WHO have started making recommendations for 'women of reproductive age'

Pre-pregnancy in the US

They have always been around but garnered more support during the Bush Administration.

In the US, there have already been rumblings about women being in a continual state of pre-pregnancy, and should therefore avoid doing some activities which, when not pregnant are pretty normal

Wait.. what? Who is rumbling those rumblings? (genuine question)

Actually that You might get raped comment has really annoyed me. Every woman knows that there is a risk she might be raped or sexually assaulted, for some the risk higher than others. We know this and its very patronising to have someone pointing it out.

No women of child bearing age allowed in hospitals. I mean we are just so silly we might just wander into the XRay department.

Well just to be on the safe side, any woman of what used to be called childbearing age must immediately stop smoking, drinking, scuba diving, horseriding, eating soft cheese etc etc in case she harms the foetus she is probably not carrying.
What about the the other stuff that women of this age do, like driving, to their jobs mopping out the bogs in an office block where they could be exposed to chemicals/microbes? Oh that's OK cos the economy needs women to be doing shitty jobs so crack on with the grunt work girls. Just don't do anything fun because if you turned out to be pregnant and the baby had something wrong with it JUST THINK OF THE HORRENDOUS GUILT you would quite rightly feel as it would be ALL YOUR FAULT.

Sometimes it really is like banging your head against a brick wall and comments about rape are unnecessary. The poster in question is not having sex with a man nor intends to as she is a lesbian, therefore the need for contraception is invalid.
Common sense appears to be not so common.

Well quite! So might we all, at any time, but that doesn't mean I'm going to rush out and have the coil fitted just in case.

I saw that Poofus, I was even more shocked at the suggestion of one poster who said that she should just knuckle down because she might be raped.....

I am shocked at the threat in AIBU now about a lesbian being forced by her GP to use contraception in order to take acne medicine. This is just the same sort of thing, in my opinion. Putting the rights of not-even-conceived foetuses before the rights of existing adult women.

I want to go back to work someday and I fear they will not look beyond my age and the fact that I am female. We tell our girls that they can achieve anything but its really not true. They can achieve what they are allowed to achieve.

Rex iirc, there has just recently been a survey done which backs that up. Both women and men are less likely to employ female candidates of child bearing age, due to fears about them popping out babies every 5 minutes.

It really does hark back to the walking incubator analogy. And its not just WHO but I had the misfortune to listen to a relative say he eould not hire a woman because she just wants to work for a bit and then go have babies. Its not the first time I have heard this opinion, and have even read it on MN. I do think its linked to the perceived unnaturalness of childless women by choice.

The SG paper gives prominence to the establishment of the increased risk of ectopic pregnancy in women who smoke, and I don't remember the the exec summary mentioning gametes (from either sex) at all. Can someone signpost me to the bit I missed? Thanks.

Strangers feel its within their remit to police what women do full stop.

And i totally agree Capt. A man could feasibly impregnate several women in close succession. And if his sperm is sub standard (sorry for my crap phrasing) then he could cause more feotuses with abnormalities than a woman who can only carry one or possibly two children at a time.

At the moment, we know that smoking, eating paté, soft cheese, drinking to excess etc etc are bad things to do during pregnancy. We also know that strangers feel it is within their remit to police what pregnant women do. A woman smoking while pregnant will have complete strangers tutting at her or even making comments. That's not ok, but is at least understandable.

A woman smoking an ecig while pregnant will probably now (after the WHO's document is widely disseminated) have the same thing happen. However, the WHO hasn't only said that women who are actually pregnant or actively TTC should avoid using ecigs, but that all women of reproductive age should as well. So any woman between say, 15 and 55, shouldn't be allowed to use ecigs whether pregnant, TTC, infertile, sterilised, never ever wanting children because they might conceive.

In the US, there have already been rumblings about women being in a continual state of pre-pregnancy, and should therefore avoid doing some activities which, when not pregnant are pretty normal. The WHO releasing this kind of statement could be seen as validating the extreme views of people who really couldn't give a stuff about women except insofar as they can police what they do at all times.

Not using ecigs while pregnant would seem sensible advice for women, not using ecigs between the ages of 15 and 55 when female seems officious and prescriptive. Especially when seen against the contrast of men not being seen as being in a continual state of sperm production, which would at least be closer to the truth.

Also, considering other issues we've been discussing recently, what about the whole "not all women are people with wombs and vaginas" issues so giving health advice to women based on the potential contents of their womb is TERF and WHO should actually be advising "ciswomen of reproductive age", shouldn't they? So considering lots of women with penises and no uteruses are being discriminated against by that advice, I look forward to all those noncistransgenderpeniswomen turning aside from being angy at bigotted cisfeministvaginafetishists and, instead, storming the WHO HQ - which is lagely run by men. Mind those flying pigs.

If some new food-related risk was found I'd rather know about it than not.

I really want there to be a Thing warning pre-father men about the damage cycling, hot baths, bad diet, recklessness etc etc does to their sperm. "Now, boys, make sure you have a cold shower every day, take gentle exercise BUT NOTHING FUN THAT MIGHT GET YOU KNEED IN THE BOLLOCKS and eat lots of spinach, because you might want to have a family one day, mmmkay? Oh, and don't go driving too fast because you might get killed on the roads when your partner was, unbeknownst to you, pregnant, and that would be a crime because you'd be leaving an unborn baby fatherless."

(If nicotine also damages sperm they should have said that too, of course - the statement in the OP was specifically about brain development)

Nope. Frankly, the job of the WHO is health. If there's a substance around which may cause problems, their job is to inform. Its up to each woman to decide how to behave on the basis of that knowledge and the likelihood that it may actually be an issue for them. This caution allows for informed choice - which seems to me entirely consistent with a feminist perspective. It's not like they're saying women of reproductive age should be banned from using the bloody things.

Actually ROARING here now!

I know. It's ok though, I don't pick up their poo or anything.... oh god, there's another thread!

Blistory: para 13a (quoted above) is signposting evidence to the public health authorities of the states party to the treaty.

The discussion of the messages to the public is at para 36a, which refers only to "pregnant women, non-smokers and youth"

OMFG what are you doing near a dog chaos? If you are a woman between the age of 10 and 50 I need you to step away from the dog right now it could bite you or give you listeria or look at you funny and have a terrible effect on your imaginary foetus.

Come now, you know it makes sense...