Three Things Smart Women Avoid at All Costs: Part 1

1. Pharmaceutical Birth Control

“The pill” and hormonal and copper IUDs all have side effects (including a strong risk for depression and suicide[1][2]), disrupt the body’s natural rhythms, and can RUIN your health. They also tend to make women more casual about sex, which tends to be harmful for society.

2. High heel shoes

High heels are uncomfortable, ungrounding, distort your posture, do not protect your feet in cold weather, restrict toe movement, prevent you from running in emergencies, and are totally unnecessary. I can think of few things more ridiculous than walking around in shoes that are uncomfortable and that make walking more difficult.

3. Routine pap smears, pelvic exams and other invasive exams.

These invasive rituals rarely have a positive outcome.  Abnormal results often lead to more invasive and harmful medical interventions. If you want to maintain your health in these areas, it is much better to begin building healthy habits, rather than submitting to these violating procedures on a regular basis.

In a 2014 systematic review, the American College of Physicians recommended against routine pelvic examinations in asymptomatic, nonpregnant, adult women [3]. The physicians argued that the problems of false positives, humiliation, fear, anxiety, embarrassment, pain, and discomfort outweigh any potential benefit of routine pelvic exams on apparently healthy women.

“With the available evidence, we conclude that screening pelvic examination exposes women to unnecessary and avoidable harms with no benefit (reduced mortality or morbidity rates). In addition, these examinations add unnecessary costs to the health care system ($2.6 billion in the United States). These costs may be amplified by expenses incurred by additional follow-up tests, including follow-up tests as a result of false-positive screening results; increased medical visits; and costs of keeping or obtaining health insurance.”

References

[1] Skovlund CW, Mørch LS, Kessing LV, Lidegaard Ø. Association of Hormonal Contraception With Depression. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016 Nov 1;73(11):1154-1162. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.2387. Erratum in: JAMA Psychiatry. 2017 Jul 1;74(7):764. PMID: 27680324.

[2] Skovlund CW, Mørch LS, Kessing LV, Lange T, Lidegaard Ø. Association of Hormonal Contraception With Suicide Attempts and Suicides. Am J Psychiatry. 2018 Apr 1;175(4):336-342. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17060616. Epub 2017 Nov 17. PMID: 29145752.

[3] Qaseem, A., Humphrey, L. L., Harris, R., Starkey, M., & Denberg, T. D. (2014). Screening Pelvic Examination in Adult Women: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine, 161(1), 67. doi:10.7326/m14-0701