Lactation & text message reminders

Testing her milk ducts

Lactation and menstrual sex: Returning readers will recall that I’m lactating. I’ve never been pregnant. It was induced lactation caused by nipple manipulation when I was a latex-model for a Canadian fetishwear company during the summer when the ballet company I was with was on holiday. On balance I enjoy being milked so much that the bother is worth it. I have it controlled so I’m able to maintain my figure by taking L-dopa (an off label use) to control my prolactin level. The only side effect from the dopamine so far is that in addition to controlling my milk production so my breasts don’t grow above a B-cup it increased my libido! Go figure!

To keep up my milk production I’m eating an additional 750 calories per day and I need to stay well hydrated especially since I dive so much which is also dehydrating because of the water pressure. I’m looking forward to menstrual sex this weekend with one of my stallions who enjoys breast feeding as well swimming in the Red Sea.


iHealthBeat.org
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Text Message Reminders No More Beneficial for Users of Birth Control

Women who receive text message reminders to take oral contraceptives are no more likely to do so than women who do not, according to a study published in the September issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, MedPage Today reports.

For the study, researchers at Boston University recruited 82 birth control pill users from a local Planned Parenthood clinic. The women were given oral contraceptives from an electronic monitoring device that reported missed pills in real time through wireless transmission.

The women were divided into one group that received daily text message reminders to take the pill, while a control group created their own reminder system, such as through a cell phone or clock alarm.

The researchers found that missed pills were common regardless of whether the women were reminded via text messages (Phend, MedPage Today, 8/24).

Melody Hou -- lead author of the study and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Boston University School of Medicine -- said that 68% of women in the control group adhered to their own reminder system, which could account for the lack of significant difference between the two groups (Hobson, "Health Blog" Wall Street Journal, 8/23).

Only 16% of the study's participants had "excellent adherence," meaning they missed no more than one pill per cycle on average (MedPage Today, 8/24).

Hou added that no particular method has shown to be effective in reminding women to take their oral contraceptives.

The use of text messaging to remind patients about health-related behaviors is being tested in other areas as well, including for HIV treatment ("Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 8/23).

Personal comment: Perhaps I’m too old to be that much into gadgets, but the outcome of this experiment doesn’t surprise me. At St Lucy’s we try to get students to sync their pill taking to some activity that they do at the same time every day, bathe, brush their teeth etc. I think there are too many things that can go wrong with a reminder message to a student’s cell; forget to carry the cell, drop it, the battery dies etc. A woman has to have a commitment to using her contraceptive method correctly and if she must take an oral contraceptive then linking her daily pill taking to a personal activity each day is the best way for a woman to remember.