"I've done it all my life, and I'm just fine!"

I wonder when Americans, particularly American women, will wake up and realize that we have the wrong idea. Conversations within my group of friends run the gamut, and two topics that have come up recently is the influx of foreign brides from eastern Europe and Latin America (in the military community, the Asian ones don't even register with us anymore because there are so many, and always have been), and the ever-popular topic of contraception. Believe it or not, these two things are inextricably related. Hang with me, and I'll tell you how.

I don't object to American men marrying foreign women, not in the least. I mostly wanted to know why there seemed to be such a rise in the popularity of such unions, so I did a little research. I turned up some things that were unpalatable upon initial reading, but ultimately made quite a bit of sense. It seems that many young American men are dissatisfied with American women within their age groups for many reasons, and one of the big ones is that many such guys feel that the American women available to them are all fat. That seems totally ridiculous until you actually look a little deeper into it, and find out that while it's certainly a generalization, and therefore cannot apply universally, there is definitely some truth in it also. The average height and weight for an adult American woman is 5'4" and 160 pounds. The resultant BMI of this combination is 27.5, which falls squarely within Overweight range. If that's the average, then it's certainly no surprise that obesity affects so many Americans these days. In 2007, 27% of American women were categorized as Obese. That means their BMI is 30 or higher. Wow.

Now, of course, these problems are not seen abroad as much, and especially not in eastern Europe, Asia, and parts of South America. Hell, if I were a single man my age, I wouldn't have anything to do with American women of this age category either!! I'm married and female, and I'm still disgusted. I cannot imagine how single men feel about the situation here stateside!

How can any of this relate to contraception? I'll tell you how. I was talking the other day with an acquaintance who wants to get a hormonal IUD placed, because she's been on the pill for over 20 years, and her doctor wants her to get off it. I said that synthetic hormones are not the best thing to use, and that she might look into non-hormonal options such as a copper IUD (which I have used for years, and highly recommend!) Everyone else looked at me like I had lost my mind. "But aren't there synthetic hormones in the pill? I've been taking that for x number of years, and I'm fine!"

You're fine? Let's see what "fine" looks like. Fine weighs well over 200 pounds and stands not a millimeter over 5'7". Fine has Type 2 Diabetes. Fine had to undergo extensive fertility treatments just to get pregnant. I think we're safe to say that is not fine. Nobody in that room was fine. They were all overweight or obese, with health problems out the wazoo, and most of them had some reproductive malady as well. They have all been on hormonal contraception of some variety since they were in their teens. I cannot even begin to believe that is a coincidence.

Internationally, hormonal contraception is unpopular. In fact, the very copper IUD which I wear is the #1 most popular form of contraception in the world. The reasons for that are the same reasons I use it. It's completely idiot-proof. It lasts 10 years, so you get a lot for your money. It does not contain any hormones, so it does not interfere with your cycle at all, or have any of the side-effects that hormonal methods have. The world got the memo that synthetic hormones are not our friends, yet here at home, our food supply is riddled with synthetic hormones, and as if that weren't bad enough, we further saturate our girls with them in the form of oral or injected contraceptive from the time they're teenagers. In no other country is it as popular as it is here, and the ones that come close are also the ones who are on our heels when it comes to obesity. This cannot be coincidental.

I wonder when the average American woman will wake up and see what she's doing to herself. I'm really surprised by the lack of self-awareness that I see in my peers. Maybe it is a universal human trait. Maybe I'm just as delusional as they are, although I try very hard to be self-aware. Still, the fact remains that it is obvious that a large percentage of American women are messing themselves up every day, and think they're fine. For the single ones, this means even more so than ever (within our lifetimes anyhow) that they are competing with women from abroad, who don't have these same afflictions. It's quite the situation, but very fixable.... if only the ones involved would be self-aware enough to fix it rather than sit there and insist they're fine, and (the single ones) wonder why they can't find Mr. Right.