaborated with the World Health Organization throughout their
careers, Martin said.
So, if
the data concerning these findings from Australia has been published,
why have so few people in this country heard of these scientific
advances? “It is because there is such a bias against these findings by
the pharmaceutical companies,” Martin said.
“The pharmaceutical
industry has a huge stake in women’s health care. Not only are
contraceptive products used for birth control but they are also marketed
for the treatment of common gynecological problems.
“The
pharmaceutical companies have brainwashed [the medical community in the
United States against any methods other than their own]. They fund all
the research published in textbooks and sponsor all the medical
meetings, and so from the time we enter our training, we are inundated
with their products.
“I learned, studying
the work of Doctors Billings, Billings, Brown, and Odelblad, that I no
longer have to rely on contraceptive agents to practice gynecology. I am
now diagnosing and treating the underlying disorders. If a woman comes
in to see me with a problem concerning irregular menstrual cycles,
infertility, and/or pain, having learned the signs and symptoms of
fertility, I can now make a diagnosis of why she is having the problem.”
Polycystic ovarian
syndrome, PCOS, is one example of an ovulation disorder Dr. Martin
diagnoses. “PCOS affects a woman’s fertility, but her menstrual pattern
is symptomatic of a disorder affecting her entire health and well
being,” Martin said.
PCOS
increases the long-term risk of stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure,
and heart disease. Women with this condition have a 39 percent higher
chance of miscarriage, infertility, and undesirable side effects: excess
body hair, acne, central body obesity, irregular bleeding, and may have
other underlying metabolic problems.
“When
you prescribe contraceptives for this disorder, you are not correcting
the underlying condition,” Martin said. “If you simply cover it up, you
never get to the reason for it. I can help women with ovulation
disorders to determine the reason and correct it.
“If I
can fix a woman’s damaged fallopian tubes or a uterine or an ovarian
problem, I will do so, Martin said.
There are seven fertility monitors or hormone measurement
tests on the world market. Of these seven, only “Brown’s Ovarian
Monitor” actually predicts ovulation. The others spot-check estrogen or
luteinizing hormone, but that does not accurately indicate whether or
when ovulation will occur, Martin said. “With Brown’s monitor, we
measure the exact amount of hormone produced by the woman’s ovaries via
daily urine collection. The other fertility monitors only take snapshots
of her ovaries by spot-checking her saliva and urine; these tests merely
show that the amounts of the hormones, estrogen and progesterone have
met an arbitrary cutoff.
The other fertility monitors
also use mathematical calculations to arrive at the time of ovulation.
These calculations are not always correct, however.
With
Brown’s method, the actual production of estrogen and progesterone is
measured. When the amount of estrogen rises, it is the beginning of the
woman’s fertile phase. When progesterone rises, that is proof that
ovulation has occurred.
Not
only does the Brown method exactly pinpoint ovulation, “it is affordable
and morally consistent with our faith,” Martin said. “If the couple has
a correctable fertility problem, I can help them in an affordable,
non-invasive way.
“This
is Brown’s life’s work. I felt I had an obligation to provide this
technology to infertile couples. It can also help people with other
metabolic disorders like PCOS, hypothyroidism, which is an under active
thyroid, hyperprolactinemia, which is caused by a benign brain tumor,
and other disorders of the thyroid and pituitary glands, and
endometriosis,” Martin said.
Martin said many
currently practicing gynecologists and obstetricians “are afraid to stop
prescribing contraceptives. “They fear their careers will suffer. I am
proof that this is not the case. I have had three successful practices
in Virginia, Indiana, and here in Oklahoma to disprove this.
“I would ask any
woman currently on the pill, why she is on it?” Martin said. “What is
her diagnosis? Does she have irregular bleeding? That is not a
diagnosis. That is a symptom. What she needs to know are the underlying
causes of her bleeding.
“We have, for too long, ignored the underlying causes of bleeding,
infertility, or pain. I am interested in finding out what the underlying
causes of these conditions are and treating them,” Martin said.
|
