January is the Cervix Month

Things have been quiet over here, so quiet I failed to realize that January is Cervical Health Awareness Month. I was informed by Sonya over at Hormone Soup. She featured The Felt Cervix Project in an informative post about new guidelines regarding PAP smears. For example, I no longer need to have a PAP smear every year. Now this doesn't mean we should skip yearly Well Woman appointments - annual check-ups are still important.

In felt cervix news, I am still accepting donations. If you've made one or a dozen, pop them in the mail. In the meantime, educate yourselves and take care of your cervix!

cervix mail

This cervix was made by Sandra out of Paton's Classic Wool in honor of her Great-Aunt Blanche, who taught her to knit and survived cervical cancer in her 60's.

 

Melissa made one cervix as a present for a friend who works in the OB/GGYN field and sent this one in for the installation.

the cervix vote

Required Reading

New York Times editorial by Nicholas Kristof titled How Romney Would Treat Women. The most salient point:

Just as civil rights wasn’t just a “black issue,” women’s rights and reproductive health shouldn’t be reduced to a “women’s issue.”

"Yes We Plan"

Scary? Yes.

“Do I really think we’re going to go back to the point where women won’t be able to have abortions or birth control is going to be rationed? That’s just silly to even think of,” said Ms. Hogan, who works at a small company and spoke in a follow-up interview. “Some women do still get really riled up by that, but I think it’s just a scare tactic. Really, you think women are that dumb?”

New York Times article October 31, 2012

I don't think it's silly and I don't think it's a tactic.

change

America is a nation of sound bites, superheroes and short memories. The disenchanted and the undecided may feel no real change happened during President's  four years in office. I suggest everyone read The New Yorker's Endorsement of Barrack Obama and also keep in mind that change is seldom instant. The momentous acts of change occurring in my lifetime - the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid, the disarming of the IRA - all were almost glacial in their pace towards fundamentally altering long held beliefs and history.

Change is slow, but the alternative is a lightning quick path backwards. And we cannot go back. As women, mothers, sisters, and daughters, we cannot allow a party, whose increased conservatism so threatens the autonomy of women's lives and health, to increase their power.

I believe the seeds of hope and change were planted when Barack Obama was elected and since becoming a United States citizen in the spring 2009, I feel extremely privileged that my first vote in a presidential election will be one to reelect him for a second term.

Felt Cervix Project PSA

Today is National Voter Registration Day. With October right around the corner, so is the voter registration deadline for many states. In California, home of the Felt Cervix Project, you can register to vote online at the Secretary of State's website www.sos.ca.gov. Information on where to register in your specific state can be found at www.usa.gov. Register and participate because your vote is your voice.

vagina :: cervix

Women now more than ever must stay informed and stay educated. There is a never-ending stream of legislation revolving around women's bodies, from health care, abortion, funding for low-cost screenings, to redefining rape, much of it being debated and decided on by men. And many have shown themselves to be truly ignorant on the subject.

A fascinating thing that emerges is that the frame we have around the vagina is very recent and very, very negative. We sort of take for granted that it's going either to be medicalized or demeaned and kind of ridiculous.

When women in the west began to be educated and began to clamor for their rights, immediately gynecological and obstetric industry arose that was determined to keep women ignorant about their bodies as a form of social control.

                                                                                                                     Naomi Wolf

Cervix Mail

On the heels of the entire Felt Cervix Project returning from display at The Kinsey Institute, this sweet cervix pair came in the mail from Amy. They are both knit using Kraemar Yarns, the bottom in Mauch Chunky, color Cotton Candy and the top in Naturally Nazareth, in the color Bloom. 

Package

 

They're back after their summer at The Kinsey Institute!

Let's hear it for the ACA!

Today the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. It's good for the country and especially good for women.

The Campaign Against Women

I may not always agree with ACOG, but this  Letter to the Editor in the NY Times is spot on:

The onslaught of laws focusing on denying reproductive health care rights is a concerted campaign against women. These laws are not grounded in science or evidence-based medicine.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists believes that access to family-planning counseling and to the full array of contraceptives is a basic and essential component of preventive health care for women. 

Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides cervical cancer and mammography screening, contraception and other preventive care to millions of women, are egregious and disproportionately hurt poor women. 

As physicians for women’s health care, ob-gyns see firsthand the havoc that punitive ideology-based laws have on the health of women and their families. These ill-conceived laws are based on the pretext of protecting health, but they do anything but that. 

Mandating that women be legally forced to undergo transvaginal ultrasound or any other medical procedure against their will and against their physician’s judgment is an outrageous violation of patient autonomy and the confidential doctor-patient relationship. Decreasing access to family planning and contraception will only increase unintended pregnancies and negatively affect family and societal health. 

Politicians were not elected to, nor should they, legislate the practice of medicine or dictate the parameters of the doctor-patient relationship. Our message to politicians is unequivocal: Get out of our exam rooms. 

JAMES T. BREEDEN
President, American Congress
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Washington, May 22, 2012

Pap Smear Protocol

The link between cervical cancer and particular strains of the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) will mean fewer pap smears for women. If you test negative for HPV, you will only need a cervical cancer screening every three years. That doesn't mean women should miss their annual well woman visit, but I won't complain about less speculum time! Read about details in this article from City of Hope.

cervix extras

Two straggling cervices that were made at the Valentine's Day cervix knitting party at A Verb for Keeping Warm. The pale pink one was by a young lady who dropped in and had never knit in the round before. The fuchsia one was made by Sarah who works at Verb. Both are spending the summer at the Kinsey Institute Juried Show.

National Woman's Health Week

May 13th through 19th is National Woman's Health Week and today, quite fittingly I have an appointment to see my doctor for a well woman visit. Regular check ups and preventative screenings play an important part in managing our health. Access to shouldn't be a barrier, but nor should time. Take the time to take care of yourself and encourage the important women in your life to do the same.

bon voyage!

Here's a photo of the cervices before they were packed up and shipped off. All 77 will be spending the summer in Bloomington Indiana at the Kinsey Institute Juried Show.

still knitting

The Felt Cervix Project will continue to accept contributions of your cervices, so keep knitting and send them in!

cervix mail

A package of ten beautiful cervices arrived in the mail from Lynn. They'll have their little identifying serial numbers sewn on and sent off to Indiana next week with the entire Felt Cervix Project, for the show at the Kinsey Institute.

one bag full

I transported the cervices from A Verb for Keeping Warm to have them on display at my open studios. It's this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, April 14-15 noon-6:00pm. If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, stop by and knit a cervix or drop one off! 1890 Bryant Street, studio 211 in the Mission.