Thanks to a couple folks in our online community and a curious mind on my end I have put together this blog to bring to light some information about birth control. I have been curious about birth control ever since high school. I hate to admit it but I too was a victim of this seemingly harmless “drug”. I was sexually active at the time and did have some bouts with acne. It was easily accessible to me, behind my parents back, from a friends step mom who was a Nurse Practitioner. I was easily convinced it was for my acne and a back up “just in case”when I was sexually active. However, what I was not informed about was any negative consequences to my body that birth control could potentially cause. It’s as common as Mountain Dew at a convenient store or Cheetos in a vending machine. But, really what is birth control? What does it do in our bodies? How can it impact our health negatively? Gut Health? Fertility Health? Keep reading to find the answers to these questions and more.
So what is birth control? Also known as “the pill” is the most common hormonal method to prevent pregnancy. There are many different types of birth control but for this blog I will be focusing on birth control that causes ebbs and flow of normal female hormones throughout a woman’s bodily cycle. Historically, this contraceptive was used in the United States starting around 1960. Now, it’s currently used by more than 100 million women worldwide and by almost 12 million women just in the U.S. What is shocking is just how much money the birth control industry brings in. In the US this industry is a multibillion- dollar business that profits from the sale of contraceptives. It is a very fiscally profitable drug in our society. So in a nutshell that’s what birth control is. And…that’s how it profits our pharmacology industry. Just curious, for those that have been on birth control. Were you given other options? Were you taught about nutrition, healthy emotions, etc prior to being put on the pill? Were you notified of negative symptoms that could come from brith control use.
What does it do in our body? Synthetic estrogen in the birth control pills can increase a woman’s risk for the following list (which is a start and not comprehensive by any means) ;
heart disease,
blood clots,
breast and cervical cancer,
weight gain,
breast tenderness,
interruption of immune system,
negative impact on the liver and can cause an increased alkaline phosphatase levels,
and finally depression and other mood disorders.
In fact there was a Washington Post Article written “It's not in your head”- Striking new studies link brith control to depression. We’ve known for quite sometime that it also impacts our bone density, labido and mood. An older yet definitive study found that the sex hormones in Birth Control have a profound effect on the efferent phase of immunity.
Nutritional deficiencies from birth control use can cause vitamin deficiencies or post-pill amenorrhea including but not limited to;
magnesium,
folic acid,
vitamins B2, B6, B12, C and zinc.
So just by this small paragraph you can see that birth control has a major impact on a variety of our bodies systems.
What impacts does birth control have on our gut health?
When we look at the gut specifically we see that birth control disrupts the microbiome. Birth control can lead to leaky gut, yeast overgrowth (candida), decreased microbial diversity and altered gut motility, which can lead to SIBO. Intestinal hyper permeability also known as leaky gut is a large problem among many. It is also, a major problem with birth control. Another way birth control can potentially impact your health is your reproductive health and or fertility. It can cause fertility challenges, decreased labido and sexual disfunction. It also, seems that when a natural rhythm such a woman’s monthly cycle is disrupted it can have a negative feedback response to your body. Those fluctuations in hormones throughout the month of a woman’s cycle have very real and important implications. So can birth control have negative impacts on fertility? We know from research that birth control can cause hormonal imbalances, disrupt the menstrual cycle, makes changes to ovulation, make changes in cervical mucous, and make changes in the uterine lining. All of which have impacts on reproduction capabilities.
As you can read in this short blog there are many ways that birth control can negatively impact your health from your gut to your reproduction. It is saddening to find out all of these intricacies that are rarely ever mentioned to a woman prior to starting birth control. While I don’t deny that for some woman short term use of birth control can provide some protection from pregnancy. I do see that there are some very negative and challenging implications of birth control that are left on a woman’s body. As a Holistic Fertility Health Coach I am intrigued by the information. Just for a quick reference point Infertility rates are rising, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 1:4 couples experience infertility. Infertility is on the rise. Do you think prescribed birth control could be a contributing factor?
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