Birth control is a hot topic, especially when it comes to hormones and IUDs. Most women choose their birth control based on their doctor’s recommendation, but when doctors don’t fully educate their patients, it’s not an informed decision… one that can have unexpected consequences. Find out what your doctor didn’t tell you about birth control.
Birth control is a topic that affects nearly every family at some point, but it’s not a topic that gets much public discussion. In fact, from what our FASTer Way clients tell us, it seems most doctors don’t take the time to educate their patients about the potential risks or negative side effects that may be caused by hormonal birth control. That makes it impossible to make an informed decision, which is really what most women want.
Holistic health and sex expert Jess Brassington joined Amanda on the FASTer Way Podcast to talk about this important topic. Listen in (or keep reading!) to learn what synthetic hormones are actually doing to your body and what you can do about it.
Jess Brassington entered the holistic health world about 10 years ago. She decided at that time that she needed to become an advocate for her own health. She began looking for ways to live life in a less processed way and started her journey toward a holistic health approach. She is now a holistic health coach, a certified sex educator, and a sex and intimacy coach.
Jess talks to many clients about sex and sexual health. This can be a hard topic for a lot of people to approach because so many of us were raised either not talking about sex or associating sex with shame. Jess’s mission is to help others take control of their health on a more holistic level, including sexual health and birth control.
She joined us on the podcast to talk about hormonal birth control and what it’s actually doing to our bodies. Most doctors don’t give this information to their patients, and we’ve heard from hundreds of FASTer Way clients that this lack of information has had a major negative impact on their health and their lives. We want women everywhere to make informed decisions about their health!
What Your Doctor Didn’t Tell You About Birth Control
This topic affects nearly all women at some point in their lives, but we are surprisingly uninformed by our conventional doctors about what hormonal birth control is actually doing to our bodies.
Amanda Tress, founder and CEO of the FASTer Way to Fat Loss, was pushed by her doctor to get the Mirena IUD. This OBGYN also told Amanda there were no known side effects (which, according to the manufacturer, isn’t true! Click here to view Bayer’s list of possible side effects).
Amanda’s Symptoms on Mirena
Compromised immune system (sick for 7 weeks)
Heart palpitations
Chest pains
Less stress effective
Burnout
Depression
Less motivated
Anemic
Weeks of spotting
Additional Mirena Symptoms Reported by our FASTer Way Community
Extreme Anger/Rage
Abnormal lack of patience
Anxiety
Social withdrawal
Migraines
Low libido
Cystic acne
Hair loss
Weight gain
Brain fog
Increased midsection fat
Amanda’s functional medicine doctor has even seen some extreme cases where women lose their ability to see or walk!
Not every woman experiences these symptoms in conjunction with a hormonal IUD, but many women do—we’ve heard from hundreds JUST in our FASTer Way community!
Does the Science Support the Symptoms?
Amanda has her blood work done at regular intervals, so it was easy to compare her results before and after the Mirena (which she had removed after about five months after placement).
According to her doctor, Amanda’s hormones were abnormally low across the board after the Mirena. Testosterone, estrogen, progesterone—even her white blood cell count—were all extremely low. At 33 years old, she was in an induced menopausal state.
What’s Happening in the Body?
Hormonal birth control changes your sex hormone levels, which most people probably expect, but it has a BIG impact on the body, which most people may not expect. For example, progesterone is called “nature’s chill pill” and when it’s suppressed, you’re prone to stress going up, your anxiety going up, and you might feel tired all the time. Jess told us that a friend confided in her, “I can’t be the mom I want to be.” When she stopped the synthetic hormones, her symptoms subsided almost immediately.
Ovulation is the 5th Vital Sign
Ovulation is now recognized as the fifth vital sign, after body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate. Ovulation is a sign of health and it’s important for women to ovulate regularly—even if they aren’t planning to conceive a child. According to Jess, “You’re basically cutting off the communication between your brain and your ovaries when you take hormonal birth control.”
“You don’t want to keep managing symptoms and not get to the root cause.”
-Jess Brassington
Coming Off of Hormonal Birth Control
Coming off of hormonal birth control may seem straightforward, but eliminating synthetic hormones is only part of the equation. Many women report that they feel an immediate difference after cessation or removal, but many also report that they don’t—they feel a very gradual improvement that sometimes takes years
It’s important to know that when you come off of birth control, even if you feel great at first, things can change around six months. This is when your body begins to detox from those synthetic hormones. You could start experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, depression, Hashimoto’s, hyperthyroidism.
Jess’s best advice is to listen to your body AND find a doctor who will listen to you. “If you can’t go to your doctor with anything and everything about your body, find a new physician.”
Options for Non-Hormonal Birth Control?
Fertility awareness (also called Natural Family Planning, the Sympto-Thermal Method, the Ovulation Method, and the Billings Method) does not require any drugs or devices. Using your basal body temperature, cervical mucus, and tracking your cycles to determine ovulation, you’ll know when you’re most likely to get pregnant and can either abstain or use a barrier method (like condoms).
Parting words from Jess
Give your physical and mental health the attention they need. Get your head right and your body will follow. It’s important to get all these areas right and to be able to talk about it with your partner.
Further Reading about hormones, birth control, and ovulation:
The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility
Period Guru @JennaLongoriaHealth on Instagram (tell her Unprocessed Jess sent you!)
You can find Jess online at UnprocessedJess.com or at her podcast Naked Talk With Jess.
