Did you know that an estimated 150 million women worldwide take birth control pills?
In addition to the obvious reason women seek out birth control pills, they are also often prescribed by doctors and gynecologists to address symptoms like cramping, spotting, irregular periods and acne (instead of the underlying causes of the symptoms).
Many women, including my old 16-year old acne-ridden self, do not consider the very real and sometimes dangerous side effects of these synthetic hormones. After having taken birth control pills myself for 10 years, and learning what I have since, I believe all women owe it to their body, and to their potential future children, to find out more.
How Does “The Pill” Work?
Typically, a woman’s body ovulates once a month. It ripens a new egg that will then journey down a fallopian tube, reach the uterus, then implant if fertilized.
If not fertilized by a sperm, the lining of the uterus that had built up in preparation for the fertilized egg is unnecessary. Both egg and uterine lining leave your body, cleansing your system and preparing for a new month.
When you take birth control pills, you’re ingesting artificial, synthetic hormone-like substances that attempt to mimic the effects of naturally occurring hormones in the body.
Many birth control pills work by essentially convincing your pituitary gland that you are pregnant, and that you don’t need to ovulate, so it suppresses ovulation. The uterine lining thickens which prevents sperm survival and ability to travel to a ripe egg in the fallopian tube in the event that ovulation does occur. Once you start the placebo pills, however, your estrogen level drops suddenly, and your body menstruates “normally.”
This abnormal cycle is what millions of women experience every month, and yet few doctors discuss the consequences of taking these prescriptions for year after year.
What are the Risks and Side Effects?
There are many physical and emotional changes that can take place and stick around the whole time you stay on the pill. Many of these changes occur as your body’s response to synthetic estrogen.
These changes include:
- Weight gain or loss
- Leaky gut/digestive problems
- Food sensitivities
- Hormonal imbalance
- Reduced or increased acne
- Slight nausea
- Emotional sensitivity right before your period
- Mood swings
- Irregular bleeding or spotting
- Breast tenderness
- Larger breasts
- Decreased libido
I suffered from many of the above side effects but had no idea they were related to the little pill I took every night before bed that magically made my cramps and acne disappear, and shorten my cycle.
Not knowing all of the side effects linked with taking the pill can create a ripple effect too.
Take depression/anxiety for example. Say you’re taking a birth control pill, and start feeling depressed and anxious. You may then start taking an antidepressant to help, but adding an antidepressant could then lower your already low libido even more, which you might then take another prescription for too, and so on and so forth!
health risks that accompany birth control pills as well.
- Increased risk of cervical and breast cancers
- Increased risk of heart attack and stroke
- Migraines
- Higher blood pressure
- Gall bladder disease
- Infertility
- Benign liver tumors
- Decreased bone density
- Yeast overgrowth and infection
- Leaky gut
- Increased risk of blood clotting
With heart disease becoming the leading cause of death among women, you have to wonder if there is a connection between the widespread and long-term use of oral contraceptives, which debuted in 1960.
Yeast overgrowth and yeast infections (candida) for example also commonly come with other symptoms, like fatigue, digestive issues like bloating, constipation, or diarrhea, poor concentration, brain fog, eczema, mood swings, depression, seasonal allergies, or strong sugar/refined carbohydrate cravings.
Stop Masking your Symptoms
Birth control methods are obviously necessary for preventing unwanted pregnancies, but I urge you to learn more about other natural options that are more supportive of your overall health (other birth control options that distribute hormones like the NuvaRing or certain IUD’s have similar problems as above).
If you’ve been taking the pill for another reason, like to clear up your skin or ease disruptive and painful PMS, keep in mind that birth control pills are merely addressing the symptoms and are not solving the problem.
Experiencing these symptoms means your body is trying to tell you something.
A variety of root cause factors can influence skin and PMS, like hormone imbalances, poor nutrition habits, excess inflammation, not enough sleep or movement, etc.
Birth control pills may improve your symptoms for a short time, but your body and its overall health are at risk when you consider the long run. It’s funny, I initially got on the pill because of my acne, but after 10 years on it, my acne was worse than ever.
It took me 2 years after someone told me this information about the pill for me to finally decide to come off of it. It’s a hard and scary decision that I totally understand, but in the end it may be worth it for you too!
I have terrible mood swings, and have been on the pill for over ten years. However, the benefits are evident: preventing unwanted pregnancy and little-to-no cramping. What do you suggest for preventing pregnancy that’s all natural?