The negative effects of birth control
Today's topic is going to be all about birth control and how it can impact our bodies.
I wanted to start off with something interesting that I have been noticing come up while doing research on birth control. For some reason, there is a connection between birth control and women's rights. I do understand that birth control was indeed revolutionary at the time when women's rights weren't really even considered. When it was thought that the role of a woman was to just stay at home, popping out kids. So I do understand where the whole idea of birth control being part of women's rights was kind of connected. But now what the negative implication of this is that whenever you do question birth control or if you start experiencing symptoms of it, it’s seen as “well you wanted this so why wouldn't you be OK with it”. Or not being able to question the effects of birth control because it's seen as anti-feminist or anti woman's rights. But what we need to realize is that yes, this was a big shift at the time and yes, it helped women be able to enter the workforce and really focus on themselves. But at the same time, we do have to take a good look at what we're putting into our bodies and really think about what it's doing to us fundamentally.
For instance, was processed foods good at a certain point in our history? Yes! especially when there were threats of drought or famine. I'm sure processed prepackaged food was amazing back then. But now we can look at it and be like, OK we no longer need this. It's actually not that good for us long term. We passed that stage in our human evolution, it's now time to move forward. What's really important about topics like this is informed consent. Knowing what is happening, why, and being able to spot when something isn't right. When something isn’t really working like it should or causing more harm than good.
Let’s start off by talking about how hormonal birth control works. The reason why birth control prevents pregnancy is that it alters your hormones in two ways. The first type is by having high levels of progestin. A synthetic form of progesterone. The second type is synthetic estrogen-based.
Let’s go ahead and start off with a couple of different effects that these have on the body.
The progestin based birth control can be described as having a dulling effect on the body. It can be compared to having your hormone levels set at a menopausal level. Since hormones like estrogen are kept so low, things like your energy levels and libido drop. So if you originally got on birth control to prevent pregnancy but notice that you no longer have a sex drive. Could it be the birth control working or the fact that you're no longer in the mood?
The next effect I want to talk about is changes in partner preference. There was a really interesting study(2) done in the early 2000s. In which, they had women that were and were not on birth control. They had them sniff T-shirts that had pheromones on them from different men. It turned out that their preference in a partner was different when they were on birth control than when they were off of it. One of the hypotheses behind why this happened is because it’s thought that some types of birth control trick your body into thinking you’re pregnant. So that would unconsciously have you looking for a partner that will help you take care of the baby and blah blah blah. So what has come up now is that sometimes there have been instances where the woman gets off the birth control and she's no longer attracted to a partner (1). That's really awkward lol. Or not being able to stand the way her partner smells and that's kind of a very fundamental thing of being in a relationship. Not so much the smell, but it's no longer having that attraction, that chemistry that was there before. For instance, if you had a partner when you were on birth control and it's 5 years down the line and you decide who wanted to start a family so you get off birth control. But you now realize you no longer feel the same about your partner, that would be devastating. That's a very scary effect of just how interconnected our hormones are to us.
Let’s now talk about the other type of hormonal birth control. It is a high estrogen or estrogen-only contraceptive. The negative side effects of this type of birth control are similar to having estrogen dominance. Such as feelings of increased anxiousness, panic attacks, hormonal breakouts, and mood swings. Constipation and bloating are also common. These are all symptoms that you would experience if you had an excess of estrogen in a normal cycle.
What both of these types of contraceptives have in common is that they both can negatively impact your gut microbiome and your bone health. So, your gut microbiome is the balance between good and bad bacteria in your small intestine. An imbalance in gut bacteria can lead to things like nutrients deficiencies because bad bacteria don't really help you digest food. You can think of it as like a tenant that doesn't pay rent. It's kind of there just to take up space. The bad bacteria don't absorb the nutrients from the food the way that good bacteria would. It also negatively impacts things like your mood, because 90% of your serotonin levels are made in your gut microbiome. It can also cause a backlog of hormones that then get reabsorbed which can lead to hormone imbalances. That’s because if your hormones aren't processed through your digestive system as quickly as possible. Your body just ends up re-absorbing them back into your bloodstream. Which of course would then lead to an excess of estrogen. Plus if you’re currently on birth control you wouldn't notice it until you try to get off of the birth control and find that it's a lot harder.
Now another big issue when it comes to birth controls in general, is bone health. So peak bone density for women is between our early to mid-20s. After that, we either sustain that amount of bone density or we start to lose it. That's why osteoporosis is so common in women. Our bone health is affected by our hormone cycles and birth control has been shown to negatively impact our bone health. For instance, one of the first types of birth controls that I was on was in the Depo Provera shot. When I was getting this type of birth control it said in the paperwork and I was informed by the nurse that it would negatively impact my bone health. But at the time I understood what that meant but I didn't quite UNDERSTAND what that meant. In my mind, I was like okay I'll just be on it for a year and then I'll figure something out. The good news though when it comes to the Depo shot, is that after you get off of it your bone density does seem to bounce back. That is IF you've only been on it for a year or two. Some more good news along those lines is that it was shown that being on birth control in your early to mid-20s doesn't impact your bone health as much as it would if you were younger. But on the flip side, that means people that were on birth control in their teens have a greater chance of getting bone health issues in the future. Because their bones weren't able to fully develop and mature the way they should have. Another similar situation when it comes to getting on birth control at an early age is that their cycles don't fully mature and develop. They may find that it's a lot harder for them to get off of birth control because their body doesn't know how to function without the synthetic hormones. In fact, during your first few periods, your body is just test-running things so to speak. The first few cycles are usually irregular, it can take maybe five to six cycles for your body to actually be able to fully go through the motions of a regular cycle. So if you were to get on birth control when you were 14-16 because your cycles were irregular or painful, then when you get off of it further down line in your 20s or even in your 30s your body wouldn't know how to function properly. It wouldn't have learned how to go through the motions of a regular cycle. This is why you can have so many post pills symptoms of things like irregular cycles or your period not even coming for months at a time.
That's why it's so important to reexamine how we're using birth control. Instead of using it as a cure-all method like it has been recently. It needs to be reevaluated and more research needs to be done on the long-term effects of birth control because, in reality, it can mask a lot of issues. Things like acne, PMS, PMDD, irregular cycles, irregular ovulation, all of these are signs that something is wrong. But you wouldn't have known because birth control masks all these symptoms. Your hormones do affect every aspect of your body, your mental health, your digestion, your immune health, your bones, hair, literally everything. Your reproductive health isn't just about reproducing like we were told in Sex Ed. It is our fifth vital sign. It's a complex system that is interconnected into everything about us. So it's time we acknowledge that and take our health into our own hands.
Now I know this can all be scary but also know that your body is very resilient. Your body has its own internal wisdom and knows how to get itself back into equilibrium and homeostasis. All it needs is the right support to help it do its job!
If you’re ready to start your healing journey, then I invite you to check out my Hormone Alignment Program. It’s a 3-month program to get your hormones balanced and learn how to keep them that way!
Birnbaum, G.E., Zholtack, K., Mizrahi, M. et al. The Bitter Pill: Cessation of Oral Contraceptives Enhances the Appeal of Alternative Mates. Evolutionary Psychological Science 5, 276–285 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-018-00186-6
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/aug/13/medicalresearch.medicaladvicefortravellers
