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Hello, I’m back from a wonderful Sacred Arts Camp- the sun shone and we sang and danced! I do hope you had a wonderful bank holiday!

Since I got home I’ve been reading Alexandra Pope and Jane Bennett’s book The Pill- wow, what a shocker! I have some for sale and I really recommend it to women who are on it, thinking about going on it or your friends who are on it! (under the term The Pill they include all hormonal contraceptives)

The statistics of women on the Pill who are suffering from depression as a side effect are scary- and its made me realise many women I know who suffer from this are on the Pill- I’ve never made the connection! And a lot of doctors don’t either. There are many stories of women who have suffered extreme side effects apart from depression, and amazing survival stories- it well worth a read. I have posted a review of the book below and its available here on our books page http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/books-new-secondhand/the-pill-are-you-sure-its-for-you-new  

Anyway- on a happier note- I have a new page where I am donating 10% of the price of our PINK PADS to the Penny Brohn Cancer Care Centre, so if you fancy going pink… click here 

http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/category/pink-pads-to-support-cancer-care/

Moon Times Pink Pads are to raise money for Penny Brohn Cancer Care Centre

10% of the cost of your pad will go direct to 

I’ve finally finished and published my new book; The Moon Times Cycle Charting Journal (including Moon Cycle Malas)

For women who want to chart their cycle naturally: includes information on your cycle, your hormonal changes throughout the month, natural methods to chart your fertility and has a 400 page journal to guide you through your cycle! Set includes a moon chart and moon mala beads Moon Times Cycle Charting Set is avalaible in our Books section http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/category/books-new-secondhand/

“Tuning in and listening to your body is the key to self empowerment and well being!

This set including journal, cycle malas and moon chart provide an interactive tool to enable you to understand how your cycle and body are influenced by your hormones and the ebb and flow of the moons cycles.

“Give yourself time to tune in and reclaim your cyclic nature. Write a short journal entry everyday. The rewards for doing this are beyond measure. You’ll feel connected to life in a whole new way, with increase respect for yourself and your magnificent hormones.” Dr Christiane Northrup”

What else is new?
See Shop for featured products and new stock! http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/

A selection of Women’s Teas are on sale here

We have some Healing Herbs Wall Charts (these have very useful information and make a great gift)
Wall Charts  http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/accessories-gifts-teas/womans-healing-herbs-wall-chart/

And you can visit us next weekend at :

The Garden Festival, Hellens Manor, Herefordshire 13 & 14 June
A wonderful festival celebrating all that’s green: from plants, to hand carved wooden objects, woven baskets, clothes, brick a brac and much more…well worth a visit!
Garden Festival

Or in July at:

Quest Natural Health Show, Newton Abbott Race Course, 2-5 July
A wonderful weekend of workshops and stalls and music
Moon Times will be there with a stall and Moon Lodge and Joanna who created the Daughters In Flower Cards will be offering readings!
Quest

and to finish...

Book Review by Anita Bennett

The Pill: Are you sure it’s for you?

By Jane Bennett and Alexandra Pope
Published by Allen and Unwin 2008

“The best news is that the female body is designed for ecstasy.” (p. 198)

From two writers who have devoted much time to women’s fertility health, comes a book which should be making the same headlines in the mainstream media as does the anti-smoking lobby. Why? Well, for one, how many of us knew that the authoritative WHO (World Health Organisation), upped the warning on the Pill in July 2005 by reclassifying it from “possibly carcinogenic to humans” to unreservedly “carcinogenic for humans”? That’s right, the Pill is proven to increase your chances of getting cancer—use of it before age 20, when most women take it, doubles the risk of breast cancer (The Lancet). And the injectable contraceptive that many of us feminists succeeded in banning in the 70s, Depo-Provera, because it caused such dreadful bleeding and weight gain is experiencing a big revival in the UK, even though experimentally Depo causes the most rapid proliferation of breast cancer cells. As the book asks so clearly “Will we soon see packets of the Pill carrying warnings like those on cigarette packs?”

Don’t hold your breath, but do take a look at how the Pill affects our everyday enjoyment of sexuality. Exactly thirty-three years ago, when in my twenties, I nearly died from a Dalkon Shield IUD-related ectopic pregnancy. After the British National Health Service saved my life, because warning signals had not been picked up while I was living in America, the consultant gynecologist, flanked by a group of medical students, came into my room to discuss my case. “What are the side effects of the patient taking the Pill now?” They went through the usual ones, thrombosis, etc., but still the consultant was not satisfied. I spoke up. “It’s puts you off sex.” “Right,” he beamed at me. “It decreases the libido.” I returned to the diaphragm for the rest of my reproductive life, following in my mother’s and grandmother’s footsteps and used it to overcome the
same consultant’s prediction that with only one tube I would be unlikely to ever have children. I’ve had three, on one tube.

So how wonderful it is to read on from the author’s line about ecstasy that “when we are given drugs such as the Pill, this ecstatic potential is interrupted the more it’s interrupted the more we may find ourselves relying on outer sources for our "high" and not trusting the wisdom and power of our bodies.” They drawn attention to Professor Lorraine Dennerstein who noted on television “that it’s strange that we have pharmaceutical companies spending millions of dollars trying to develop a pill that improves women’s sexual interest or arousal, while at the same time we liberally distribute the oral contraceptive Pill, which suppresses women’s sexual function. The Pill flattens out the natural oestradiol highs and suppresses testosterone, delivering a double libido blow.”

The book is easy to read, with punchy chapter titles, such as “Period power and how to get more of it”, “Dying not to get pregnant”, as well as clearly headlined sections. I would like summarise in quotes key points from several chapters, starting with “Taking the Pill for skin and period problems.”:

“If you are taking the Pill to handle PMS, period pain, cysts and acne, it’s important to realise that the cause of your symptoms hasn’t actually gone away, it’s been repressed. You can create further difficulties for yourself. These can be poor overall health, feeling unconnected to yourself, moodiness and depression—and YOU MIGHT ALSO HAVE MORE DIFFICULTIES WITH YOUR PERIOD AND FERTILITY WHEN YOU DO COME OFF THE DRUG. …”
Chinese Medicine practitioner Jane Lyttleton says that the Pill causes symptoms of liver qi which can lead to premenstrual symptoms, headaches and mood changes, and eventually risk fibroids.
The authors go on to explain that, “The Pill makes it harder to heal health problems in general and it could be exacerbating your menstrual woes rather than aiding them… It drains your body of essential nutrients, and disturbs absorption of key nutrients.”

One of the most refreshing insights, a real improvement from earlier feminism, is the emphasis on menstrual wellbeing. “This is
based on respect for the real intelligence for of your cycle. The old way which viewed the cycle as the problem is very last century and counterproductive.” A box has the following health tip, “Doing what you love. If you did not have to worry about the rest of the world when you bleed, what would you most love to be doing? Find a way to do at least 10 per cent of that.”

The beauty of the book it is more advocating how to get it right than it is simply knocking the Pill. My favourite section contains suggestions on how to combine barrier and natural fertility methods. “By combining natural and barrier methods ‘user fatigue’ can be avoided, as a condom or diaphragm may only be needed for a few days a month…When barrier methods are relied on solely for contraception, effectiveness may be compromised when a couple becomes tired of using them and may guess at or hope for a safe time. By learning fertility awareness you add to you options and deepen your understand of when you’re fertile. It’s easier then to enjoy safe, contraception-free sex and save the rubber for when you really need it.” To compliment my diaphragm soapbox, I recommend their excellent advice on natural spermicides, including, from Russian research, a fizzing Vitamin C inserted into the vagina ten minutes before sex. Or lemon juice on a sea sponge. This is important because some spermicides are not easily tolerated and it puts women off diaphragms.

As a teacher of the Alexander Technique, best known for back pain and performance anxiety, I like the section on the beauty of natural methods because it compliments my work to encourage dropping bad habits and to adopt new ones: “Gaining an understanding of their cyclic changes is not only healthier but also far sexier and more positive for relationships. The great secret of these methods is that once learnt, they then become automatic and then there’s very little to do…

“Paul’s partner Genevieve had tried the Pill and an IUD and then learned that Natural Fertility Management methods. He thinks,
”It’s great living with a natural woman and being part of her sexual and fertility cycles.” They happily share their contraceptive responsibilities and enjoy using fertility awareness to decide about when, or if, they want to have children.”

If there is one critical suggestion I would make it would be to make the Epilogue into the book’s subtitle—“Contraception for Great Sex”. This is the culmination of all the book’s hard work and it should be pasted on every bedroom wall. They write: “In the same way that relationships and sexuality are journeys of discovery, learning about your fertility and cycles can equally be an adventure that reveal new horizons.

Sex is a potent, grown-up activity, with powerful grown-up consequences—emotionally physically, socially and psychologically. In order to experience all that sex offers—the fun and the passion as well as the fulfillment and healing—requires embracing the whole sexual package. By giving care to your decision about contraception, as well as all the other implication of a sexual relationship, you may be very pleasantly surprised about what experiences unfold for you.”