#175 Birth Control Pills: How They Affect Our Health and What To Do About It

08/31/23 • 42 min

In this episode I'm going to be talking about birth control pills (also known as oral contraceptive pills) and the information that I feel is important for everyone to have, especially those of you who are considering taking the birth control pill or are already taking a birth control pill. This topic is important because a lot of this information is often not shared by the providers who are prescribing these pills. It's really necessary to understand everything before you make any decision about what to take for your health.

One of the things I want to talk about are the risks related to taking the birth control pill, including risk of HPV related cancers (like cervical cancer) and nutrient deficiencies associated with the use of “the pill.” I also want to help you understand how it's possible to feel good and balance your hormones and ovarian function naturally if you have reached a point in your life where you don’t want to take the birth control pill anymore.

It is estimated that more than 10 million women in the United States alone are taking the birth control pill. These are prescription medications, and they are synthetic hormones. When these pills are made, they're made with chemical versions of estrogen and progesterone. You can get a birth control pill that's only a synthetic form of progesterone, but most people take what are called combined formulas that contain synthetic estrogen and synthetic progesterone.

When we make a hormone synthetically it signals to our bodies, but it doesn't signal exactly the same as natural hormones or bioidentical hormones. So, I want to emphasize that when I'm talking about birth control pills, I'm referencing synthetic hormones and the risks associated with those types of hormones versus bioidentical or natural hormones, like naturally produced estrogen and progesterone, or bioidentical estradiol, for example, or estriol, and progesterone formulas that are sometimes used for fertility and perimenopause.

Our bodies recognize bioidentical hormones. They know exactly what they are and they know how to respond to them in a healthy way. When we take a synthetic hormone, it can have a slightly different effect in our bodies and that's why there are side effects and risks associated, especially with longer term use.

If you're taking synthetic hormones on a short-term basis, the risk of health issues is lower and as the length of time increases, the risks increase. Sometimes you may need a birth control pill for a short period of time and that may not be as concerning. It's also known that the risks tend to decrease the longer you are off the birth control pill.

Why Are So Many Women Taking Birth Control Pills?

What I find in my practice is that for most women (I would say definitely greater than 50%), the pill is not just being used for birth control. They're more often prescribed by gynecologists for regulating the menstrual cycle in some way.

Most women, when they go in to see a gynecologist, it’s usually to get help with irregular menstrual cycles or maybe perimenopausal symptoms, PCOS or endometriosis, or perhaps you have PMS symptoms or even PMDD, higher anxiety or depression and fatigue, bloating, severe cramps or heavy bleeding and acne during your period. All of these symptoms can happen because of hormone imbalances related to the menstrual cycle. And often times the first thing a gynecologist or other practitioner will prescribe is a birth control pill.

What the birth control pill does is it takes over for your ovaries. It literally turns off the ovaries, so your ovaries are not making estrogen and progesterone on their own. You are relying solely on the synthetic estrogen or progesterone that you're swallowing in the birth control pill. This is why if you miss a dose, you could have breakthrough bleeding or other symptoms like headaches, nausea, etc. because these hormones are signaling to your body every day.

Birth control pills can regulate the menstrual cycle, decrease bleeding, pain and acne for a lot of women, which can help them keep up with their daily life. At the same time, it’s absolutely false to think that the only option to help with menstrual related symptoms is to use a synthetic hormone pill.

There are a lot of things we could do to help with those symptoms and support your body naturally to address them without necessarily having to use a synthetic hormone pill. Now, if your priority is to prevent pregnancy at this point in life, maybe the birth control pill is a good option, but there are also other options for contraception that don’t require to take a synthetic hormone. I’ll discuss them more later in this episode.

What Are the Risks of Long-Term Use of Birth Control Pills?

Nutrient deficiencies:

Birth control pills can end up depleting our nutrients. This is especially true of some of the B vitamins like B2 or riboflavin, B6, B12 and F...

Why Are So Many Women Taking Birth Control Pills?

What Are the Risks of Long-Term Use of Birth Control Pills?

Nutrient deficiencies:

Birth control pills can end up depleting our nutrients. This is especially true of some of the B vitamins like B2 or riboflavin, B6, B12 and F...

Previous Episode

#174 Menopause and Women’s Health Later in Life with Dr. Tori Hudson

In today’s episode I get to introduce you to my friend, colleague, and mentor Dr. Tori Hudson. Dr. Tori Hudson has been in practice as a Naturopathic Doctor for almost 40 years in Oregon. She is a nationally recognized naturopathic physician, speaker, educator, researcher, clinician and the first woman in the United States to become a full professor of naturopathic medicine.

She is also the author of the Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine: Alternative Therapies and Integrative Medicine for Total Health and Wellness, and has served as a Medical Director, Associate Academic Dean, and Academic Dean at the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM). Most recently, she has released her new book: The Menopause Companion.

In addition to founding and running her own clinic, A Woman’s Time, Dr. Hudson is the founder and co-director of the Naturopathic Education and Research Consortium (NERC), a non-profit organization for accredited naturopathic residencies. She currently serves as the program director for the Institute of Women’s Health and Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Hudson also co-founded Vitanica, a supplement company offering formulations based on her decades of clinical experience.

Today we talk about women's health later in life and how we can help women in new ways using a naturopathic approach and natural medicine.

How Has Women’s Healthcare Evolved Over the Last 20-25 Years?

There's been a considerable shift in menopause management. Specifically, the rise and fall, and rise again, of menopausal hormone therapy.

Natural medicine started to gain more recognition in the late 80s’. Dr. Michael Murray was very influential in bringing to light the botanical medicine research out of Europe and other parts of the world. Dr. Tori attributes to him the initiation of an awareness of the world of botanical medicine research and the influence it has had on naturopathic practice and the development of integrated physicians. The shift began in using supplements to both reduce the risk of disease and treat disease.

Women's health in particular is seeing an immense expansion of options, which can be fantastic, but also more confusing to navigate.

People are now able to research different approaches online and they're able to access different practitioners. So, women are more likely to say “I want something different” or “I don't just want a cookie cutter suggestion”.

Today, patients are more informed and have more opportunities to be informed. They come more often with their own thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Most the time that can lead to a collaborative process of determining their treatment plan.

Women today have a lot more tools to help themselves. They have new ways to get what they need from their healthcare providers, and they have a lot more ability to question if they really need a treatment or procedure.

Dr. Tori loves when a patient comes in and asks for a second opinion. Recently, she had a patient asking her if she really needed a particular surgery for her bladder and she was able to reassure her that surgery was the necessary next step.

Naturopathic doctors are trained to recognize the value of conventional medicine and how to incorporate that into a natural approach and a naturopathic medicine context. It’s important to recognize that every paradigm has its strengths, and every paradigm has its weaknesses.

That’s what is unique about the modern naturopathic physician - we can really help patients navigate the best opportunities for their healthcare.

Naturopathic Medicine as an Individualized Approach for Menopause

Perimenopause starts at least a decade before the period ends and then comes post menopause. So, for women living till their mid-80’s it’s really most of their lives.

It’s a lot of years of our lives to be navigating hormone shifts, and potential symptoms and health issues, and women really do need help navigating that. Especially because there's still not enough research, and the information that is available is not always consistent and can be confusing.

Dr. Tori reminds us that there's rarely a one size fits all approach, which is the beauty of naturopathic medicine. We try to individualize the approach for each person. If there are 10 different women who have hot flashes, there's going to be some recommendations that are common for them all, but there's also the nuance of suggestions that match for the rest of their health.

So, hot flashes occur in a context of: does the patient have arthritis, what's their risk for diabetes, do they have high blood pressure, what's their risk for Alzheimer's? There is the quality-of-life issues which can be fairly simple to resolve, and then there's the disease prevention issues and the disease treatment issues which need to be addressed.

A naturopathic doctor should help you look at the big picture and th...

Next Episode

#176 Natural Alternatives to Pharmaceuticals with Dr. Lindsey Elmore

In today’s episode I want to introduce you to Dr. Lindsey Elmore. She is a pharmacist (PharmD) and wellness expert. She's also a speaker, author and podcast host. She specializes in helping women to take full ownership of their health from wellness in the physical body, to stability in mental health, to robustness of spirit, to freedom in finances.

Today we talk about what options there are for people who may want to try a more holistic approach for their health instead of the medications that pharmaceutical companies produce and commercialize.

After suffering from an injury to her anterior cruciate ligament, Lindsey ended up attending an acupuncture session which opened this whole new world of homeopathic and holistic medicine for her. She then started accumulating knowledge about traditional Chinese medicine, started going to integrative medicine forums, hanging out with shamans, and learning more about indigenous medicines.

Lindsey eventually got a reputation of knowing as much about alternative medicine as western medicine. She became very practical about the integration of the two because she believes that to embrace natural medicine does not mean to deny western medicine as they are not mutually exclusive.

Do Pharmacists Get Training on Natural Approaches vs Drugs?

So, pharmacognosy is the study of plants as medicine and if you back up 150 years, a pharmacist was nothing more than someone who was there to put the medicines together using herbs and natural substances from plants that proved to work for certain illnesses. They understood the application of plants as medicine.

In our modern world this is not so much the case. Now you have to go out in search of it and that is because the division between western and alternative medicine became very bold after the Flexner Report came out about 100 years ago. They basically dismissed any kind of medicine practice and even schools that were not based in drugs and surgery.

Nowadays, if a doctor does only prescriptions, it is most likely because they don’t know any better.

There is no medicine out there, even the over-the-counter ones or supplements, that does not have any side effects. Over the counter medications can cause significant harm and have major drug interactions so be sure to know your medicines and know your pharmacist. Your pharmacist should be able to talk to you about your medications and to teach you about the safety of those medications and the alternatives out there.

There are so many alternatives to prescription drugs and surgery out there that are less invasive and have less harmful side effects. It is the responsibility of your health care provider to let you know what they are.

How To Navigate This World of Alternatives to Conventional Medicine and Drugs

You can start with anything you would like to try to get healthier. Sleep 20 more minutes each day, get up and get your circadian rhythm kicked off by going out into the sun first thing in the morning, lifting weights, eat one plant based meal, increase your water consumption, meditate, etc.

Lindsey names eight root causes of disease: stress, toxins, allergens, infections, dysbiosis, nutrient excesses and deficiencies, sedentarism, lack of sleep and then there’s the sociogenomics. One place to start is with stress. There's no disease that stress does not make worse and no disease that stress does not cause and so it's really important that we figure out how to mitigate our stress by intentionally crafting safety for ourselves.

The harder situation comes when you’ve been doing everything that you’re supposed to do to feel good, but something is still wrong and that's when you start getting into things like lab tests, blood work, allergen testing, hormones, or maybe some more sophisticated interventions like imaging, but we have to start with the basics.

Going back to stress, it’s not about having zero stress. Some amount of stress is necessary and even healthy. It's about how do we help ourselves recover from all the stresses and toxins that we're exposed to. We need to start simple with lifestyle changes that can allow for that space of recovery.

What About Choosing the Right Probiotics and Rebalancing the Microbiome?

One of the most popular ways to feel better and healthier recently is getting the right probiotics and addressing the microbiome. There's so much research now helping us understand how important these hundred trillion bacteria living in our gut are to our health.

The microbiome is so critically important, we cannot live without our microbiome. Our microbiome helps us to metabolize foods, extract energy from complex and digestible sugars, they also ferment our dietary carbohydrates and fibers to produce what are called post biotics, it uses our food to produce vitamins, it helps with mineral absorption, and they also metabolize our bile acid which h...