(Since You Asked) Don't Take the Pill

rough draft

Apparently the best way for me to get anything in long form written is to have someone randomly ask me a question. I've been meaning to make some notes on this subject forever but I keep putting it off. So for now, here's a bunch of messages I sent a friend who asked what my thoughts on the hormonal birth control pill is. Enjoy.

*a little introduction/hello

-I'll reply more this afternoon, but I'll tell you what i told my little sister when she asked and that is to please not do it,  i was on it when i was 18 and it wrecked my hormones and I spiraled into the worst depression and anxiety l've ever had and it took about two years to get back to healthy. I just didn't really know what it actually was or did and just started it because I thought I should and I didn't realize the other options. Almost every other woman that's used HBC that l've talked to or seen them talk about it, says it's had negative effects.

That being said, it's still your choice and for some people it does seem to work without too many side effects or long term fertility issues, so you could be one of those women!

-It's sort of a can of worms so I might be spamming you with a lot of info and posts here when I get back to this later, but as long as you know what it actually does and can do, at least you're aware if things do start going sideways!

(And no judgement at all for people who do take it haha literally just there's not a lot of info especially when you're young, about longterm effects and all of that and I think women deserve to know. )

-Ok so bear with me

-I'm gonna try to just send you some more info, and follow up on it all yourself!!

You probably know this already but this is how the pill actually works- by taking steady strains of synthetic progesterone and estrogen, it tricks your brain into thinking you're already pregnant. Since your brain believes you're pregnant, it doesn't release the hormones every month during your ovulation phase to actually release an egg, hence you can't get pregnant because there is no egg. (It also changes mucus and uterine lining to make it more difficult to get pregnant)

-The "period" from the pill isn't actually a period (periods are super important markers of women's hormones/health btw. They shouldn't be super painful or irregular or absent), it's a withdrawal bleed. By taking placebo pills for a week, the hormones drop resulting in a light bleed. This is mostly to just reassure patients that they're not pregnant and to mimic a natural cycle.

-I'm not gonna get into all the side effects here, just look up the actual insert that goes into these packages and read through it, it ranges from cancer and long-term infertility to depression and anxiety. There's even studies that have shown that it changes what type of person you're attracted to. It is a Class 1 carcinogen as well.

I personally would not use hormonal birth control at all. IUD included. If I absolutely had to consider it I would use the Annovera ring. It is hormonal but not as strong. It's supposed to have the same success rate as the pill (about 97%)

-I will say, if you can learn how to track your ovulation, there's only about five days a month that a woman with a healthy period can get pregnant, so that can be very accurate BUT you of course have to be consistent and it's not guaranteed.

Personally I would use that method (it's called NFP) with condoms and abstinence during ovulation if there's absolutely no way I could raise a child.

I use the Oura Ring currently along with the natural cycles app to track my cycle and it's been pretty accurate!

-Woman to woman, pick the men that value your long term health, respect your body, and that you would trust to raise a child with you if that would happen. There's no solution that's 100% effective outside of just not having sex lol so it's sort of a gamble what the risk to reward is!

-I am proud of you for asking questions about this, it can be a lot of info and tough conversations. I hope this all made sense and if you have any more questions please ask!!