Birth Control Side Effects and Options

This is a guest post by Amanda Montalvo, an integrated RD, and FDN-P.  She is super knowledgeable in detox, female hormones, adrenal health, digestion and functional testing.

When it comes to birth control it’s important to understand what your options are, to experiment (you may not do well with the first thing you try) and know that deep down you know what’s best for your body.

In this post, I’m going to briefly cover how the birth control pill can impact your body and how to support your body while taking the pill. There’s a lot more information on this topic that you can dive into in this free Quick Guide to Birth Control that I made for women wanting to learn more about their birth control options. The guide covers the pill, different types of IUDs, the fertility awareness method, and barrier methods. I definitely wish I had something like this at my fingertips when I was on my birth control journey.

The Impact Of The Pill

The pill utilizes synthetic hormones to protect the female body from pregnancy. This impacts the body in two major ways.

1. The main issue with the pill is that it suppresses ovulation, which is the release of an egg from your ovary- the only time your body can get pregnant. Ovulation is how you make progesterone in your ovary after ovulation. Progesterone is an important calming hormone that reduces inflammation, builds muscle, promotes sleep, calms the nervous system, and helps to balance estrogen. Ovulation keeps us healthy, balances hormones, and let’s us know our bodies are functioning properly. We want to ovulate, and if we aren’t it’s a sign that something is wrong.

1. The other issue with hormonal birth control is that it overrides your natural hormones, shutting them off completely and often causing long-term low levels for some women. When we take synthetic hormones your body makes more of a protein called steroid hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which binds to excess hormones to make them inactive and protect your body. Research has shown that levels of SHBG remain high even after stopping hormonal birth control like the pill. We need our female hormones to be in balance with our bodies and feel good.

Some other side effects of the pill include:

• Depleting the body of certain vitamins and minerals
• Causing a disruption in the balance of bacteria in your gut
• Increases blood clot risk
• High dose estrogen and even moderate estrogen can increase breast cancer risk (luckily this risk normalizes after a year of stopping the pill)
• Causes your nervous system to be more sensitive to stress—has been linked with mood changes, anxiety, and depression
• Loss of sex drive
• Hair loss
• Weight gain
• Rebound issues after stopping the pill—acne, hair loss, PS, amenorrhea (loss of period), and PCOS

Although that is a long list, the pill definitely has it pros. For example, it allows a woman to prevent pregnancy and decide when she wants to have a baby. The problem is that physicians often prescribe the pill for symptoms like acne, hormonal imbalances, PCOS, endometriosis, painful periods, PMS, etc. Almost 60% of women on the pill take if for symptoms, not pregnancy prevention. The pill does not fix these problems. It’s more of a band aid and when it gets taken off the symptoms are still there, and often come back even stronger leaving you feeling defeated and often returning to taking the pill.

How To Support Your Body On The Pill

Although the pill can be an added stressor to your body, it is possible to support your body while taking it to reduce the negative side effects. Below are some of the most effective ways.

• Replace the nutrients depleted by the pill, specifically: B2, B6, B12, vitamin C, magnesium, selenium, zinc
  • OC Companion by Vitanica is a great option and replaces B2, B6, B12, vitamin C, and Zinc (click here)
  • Magnesium Oil by Ancient Minerals is perfect for replacing the Magnesium and great for overall health, reducing period cramps, and can support sleep (click here)
• Taking a high quality probiotic and eat fermented foods helps to support a balanced gut microbiome. Aim to switch out your probiotic every 2-3 months.
• Eat Cruciferous vegetables 1-2x a day. Cruciferous vegetables contain a compound called DIM that helps the body get excess estrogen out.
• Practice stress management and make time to fill your cup. Hormonal birth control reduces our body’s ability to handle stress, by reducing stressors that are in your control and doing things you enjoy, you can help support your body.
• Make sure you’re eliminating at least once every day. We poop out our estrogen so if we are not eliminating at least once a day we are reabsorbing excess estrogen back into circulation.
  

Where To Go From Here

Navigating the world of birth control can be tricky, which is why I teamed up with my colleague, Kim Jordan, NTP to create Your Quick Guide to Birth Control that you can download here. It goes into all of the different types of hormonal and non-hormonal birth control options as well as the fertility awareness method. There are even our favorite tools and resources for learning more about your cycle and birth control.