Everything's Personal, Nothing's Sacred - Dementia or a dry vagina, some choice

June 19, 7:36 AMRelationship ExaminerKristen Houghton

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If you look at the media ads on television and in magazines you will find a "miracle" drug for whatever ails you. From RLS, (restless leg syndrome), to arthritis,  to erectile dysfunction,  to vaginal dryness there's a miracle drug or cream. The pharmaceutical companies tout these products with the same zeal and fervor formerly seen in snakeoil salesmen of the late 1800's. Miracle drugs! Pills for your ills! Cure-all creams! Step right up, sucker!

But there is one difference in the ineffective but harmless "medicines" those snakeoil salesmen were selling and the highly touted miracle pills of 2009. The ones that are so easily obtainable today can literally damage or kill you.

The warnings, printed in small print of course on endless pamphlets, list everything from dizziness, faintness, and nausea to sudden death! Sudden death?! I can hear a hurried conversation taking place in a pharmaceutical board meeting now.

"Yes, well, Jim, we do know, sudden death is a bit of a problem. I mean the drug is good, effective, and approved by the FDA. It would be perfect if it wasn't for that SD warning. But, you know, what can we do? That's life....or, ummm, death, uh, I guess."

Now I realize that all products, even baby aspirin are required to carry warnings, but still some of the drugs seem to have warnings on their labels that make a person have to choose between feeling better or being dead. And sometimes dead isn't the worst effect. There's something called severe senility.

Take the often used vaginal cream, Premarin. It is prescribed by doctors for menopausal women to relieve vaginal dryness and burning. Women who use it say it not only makes sex comfortable, it also promotes vaginal health making this area feel pretty much as normal as before menopause. A cure-all cream indeed! There's only one problem - it can cause dementia.

The choice between having a normal sex life by using the cream and possibly getting dementia or not using it and having an uncomfortable  dry vagina, but less risk of dementia, is a tough decision. Since we're living longer, we definitely want to have good quality of life and that includes healthy, normal sex. Do we have to choose between dryness and dementia? It's a no-win situation to my way of thinking. I really am not looking forward to having to choose between the two in my future.

Men don't get off so easily either, no pun intended. Even with the popular erectile dysfunction cure-all pills for men there comes a major warning. Men taking these pills may be in danger of priapism, a painful erection that lasts for more than four hours and develops when blood in the penis becomes trapped and unable to drain. If the condition is not treated immediately, it can lead to scarring and permanent penile damage. So the drug you're taking to help your sex life can possibly end your sex life, now there's a conundrum. How do you win in this case?

I know there have to be warning labels; if there weren't, drug companies would be sued more than they are now. The warnings are scary though because they're real and people will think twice before using them. I hate to think what these choices are doing to society though. We're going to end up being dry, flaccid, and frustrated. Our minds will be okay, we won't be senile and we'll still be living......in a matter of speaking.

We just won't be enjoying it.

"Everything's Personal, Nothing's Sacred" appears every Friday in Kristen's Column.

© 2009 all rights reserved Kristen Houghton 

Do you put your own happiness on hold just to make other people happy? Learn how to put your life first in Kristen Houghton's new book  "And Then I'll Be Happy!"  due in stores 12/22/09 Pre-order it today.

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