There are not barriers or prejudices, between female/male when it comes to the cause and effects of stress, depression, or other issues. Moral of the story… “Woman, Man, Girl, or Boy… seek the advice of a qualified Medical Examiner, with solid knowledge and experience, for consultation, guidance and direction.
Fact is, when a decision like this is made solely based on paper-evidence and without proper psychiatric or medical evaluation of the applicant, we foster an environment of silence. She is 200% correct in doing what she does. Shine a big bright light on it, let the nocturnal critters squirrel away and discuss the issue. You may not win against the bureaucrats, but you at least didn’t take it, laying down.
We have all met and flown with pilots with severe psychiatric disturbances and issues, depression and even hidden suicidal tendencies. Problem is, you can walk around in broad daylight with a gun in your mouth and be perfectly fine to fly a fully loaded A380 from A-B - but god help you, if you speak up or seek help.
The real problems start, when one reaches out for help and treatment. Take the wrong medication and watch your entire career go down the toilet.
I wish her luck on this path. Common sense has long been run over by a garbage truck in many aeromedical branches.
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Welcome to the world of aviation.
Everyone is just a medical issue away from not flying.
Another taxpayer affected by the tyranny of unelected bureaucrats. Here are some creative suggestions: (a) contact DOGE and ask for help, (b) abstinence or her husband takes responsibility for this very personal matter, (c) switch to Part 103 ultralights, no medical needed, (d) adopt an alias people can pronounce.
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In the meantime, she could get an instructor to fly with. Our flight school has flown with several owners in the past while they sort out medical issues. I would imagine it a pain that you can’t just jump and go whenever you want but at least she could still fly and stay current while Oklahoma sorts things out.
I think it’s evident in this reddit thread on r/flying that the FAA’s misguided take on mental health is common knowledge. Just look at the sarcasm in the first batch of comments:
https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1j518no/xyla_foxlin_on_the_faas_medical_policies_for/
“No one in this sub has ever so much as frowned”
“I’ve never shed a tear in my life”
“I am very happy, never had a sad thought.”
Pilots know the system is broken. I’m glad the issue is getting some public attention.
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Honestly, I don’t think that the public at large wants to invest their time and their attention (or to be “influenced” into thinking a certain way) on the internal workings of the FAA medical branch.
I also don’t think that the opinion of the public at large should have anything to do with medical determinations.
Good luck to her.
Remember when heart bypass surgery was taboo? Many safe (safer) pilots were permanently grounded for no good reason. Shamefully the system took away their rights to fly for at least 20 years. Remember when the FAA took away Bob Hoover’s medical because they thought he had to be crazy to fly as he did. The greatest pilot in the world grounded for medical reasons when no medical reason existed.
Xyla, you are an ambassador for all pilots rights. Keep up the fight and keep flying until this gets resolved. Expect the fight to last years. Any pilot who is tailwheel current can act as pic in the right seat of your 140, you just can’t log the time. Fly weekly with such a pilot , it is good for you and for your aircraft to be flying.
Wow, Xyla u r awesome. If anybody can drag the FAA kicking & screaming into the 21st century on this issue, it’s u. U go, girl!
Seriously? With a name like Misegades, you’re commenting on someone else’s name?
The story lacks detail of what the medical concern was and if an FAA-recognized medical examiner was involved.
No info on what the FAA’s ongoing concern was, Wikipedia covers aspects of IUDs and describes two different kinds with different chemistry.
(And I note that medicines are used for various things, not necessary the main usage that is popularly known. There’s a term for that, perhaps ‘off-???’.
The FAA’s concern with depression, probably not her case, is that depressed people tend to jump into action when recovering and might act irrationally. How likely is that for a pilot supposedly trained and perhaps experienced in risk?
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The video discusses what happened.
Basically, she had an IUD replaced, and because the new IUD caused a surge in hormones until it stabilized, she was feeling depressed, and talked to a doctor about it.
Unfortunately, she didn’t think to tell the doctor she was a pilot, and the doctor put something down about “depressive disorder” in her chart.
She then put out a youtube video about her experience with the IUD, and someone reported that video to the FAA, who then demanded she see an FAA-approved psychiatrist.
Said psychiatrist apparently had no clue what IUD’s were or how they worked, and essentially diagnosed her with “female hysteria”, so the FAA revoked her medical on that basis.
Obviously, there’s two sides to every story, but I find it completely believable that an agency which responds to mental health issues by essentially reminding pilots “It’s illegal to not inform the FAA if you were ever sad” handled something mental-health related in a spectacularly dumb manner.
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If you broadcast that you’re a pilot and then broadcast that you’re depressed…
don’t be surprised that you get reported and don’t be surprised that the FAA takes it seriously.
“Common sense has long been run over by a garbage truck in many aeromedical branches.”
Common sense means do not broadcast to the world that you are a pilot and:
-are seeing a mental health therapist or
-love explosives and hate the government or
-start asking about airborn particulate dispersion pattern calculations
Get real people. Don’t be so dumb that you don’t think that the FAA/FBI/ATF/TLA won’t paying you a visit if you start broadcasting such things to the entire world.
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Don’t be a jerk, AJ. Xyla is very young and possibly naive and did not understand the ways of the FAA aeromedical world. It never occurred to her that her situation would cause her to lose her medical. There’s not a pilot out there who has not been in a funk. A difference between males and females, men are more likely to just keep it to themselves and wait to come out the other side; women are more expressive (and emotional) and more likely to seek professional medical help.
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Xyla, seems to me your head is screwed on straighter than a lot of professional pilots with whom I have flown. Hang in there and persevere–you’ll eventually work through this and get your medical back. Your pretty little 140 will wait for you. Meanwhile, get with a CFI or just another licensed pilot for that matter who is checked out in your airplane and exercise your 140 and scratch your aviation itch. You won’t legally be able to touch the controls, but I won’t tell :))
I agree that she was incredibly "naïve " to post that she’s a pilot and seeing a mental health specialist. It’s also naïve to not tell the FAA; even more naïve to think that she can change the FAA medical branch. I just hope that she’s not digging herself such a tall hole with the agency that it take her longer to get back legal.
I’d be wary of terminology.
Some people use ‘feeling depressed’ loosely, related to hopelessness of dealing with a bureaucracy or feeling sad.
Assuming your comment is in good faith and as an education opportunity to others:
a) DOGE is part of the executive. Legislative updates should be handled through the legislature (unless executive rulemaking is your cup of tea), which is what PMHC is advocating for.
b) Hormonal IUDs are necessary for medical treatment of endometriosis, which affects 10% of women worldwide. My wife will likely need a hormonal IUD for the foreseeable future because of this. Don’t assume IUDs are purely for contraception, since like you say it’s such a personal matter.
c) 14 CFR 61.53 reads: Operations that do not require a medical certificate. For operations provided for in § 61.23(b) of this part, a person shall not act as pilot in command, or in any other capacity as a required pilot flight crewmember, while that person knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner.
Unclear if that applies at all to 103 but I would assume the FAA could claim a letter saying you’re not fit to fly could be construed as having “reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner” (PPL / Revoked Medical For OWI / Can I fly gliders/Part 103 in the meantime? | Pilots of America).
d) If you used the airmen inquiry tool https://amsrvs.registry.faa.gov/airmeninquiry/Main.aspx you would know Xyla Foxlin is not a pseudonym.
I can understand the degree of the frustration that Xyla feels. Some years ago I too was denied a medical. I was prescribed a certain medication by my doctor for a particular passing physical issue. The last question I asked my Dr, who is a personal friend as well as my GP, was “am I safe to fly? He answered most assuredly yes, but also referred me to a specialist, as the condition I was suffering was not common. He also assured me of my fitness for flight. Soon after I had my biannual medical exam and the DAME who I used was informed of all the details of the condition and the meds. He also deemed me safe and renewed my medical certificate. CASA (Australia’s equivalent of the FAA) subsequently cancelled the medical citing significant aero medical issues with the medication. They wouldn’t initially tell me what those issues were but after 3 separate approaches I gained the understanding that among the long as your arm list of potential side effects that had ever possibly been remotely associated with this medication, one was psychosis. With ongoing discussion we were able to reach a compromise and my certificate was renewed but just for 12 months. For a couple years the certificate had to be renewed annually rather than biannually. A somewhat expensive compromise for me as it required significant travel as I lived well away from the places the exams had to be done so it necessitated travel and time away from my business. The crazy thing was without the medication I could hardly move and was unsafe but with the meds I was fit and active and happy. What I learned was that unelected officials in the bureaucracy can ruin your life and you can almost never argue with the bastard that is doing it. I also learned that a lot of people tell outright lies rather than run the risk of fighting with cowards hiding behind bureaucratic anonymity. It encourages one to be very proactive with managing one’s health, particularly in the period approaching medical review, so one is best placed to have no red flags. It all makes a mockery of the system and I endorse Xyla’s efforts to confront the issue. At the same time, I understand and can appreciate Arthur J Foyt’s comment. Certain actions will be a red flag to certain officials and Xyla, your situation and their persecution of you will justify their (too often miserable) position. I wish you success but expect that you will need to be prepared for a long haul and will need to be creative to find ways to legitimately circumvent the persecution you have opened yourself up for.
With any issue related to psychiatry, psychology,or neuropsychology, the application gets sent to a team of Dinosaurs at FAA Medical. The Chief of Psychiatry, for years, was a Dinosaur named Dr. Chesanow. This guy was so conservative that if you were a pilot, and had seen a psychiatrist, you had to have psychopathology, so he would see that you were denied a medical certificate. Forgive me for saying this, but he died not too long ago, and it may have been a blessing for pilots. One down, anyway. I hear the FAA has a replacement for him, but he may not be much of an improvment. Then there is ANOTHER Dinosaur there at FAA Medical. This one is the Chief of Neuropsychology, Dr. Georgemiller. Another one who has probably lived 60 million years too long. I know of ONE aviation psychiatrist who had his head on straight, an Air Force Flight Surgeon Psychiatrist, many years ago, named Carlos Perry. He once (very quietly, only in the presence of some other USAF Flight Surgeons) said that pilots essentially could not trust ANY pyschiatrist, because they believed that ANY pilot who wanted to fly was mentally ill by nature of the fact that he wanted to fly - a normal person would never become a pilot! So, it seems that having a severe case of psychopathology is a requirement for employment as a mental health professional by the FAA. Undeniable proof that the entire FAA Medical Department is corrupt and unsalvageable!
89M, yes, not only did they break their own rules regarding pilots taking an experimental COVID shot and allowing them to continue to fly, they also suddenly increased the interval for pilots with an av block (heart condition) from 210 milliseconds to 300 milliseconds–not related (ahem) to the shots, of course. There are pilots flying now with chest pains subsequent to receiving the shots who will not report this condition to their AMEs for fear of losing their medicals.
Kudos to her for trying to tackle the arbitrary and inappropriate discretion allowed by the FAA in aeromedical evaluations. Oversight by an administrative agency requires discipline and some level of basic competence in the subject matter and there is troubling indication that the FAA is currently lacking both—basic competence as well as discipline—in many of the specialty fields of science that aviation encompasses.
But that alone won’t solve her problem. There is something fundamentally wrong with a medical device that initially administers such a high dose of treatment that the user is rendered impaired. Why is this allowed by the FDA? What is being done about it? If a testosterone patch created a similar overdose spike and deleterious effects for men there would he a howl of protest and a fix would be found pronto. Are the lives and careers of women of little to no concern to the FDA?
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I doubt that more than a few women are actually ‘impaired’ by a spike in hormones. Our hormones naturally fluctuate all the time just from normal physiological processes. Let’s just say that approximately .01% of people experience a serious adverse side effect from a medication. 99% of the time in such cases, a pilot would say, “I don’t feel right, I shouldn’t fly today” and there would be no safety issue. So in order to prevent something bad with a .0001% chance, the FAA automatically grounds the pilot. It’s a stupid knee-jerk reaction that helps no one. The FAA ought to change from a stance of “we won’t issue a medical if there’s any chance something is wrong with you” to “we will issue a medical UNLESS we have positive evidence that something is wrong with you.” That alone would solve most of the problems that pilots have with the FAA.