Christian Marriage – Sex Technique and sexual fulfillment

The IUD is a soft, flexible, plastic loop or hook-shaped plastic rod, which must be uncoiled, placed into a tube like a soda straw, and inserted by a physician through the cervical canal and up into the uterine cavity, where it returns to its original coiled shape. Some IUDs are now made of stainless steel. Others have a fine threadlike copper wire wound tightly around the shaft. The small amounts of copper released in the uterus are thought to alter the functions of the enzymes involved in the implantation process and may also interfere with sperm transport within the uterus. The copper’s benefit begins to weaken in two years, and the IUD must be replaced. Another IUD, shaped like a T, releases a small amount of progesterone into the uterine cavity for one year, and then must be replaced.
No one knows exactly why the IUD is effective, but some researchers believe that it hastens passage of the ovum through the cavity of the uterus, not allowing time for it to be implanted to start a pregnancy. Others believe that the IUD causes a local inflammatory reaction inside the uterus, so that the fertilized ovum is unable to implant because the uterine lining is improperly developed. Some feel that the IUD may produce a very early abortion. In one experimental series, rape patients received insertion of copper-bearing IUDs between twenty-four and forty-eight hours later, and no pregnancies resulted.
The main complications and side effects of all IUDs are pelvic inflammatory disease (two to three times normal), septic abortions, perforation of the uterine wall, embedding in the uterine wall, fragmentation of the IUD, exposure to radiation to locate lost IUDs, and ectopic pregnancy. While the overall mortality rate for IUD use is lower than that for oral contraceptives, IUD users experience seven times more disease.
Pelvic infections occur in about 4 percent of all women who have IUDs inserted, some of these very serious, some requiring hysterectomies, and some eventually causing sterility from inflam-mation and scarring of the fallopian tubes. Even the newest IUDs can cause infection and should not be used by women who want a future pregnancy. If a woman has used an IUD, her chances of being infertile are doubled.
Accidental pregnancies in women with IUDs carry an unusual risk of being ectopic; in other words, the ovum may be implanted in the fallopian tube. The chances of this happening are ten times higher with IUD users than with non-IUD users, and spontaneous abortions are three times higher than they are in pregnancies not complicated by an IUD.
Recent data suggests that infections related to ectopic pregnancy pose the greatest single danger of death for IUD users. IUDs significantly increase the chance of abnormal pregnancies, if conception does take place, but the death rates associated with pregnancy are also dramatically increased. One type of IUD was permanently removed from the market in 1975 for these reasons.
It has been documented that using an IUD increases the amount of menstrual flow in most women, and the pattern of menstruation also seems to begin earlier and end later, extending the menstrual period by two to four days each month. Researchers estimate that 10 to 20 percent of women are forced to discontinue use of IUDs within two to three years after insertion because of excessive uterine bleeding. Many more who keep their IUDs may develop iron deficiency because of chronic increased loss of blood, and some may become anemic. Another unpleasant side effect may be a vaginal discharge—watery, clear, mucuslike, and odorless.
An estimated 10 percent of IUDs are expelled during the first year after insertion. Expulsion is most likely to occur during a menstrual period. Attached to the IUD is a firm nylon thread, which protrudes from the cervix into the vagina about one inch. The woman can touch this thread to be certain that the IUD is in the proper place. When necessary, this thread is used to remove the IUD. If tampons are used during the menstrual periods, care should be taken each time a tampon is removed to be sure the thread attached to the IUD did not become entangled, so that the IUD is pulled out along with the tampon.
The easiest time to insert the IUD is during menstruation, when the cervical os is slightly more dilated, and it is the best time because your doctor can then be sure that you are not pregnant. The IUD should never be inserted immediately after the birth of a baby. Always wait at least two months, preferably longer.
If you are using an IUD, it should be checked by your physician every year or two. If you have excessive bleeding, heavy vaginal discharge, pelvic pain (especially with fever or persistent spotting of blood between menstrual periods), see your physician immediately.
While the IUD offers a high degree of effectiveness as a contraceptive, we now know that it can and sometimes does tamper with the delicate internal mechanism of the woman’s body to a serious extent. I cannot recommend it, and I discourage its use.

Tags: IUD

Posted under Planning and Achieving Parenthood

1.    When used properly, the oral contraceptive is the most effective reversible contraceptive method known.
2.    It is a simple, sure means of contraception. No special prepa-rations are necessary at the time of intercourse. The woman is protected at all times.
3.    It does not interfere with the spontaneity and pleasure of lovemaking.
4.    No measuring or fitting needs to be done by a physician.
5.    In most cases the woman’s menstrual cycle becomes more regular.

Tags: Oral Contraceptive

Posted under Planning and Achieving Parenthood

The oral contraceptive method known as the pill is based on the discovery that the hormones estrogen and progesterone in the right combination can actually prevent ovulation. These are the same hormones that halt ovulation during pregnancy. Therefore, some women who begin taking the pill experience symptoms like those in early pregnancy, such as breast tenderness, a full feeling, or morning sickness.
The contraceptive tablet is taken every day for twenty-one days. To start out, a woman takes the first pill five days after the start of her menstrual period. She then takes one pill every day, until she has taken twenty-one pills. Then she stops taking the pills, and within two or three days her period should begin. Seven days after taking the last tablet, she begins taking the pill again for twenty-one days, and repeats the cycle. This routine continues month after month, for as long as the woman wishes to prevent pregnancy.
The pills are basically composed of two hormone substances, closely resembling the natural hormones estrogen and progesterone, which are normally manufactured by the ovaries in the woman’s body. They signal the body not to produce an ovum, and thus none is present to unite with the male sperm released during intercourse.
It is important to understand that as long as a woman is taking the pill, it is the pill that controls the timing of her menstrual cycle, not her own hormones. Since not every woman has the same response to a particular hormone dosage, there may be times when some bleeding or spotting will occur between menstrual periods. There also may be some increase or decrease in the amount and duration of menstrual bleeding, or a woman on the pill may completely skip periods at times. If you do miss a period while taking the pill, you must still continue your same schedule dosage to be assured of protection against becoming pregnant. If you skip two periods while taking the pill regularly, return to your doctor for a checkup. Usually the pill makes menstruation more regular and menstrual cramps are almost always eliminated.
We know of no harm in continuing your pills a few extra days if you occasionally desire to postpone a menstrual period. The delay of the period may be particularly desirable if the husband has a job that allows him to be at home at irregular but predictable times. To regulate the time for onset of your menstrual period in this way, you must confirm from your doctor that you are taking the combination pill that has both estrogen and progesterone in each tablet.
If you decide to discontinue the tablets, ovulation usually will begin again in the first menstrual cycle after the tablets are discontinued. However, some women have difficulty in resuming ovulation and menstruation. It may take up to ninety days to ovulate again.
Many women ask if taking the pill will delay the menopause. The use of the pill may in some instances cover up the onset of menopause, but there is no evidence that its use will delay it.
What about discontinuing the pill to become pregnant? Some experts recommend that to be on the safe side, women should wait three months before attempting to become pregnant, using an alternative form of contraception in the meantime such as the condom or diaphragm.
The pill is the most effective of the artificial contraceptive methods, with less than one pregnancy occurring per one hundred women per year. However, mounting evidence concerning serious risks for pill users is being reported in medical literature. One of the most disturbing conclusions was made by researchers involved in a continuing study of forty-six thousand women in Great Britain begun in 1968. As reported in the Lancet, a leading British medical journal, the study’s authors conclude that pill users in general face a 40 percent higher death rate than women of the same age who have never used the pill.
The United States Food and Drug Administration has warned of a definite relationship between the use of the pill and blood-clot disorders. Death from blood-clot complications occurs in three out of every one hundred thousand women taking the pill.
To put this into perspective, consider the mortality rate resulting from pregnancy: 22.8 deaths per 100,000 women, and the mortality rate from abortions: 100 deaths per 100,000 women. Statistically, the pill is less of a hazard to life and health than is smoking, driving, or swimming. For example, a woman who drives twelve miles on an urban freeway takes all the risk of dying that she would if she used oral contraceptives for her entire reproductive life, approximately thirty years.
However, the woman who smokes should realize that the pill is extremely dangerous for her so much so that the experts today assert that any woman who wants to use the pill should give up her smoking habit. Otherwise, she must choose another means of contraception. It is known that the incidence of fatal blood clots and strokes quadruples in smokers, ages twenty to thirty-four years, and is twenty-five times higher in smokers, ages thirty-five to forty-four years. So if you smoke, do not use the pill!
Strong evidence also links birth-control pills with an increased incidence of gallstones in younger women. Oral contraceptives are suspected of causing ten thousand new cases of surgically documented gallstones in the United States alone. Another study of 16,638 women over ten years reports that a number of specific diseases, including malignant melanoma, may be linked to the pill.
Some research results are admittedly inconclusive, however, because of lifestyles among the users, which may influence the results. For instance, researchers point out that girls now using the pill seem to have earlier and more frequent sexual activity, and this may account for their strong tendency to have more cervical cancer.
In light of these findings, the individual woman must weigh the health risks of the pill against its effectiveness and convenience as a birth-control measure.
Lesser side effects of the pill may include nausea and vomiting, but these problems can often be overcome by taking the pill after dinner, when food in the stomach can slow its absorption and help avoid unpleasant effects. The symptoms usually disappear within a few days, as the body adjusts.
If any of the following conditions occur, the woman using the pill should consult her physician: frequent or persistent headaches; discoloration of the skin; unexplained pains in the chest; unusual swelling of the ankles; shortness of breath; disturbance of vision, such as seeing double or seeing flashes of light; unusual, persistent, or unexplained pain in the legs; lumps or growths in the breast; frequent or persistent vaginal bleeding.
Oral contraceptive pills are presently the most popular form of birth control in the United States. However, the associate executive director of Planned Parenthood of New York City predicts that in the future women will use the pill for much shorter periods of time. She believes that very few women will remain on oral contraceptives for as long as fifteen years.

Tags: Oral Contraceptives

Posted under Planning and Achieving Parenthood

Every baby born should be considered a gift from God. Of course I am totally opposed to abortion unless the life of the mother is threatened. And it is my personal conviction that when both partners are knowledgeable and maturing Christians, they should have as many children as they feel they can properly train for a productive Christian life.
Husband and wife can know a special joy as they share together in the total preparation of their children for lives of individual service to God. Each child is launched out into the purpose of God as an arrow from their quiver.
God clearly pronounces blessings on parenthood but, as many of you have discovered, parenthood involves giving and more giving, without thought of receiving in return. One finds that the rewards God promised come spontaneously but not on demand. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted under Planning and Achieving Parenthood

Recent brides have told me that they wish someone had shared a few suggestions with them. For this reason, I want to include the following hints:

•    Make all your wedding preparations far enough in advance so that there are no last-minute details for which you are responsible.

•    Both the bride and groom should be rested. This means no girl talk until the wee hours of the morning of the wedding and no bachelor party the night before.

•    Plan a short trip for the first night.

•    Be certain to pack a tube of artificial lubricant.

•    Have a small towel handy to absorb the secretions. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted under Attitudes and Communication

Two things should be said about the children in this discussion of sex and marriage. First, they should be in the proper place in the line of priorities. Our husbands must come first and the children after that. Some women put the children ahead of the husband; then when the children are grown and gone, the husband and wife have no basis for communication with each other. Second, our home is where our children first pick up attitudes concerning sex. The best sex education they can receive is to know that Mother and Dad love each other and to see this love expressed in tender, considerate ways. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted under Attitudes and Communication

I have been asked how my marriage has changed since Ed and I became Christians years ago. There is no comparison! Before that time, of course, we were both self-centered. We did not have the kind of sex relationship spoken of in this book because we just did not care that much about pleasing each other, and we were quite ignorant of the meaning of sex in God’s Word. We got along well together but we did not share our innermost feelings with each other.

Now that we are Christians, I know that the love Ed has for me is the same kind of love that Christ has for me. I am safe and secure in that love. I know that I can always talk to my husband, and that I can trust his wisdom as the spiritual leader of our family. As we have become so used to pouring our hearts out together in prayer, we now are free to communicate about anything to each other. We are not afraid to expose ourselves and our faults, because we know that we accept each other, just as we are, with all our frailties and faults and good points. How wonderful it is to know that I am not loved based on my performance: No matter how poorly I perform, I am still going to be loved. And that has to make me perform better. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted under The "Perfect" Wife

Both of you will enjoy sex more if you feel that your appearance is at its best. Of course, this is not always possible, especially at those times when lovemaking occurs spontaneously. But at bedtime your husband will enjoy seeing you at your bathed and prettiest feminine best. And your confidence in your own desirability will rise accordingly. A filmy nightgown creates an aura of loveliness. There are some “granny” gowns that even Granny would not wear, and your husband’s old college T-shirt probably doesn’t do much for a woman either. However, if that is what your husband wants you to wear, then by all means sleep in it. Some of you may be thinking that your husband couldn’t care less what you wear to bed, just so you take it off at the right time. Nevertheless, a clean, perfumed body attired in a feminine gown tells him that you care enough about your time with him to be your most appealing and desirable. Now we all know that a husband is greatly stimulated by seeing his wife’s body, but there can be too much of anything, even nudity. Going about the house nude or only scantily clad is not a good practice. As a wife once told me, “A little something left to the imagination is especially enticing.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted under The "Perfect" Wife