Newton's First Law of Motion

47

Pennsylvania

Newton's first law of motion. It was the first thought that went through my mind when I was taken by Lyft - and then by wheelchair - into the hospital ER on a day in mid-October 2018. After months of increasingly concerning symptoms - the final of which rendered me barely able to walk - I awoke in total body pain from my neck down to the soles of my feet. As Newton's First Law clearly states, a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless an external force acts upon it.

For me, that external force was autoimmune illness rheumatoid arthritis - a diagnosis received months later - after being gaslit by medical professionals and transferred to a different hospital for care. I was 42 years old and a former spinning instructor, distance runner and cyclist, and powerlifter. I was also going through the beginning stages of perimenopause. This body, no longer in motion, felt like a heap of mess - one that was tossed out of doctor's offices repeatedly for inconclusive bloodwork and symptoms that were written off as something that was "all in my head". As a middle-(r)aged woman living with chronic illness while also experiencing wild hormonal shifts, my life seemingly changed overnight. Gone was my consistent energy and genuine lust for life Iggy Pop-style; replaced with occasionally crippling pain, fatigue, a general feeling of malaise, brain fog, hot flashes, restless legs, anxiety attacks that graduated to full-blown panic attacks... I was being tag-teamed by both my wacky immune system and my hormones - only to be written off by a so-called "menopause specialist" who told me years later that she "didn't like to prescribe oral contraceptives as HRT to women" with no logical reasoning shared with me behind why this was. I left her office feeling deflated, angry, and hopeless.

Weeks later, I reached out to a trusted medical professional - whose care I hadn't been under since my early 30's. Only then was I heard. Only then was I understood. A woman around my same age and armed with compassion and well-informed medical training on women's health cycles, she prescribed me Vienva - a low dose estrogen and progesterone birth control pill. After 5 long years of struggling, battling, cursing, and fearing my way through perimenopause, I began taking the pill at the same time daily. Within 2 weeks, my musculoskeletal pain began melting away. Soon thereafter, the hot flashes stopped entirely. I started sleeping through the night again. My anxiety and panic attacks - a thing of the past. My Iggy Pop mindset returned as explosively as the rock star himself.

This body in motion - while creaky and sore from RA damage and symptoms - now remains in motion again thanks to strong self-advocacy, empathetic, knowledgeable women's healthcare, and birth control remaining available, safe, and legal. It is absolutely critical that we keep it this way by using our power to vote for political representation that passes legislation to protect and codify women's health, gender-affirming care, universal healthcare, and the laws that protect it - because the same principle applies: progress, autonomy, and access will continue - but only if we keep applying the force required to protect them.