Sunday, April 06, 2008

The inside secrets of drug reps

I had had it. I was beginning my third hour in the busy waiting room of the local walk in medical clinic, and just when I think they're about to call my name and rescue me, a drug rep walks in, smiling. I have another half hour to wait while he hawks his wares.
I once heard my former obstetrician turning down an expensive dinner out from a drug rep because his wife had just given birth to their fourth son, and admired his solicitude for her.
What I don't admire is pushy reps who see doctors merely as business opportunities, as this article suggests.
I once went toe to toe with an RN at my local library who was pushing the contraceptive pill on nursing mothers. Never mind the fact that most nursing mothers are infertile for months, if not a year (I was for more than a year with all three babies). One young mother of an infant son seemed to be taken in by the nurse's sales spiel, when I posed the innocent question, "are there research studies done on the effect the mother's taking female hormones on breastfeeding mothers of sons?" Both women looked stunned at the question; I was equally shocked that neither of them had considered that the same drug which is now causing mutations in fish as it enters our streams, might wreak havoc with an infant's body. The young mother, after reflection said, "I think I'll go back to Natural Family Planning". Bravo.
I pressed my advantage, telling the nurse the pill is an aborifacient, which she flatly denied. My answer was simple, "read the package insert". The third method by which the pill prevents pregnancy is by making the uterine environment hostile to the newly fertilized zygote. An early abortion.
I think the woman went back to nursing after that.

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