About Brigid Kowalczyk Expertise Natural Family Planning issues related to fertility and health
Experience Your period is a natural normal function of your body. Protect your fertility. Birth control pills are bad medicine for something that is delicate and easily destroyed. Now is a good time to quit using the pill.
Birth Control - Birth Control - What to expect when stopping
Expert: Brigid Kowalczyk - 7/5/2006
Question I am a 33 year old female who has been on birth control for 18 years. I have never been off of it during that time, though have had a few prescription changes. I have never had children. My husband recently had a vasectomy. Obviously, after we have verified the vasectomy is successful, I will no longer need to take oral contraceptives. Based on this information, what can I expect after ceasing their use?
Answer I don't think anyone can predict what to expect after such a long use of oral contraceptives. I can tell you what you've probably experienced and gotten used to as "normal" while taking the pill. Whether or not your body eliminates these issues and resumes normal is unknown. At 15, your body wasn't even fully developed so for the 18 years you have been living with a forced pattern of regularity and there will be an adjustment while your body finds its own balance. These are the common side effects from the pill:
Study Finds Adverse Sexual Side Effects of Birth Control Pills
The birth control pill can have significant adverse effects on sexuality and mood in some women, increasing the likelihood of early discontinuation, according to a study by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University.
Of the women in the study who started on the pill, 38 percent were still taking it after one year, 47 percent had stopped, and 14 percent had switched to another pill. The women who stopped or changed to another pill were four times as likely to report adverse sexual, emotional and physical side effects as the women who continued with their oral contraceptive. Some of these effects included decrease in sexual thoughts, less frequent intercourse and negative mood changes.
There is no way of predicting which women are likely to experience adverse mood or sexuality effects from oral contraceptives, or which oral contraceptive formulations are more likely to be responsible. Estrogen can clearly cause breast cancer. There is just no way around it. I cannot think of one clinical indication for birth control pills and believe that no one should use them.
Do birth control chemicals have unpleasant side-effects or health hazards?
Combined OCs
Side effects of birth control pills can include:
Increased risk of breast and cervical cancers
Increased risk of blood clotting, heart attack and stroke
Migraines and headaches
Gall bladder disease
Increased blood pressure
Weight gain
Mood changes
Acne and/or oily skin
Nausea/Vomiting (especially at the beginning)
Nausea
Irregular bleeding or spotting
Benign liver tumors
Breast tenderness
Yeast overgrowth and infection
Progestin-Only Methods
Common Side-Effects (not comprehensive)
o Untimely bleeding or spotting between periods
o Prolonged menstrual bleeding (8 days or more)
o No bleeding at all (amenorrhea) for several months or over a year
o Headache (very common)
o Nervousness/anxiety
o Lower abdominal pain
o Dizziness
o Loss of sex drive (libido)
o Depression
o Acne and/or oily skin
o Change of appetite
o Weight gain
o Breast tenderness (mastalgia)
o Increased facial or body hair growth (hirsutism) or hair loss
o Whitish vaginal discharge (leukorrhea)
o Excessive growth of body/facial hair or hair loss
o Infection the implants site for Norplant
o A brief period of pain or itching
o Enlarged ovarian follicles
o Bone density loss
Less Common Serious Health Hazards
o Ectopic pregnancy
o Cancer
The most important thing to remember about hormonal birth control methods such as the pill is that they are synthetic hormones. It isn't healthy for a woman to be exposed to them.
In fact, their long-term use will invariably increase a woman's risk of developing serious chronic illness. In addition to increasing health risks as dangerous as cancer and blood clots, birth control pills also deplete important nutrients, including vitamins B2, B6 and B12.
The use of birth control pills or synthetic hormones is actually rarely justified. If you're using birth control pills to control menstrual cycles, irregular bleeding, cysts or endometriosis, you are not treating the underlying dysfunction. Instead, you are simply increasing the risks to your health.
It is essential to balance the adrenal glands in these situations, as cortisol levels modulate and control the female hormones, especially progesterone. The pill only treats the symptoms instead of the disease, and causes its own side effects as your body continues to remain in an unhealthy state.
In addition, long term use of the pill will permanently damage your libido, your desire for sex. Permanently. It wont come back.
Hopefully, it will go well and you will continue in good health or even regain a greater sense of wellbeing and health. But there are no guarantees.
