BjornP wrote:Well, if the need is prevention of pregnancy, there is a legitimate need, which is greater than simply wanting to look good in the mirror. True, it is not a medical neccesity like the curing of a disease, but if a woman does not want to be pregnant, I'd rather that doctors administer birth control pills than she gets pregnant and decides on an abortion.Speaker to Animals wrote:As far as a need, a woman doesn't "need" birth control pills either. Preventing conception is not a medical necessity. Doctors prescribe drugs and provide treatments that are not medical necessities all the time. Medical necessity is not a valid argument against providing scripts for these drugs and hormones so a man can build muscles.
What matters here is risk. While birth control pills actually cause quite a lot of problems in society due to the number of women using them and the long durations for which they use them, the individual risk is pretty low. That's why doctors don't mind handing out scripts. It's not different for testosterone. Lots of women have totally fucked up their hormonal system with those drugs too. It's a good analog.
Looked that up, and didn't know it impacted sperm count and delayed puberty for men and disrupts ovulation for woman. That's pretty major side effects, tbh, even if it's from long-term use. Even better arguments against legalization.Speaker to Animals wrote:
Not that the analogy would be broken if marijuana had no hormonal effects, since it has detrimental effects far worse than testosterone anyway, but yeah, it does have hormonal effects. Pretty bad ones. It delays puberty, wrecks sperm counts, and disrupts ovulation. It definitely has adverse hormonal effects.
(1) It's not just about "looking good in the mirror". In fact, most of us don't care about that at all. That's body builder territory. We generally want to reach our physical potential, which is not always possible for men with injuries or a rough start in terms of childhood and nutrition. Being larger and stronger results in a very different social experience. Trust me. There is no going back to small.
(2) Not wanting to get pregnant is no more or less "legitimate" than a man wanting to get stronger. Neither are medical necessities. Contraception results in severe social problems, such as declining fertility rates and collapsing welfare states, so it's not like you can argue it's somehow more legitimate and less destructive (it's certainly more destructive, both individually and collectively, and it's arguably no more or less a legitimate desire on the part of the patient).
I would add to those that, while birth control pills have a terrible effect on society, having a stronger male population is a net positive, so at the collective level these things don't even compare: birth control is detrimental whereas safe and managed cycles of steroids and male hormones would be a net positive.
