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| I have three beautiful children and am at the point where I know I have all that I can handle. My husband keeps saying he will get a vasectomy—but he keeps putting it off. I am tired of taking the pill, and condoms are out of the question. I was thinking about getting my tubes tied, but that sounds scary and I have heard some nightmare stories about the hormone inserts. Do you have any other recommendations for long-term or permanent birth control? Have you heard of something called Essure? I heard about it on the radio and it sounded intriguing. –Kathy, Billings, MT |
 Birth control seems to be on the minds of everyone I know lately. I haven’t sorted it out myself yet, so I am glad that you asked this question. I reached out to our trusty on-call ob-gyn Dr. Randy Fink for the scoop on long-term and permanent birth control.Here’s a snippet (hehe!) of what he had to say: “Now, there is a method for tubal sterilization called Essure that can be performed right in the gyno's office. It can be performed in the operating room under general anesthesia but is really best suited for an office setting. The doctor places a small telescope through your cervix into your uterine cavity. We locate the opening of the left and right fallopian tubes from the inside of the uterus, and place a tiny coil of metal inside these openings. The tiny coils stay in place, and your body slowly develops a natural barrier around them. It is said to take three months for this barrier to form, during which time you must continue to use another form of birth control. At the three-month mark, you have a special type of X-ray performed called a hysterosalpingogram (HSG), which confirms that the tubes are blocked. The advantage of Essure is that it is usually done in the office setting in which (hopefully) you are already comfortable. There is no general anesthesia, so the recovery is much quicker. There is no incision on your abdomen, thus no scar. There is very little discomfort (slight cramping), but most doctors have a protocol for pain and relaxation medication you use beforehand. The disadvantages are that, being awake, you are aware of what's going on! If you tend to be an anxious person, this may cause you to be uncomfortable. You also have to find a doctor who know's how to do the procedure, since every gynecologist doesn't know the Essure technique. The advantages of a laparoscopic tubal ligation are that you feel nothing during the procedure, and the doctor has a chance to look at everything inside your abdomen, your liver and gallbladder, your appendix, and most importantly your uterus and ovaries. A laparoscopic tubal is performed by most gynecologists and is effective immediately; there is no three-month delay, and no test required to make sure it is working. The disadvantages are as I mentioned: the anesthesia, the scar and the small risk of damage to your internal organs when the telescope is placed inside.” He had more very helpful things to say, so click here to read up on permanent options. Click here to get the scoop on short-term and long-term options. Pills, IUDS and rings! Oh my! |
| I just got into eating tofu and I want my 5-year-old to follow my lead. Any suggestions? —Gwen, Warren, OH | ||
| Sure, I have a suggestion: Sneak it in. Our resident holistic health and lifestyle counselor Katherine Pennington gave us a sah-weeet recipe in her February “Mixed Greens” column for Chocolate Tofu Brownies. I made them—they are heaven and no one in my family was the wiser. Chocolate Tofu Brownies  ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder Raw or bittersweet chocolate chips 1⅓ cups whole wheat or all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce 1 teaspoon olive or canola oil ¾ cup light or dark sugar 1 package silken tofu (I like Mori-Nu) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Optional: chopped walnuts Nonstick cooking spray Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, place all the ingredients and process until smoothly blended. At this point, you can add unsweetened chocolate chips or walnuts and blend in with a spoon. Coat an 8"-by-8" baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and pour mixture into it. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until brownies pull away from the sides. Let cool for 15 minutes, cut into slices and enjoy. |
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| The product I’m loving this month: |
RAWvolution A gaggle of super-funny things just ran through my mind as possible opening lines for this blurb, but Ill keep them to my giggling self and just politely say that I am loving the idea of raw food.Theres not much in the way of prepared raw food in my hood, so I pine for some hipster transplant to open up a little raw café that I can call home. In the meantime, I have been stalking www.rawvolution.com, raw food guru Chef Matt Amsdens site, and circling in on The Box (insert snicker-worthy comment here). Ahem. The Box ($120) has two soups, four gourmet entrees, four side dishes and two desserts, all organic and raw, delivered to your door. If you go on the Ingredients page, you can check out whats on the menu—and it all sounds so awesome. I can feel myself anti-aging as I read it. So that's what I am loving—loving from afar for now. Damn you, recession! |
