Hi, MD here. The collection of questions feels pretty random personalized (EDIT) - even if I would wanted to I could not really see where I should start and where I should stop. I believe that most of these questions should be answered like a good obstetrician/gynecologist who knows you and not by someone without rigorous medical training who volunteers to comb through google scholar. Some prompts:
Many women do not make a break. But this should be discussed with your obstetrician/gynecologist.
Nothing “relevant” new in the contraception space available for males to my knowledge.
For the UTI issue: shower your genital area before and after sex (seems more important for the female), both wash your hands depending on what you are doing with them and (as female) drink a glass of water with a tablespoon of D-Mannose ideally before each intercourse and on a regular basis (every other day). I spent a non trivial amount of time researching this a 2-3 years ago and it is definitively superior to Cranberry (but I am too lazy to look up the literature now and link it here).
So go ahead and visit (or spend the money on private calls with) good physicians (if you mistrust your healthcare system you could for instance look up those people who where involved in writing up the medical guidelines in your country on the topics that itch you the most). It will be more adjusted to your needs and the professional will help you to separate the relevant from the mere interesting.
I believe that most of these questions should be answered like a good obstetrician/gynecologist who knows you and not by someone without rigorous medical training who volunteers to comb through google scholar
People without conventional credentials combing through google scholar is a mainstay of LessWrong (this includes me). If you object to that practice or think people are doing a bad job then I think you should make a top-level post laying out your case, where it can be debated without hijacking someone else’s request. Criticizing just one post feels both unfair to that one post and shortchanging the argument, since only people interested in this particular question will see it.
Interpreted charitably, I believe that mschons’ comment is claiming that for this situation in particular, combing through Google Scholar isn’t the best approach, not that it is inappropriate in general.
I agree that it’s a pretty vast topic. I agree that the questions are personalized in the sense that there are many different personal factors to this question, although the bullets I listed weren’t actually really personalized to me. One hope I had with posting to LessWrong was that I trust people here to be able to do some of the “what’s most relevant to include” thinking, (e.g.: everything that affects ≥10% of women between 20 and 40 + everything that’s of more interest on LessWrong than elsewhere (e.g. irreversible contraception)) I agree it’s a tall order though.
For talking to my doctor: I found my experience of talking to doctors pretty frustrating to be honest. I think I’ve learned much more about contraception (including about where my doctors were misinformed) via the internet or friends than doctors. I don’t doubt that there are excellent doctors out there, but it’s difficult to find them. The advice with looking up people who wrote up medical guidelines seems solid.
That being said, while I’m interested in the topic myself, I was mostly thinking that it would be good for the LessWrong/EA community to have a reliable source. (I’m mostly constrained to hormonal contraception and have already tried out a couple, so my remaining search space is relatively small.) I think it could save lots of women many hours of research into which contraception to take + productivity loss from trying out or permanently choosing suboptimal contraception.
You prompted me to try out the D-Mannose, thanks! I’ve had it lying around, but was always to inert to research whether it actually works, so never bothered to take it.
Hi, MD here.
The collection of questions feels pretty
randompersonalized (EDIT) - even if I would wanted to I could not really see where I should start and where I should stop. I believe that most of these questions should be answered like a good obstetrician/gynecologist who knows you and not by someone without rigorous medical training who volunteers to comb through google scholar. Some prompts:Here are some links for non-medicine trained people:
Oral contraception: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1814214?resultClick=1
Long acting contraception: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2519616?resultClick=1
Endometriosis (if you have severe pain during menstruation go to a special clinic for that): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2719310?resultClick=1
Vasectomy: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2685157?resultClick=1
Many women do not make a break. But this should be discussed with your obstetrician/gynecologist.
Nothing “relevant” new in the contraception space available for males to my knowledge.
For the UTI issue: shower your genital area before and after sex (seems more important for the female), both wash your hands depending on what you are doing with them and (as female) drink a glass of water with a tablespoon of D-Mannose ideally before each intercourse and on a regular basis (every other day). I spent a non trivial amount of time researching this a 2-3 years ago and it is definitively superior to Cranberry (but I am too lazy to look up the literature now and link it here).
So go ahead and visit (or spend the money on private calls with) good physicians (if you mistrust your healthcare system you could for instance look up those people who where involved in writing up the medical guidelines in your country on the topics that itch you the most). It will be more adjusted to your needs and the professional will help you to separate the relevant from the mere interesting.
People without conventional credentials combing through google scholar is a mainstay of LessWrong (this includes me). If you object to that practice or think people are doing a bad job then I think you should make a top-level post laying out your case, where it can be debated without hijacking someone else’s request. Criticizing just one post feels both unfair to that one post and shortchanging the argument, since only people interested in this particular question will see it.
Interpreted charitably, I believe that mschons’ comment is claiming that for this situation in particular, combing through Google Scholar isn’t the best approach, not that it is inappropriate in general.
Hi, thanks for this comment and the links.
I agree that it’s a pretty vast topic. I agree that the questions are personalized in the sense that there are many different personal factors to this question, although the bullets I listed weren’t actually really personalized to me. One hope I had with posting to LessWrong was that I trust people here to be able to do some of the “what’s most relevant to include” thinking, (e.g.: everything that affects ≥10% of women between 20 and 40 + everything that’s of more interest on LessWrong than elsewhere (e.g. irreversible contraception)) I agree it’s a tall order though.
For talking to my doctor: I found my experience of talking to doctors pretty frustrating to be honest. I think I’ve learned much more about contraception (including about where my doctors were misinformed) via the internet or friends than doctors. I don’t doubt that there are excellent doctors out there, but it’s difficult to find them. The advice with looking up people who wrote up medical guidelines seems solid.
That being said, while I’m interested in the topic myself, I was mostly thinking that it would be good for the LessWrong/EA community to have a reliable source. (I’m mostly constrained to hormonal contraception and have already tried out a couple, so my remaining search space is relatively small.) I think it could save lots of women many hours of research into which contraception to take + productivity loss from trying out or permanently choosing suboptimal contraception.
You prompted me to try out the D-Mannose, thanks! I’ve had it lying around, but was always to inert to research whether it actually works, so never bothered to take it.