BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Has anyone else noticed this trend?

I have been doing a significant amount of research on being childfree as I have been childfree for all of my 27 years and I am making it very official by having a tubal on Wednesday. I ran into a couple of very interesting articles, one by Kim Kenney, the former Editor for this forum and I noticed a similarity that I wondered if others had experienced. I have noticed that a number of childfree women have had tumors or cysts growing on/around their internal female anatomy. As the proud "parent" of my own 28 pound ovarian cysts I know this likely has some impact on my choice to remain childfree, but the impact may be even more so than I realized. Has anyone else had a similar experience or noticed a similar trend in their research. Let me know what you all think of this....

I don't have any that I know of and have never heard of that theory before. Sorry I can't add anything of interest.

i decided at a young age not to have children and i've never regretted it. i took birth control diligently from 18 years old until i was 37 and found out i had 9 pounds of fibroid cysts in my uterus! the doctor seemed upset when she told me that i 1) had to have my uterus removed, and 2) i would never be able to have children. how ironic...i always knew i never wanted to have children and then it turns out that i probably wouldn't have been able to anyway. i am SO HAPPY that i no longer have a uterus, a period, pms, cramps, etc. it's an awesome freedom to not have those monthly female issues. woo hoo!

I always wondered about that. In fact in my research and experimentation with the pill to manipulate my period, I stumbled upon on article that talked about a higher instance of cancer, cysts etc in women who did not have children simply because over their fertile lifespan, they had MANY more periods than a woman who had multiple children ever would. I guess it stands to reason, that we would have a heck of a lot more periods if we didn't get 2-4 9 month breaks.... Go figure. Based on all that info, I began manipulateing my periods so that I only had one every 3-4 months....it has been wonderful! Although now they have a new pill out ( Seasonale or something)that does the same thing - I wanted to get on it, but my doctor said I was fine doing what I've been doing. Now as I approach 30 and my 15 year anniversary of being on the pill, I have begun weaning myself off of it ( hubby has a vasectomy) in the hope that I don't maintain a chemical hormone dependancy....we'll see how it goes....A historectomy would be great!

i'm at the point now where i'm no longer begging my dr for a hysterectomy. even though i originally wanted children, the monthly pain (i would miss work) was so awful. but he always told me to wait. and i guess it's for the best because now i am doing the same as carleeng with the pill. have a few cycles a year, and since my hormones are controlled all year instead of whacking out all over the place, the pain isn't like it used to be. i avoided major surgery. whew.

but i have had some issues with cysts. at first they were caused by fertility drugs, but now they just pop up every now and then. not bad ones though. just small ones, so i can deal.

i think the pill is probably safe. usually the childless/childfree who have problems with increased risk of disease weren't on the pill and ended up ovulating month after month after month. going on the pill is supposed to actually help according to my dr. i still wonder how much damage i did by doing fertility drugs for all those years. but maybe being on the pill now will help me out a little.

this research interests me. i really would like to know if you find out any more stuff.

It's funny this subject has come up, because at the age of 45 I am at presently home on recovery from a hysterectomy due to a huge fibroid! Talk about making your life miserable! Near the end, my periods would come whether I was on the pill or not, every two weeks. I wouldn't be able to leave the house for three days due to embarassing incidents (even though guarded with a maxi tampon AND maxi pad). Nevermind the anemia! But now, it's over! WHEEEE!!! On the relevant topic, however, I'm childfree and had a tubal at the age of 30. I know two other another childfree ladies that had the same problem with fibroids resulting in hysterectomies. You never know, maybe there IS something to this...