His Life As a Woman

I have no idea what to make of this posting to the New York Times Well blog by Dana Jennings. In it, Jennings describes what life was like on Lupron, a drug which he took to suppress testosterone as a way to treat prostate cancer (and which I have taken as part of fertility treatments). He didn't like the drug's side effects -- hot flashes, random food cravings, teariness. He didn't like gaining weight and crying at the drop of a hat and for the first time he struggled with his weight and understood why the media spends so much time talking to women and girls about food and bodies. (Really?) It's understandable that he didn't like how he felt on the drug, but it's also vaguely reductive and somewhat insulting but I'm not sure why I feel insulted. Jennings seems nice but it's like I finished reading the post and I couldn't figure out why I felt kind of invaded, or betrayed, or something. I think it might be because we are all of us -- men and women -- ruled by forces in our bodies that we can't or won't identify and to which we adjust every day. Maybe if we had a better sense of our bodies as things which do more than push around our heads this wouldn't be a newsflash, or a Well blog posting, but we don't, very generally speaking. As it is, I think I just have to re-read the post and have a cookie. I'm really craving one right now.