Medicine Stories - 63. Your Cycle, Your Self: Period Empowerment, Fertility Awareness, & the Risks of Hormonal Birth Control - Dr. Elizabeth Wade

63. Your Cycle, Your Self: Period Empowerment, Fertility Awareness, & the Risks of Hormonal Birth Control - Dr. Elizabeth Wade

Explicit content warning

03/03/20 • 82 min

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Medicine Stories

Modern medicine now recognizes the menstrual cycle as the fifth vital sign. By simply paying attention to what our periods are telling us, we greatly increase our body literacy and quickly regain the deep self knowledge that is our birthright. Whether you want to avoid pregnancy, optimize your chances for conception, or gain insight into the state of your health, cycle charting and fertility awareness is a safe, effective, and empowering choice.

IN THE INTRO:

Why rest is vital for bleeding bodies

IN THE INTERVIEW:

How Naturopathic medicine synchronistically found Dr. Elizabeth
How getting pregnant despite being on hormonal contraceptives (HC) brought fertility awareness (FA) into her life
Root cause healing v masking symptoms
The deceptive history of the pill (it’s not your period, it’s a “withdrawal bleed” calculated for a specific psychological purpose)
What HC actually does in the body is completely shut down communication between the ovaries and the brain, which has many consequences
Millions of women have been told that the pill tricks the body into thinking you’re pregnant, but women’s bodies aren’t that dumb
IUDs and inflammation
There isn’t one hormone in the body that HC doesn’t effect; it creates full body dysregulation
Common side effects of HC- including changing your physical anatomy down there (!)
The adverse effects build the longer you’re on HC
Dr. Elizabeth blows my mind and connects a lot of dots for me by explaining what happened to me when I got the depo provera shot at age 17
The menstrual cycle is now recognized by modern medicine as the fifth vital sign, and FA gives crucial insight into our overall health
FA is *not* the rhythm method, and is 99.4% effective when used correctly
A deep dive into what happens in the body each month during the menstrual cycle
How FA both frees and empowers female bodied folk
When our periods are used against us
Tuning into and honoring our natural cycles of creativity and rest
Breaking down the two key tracking methods of FA: cervical mucus and basal body temperature
How long to chart before you rely solely on FA for birth control
We aren’t raised to trust ourselves
How charting your cycle and fertility signs can alert you to health problems that might otherwise go unnoticed, shine light on whether infertility is caused by lack of conception or by recurrent miscarriage, and help you know right away if you’ve gotten pregnant

LINKS:

Dr. Elizabeth Wade’s website
Dr. Elizabeth on Instagram
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
My website MythicMedicine.love
Episode 20 of Medicine Stories- Herbalism, Menstruation, and Innate Knowing w/ Kami McBride
Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

(If you're seeing this on an app that doesn't support links, find this episode at https://mythicmedicine.love/ to get them)

IN THE INTRO:

Why rest is vital for bleeding bodies

IN THE INTERVIEW:

How Naturopathic medicine synchronistically found Dr. Elizabeth
How getting pregnant despite being on hormonal contraceptives (HC) brought fertility awareness (FA) into her life
Root cause healing v masking symptoms
The deceptive history of the pill (it’s not your period, it’s a “withdrawal bleed” calculated for a specific psychological purpose)
What HC actually does in the body is completely shut down communication between the ovaries and the brain, which has many consequences
Millions of women have been told that the pill tricks the body into thinking you’re pregnant, but women’s bodies aren’t that dumb
IUDs and inflammation
There isn’t one hormone in the body that HC doesn’t effect; it creates full body dysregulation
Common side effects of HC- including changing your physical anatomy down there (!)
The adverse effects build the longer you’re on HC
Dr. Elizabeth blows my mind and connects a lot of dots for me by explaining what happened to me when I got the depo provera shot at age 17
The menstrual cycle is now recognized by modern medicine as the fifth vital sign, and FA gives crucial insight into our overall health
FA is *not* the rhythm method, and is 99.4% effective when used correctly
A deep dive into what happens in the body each month during the menstrual cycle
How FA both frees and empowers female bodied folk
When our periods are used against us
Tuning into and honoring our natural cycles of creativity and rest
Breaking down the two key tracking methods of FA: cervical mucus and basal body temperature
How long to chart before you rely solely on FA for birth control
We aren’t raised to trust ourselves
How charting your cycle and fertility signs can alert you to health problems that might otherwise go unnoticed, shine light on whether infertility is caused by lack of conception or by recurrent miscarriage, and help you know right away if you’ve gotten pregnant

LINKS:

Dr. Elizabeth Wade’s website
Dr. Elizabeth on Instagram
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
My website MythicMedicine.love
Episode 20 of Medicine Stories- Herbalism, Menstruation, and Innate Knowing w/ Kami McBride
Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

(If you're seeing this on an app that doesn't support links, find this episode at https://mythicmedicine.love/ to get them)

Previous Episode

62. Called to the Plant Path: Herbal Myths, Healing Forward, & Human Ecology - Sajah Popham

These times call for potent healers. If you’re feeling the call of the plants, this episode is for you.

IN THE INTRO:

There is no right way to be an herbalist
Guidance for navigating your unique plant path

IN THE INTERVIEW:

The soul’s need to connect with nature
The most common mistake that newcomers to the plant path are likely to make
Why an herb will help one person but not another
The vital ecology of the human being
Seeing beyond symptoms (and the insufficient approach of merely managing them) to the root cause of illness
An overview of the four phases of herbalism: indigenous/folk, vitalist/energetic, molecular/biomedical, evolutionary/integrative
“I’m woo to the max, but I’m also scientific to the max”
Healing is open-ended and endless, and to know healing is to know life itself
The (in)significance of the past when trying to heal forward
The herbalist is first and foremost and forever a student of nature
Plants are the living, healing intelligence of the earth
The transference of healing intelligence from nature into the plant and then from the plant into the person
We can understand health and disease simply by understanding nature
Narrowing down possible herbal remedies to find the right remedy for the right person- what is the ecosystem behind the symptom?
Why some people get overwhelmed when they start walking the plant path
Perceiving with the heart v memorizing information (bodily understanding is superior to intellectual knowledge)
My favorite personal health reference library
Herbal medicine should be accessible to anyone and everyone
Helping others using medicinal plants, and crafting the most potent herbal remedies

IN THE OUTRO:

My Top 5 Reasons to Be an Herbalist

LINKS:

The Vitalist Herbal Practitioner Program
The Evolutionary Herbalism website
The Plant Path Podcast
Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!)
My website MythicMedicine.love
Take my fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz
Medicine Stories Facebook group
Mythic Medicine on Instagram
Music by Mariee Sioux (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

(If you're seeing this on an app that doesn't support links, find this episode at MythicMedicine.love to get them)

Next Episode

64. When We Slow Down, Earth Heals - Ayana Young

As Slowness Medicine is being experienced by the collective consciousness on an unprecedented scale, we can more clearly than ever see that the frenetic pace of the human species under endless growth capitalism is the root cause of global ecosystem disruption (one consequence of which is the emergence and lightning fast spread of novel viral pathogens). From newly clear canal water in Venice to dolphins swimming closer than usual to Italy’s coast to record breaking breathable air in China, let’s embrace this opportunity to pause consciously, learn deeply, and critically rethink our approach to the many threats that face our planet and all who share it.

IN THE INTRO:

Coronavirus, planetary interconnectivity, and what stillness reveals

IN THE INTERVIEW:

Pushing the belief button: self confidence on the life path
That underlying feeling so many of us have had that there has to be something other than the consumerist capitalist culture we were born into
Ayana’s awakening to a life of questioning, seeking, and activism
The role of the erotic in meeting overwhelm and hopelessness in these times
Burning ourselves out will not save the earth
Time plugged in v time in nature and the lie that we’ll be more productive if we’re hooked into technology 24/7
When we slow down, the earth slows down (literally)
How the For The Wild podcast came to be (Ayana had no idea what she was doing at the beginning) and how the vision has evolved
“My devotion is unwavering, but I’m very flexible with how I understand things”
The cultural moment that we’re in is a spiritual crisis
Rebuilding consent, trust, and reciprocity
Planting a million redwoods and building a living library of species
Striving to be successful while also staying small and slow and moving through the world with integrity