Birth Control Worries for Nickel and Iron Oxide Allergy Sufferers

Bayer's  Essure^® is permanent birth control that works by creating a natural barrier against pregnancy. But women experiencing nickel allergy need to think twice about using this product.

(click the photo above to watch the news report on the 

Federal Judge to decide on the status of Essure)

 

A dream come true?

The site’s Benefits/Risks page offers a long list of positives, including several items that could come most ladies' “birth control wish-list”.  Essure is a non-surgical sterilization procedure that can be performed in a doctor’s office without any incision.


It doesn’t use any hormones or silicone, both of which have received negative press recently, causing women to think carefully about what goes into their bodies. The fact that the procedure is often covered by insurance makes it seem like a dream come true. But as with anything, it’s important to look past the hyped-up language and directly into the facts.

Essure makes the following claims on its website: “Quick recovery … most women return to their normal activities within one day.”

Some women return to their normal activities that quickly, but many need three to five days, and some women claim that it took up to two weeks.


 “No general anesthesia required – … Although some physicians may offer general anesthesia, this is not a requirement of the procedure …”


It’s true that the procedure doesn’t require general anesthesia. However, many doctors do require it for the placement of the coils.


“No hormones or silicone – … Essure micro-inserts do not contain silicone or release hormones…”

http://urbanmilwaukeedial.com/2008/05/01/essure-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/ 

So How Does Essure Relate To Nickel Allergy?

The inserts are hormone and silicone free, but they contain nickel, which many people are allergic to. If you’ve ever had a reaction to jewelry or the snap on your jeans, you are at risk to have a reaction to the inserts as well.




Since 2004, almost 850 women and doctors have filed Adverse Event Reports with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about Essure birth control.


They detail extreme symptoms -- from women experiencing excess bleeding, rashes and bloating to women who were forced to have their reproductive organs removed.

The Essure Safety page clearly states the following:

The Essure insert is made of materials that include a nickel-titanium alloy. Patients who are allergic to nickel may have an allergic reaction to the inserts. Symptoms include rash, itching and hives

The FDA has received more than 4,800 adverse event reports since the device went to market in 2002 and a Facebook page dedicated to the issue has grown to more than 17,000 members. Most of the comments and photos detail side effects from an allergy to nickel, which is a component of the coils.

 

Originally, women were advised to test for nickel allergy before getting Essure implanted, but the manufacturer asked the FDA to remove that requirement a few years ago. 

 

Perhaps it comes down to the old cliche: If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't

 

Researching this topic has helped me realize the importance in asking lots of questions whenever I'm considering any medical procedure.  Until now, I wouldn't think it would be important to tell a OB/GYN about my nickel/iron oxide allergy.  So a safe approach would be to tell every specialist of this allergy!

 

What?? I'm Allergic to Hair Dye?

After I was diagnosed with severe allergies to Nickel & Iron Oxide, I realized that most cosmetics with color, including hair color have Iron Oxide. Yikes!  I am about 65% white/gray!  I survive by using hair color!  Is THIS the point in life when I would finally let my natural hair color take over?

I have colored my hair since I was around 26 years old, and now I am.... ummm.... well let's just say I'm in my 50's.  At the beginning, I would go to my beautician for a professional color job with highlights.

As the years went on, I needed to color more often.  And so for the price consideration, I decided to color my own hair with permanent color from the beauty supply.  I haven't ever used the coloring products available in the drugstores, they are pretty harsh on hair.

About 12 years ago, I started experiencing blisters on my scalp and around my hairline. These would appear right after I finished coloring my hair. I've also shown a flare up of rosacea on my cheeks immediately after coloring.  Little did I realize these were early signs of my iron oxide allergy.

It is important to realize blisters and allergic reactions to hair dye will increase in severity if there is continued exposure.  So it really IS important to pay attention to your body's signal!

Searching for Alternatives & Help

I contacted a beautician who helps people treat their hair with more natural products.  He recommended adding about a 1/2 tsp of Polysorbate-80 to my Wella hair color.  It is a healthy product that is added to foods like ice cream and is also used in many hair growth and management products.  Amazon sells Polysorbate-80 for $20 or less.

But eventually I had to make further changes in the hair coloring products, because I needed to avoid Iron Oxide.  So the search began.

There Are Healthier Alternatives for Coloring Hair

http://www.allergictohairdye.com/ offers some great info and alternatives to the hair color I had been using.  But ultimately, I've found iron oxide is included as one of the ingredients for those brands also. Henna is too difficult because I would have to wear the color and wrap my head for up to 6 hours. No way!




My dear friend, Terrie, owns a health food store. She recommended Herbatint hair color.  I was hesitant, but tried it. 

 The Results....

I absolutely LOVE Herbatint!  My hair color is warm, the texture is soft (for once), and it is shiny (finally!)

 

Click HERE to watch my video about Herbatint

And just as important - many others have complimented me on the color and texture of my hair since changing over to Herbatint. My beautician is amazed at how much softer my hair has become!  My coarse horse-hair has a lot less frizzies sticking up like tiny antennae.

Take a look at the ingredients used in Herbatint: 
Haircolor Gel: laureth-5, propylene glycol, water, peg-2 oleamine, ethanolamine, walnut extract, rhubarb extract, cinchona extract, aloe extract, meadowfoam extract, birch extract, cetrimonium chloride, echinacea augustifolia extract, hamamelis virginiana extract, sodium sulfite, ascorbic acid, tetrasodium edta, resorcinol, m-o-p aminophenol, 2 amino 3 hydroxypiridine, p phenylenediamine.Glycol Developer: water, hydrogen peroxide, etidronic acid, cetrimonium chloride. Royal Cream

I am convinced and will stick with Herbatint from now on.  In fact, I recommend it for anyone who wants to bring healthier habits into their lifestyle!  One woman I know brings Herbatint to her hairdresser, so it is applied in the salon.

Herbatint can be purchased at health food stores, and stores such as Whole Foods.  It is also available at Amazon and Vitacost.

(This is an unpaid, unsolicited review)

Airbrush, Sunless Tanners and Nickel/Iron Oxide Allergies

Today we returned from our annual weekend at the beach.  My parents, my sister's family, and my family all go to Cayucos, California on the Central Coast.  It's a great time together.  And believe it or not, my 79 year old mom and 80 year old dad get in their wetsuits to boogie board with the rest of us!

 

 

In the past 10 years, I always got very inflamed cheeks.  The skin on my cheeks would get hot and puffy.  In the early years, I thought it was a sunburn. But I eventually figured out I was having an allergic reaction.

 

So I started using zinc oxide as my waterproof sunscreen.  It was a fun purple colored sunblock. But I STILL had a bad reaction. Now that I KNOW I have an allergy to Iron Oxide, I realize the ingredients that created the purple color was the irritant.  There are lotions that are pure zinc oxide that would work great for me. I also believe there is some Iron Oxide in the sea water that is an irritant to my face.  

For the past 2 years, I decided to limit myself to just one day of boogie boarding, compared to 2 days in the past.  That helped quite a bit. In addition to that, I bought swimming goggles to provide further protection for my eyes.  This year I completely skipped sunblock.  And after 2 hours in the water, I had a great time with no allergic reaction!  Wahooo!!!


Here is a photo we took at the end of the day, look at my happy eyes & cheeks! Believe it or not, this is a big improvement over the past years.





In the past, I have used sunless tanners and tinted sunless tanners on my legs.  Now I'm realizing that Iron Oxide is the key ingredient that provides the color in the tinted sunless tanners! Bad news for me!

Having an Iron Oxide Allergy means re-thinking the way you get your Summer tan! Just think of it this way...if it deposits cover on your skin, it will have Iron Oxide.

In an earlier post, I wrote about how nickel and iron oxide are basically the same thing. So IF you have a nickel allergy, consider whether Iron Oxide will also be an irritant to your skin.

Sunless tanning products also contain bronzers that come in all different forms and colors. They may be blends of F, D, &C, (food, drug and cosmetic) water soluble dyes, iron oxides, (the different colors of rust formed by the oxidation of ferrous metals), or natural sources such as carmine, a pigment made from carminic acid, found in cochineal insects such as beetles. http://www.airbrush-tanning.us/faq1.htm

Dr. Mercola talks about Why Sunless Tanning Can Be Dangerous:

Sunless tanners contain a lengthy list of chemical agents — up to 45 in the case of spray tanners. Many of these agents have never been studied for their long-term effects on human health, because the FDA does not systematically review the safety of personal care products. Since testing is voluntary and controlled by the manufacturers, many ingredients in cosmetic products are not safety tested at all.
One of the main ingredients in spray tanning solutions is dihydroxyacetone, a color additive that darkens your skin by reacting with amino acids in your skin's surface layer. Dihydroxyacetone is often abbreviated DHA (which should not be confused with docosahexaenoic acid, the healthy omega-3 fat often given the same abbreviation). Sunless tanning products often contain between 1 and 15 percent DHA; the higher the DHA level, the darker the tan produced.
Manufacturers of sunless tanning products claim DHA is a simple carbohydrate sugar solution, but some toxicologists disagree. Part of the problem is that the U.S. government's regulations for DHA allow contaminants such as lead, arsenic and mercury.

A report by the National Toxicology Program¹ suggests the risks of DHA remain unclear, pointing to some evidence that DHA may be a mutagen that could induce breaks in DNA strands, which could contribute to accelerated aging and even skin cancer. Another issue is absorption through your skin. You shouldn't put anything on your skin you wouldn't feel safe eating.  

In fact, earlier this year a panel of medical experts reviewed 10 scientific studies on DHA and concluded the use of DHA-containing spray tans may cause genetic alterations and DNA damage that could lead to cancer and chronic lung diseases when inhaled.² Sunless tanning sprays have even been found to inhibit your skin's ability to produce vitamin D, as the dark layer on your skin produced by the DHA results in the prevention of UVB absorption, thereby inhibiting vitamin D production.
 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/09/sunless-tanning-lotion.aspx

So I guess I will be sporting pale skin this summer.  Good thing I have an olive tint to my color naturally!  

My favorite skin treatment for summer is coconut oil.  It seems to make my skin look a bit more tan.  Enjoy these summer days!