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Why Aren’t Women Tested for Factor V Leiden and Other Clotting Disorders?

Published on August 26, 2024

25.3K views

When I had a stroke at age 28, my doctors did some tests and found that I have a fairly common clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden. They told me that this, combined with birth control pills, are what caused me to have the cerebral venous thrombosis (stroke). It didn’t occur to me then to ask what Factor V Leiden actually was. Or to ask why I hadn’t been testing for inherited clotting disorders before I was put on medication that increased my risk for blood clots. These things didn’t occur to me until much later, after I learned to walk again.

I spent most of the first two years after my stroke getting on with my life. It wasn’t until I was searching for a topic for my thesis that I revisited what happened to me. I had no idea that birth control pills could be so dangerous and I certainly didn’t know that I could have an inherited genetic condition which would make them exponentially more dangerous for me. “How many women have the same condition?” I wondered. “Why don’t we test them before they are put on hormones?” These are some of the questions I sought to answer with my research.

What is Factor V Leiden?

Factor V Leiden (FVL) is a 20,000-year-old mutation common in the general population and a major genetic risk factor for thrombosis. It’s the most common genetic clotting disorder, accounting for around half of all cases. It’s most commonly found in Caucasians (3-8%).

Patients with Factor V Leiden can be either:

Heterozygous: inherited one mutated gene from a parent

or

Homozygous: inherited two mutated genes, one from each parent

What Does It Do?

As my hematologist described, FVL doesn’t cause blood clots but once activated, it dangerously accelerates clotting. Researchers aren’t clear on why some people with FVL activate and others don’t but there is almost always a precipitating factor—surgery, trauma, immobility, use of hormones, etc.

According to a review in Blood, the journal for the American Society of Hematology, women with heterozygous FVL who also use oral contraceptives have an estimated 30 to 50-fold increased risk of blood clots, while women with homozygous FVL have a several hundred-fold increased risk.

It is the most common genetic cause of primary and recurrent venous thromboembolism in women.

We know that taking estrogen can increase the risk of blood clots, stroke, and heart attack in women. And estrogen, when taken by someone with FVL, can significantly increase the risk of blood clots. Whether women are taking synthetic estrogen in the form of oral contraceptives, or hormone replacement therapy or have increased concentrations of the endogenous estrogens due to pregnancy, they are at much greater risk of clotting.

FVL accounts for 20-50% of the venous thromboembolisms (VTE) that are pregnancy related. In the United States, VTE is the leading cause of maternal death. In addition to causing VTE in pregnant women, FVL has been linked to miscarriage and preeclampsia.

Perhaps the women most at risk for blood clots are those that have been placed on hormone replacement therapy (HRT). A recent review of data from several studies found that women taking hormone replacement therapy were at an increased risk of blood clot and stroke. Worse yet, women with FVL who are also on HRT were 14-16 times more likely to have a VTE.

Despite these risks, women are not systematically tested for FVL before they are prescribed oral contraceptives, before or during pregnancy, or before commencing HRT.

What Women Know about Birth Control and Blood Clots

Part of my thesis research included a survey to assess what women understand about the risks of birth control pills and clotting disorders. Over 300 women who had taken birth control pills participated. What I found was that most women do not understand the side effects of hormonal birth control, nor are they familiar with the symptoms of a blood clot.

As for clotting disorders, nearly 60% of the women surveyed had no knowledge of these conditions. When asked whether they knew about clotting disorders BEFORE they took birth control pills that number increases considerably.

Over 80% of women were taking a medication without the knowledge that they could have an undiagnosed genetic condition that would make that medication exponentially more dangerous.

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise give that this information is not found in advertisements for birth control pills, on non- profit websites about birth control pills and their risks, or on literature provided with the prescriptions.

Why Aren’t Women Tested for Clotting Disorders?

The most common reason I found in my research for not testing women were cost-benefit analyses measured in cost per prevention of one death.

Setting aside the moral argument that you cannot put a price on a human life, because clearly the government and corporations do just that. (It’s $8 million in case you were wondering.) The cost of taking care of taking care of victims of blood clots is not insignificant.

Each year thousands of women using hormonal contraceptives will develop blood clots. The average cost of a patient with pulmonary embolism (PE) is nearly $9,000 (for a three-day stay not including follow-up medication and subsequent testing).

A hospital stay as a stroke patient is over twice that at nearly $22,000 (not including continuing out-patient rehabilitation, medications, testing, etc.). As a stroke survivor, I can tell you that the bills don’t stop after you leave the hospital. I was incredibly lucky that I only needed a month of out-patient therapy. Most patients need considerably more and will require life-long medication and testing. It’s important to note that due to the increasing cost of healthcare, the figures in these studies (PEs from 2003-2010; strokes from 2006-2008) would be exponentially higher now.

I’m not a statistician but I can do some basic math and while I wasn’t able to find data for the United States (surprise, surprise), the health ministry in France recently conducted a study that showed that the birth control pill causes 2,500 blood clots a year and 20 deaths. The United States has 9.72 million women using the pill compared to France’s 4.27 million. This doesn’t include the patch, ring, injectable, or hormonal IUD, but for the sake of keeping things simple, let’s just use the pill. So we have over twice the pill-users as France, which means twice the blood clots (5,000) and twice the deaths (40). If we assume that half of the blood clots are PE and half are stroke, we come up with a whopping $77.5 million in hospital bills for these blood clots (not counting life-long treatment). Now adding the cost-of-life determined by the government (40 women times $8 million= $320 million) and we end up with nearly $400 million a year in damages caused by the pill. For the cost of only one year of damages, all 10 million women could have a one-time $40 blood test which would result in considerably fewer blood clots.

Furthermore, the research in my thesis shows that women would be willing to not only take these tests, but also to pay for them!

Of the 311 who answered the question, 82.3% (or 256) said they would be willing to take the test. Only 7.2% said no, with the other 10.6% “not sure.” More than 60% of respondents would be willing to pay for the test (up to $50).

In addition, the cost of a blood test is directly proportional to how frequently it is performed. An increase in testing will result in a decrease in the cost of testing.

Women Deserve Better

Putting aside the monetary costs for a moment, what about the emotional and physical toll for women who suffer these dangerous and debilitating blood clots? There is no excuse for women to suffer strokes, pulmonary embolisms, DVTs, multiple miscarriages, and still births because they have an undiagnosed clotting disorder.

That said, requiring a test before prescribing hormones to women would raise awareness of the dangers of these drugs and may reduce the overall number of women using them. Which leads one to wonder if the absence of testing for women is really just a public relations strategy.

Perhaps one of the most devastating cautionary tales of not testing for clotting disorders comes from Laura Femia Buccellato. Her daughter Theresa was 16 years old when she was killed from a blood clot caused by (undiagnosed) Factor V Leiden and birth control pills. Would Theresa be with us today if she had had a simple blood test? Would I have had a stroke? When we will demand better?

We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This article was first published in September 2016.

Bad Breath, Birth Control, and the Big Picture

by Mike Gaskins

Published on June 10, 2024

4.8K views

Fade in on a sleeping young woman as the light of dawn breaks gently through the curtains. She opens her eyes and slowly unwraps from the warmth of her blanket. With the blare of her alarm in the background, the world begins to come into focus. She opens her mouth to utter her first words of the day, but instead of her voice, out comes a dry, blood-curdling screech, which feels like it should be accompanied by a legion of flesh-eating scarab beetles.

She can taste her breath; it smells like death overcooked in a microwave. As she glides her tongue across the front of her teeth, she realizes that both are coated with a nasty, gelatinous paste. “Just great!” she thinks to herself, “I’m getting sick.”

However, after a few days of this horrid mouth sludge, she doesn’t sense any other symptoms of a cold or flu coming on. Thinking maybe she’s just dehydrated, she forces herself to drink more water, but the bad breath continues.

In a near panic, she buys mouthwash, switches from her favorite toothpaste, and even changes up her diet – all to no avail.

So now the question becomes, at what point in this adventure will she think of questioning her birth control?

Overwhelming Small Changes

Dealing with an extended bout of bad breath may not seem like the end of the world, but it will make you paranoid about every social interaction as it chips away at your self-confidence. Still, that can sound pretty superficial. So, let’s consider what this bad breath indicates at a physiological level.

Like so many of the “small changes” that begin as a consequence of the synthetic steroids in hormonal birth control, these changes point to significant changes in the body at a cellular level. In this instance, our protagonist’s bad breath resulted from microbial changes that began in her gut and ultimately led to gum inflammation.

Years ago, when doctors handed out antibiotics almost as readily as they hand out birth control today, we learned about the importance of a healthy gut microbiome. Culturally, we had made bacteria such a bad word and had focused so much energy on vanquishing this corporeal invader that we lost sight of how anti-bacterial agents (especially in the hands of overzealous doctors) might be throwing our bodies out of balance.

A healthy gut thrives on a proper balance of bacteria, fungi, and viruses colonized within our bowels that help strengthen and train our immune system and support the function of our food metabolization.

Researchers have identified two principle clusters of microbial taxa that inhabit the gut, Bacteroides and Prevotella. As scientists learn more about these “enterotypes,” they better understand how the ratios of the two taxa reflect a health-promoting gut versus a disease-promoting microbial community.

Various species of Prevotella are harmless and can even maintain a mutually beneficial relationship in the gut. However, a few species, including P. intermedia and P. melaninogenica, present as opportunistic pathogens – and those opportunities come when the gut falls out of balance.

What They Say

As you probably figured out by now, hormonal birth control tends to upset the apple cart – or in this case, the Prevotella cart. The synthetic steroids in these drugs perturb the natural state in the gut, which frequently translates into the pathogenic Prevotella flourishing and migrating to other parts of the body, such as the mouth and vagina. Consequently, women can also see an increase in yeast infections, urinary tract infections (UTI), and/or bacterial vaginosis (BV) associated with starting and stopping birth control.

For now, we will focus on what happens in the mouth.

Studying the Mouth

As I begin to dig into a topic, I like to look around and see what the industry is already saying about it. When it comes to hormonal birth control, the answer is usually, “Not much.” However, a surprising number of dentists include information on their websites or blogs about birth control’s affect on dental health. There seems to be no question about the profound impact of hormonal birth control on the microbial flora of the mouth.

Even the Colgate toothpaste website offers this:

The American Academy of Periodontology notes that some medications – including oral contraceptives – can affect your oral health. Certain forms of hormonal birth control work by elevating levels of estrogen and progestin (synthetic progesterone) – in your body to prevent pregnancy. Just as they do during pregnancy, these hormones can affect how your gums respond to bacteria, increasing your risk of gum disease and bad breath.

After overcoming the initial shock of seeing a birth control side effect being discussed so openly, the wording on one of the dentist’s websites jumped out at me. This sentence in particular gave me pause: “As progesterone and estrogen fluctuate, it can result in certain symptoms that replicate gum disease.”

I began to contemplate the difference between replicating gum disease and having gum disease, which led to this tangent.

The Ability to Walk Away

In the first decade of this new millennium, the national media engaged in an intense debate about some of the tactics being implemented to harvest information from prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. As questions arose about whether these tactics were justified; whether they constituted torture; whether they violated the Geneva Convention, much of the dialogue centered around one particular technique known as water boarding.

Eager to put their own personal spin on the conversation, several reporters and activists volunteered to have film crews document them undergoing this gruesome experience that simulates drowning. It’s safe to say that most of them regretted the decision. They frequently described it as being far worse than they ever imagined.

As horrible as it may have been and as accurately as these experiments may have technically replicated actual water boarding, they did not perfectly reflect what the prisoners had gone through because the volunteers maintained the power to stop the experiment the moment it grew too uncomfortable. Another glaring difference was that the people who bound them and poured water over their faces were unquestionably not playing the role of a torturer – or even adversary. The moment the volunteer raised the white flag the tormenters quickly shifted to comforting and consoling them.

In short, the volunteers, as uncomfortable as it may have been, never forfeited the power to walk away on demand.

How many reporters would have agreed to be water boarded if they had been told, “There is a chance that once we begin this experiment, you will become an actual prisoner indefinitely and will lose all rights to end the interrogation”?

Is This Normal?

I cannot help but wonder how many women might fall prey to a similar type of mindset when it comes to birth control. Perhaps she starts to experience symptoms that replicate gum disease (or lupus, or hypothyroidism, or depression, or Crohn’s disease…).

At first, the symptoms may not seem so bad. She wrestles internally with how much she is willing to go through in the name of pregnancy prevention. This debate may grow more intense as the symptoms worsen, but one thing she rarely considers is that the symptoms might not stop just because she raises the white flag and gives up on birth control. Consequently, one of the most common questions I hear from women after they stop birth control is, “How soon will everything return to normal?”

This is precisely why small changes matter.

The Picture Grows Bigger

I doubt there are many women who ever gave up on birth control simply because they couldn’t leave the house without mints or gum, but, just as the changes in the gut microbiome gave rise to gingival inflammation, those same pathogens can progress and lead to a host of other complications and diseases.

Almost like diagramming a family tree, we can connect the dots of subsequent issues as they develop. These problems will vary from woman to woman because of their unique individual body chemistry.

However, in general terms, we know that women who take hormonal birth control experience much higher rates of gum disease and oral ulcers as a natural extension of the previously mentioned inflammation. But, they also experience more disorders with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) because the synthetic steroids in birth control reduce the concentration of natural estrogens. This creates a problematic environment for inflammation leading to increased joint pressure and decreased pain mediation, which could be even worse among women who receive injectable birth control like the Depo shot.

This is an important distinction for those doctors who tell women that the “hormones” in birth control are just like those their body produces. In fact, the presence of these synthetic steroids that mimic natural hormones cause her body to produce less of her natural hormones, which leaves her more vulnerable to various problems, like TMJ disorder.

If we continue to plot this family tree to which no one would want to belong, we see that women on birth control, who undergo oral surgery, more than double their risk of suffering from dry socket after the surgery. This painful condition occurs when a blood clot fails to form or becomes dislodged, leaving the sensitive surgical area exposed.

So, what happens when we move beyond the mouth?

Branching Out

Unfortunately, the mucosal pathways only represent the problems that can most easily be traced back to the gut. The same immune response and inflammation that can cause problems locally in the mouth and vagina can also become systemic. The uptick in the various species of Prevotella often triggers an overproduction of various cytokines that can lead to more serious complications. So, as the “family tree” of complications stemming from the gut branches out, we see issues like rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

As researchers learned more about the relationship of the gut microbiome to our overall health, they began debating whether Prevotella acted as a pathogen in the onset of diseases like RA, or whether it was merely a biomarker that flourished as a result of the disease. Over time, studies isolated Prevotella infections and linked them to a specific type of T cell known as Th17, which produces the cytokine, IL-17.

This is where you might need to buy some tape to extend the paper for the “family tree” because TH17 and IL-17 induce tissue inflammation in a number of chronic and autoimmune diseases beyond RA, including psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and the inflammatory bowel diseases: ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Furthermore, high levels of Prevotella have been linked to insulin resistance, high blood pressure, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and impaired glucose metabolism.

Not coincidentally, ALL of these complications and diseases have also been linked to increased risks with hormonal birth control use.

See the Signs

Clearly, not every woman who wakes up with bad breath from her birth control will go on to develop a chronic inflammatory disease, but that does not mean we should ignore the warning signs.

It takes very little effort in connecting the dots to acknowledge that a relationship exists among these variables:

Hormonal birth control ~ changes to gut flora ~ predominance of Prevotella ~ overproduction of inflammatory cytokines ~ disease state.

We have a history of ignoring warning signs. In the early days of birth control, several leading physicians warned that they were seeing changes in mammary tissue that could lead to an epidemic of breast cancer cases in the future. The drug companies responded to those warnings by marketing that birth control would make your breasts fuller. And, just as predicted, we witnessed a 390% increase in breast cancer cases (from 80,000 cases per year in 1970 to 310,720 cases today), and the numbers continue to rise.

Decades later, scientists are discovering the connection between chronic disease and gut bacteria, which can be triggered by the synthetic steroids in birth control.

So, what should we do with this information?

Well, history has shown that we shouldn’t wait to see how the drug companies respond, nor should we wait for science to settle the debate regarding cause or consequence.

Instead, if you start taking hormonal birth control and find yourself waking up with bad breath, you should probably take it as just that – a wakeup call.

We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

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Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Hormonal Contraception & Libido

by Kerry Gretchen

Published on April 4, 2024

10.6K views

“If sexuality is one dimension of our ability to live passionately in the world then in cutting off our sexual feelings we diminish our overall power to feel, know, and value deeply.” –Judith Plaskow

This quote raises an interesting question. If owning our sexuality gives us power, then who benefits from limiting that power? And why is limiting that power an acceptable side effect of hormonal contraception?

During the Nelson Pill Hearings, Dr. M. James Whitelaw testified (page 6015): “How many adult males would be willing to take an oral contraceptive faithfully if they were told that instead of a possible 50-plus adverse side reactions only one remained, that being the possible loss of sex drive and libido? [Laughter]”

What is the implication here? Women can be denied their full sexual capability but the idea of men suffering the same is laughable? Holly Grigg-Spall speaks to that in her book Sweetening the Pill (page 50):

“The pill’s impact on the libido has been publicized but it is generally dismissed with humor. The libido is seen as distinct from women’s emotional and physical health, whereas with men it is linked. The female sex drive is not celebrated or seen as essential to her femininity or sexuality… Research that indicates that lowered libido is experienced by a large number of women on the pill is undercut by the cultural assumption that most women have little real interest in sex regardless of this drug.”

Sexy But Not Sexual

And she’s right. Women are constantly told to be sexy but not sexual. It would seem that hormonal birth control would provide exactly that type of woman. One who could have sex without the consequence of getting pregnant, therefore highly desirable to men; but one who could not fully embrace the power of her own sexuality due to a medication-induced lack of libido. Is this really what we want? A society of women that are physically available for sex but completely disconnected from the powers of her own sexuality? Again I will ask, who benefits from keeping women in that robot-like state?

“The quality of a woman’s sex life, unlike that of a man’s, does not seem to concern the drug companies or the (male) research establishment… Women who reported changes in their sex drive often heard that old refrain: ‘It’s all in your head.’ But the male sex drive is considered so important by the drug companies that it is always studied in conjunction with new male contraceptives, just as it is almost always mentioned in arguments against the condom.” –Barbara Seamen in The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill

It’s true. We hear the argument that condoms lessen sensation during sex. But for whom? Men. Yet for women who use hormonal birth control, low libido and loss of sensation during sex are some of the least dangerous side effects they can expect. Heather Corinna put it so well in her article “Love the Glove” that even Grigg-Spall quoted her:

“If we’re going to talk about condoms changing how sex feels, we need to remember that something like the pill does too, and, unlike condoms, it changes how a woman feels all the time, both during and outside of sex… Other methods of contraception can cause pain and cramping, unpredictable bleeding, urinary tract infections, depression and a whole host of unpleasant side effects. Condoms are the LEAST intrusive and demanding of all methods of contraception, even though some guys talk about them — without considering this perspective — like they’re the most. If guys could feel what life can be like on the pill, use a cervical barrier or get a Depo shot, they’d easily see condoms for the cakewalk they are.”

It’s not just the pill that is damaging to women. As Grigg-Spall explains, Depo Provera (“the shot”) is specifically used to decrease sex drive in sex offender rehabilitation programs. There is something seriously wrong when a birth control option offered to women is the exact same medication used as pharmaceutical castration for sex offenders.

FSD – Female Sexual Dysfunction or Female Sexuality Discouraged?

According to a study of female German medical students published today in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, women taking non-oral and oral hormonal contraceptives were at highest risk of Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Interestingly, women using non-hormonal contraceptives were at lowest risk for FSD, more than women not using any contraceptive.

“Sexual problems can have a negative impact on both quality of life and emotional well-being, regardless of age,” said researcher Dr. Lisa-Maria Wallwiener of the University of Heidelberg, Germany. “FSD is a very common disorder, with an estimated prevalence of about two in five women having at least one sexual dysfunction, and the most common complaint appearing to be low desire.”

Side Effects – Affecting More Than Just the Patient

Why is this okay? Why do we accept this? If a woman is experiencing sexual dysfunction, it not only affects her but it affects her partner as well.

Dr. Philip Ball testified about this very problem at the Nelson Pill Hearings back in 1970 (page 6493): These unhappily newly married women do not know if it is the wrong man, the wrong town, the wrong job, the wrong year, the wrong apartment, or yet something else, when it is really many times the wrong pill.

And he’s not incorrect. Research now shows that taking birth control pills affects women’s taste in men. According to this article from the Scientific American, women on the pill seem to prefer men who are genetically similar to themselves.

“Women who start or stop taking the pill, then, may be in for some relationship problems. A study published last year in Psychological Science found that women paired with MHC-similar men are less sexually satisfied and more likely to cheat on their partners than women paired with MHC-dissimilar men. So a woman on the pill, for example, might be more likely to start dating a MHC-similar man, but he could ultimately leave her less sexually satisfied. Then if she goes off the pill during the relationship, the accompanying hormonal changes will draw her even more strongly toward more MHC-dissimilar men. These immune genes may have a “powerful effect in terms of how well relationships are cemented,” says University of Liverpool psychologist Craig Roberts, co-author of the August paper.”

How any of this is connected to relationship issues, divorce rate, infertility, one can only speculate. But it’s clear that the sexual side effects caused by hormonal contraception are no laughing matter.

Sex is a big part of life. The ability to connect with each other and derive great pleasure from sex is not just a perk of being a human. It is our birthright. And to deny that birthright is to limit our power as women. That’s not what I consider an “acceptable side effect.”

We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

Image by Pana Koutloumpasis from Pixabay.

This article was published originally on July 14, 2016.

Nexplanon Side Effects: A Case Story

by Jeisel S.

Published on March 5, 2024

7.8K views

As a mother of 4, having had all of my children in my twenties, birth control was always a part of my life. I tried birth control pills, shots, the ring, and lastly, the arm implant, Nexplanon. In 2019, at the age of 35, I had the Nexplanon inserted in my left arm. I was excited about it because it was a birth control that was hands off and there would be no need to think about it. I would be protected for three years.

The First Signs That Something Was Wrong

In the summer of 2022, after three years of use, my OB said I should get it replaced with a new one. I had it replaced in June of 2022. I noticed right away that the implant site on my left arm was itchy. I didn’t experience that with my first one. Then a month later, I started feeling like my throat was closing at night. I wasn’t sick and I didn’t have allergies. It made me nervous to have that feeling, like I would choke and not be able to breathe.

In August, two months later, I had a full blown panic attack while in the car on my way to a Yankees game with my husband. I was so excited about going to the game, but while in the car, I felt like I couldn’t swallow my saliva properly, like my throat was closing again. We ended up in the ER instead of the game where I had an MRI of my neck to check my throat and nothing was wrong.

On September 30th, I woke up with a clogged feeling in my left ear, and lost my hearing a day later. I went to the ENT and they mentioned I had to get on a high dose of steroids for 3 weeks in order to try and restore my hearing. I experienced terrible side effects, such as anxiety, panic, fear of death, heart palpitations, heart racing, dizziness and blurred vision and extreme nervousness and depersonalization. I wasn’t able to work, drive, or go outside. Thank God, that after the first week of steroids, my hearing was restored. Now I just had to taper off the steroids, which were still giving me all the side effects even with the lower dosages.

As of November, I was no longer on steroids, but the side effects I was feeling, kept getting worse. I would cry all day, all night, and lost 15lbs in a month because I couldn’t eat. I went to the ER multiple times thinking I was having a heart attack from the chest tightness and palpitations. The doctors all said that I shouldn’t have any side effects from the steroids since I had stopped taking it months before. I had my vision checked, a full cardiac stress test, bloodwork, all with normal results. I didn’t understand and no doctor would help me. My primary care doctor recommended anxiety medications since that’s what I was exhibiting for the first time in my life. I refused them completely and just decided that I would continue waiting.

Was Nexplanon Causing My Health Issues?

It was then December, and no symptoms had improved. I was still having panic attacks daily, still having palpitations, heart racing, dizziness, blurred vision, depersonalization, and now muscle weakness and internal tremors. My legs would shake going down the stairs. I was only getting worse. I sat down and prayed one night, just hoping God would give me a sign. The next day I received an email from a family member saying her friend tried Nexplanon and was having severe panic attacks, so she removed it. I was excited. Could it be the Nexplanon? I never thought of it because I had used it for 3 years before the replacement with no side effects. I then looked up forums online and I found hundreds of comments with women experiencing the same side effects as me. It was unbelievable.

I made an appointment with my OB for December 15, 2022 to get it removed. A week later, no symptom relief or improvement. Two weeks later, still nothing. I became discouraged thinking it wasn’t birth control and I was feeling devastated and nervous, thinking the worst. But finally, after 3 weeks, almost every single side effect was gone. No more panic attacks, no more blurred vision, no more fear of death, heart racing, palpitations, throat tightness, nothing. Only one symptom remains, even now, over a year later and it’s the internal tremors. It was the last symptom to develop and I’m sure it will be the last to go. It is definitely less severe than before and I find that deep breathing makes the tremors go away. I am grateful that I was able to figure out what was causing all of my issues since even my OB said that it was not possible for the Nexplanon to give me the severe anxiety and every side effect I was experiencing. I am finally back to my normal self, happy go lucky, loving life and appreciating every minute of every day. I am grateful first to God, for answering my prayers and for all of my family and friends that supported me through this difficult time. I hope my experience helps other women that may not know to look at their birth control if they ever go through something like me.

Medication Side Effects?

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We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

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Ding, Dong! Hormones at Your Door!

by Raquel Latona

Published on June 20, 2023

6.1K views

Online birth control pills delivered to your door

The side effects of hormonal birth control are notoriously under-recognized. So much so, that I filmed a documentary about them, entitled, Hormoneously Alone, highlighting the severe lack of research since the 1950s. What I learned was shocking. Because hormonal birth control has been available for over 60 years, everyone, doctors included, presume these drugs are completely safe and have very few, ‘rare’ side effects. I spoke to experts in women’s health who have researched the effects of the pill and other forms of hormonal birth control and, contrary to the general consensus, these drugs do elicit many ill-effects that are detrimental to health. These side effects can develop while on the pill but also upon withdrawal as the body struggles to adapt to the loss of synthetic hormones.

My original post on this website documenting my own experience is what drove me to investigate the side effects of hormonal birth control, and ultimately, make a documentary to inform other women. Over four years, hundreds of women have left comments indicating they had similar experiences with hormonal birth control and even more have reached out to me personally for advice. Research on this website and other case stories concur.

With all of the potentially negative health consequences attributed to hormonal birth control, imagine my surprise when I learned that these drugs can be ordered online, without so much as a physician consultation. Of course, since most physicians do not recognize the side effects, I guess ordering online is no less safe than from a physician who ignores the health or experience of his/her patients.

My goal is that women will research and educate themselves about the risks they are taking when ordering birth control online. I hope my articles and my documentary will encourage them to speak up, and ask questions, but what if that does not happen? At least when these drugs are prescribed by a physician there is a small chance the more serious side effects will be recognized. When ordered online, with no health intake or counseling of any sort, the possibility for potentially dangerous health interactions between the pill and the patient increases. This risk is increased for young girls, who do not have the experience to understand the side effects associated with these drugs.

Ordering Birth Control Pills Online

Anyone can order hormonal birth control online. While doing research for my documentary, I investigated the process. There are no safety mechanisms in place to determine whether the information one inputs is truthful or not, or whether the individual might have a family medical history that can affect the choice of the type of hormone prescribed. I know this because I tested it. I went online and created a fake profile with fake information and submitted a request for a three month trial. It took me about five minutes from start to finish. I tried multiple vendors, some of the more popular ones, and none of them had any issues with prescribing a pill for me. Surprisingly, none of these vendors asked when my last OBGYN appointment was or if there was a family medical history for any cancers that the birth control pill may help promote or any other health issue that might be exacerbated by the pill. A genetic predisposition may increase one’s risk for certain illnesses and cancers. Breast cancer, for example, may be exacerbated by certain synthetic hormones. Autoimmune disease may also be exacerbated by these hormones.

I wanted to see how far I could push the dial, so I also falsely claimed to smoke cigarettes daily, had high blood pressure and migraines with aura. These are all cases where hormonal birth control is clearly contraindicated because of the elevated risk for blood clots. And yet, even with these risk factors, I was able to order a prescription. There was no dialogue with an online doctor or chat system. It was just me, my mouse, and my keyboard.

I am all for women’s rights and easy access to medications, but as a woman who understands the risks of these drugs, who has experienced some of them, this enraged me. Why are women not told of these risks? Online prescriptions seriously lack the ability to oversee a patient’s full chart and medical history, to understand a patient’s concerns, and to have the foresight to avoid a medication that may catalyze a genetic predisposition. This seems totally careless.

Women’s Rights

In today’s highly politicized landscape, it is difficult to talk about birth control safety and side effects, especially with the current onslaught of attacks against women’s health care options. Recently, over the counter hormonal birth control has been approved by the FDA. This eliminates any and all preliminary precautions and the online ordering has become even easier. Regardless of where we are buying these pills, I think we have to acknowledge that talking about safety and accessibility is not an attack on women’s rights, rather a concern for their well-being. I believe the ability to order medication online is generally a good thing. The accessibility of these online birth control pills not only allows a user to obtain them quickly, but also, discreetly, and inexpensively. It is, for the most part, hassle-free. This works well for the quick-click generation and society that we have evolved into. Women should always be in charge of their bodies, and this new technology affords them that opportunity, which is a really powerful and important idea in and of itself. I do, however, struggle with the idea that we might be missing possible interactions that could result in serious side effects and health issues. These websites do not have a warning anywhere, just, in my opinion, a vague questionnaire. As you will see below, there is little to no health intake when ordering and no counseling regarding side effects.

The Age of Consent

In my research for the documentary, I wondered about the accessibility of online ordering to young girls. As I flipped through the magazines that I once read religiously as a teenager, now, from an adult’s perspective, I see just how targeted the ads can be. In the most common teenage magazines, there are ads almost every 5 pages that push ordering hormonal contraceptives online. These ads are impossible to miss and can be very persuasive to young girls.

Imagine a parent and not knowing what medications your child was on. Imagine a child not understanding the seriousness of the birth control pill and taking too many because they missed a few? Imagine a child taking the pill not knowing why they are feeling poorly, suddenly getting migraines, a possible sign of neurological issues including stroke, or having labored breathing, a sign of pulmonary emboli. These side effects are more common than you would think. Is it smart to have such accessible medications with potentially severe side effects available online without so much as a health warning? Will teenagers read the fine print? Yet, the FDA allows online ordering. It would be easier for a child to click and order rather than having the uncomfortable conversation with their parents or their doctor. A fake profile and credit card is all that is needed.

Since most patients do not ask questions when being prescribed the birth control pill by a physician and, from my experience, most doctors do not offer this information up, what would prompt the conversation online? Is a child who is taking the pill going to read the pamphlet, and if so, will they understand it?

Candy From Strangers

When the package of hormonal birth control came to my door about a week after placing the order, it had some candies and chocolates with it. This felt ironic. “Don’t take candy from strangers,” feels oddly similar to “Don’t take pills from the internet,” or the idea of candy not being healthy for you accompanying the controversial birth control pill. It all felt wrong. Because of the emphasis that providers put on the safety of birth control pills, it seems to negate the impact these pills have on the female body. The pill may be generally safe to take every day, but what are the effects that we are missing under the surface? Are they actually safe even if we do not see the effects immediately? Is the pill for everybody?

It is extremely important that women be in charge of their bodies, but having autonomy means having an understanding of the full picture. Women should absolutely be able to order pills online, but they should also be given adequate information to make that decision and protect themselves against possible harm. Omitting critical health information in favor of accessibility does nothing to serve women’s health interests. Women need to understand the side effects associated with these drugs in order to make an informed decision.

I believe we, as a society, are sacrificing leniency on a topic we truly do not know much about for quick and cheap pill availability. I think we need to revisit the accessibility of these pills and take a step back to understand the potential harm we are causing.

Hormoneously Alone

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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Why I Made a Documentary About the Birth Control Pill

by Raquel Latona

Published on December 27, 2022

5.4K views

hormoneously alone - birth control documentary

I began using the birth control pill in my early 20’s. After 3 years of using the pill, I decided it was time to stop. I didn’t expect the process of coming off birth control to be so harsh. I was wrong. The withdrawal symptoms were unlike anything I had ever felt before. I developed extremely high blood pressure, had tingling and weakness throughout my body, brain fog, and a frightening sense of depersonalization. Not a single doctor could give me any information about what was causing these symptoms, when they would end, or even if they would end. In fact, most of the physicians I saw denied that pill withdrawal was a thing. They said that my symptoms were anxiety and suggested an antidepressant. I knew that couldn’t be the cause of these unique, first-time symptoms. I felt like there was no hope in sight. Through research, I found that I was not alone. There were many women who experienced similar symptoms while withdrawing from hormonal contraceptives, In fact there were thousands of women just like me.

I wrote an article about my full experience coming off the birth control pill and published it on this website, here. Since then, the article has received hundreds of comments from women who developed similar withdrawal symptoms. I decided to make a documentary about hormonal birth control in an effort to help spread awareness, and, to comfort other women who were struggling. Filming a documentary with no crew, no production money, and no experience, will fully test one’s sanity, but I was determined to uncover and document the health effects of hormonal contraceptives. After 4 years of work, I released the documentary entitled, “Hormoneously Alone,” on YouTube. It can be found here. I learned a lot from filming this documentary, and over the next few months, I will be writing a series of articles about the topics discussed in the film as well as other information that I was not able to include.

Ninety-eight percent of the female population will use a hormonal contraceptive in their lifetime. This is likely because it is 99% effective at preventing pregnancy when taken regularly. Using the pill alleviates worry and it is easy to use. In the US alone, this means that about 13 million women use hormonal birth control, with 6 million between the ages of 15-24 and 7 million between the ages of 25-34. I also learned that about 60% of women who have taken the pill have done so for other issues unrelated to pregnancy. Acne, bloating, and cramps are some of the main catalysts for using the pill.

What you may not know, and what I did not know before I began taking the pill, is up to 60% women who use hormonal contraceptives, whether for the prevention of pregnancy or for other reasons, stop taking the pill within 6 months because of side effects. Unfortunately, there is little research on pill withdrawal and why it effects some women and not all. Through my own research, I’ve personally estimated that about 15% of women will experience withdrawal symptoms. This is troubling because these withdrawal symptoms seem to only be recognized by the women who use these products. There are few experts in women’s health who understand pill withdrawal. Most doctors and gynecologists seem unaware of these effects. This leaves most of us struggling to recover on our own.

If a significant amount of women use hormonal contraception at some point in their lives, and the side effects both on and off the pill are not well studied, do we really know enough about the well-being of the girls and women who use them? With teenagers especially, are we doing more harm to the developing brain and body when we prescribe artificial hormones for things like acne and painful or irregular periods? Given the large number of girls and women who use the pill, do we as a society, not just as women, understand what we are committing to when we take the pill? From what I experienced and what I learned while producing the documentary, even though the pill has been on the market for over 60 years, we still do not fully understand the implications of using artificial hormones. Over the next few articles, I will be tackling some of these big issues that many women wonder about while on the pill, and off the pill. Hopefully, what I have learned will help others make more informed decisions and feel empowered to know what’s right for their body, and their body only.

Hormoneously Alone – A Birth Control Documentary

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now About the Pill

by GR

Published on December 14, 2022

8.3K views

Growing up and going through womanhood, birth, periods, our cycles, and hormones seem to be shoved under the rug as some deep, dark, and gross secret of society. Looking back, I wish things were different. I feel as though women would feel more empowered by these things, rather than looked down on.

At 19 years old, I was about seven years in on heavy periods, bad cramps, and PMS like no other. Out of a hasty decision, I figured, why not start birth control? This day in age, there are a lot of websites that make it extremely easy to get on any birth control. I found out about the app Nurx and got the ball rolling. The process of getting on the pill consisted of an online health test, some other questions, and what type of birth control you want to be on. I figured to be on the one my friends were on, thinking it was the best option.

Severe Mood Swings, Painful Breasts, and Intense Hunger

I selected Junel Fe as my pill if choice. The first few months were horrid. I napped a lot, my breasts grew TWO cup sizes and were painful all month, I was hungry 24/7, and was severely anxious and depressed. Only plus side was no cramps or heavy bleeding.

I was already prone to anxiety before the pill, but this was another level. I had horrible intrusive thoughts and was scared for my personal well-being. I contacted Nurx (they had doctors available for chat), and they switched me to Lutera. I felt much better after this but wouldn’t notice what the pill was doing to me until two years later.

Looking back, the pill put me in a state of being super low or super high. I was extremely sporadic in my moods, emotional, and shut myself out from the world. It put a huge strain on my relationships with friends, family, my boyfriend, and myself.

Skipping a Period and New Onset Headache

I took my pill each day at the same time, followed the rules, everything. Forward to summer of 2022, I was getting ready for vacation, and noticed I’d be on my period the week of. I never skipped my period before, but decided it was best for this vacation. Following advice from a friend, I skipped my period (giving me a five-week cycle) then continued as normal (which would give me a three-week cycle next).

Everything was fine until the week after I skipped (my new period week). I developed a headache that lasted a week. The week of a headache, turned into a month. Though my cycle was “back on track”, the headache worsened. It was a sharp pain in my left ear, or a constant dizziness/pressure feeling that prevented me from doing anything. I tried talking to my chiropractor, took multiple visits to the ENT and PCP, I was prescribed antibiotics, told it was stress, and there was nothing to be done.

A loved one made a point, “what if it’s from skipping your period two months ago?”. I brushed it off, but it always stuck in the back of my head. I was now three months into a headache that I had every day. My dizziness got so bad to the point I went to the ER. I was taken in for a CT scan and was given a “migraine cocktail”. As someone with a lot of anxiety, especially regarding her health, I thought the worst case possible, whether it be cancer or a debilitating disease. My CT was clear, thank God. However, I had no answers. I cried every night and felt so defeated. We ruled out nerve problems, TMJ, and major trauma. I then thought of the pill.

After a conversation with my therapist and boyfriend, I decided I wanted to see if this tiny pill truly caused all this damage. I had a neurology appointment coming up and tried to detox my body from the synthetic hormones.

The first few days off the pill (unsure if it was a placebo effect or something) but I felt great. The mental clarity was amazing. My head still hurt, I was still scared, but I felt more “human” again.

I was finally able to see a neurologist. I told her my story, and she agreed the pain could be triggered by the hormonal changes. My blood work came back clear, my MRI and MRA were clear, and my EEG was clear. This made me feel a lot better, but I was still terrified. Luckily, we found a method that worked to help my pain.

Though we managed the migraines, about three months post-pill, the anxiety emerged. I am going to be honest, in my nine years with anxiety, this is the worst it has ever been in my life. Along with physical symptoms like swollen lymph nodes, weakness in my limbs, heart palpitations, hair loss, acne, and being tired 24/7, I truly have never felt worse.

Though I read a lot of this can happen post-pill, I was so terrified for my life. Constantly feeling like something is wrong physically and mentally spiraled me into depression. Part of me still gets scared it is something more serious, and that there is no way the pill, and coming off it, could do this to me. But there is NOTHING else that I have changed besides this.

The feeling of doom and helplessness has been hard, and I know it is a huge process in getting my body and mind back to my pre-birth control self. I am working with a holistic practitioner, therapist, and gynecologist to bring me back to where I once was.

The Pill is a Band-aid

I wish I knew then, what I know now. I wish I knew that the pill depletes you of so many minerals, that it is now considered a carcinogen, and that it’s a band-aid, not a solution. I wish I knew my periods were so bad back then because of my diet and lifestyle, not because “it happens”. I wish I knew what I was getting into.

As for my cycle now, it is regular. I use Natural Cycles tracking. I did not ovulate my first cycle off the pill, but since then I have had normal ovulation and periods. My periods are much more manageable than they used to be, and I feel proud to be a woman and embrace the natural occurrences of my body. I constantly say, “I don’t know, I just feel like a woman again”. I never realized the true numbness the pill caused me to feel.

It is still an uphill battle, and I think it will take a bit for me to feel like myself again. Books regarding the menstrual cycle and hormones have been useful. In the Flo by Alisa Vitti and The Hormone Balance Bible by Dr. Shawn Tassone are my favorites. I have been given supplements and mineral recommendations by my holistic practitioner to take to replenish my body. My diet is centered around hormonal support and I have indulged myself in many new herbal teas and remedies to help me feel better. I have made a lot of lifestyle changes and am creating better habits for myself.

Though it has not been officially “diagnosed”, I do think I fall into the category of post-birth control syndrome. The physical symptoms, anxiety, and depression have been difficult, but I know there is light at the end of the tunnel. Some days are better than others, but no matter what, I am blessed to have seen the brighter side of things and know I will be ok. Just know, you are not alone, it is not just in your head, and I promise, it will get better.

Share Your Experience

If you would like to share your experience with hormonal birth control or any other medication, send us a note.

We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

Photo by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash.

Banging My Head Against the Wall: Questioning Birth Control Safety

by Mike Gaskins

Published on April 25, 2022

8.1K views

My position as a women’s health advocate is frequently challenged merely because I am a man. I’m okay with that because it’s a valid point. I will never experience firsthand many of the issues that concern me. However, I don’t believe that means I should be forced to remain silent on matters related to women’s health. My passion for the cause is nurtured by a dear love for my wife and daughters, as well as for my sisters and nieces, not to mention fond memories of a loving mother who lost her life to estrogen-sensitive breast cancer. It is with them in mind that I would like to issue a challenge of my own:

If you truly care about the health of women, take a moment to consider where you stand on birth control and think critically about why you stand there.

Visions of Utopia

I celebrated the recent news that a jury awarded Dewayne Johnson $289 million in his lawsuit against Monsanto. The former school groundskeeper sued the makers of Roundup for not being forthcoming with customers about the dangers of their product. He believed the glyphosate in Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and the jury agreed.

I was ecstatic to see the subsequent momentum—the number of lawsuits against Monsanto jumped to about 8,000, and Vietnam actually demanded Monsanto pay victims of Agent Orange, another Monsanto product and a chemical cousin of glyphosate.

People were finally paying attention to the horrible consequences of using this toxic chemical. For a moment, I thought this might translate to hormonal contraceptives. (I’m not sure how I made that leap, but Utopian visions aren’t generally known for being bound by rational thought.) At any rate, I was sure people would start turning on birth control just as they were with Roundup.

Suing for Side Effects

Then, reality set in. Those 8,000 lawsuits will probably settle and soon be forgotten. Before we know it, people will freely be spraying Roundup again, and Monsanto will be off the hook because they will do so knowing the risks.

The connection between Roundup and hormonal contraceptives is actually much stronger than it may first seem. Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, also manufactures other toxic chemicals, which represent the most popular birth control brands in the world – and these brands have legal issues of their own. Yaz/Yasmin paid out $2.04 billion to settle over 10,000 blood-clot lawsuits as of January 2016. They paid another $57 million to heart attack and stroke victims, and $21.5 million for gallbladder damage. Those numbers have likely increased, as several thousand cases remain unsettled and more suits are being filed each day.

It Begins with One

The Roundup avalanche began with one person. At least for a day or two, everyone knew who Dewayne Johnson was. His case focused a lot of attention on the risks of Roundup and the manufacturer’s willingness to overlook those dangers for the sake of profits.

There are innumerable heartbreaking stories of young women who have been maimed or killed by their birth control. Any one of these could have been ‘the One’ that launched an avalanche against hormonal birth control. These stories fill the internet. Let’s pick one.

In 2011, the Canadian Broadcast Company (CBC) ran a story about a mother who was suing Bayer Healthcare for the death of her daughter. A healthy 18-year old, Miranda Scott went to the gym after 5-weeks on Yasmin. She collapsed while on the elliptical machine unable to breathe. An autopsy revealed she died from pulmonary emboli, blood clots in the lungs. It was only after her death that her mother began researching Yasmin, and discovered it was the likely cause of her blood clots and very early death.

At this point, Bayer had already paid out over $1 billion in blood clot related settlements. But, here’s how they responded to the lawsuit in a statement to the CBC:

“We are very disappointed in Justice Crane’s decision to certify a class in Ontario in an ongoing lawsuit regarding Yaz and Yasmin. No decision has been made on the merits of the case. We have filed a request with the Court for leave to appeal the decision and are evaluating our legal options… At Bayer patient safety comes first and we fully stand behind, Yaz and Yasmin.”

Seven years have passed since Miranda Scott’s death, and Bayer has paid out another billion-plus dollars in settlements. I understand why Bayer still stands behind their product – it’s a moneymaker, which honestly probably ranks a little higher than patient safety in their eyes. What I can’t understand is why women’s health advocates still stand behind hormonal birth control.

The Birth Control Ideology

The narrative has been defined in such a way that ‘birth control’ equals ‘The Pill’ equals ‘Women’s Rights.’ This is incredibly fortunate for the pharmaceutical companies because any ‘attack’ on their product can be spun as an attack on Women’s Rights.

So, here’s where I challenge you to rethink your stance on birth control as it relates to hormonal contraceptives in three quick steps:

1) Research the Risks of Birth Control

Go to your favorite search engine and type, “Oral Contraceptives + [pick a disease/side effect/complication]” and scroll through the results. You don’t even have to invest a lot of time; just read the headlines and synopses to get a feel for what’s out there. Do this with 3 or 4 different complications that seem really diverse.

One of the enduring statements from the Nelson Pill Hearings was that these potent little pills leave no tissue unaffected. For me, this exercise drove home that point. It’s pretty incredible to contemplate the breadth of the myriad complications. Just consider some of the ones I’ve written about on this website – depression, hair loss, lupus, multiple sclerosis, migraines, infertility, and irritable bowel disease.

2) Why Just The Pill?

These days, hormonal contraceptives can be delivered via rings, patches, injectables, or IUDs. The vehicle doesn’t really matter. They’ve all been shown to have their own inherent risks. So, why are they usually considered the only choice when it comes to family planning?

When The Pill first came out, Dr. David Clark, a world-renowned neurologist mused that it had been granted a sort of “diplomatic immunity” because of irrational fears of overpopulation. Today, that diplomatic immunity has been galvanized by its equally irrational alignment with Women’s Rights.

Why irrational? Consider this. Holly Grigg-Spall wrote Sweetening The Pill, a wonderful book on the dangers of The Pill, its addictive qualities, and the corporate motivations behind its promotion. Hollywood producers approached her about developing a documentary on the same topic. She wrote about the disheartening experience for Hormones Matter. After investing a lot of herself into the project, she received an email from one of the other women working on the project expressing her thought that

“…there was always a small concern in the back of my mind about unintentionally aiding the right-wing agenda.”

I felt Holly’s pain as I read the article. I know what it’s like to pour yourself into a project, only to have it grind to a halt. But on a deeper level, I felt her frustration with the ‘system’ (for lack of a better word.) Whenever I hear something like this, I think of a quote often attributed to Golda Mier, “We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

To paraphrase, we will only be able to prioritize women’s health (and rights) when we care more about exposing the risks of birth control than we worry about giving ammunition to our political rivals.

3) Are There Birth Control Options?

In her enlightening book, Reproductive Rights and Wrongs, Betsy Hartmann breaks down the fallacy of overpopulation in the Third World and demonstrates how population control policies influenced the current look of birth control here in the US. She writes:

“Married to population control, family planning has been divorced from the concern for women’s health and well-being that inspired the first feminist crusaders for birth control…A family planning program designed to improve health and to expand women’s control over reproduction looks very different indeed from one whose main concern is to reduce birth rates as fast as possible.”

She suggests that if a contraceptive policy was truly concerned with women’s health, it would do more to promote barrier methods that also protect against sexually transmitted diseases, or natural methods that allow for child spacing without introducing internal pollutants to the woman’s body.

In fact, natural forms of fertility awareness have enjoyed growing popularity among young women in recent years. This shouldn’t be confused with the highly ineffective rhythm method. Nor is it exclusive to religious-based ‘natural family planning.’ While the Creighton Model and Billings Method have begun to appeal to women outside the Roman Catholic faith, there are also successful secular versions of fertility awareness available from sources like the Red Tent Sisters.

Planned Parenthood claims that fertility awareness methods are only about 80% effective. However, a report published in the Osteopathic Journal of Medicine in 2013 found the overall effectiveness of fertility awareness methods when used correctly to be greater than 95% (Creighton 99.5%; Billings 97%). Another study of poor urban women in Delhi found the Billings Method to be 99.86% effective. These numbers are comparable to The Pill, but without all the risks.

Take Aways

For a deeper dig into this topic, I highly recommend the two eye-opening books previously referenced: Reproductive Rights and Wrongs and Sweetening The Pill.

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We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

Image credit: PxHere; CCO public domain

This article was published originally on September 27, 2018.

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