birth control side effects - Page 2

Proof, Pudding, and Depo Birth Control

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In general, I try to avoid concentrating on a single type of hormonal birth control when discussing layers of rot among contraceptives. I never want to create the impression that another method might be safe by comparison. The degree of safety (or lack thereof) is not universal. A low-dose combination Pill that may be ‘relatively safe’ for most women could cause blood clots and kill another woman because each woman’s body chemistry is as unique as she is. See what I mean – I hate to even use the term ‘relatively safe’ because the risks are still so great I would never want my daughters taking even the low-dose formulations.

Now that you know where I stand, I do want to focus on one product that seems to be particularly egregious. Our recent citizens’ petition to the FDA asked for stronger black box warnings on all hormonal birth control, but also singled out the injectable birth control which I will refer to generically as Depo, with a request that it be removed from the market “based on conclusive evidence that it facilitates the transmission of HIV from men to women”.

When Birth Control Hits the Point of No Return

Facilitating the transmission of HIV sounds like a pretty good reason to remove a drug from the market, but several other problems differentiate Depo from other forms of hormonal birth control. As I began to study these differences a little more closely, it led me to question what it would take for doctors to hit a point of no return in their love affair with birth control. Surely, if they encountered a single type of birth control that posed clear risks over-and-above other available methods, they would be able to admit its flaws, right? Welp, the proof is in the pudding.

Think of it this way, you’re a doctor watching Breaking Bad (Spoiler Alert Warning – if you still haven’t had time to watch it, you should really hire an assistant). Let’s say Walter White is Birth Control. At first, you really like him. You know he’s a good person and he has good intentions. As bad things happen to Walt and he begins to make some dubious decisions, you give him the benefit of the doubt. Even when doctors see a tragic side effect in one of their patients, they’ve been told it’s rare and that’s what they want to believe.

Then, evidence starts to mount. Birth Control (and Walt) slide further down that slippery slope. By the time Walt watches Jesse’s girlfriend choke to death on her own vomit, you finally realize he might be irredeemable.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a point where doctors can admit even a single birth control product may be irredeemable.

Irredeemable Qualities of Depo

The top of the Depo information pamphlet contains a warning in big, bold letters surrounded by a box. In other words, they’ve manipulated the text in virtually every possible way to get you to pay attention to these words:

WARNING: LOSS OF BONE MINERAL DENSITY

The warning goes on to explain that your bone loss will be greater the longer you take the product and these changes may not be reversible. It reinforces these concerns by stating that Depo should not be used as a long-term birth control solution. It even goes so far as to say it shouldn’t be used longer than two years.

That seems pretty clear and absolute.

However, Depo support groups and online forums are full of women who have been taking Depo for 10 years or more. One woman in a recent thread said she expressed concern to her doctor because she had heard that she shouldn’t be on it longer than two years. He told her, “That isn’t really true.”

It is either ignorant, negligent, or grossly incompetent for a doctor to give a patient Depo for 10 years, but to shrug off a patient’s concern while denying a side effect so clearly stated in the literature is borderline criminal.

Here’s the kicker – many of the women who still take Depo after several years continue taking it because they’re afraid of the withdrawals. Women who stop taking Depo frequently experience severe withdrawals unlike anything seen with other forms of hormonal contraceptives. Symptoms include nausea, dizziness, headaches, painful breasts, flu-like symptoms, trouble sleeping, and fatigue.

But, let’s not overlook the common side effect that happens when you receive the shot – unexplained weight gain. I suppose if there is a positive to be found in any of these side effects, it’s that many women avoid Depo because they’ve heard about the weight gain. In fact, 1 out of every 4 women who get the shot gain 5 percent or more of their starting weight. A study of more than 700 women found that women getting the Depo shot gained an average of 11 pounds over three years with a 3 percent increase in body fat. Researchers aren’t sure what’s causing this weight gain but believe the high dose of progestogen could be lowering the body’s metabolism and causing more fat to be stored.

Neither Candy Nor Supplement

I used to always say that doctors hand out birth control like candy, but it’s worse than that. They hand it out like it’s a supplement. They tell women that it’s a hormone just like their body is already making. It isn’t. That’s why I love the quote from Dr. Hugh Davis at the Nelson Pill Hearings:

“To think of them as natural is comforting but quite false.”

When you stumble across a product like Depo and see that the doctors’ behavior doesn’t change, it becomes harder to believe they are oblivious to the dangers they are promulgating. Their cavalier attitude toward these potent drugs and the damage they are doing should spark outrage in us all.

I would like to conclude by sharing the story that sparked my outrage and inspired this article. I was contacted by a young woman who asked me not to use her real name. She is a medical professional and doesn’t want to jeopardize her career. I will call her Amber.

A Bad Experience with Depo

Amber gave birth to a daughter in March. After the delivery, she was experiencing high blood pressure that landed her in the ER on three different occasions. The ER doctor on the third visit told her he thought she was dealing with postpartum depression and said he was going to give her progesterone to balance out all the lingering estrogen from her pregnancy. He advised her to go see her regular doctor the next day about her high blood pressure.

She didn’t think too much about the shot he gave her until she looked over her discharge papers and was shocked to see he had given her the Depo shot. The next morning she visited her doctor and he gave her blood pressure medication. By that evening, her symptoms had changed. She experienced heart palpitations and flutters. Her anxiety was out of control, and her heart rate was in the 160s.

Paramedics rushed her to the hospital and she was admitted to the cardiac unit. They performed an ultrasound and she was tentatively diagnosed with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) – one day after receiving the shot.

Over the following months, she developed more symptoms. There was pressure on her optic nerve. Her thyroid was out of control. The doctors said they couldn’t even be sure whether she needed medication for a hyper- or hypo- active thyroid. They did an ultrasound and discovered two nodules on her thyroid that weren’t there when the previous ultrasound had been done. In 90 days, she had developed two nodules!

She contacted the drug manufacturer and asked them if they could provide information about side effects that have been reported with this drug (remember, she is a medical professional). She was stunned but not terribly surprised when the report she received back stated that they had received spontaneous reports of several side effects not mentioned in any literature, including atrial tachycardia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), autoimmune thyroiditis, hyperparathyroidism, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, thyroid cysts, thyroid disorder, thyroid cancer, among a whole host of other side effects.

The Bad Has Broken

We see the effects of doctors and the drug industry downplaying the deadly risks of birth control all around us. A quick look at the patient information booklet along with some simple math, and these doctors would know that the U.S. loses three women every day to birth control related blood clots – and that’s just one side effect.

Then, along comes Depo. Not only does it have additional dangerous side effects but, since it is an injection, it’s even more permanent. You can’t just stop taking it when you’re overcome by side effects. It can take up to 350 days for the drug to leave your system after it’s administered.

How do doctors react to this deadlier, irreversible version of birth control? They deny the confirmed side effects and give it to unwitting new mothers. The further I get in this storyline the more I’m starting to realize our medical industry may be irredeemable.

But wait, Breaking Bad was notorious for giving us glimpses of hope, little signs that humanity may not be all bad. So…

Fade in to Amber in her hospital bed. Her Ob/Gyn heard she had been admitted and stops by to pay a visit. She tells him about the ER doctor who gave her a Depo shot and he becomes enraged. “Are you serious?!”

He calls the hospital CEO and says he is going to petition to get that doctor fired because it is not in his scope of practice.

Maybe there is hope for the medical community. Stay tuned.

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 published originally on December 19, 2019. 

Doctors Say the Darndest Things About Birth Control

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A while back, a friend of mine shared a story on Facebook about a doctor’s nonchalant response to side effects experienced by a patient on birth control. I commented that this was one of my least favorite among the common phrases doctors use to gaslight women.

That friend was Sara Harris, who is doing amazing work getting the word out about Fertility Awareness Methods and helping women with hormone issues in Australia with her podcast, Follow Your Flow. Sara knew I was wrapping up work on a new, expanded audio version of my book and recommended I visit her podcast again to promote the audiobook and present my ‘Top 10 Least Favorite Things Doctors Say About Birth Control.’ You can listen to the resulting podcast here.

Lack of Respect

Obviously, I took her up on the offer, burning a lot of energy to get my Top 10 in the proper order – only to change that order and change it again the more I contemplated each phrase. Ultimately, I felt like I could have just as easily said they were in no particular order because each dismissive phrase poses its own set of disturbing problems.

For the purpose of this article, I want to focus on three of these statements, which are particularly egregious in their lack of respect for the potent drugs delivered by hormonal birth control and the detrimental impact they have on women’s health.

And so, here are those three statements… this time, in no particular order.

Localized Hormones

“This birth control option is safer because the hormones are localized.”

Doctors tend to offer this falsehood when speaking about either NuvaRing or the hormonal IUD. It is frequently used to sell a young woman on using the device, but it’s also used later to dismiss questions she may have about side effects she develops after insertion.

I have trouble believing that a medical doctor actually believes that these hormones camp out in the uterus and just manage fertility. Hormones are systemic. By their very nature, they travel throughout the body attaching to hormone receptors that reside on every cell in our bodies.

Now, here’s the kicker – not only are these drugs not localized, but they have the potential to be even more dangerous than hormones that are taken by mouth. Oral contraceptives (as with any drug taken orally) are processed through the digestive system in what is known as first-pass metabolism. This process reduces the concentration of active drug prior to being introduced into the blood stream.

Consequently, drugs distributed via the uterus bypass this first-pass metabolism thereby reaching the bloodstream more quickly and in a more potent state.

It shouldn’t be surprising then that a recent Danish study found that women on NuvaRing were six times more likely to develop a deep vein thrombosis than women not taking birth control, and twice as likely as women taking a combination pill.

Psychotropic Candy

“Don’t worry. I’ll just prescribe an antidepressant to go with your birth control.”

Many doctors seem to think antidepressants can be used to accommodate just about any symptom manifested as a result of birth control. In my book, In the Name of The Pill, I shared the story of a young woman with lupus.

After quitting hormonal birth control, her lupus symptoms became surprisingly manageable. This continued for a few years, until she decided to try a different formulation of birth control. Shortly after starting The Pill again, her lupus symptoms came roaring back. But, when she told her doctor about it, he didn’t think the birth control had anything to do with her flare-ups.

He advised her to keep taking it and prescribed her an antidepressant to ‘help her rest better.’

I believe doctors who pull stunts like this have lost any sense of respect for the potency of the drugs they are doling out. This goes for any drug – not just birth control. As one of the doctors Barbara Seaman quoted in her landmark book, A Doctors’ Case Against the Pill, warned, “It needs to be emphasized that if you give a patient one drug and counteract it with another, there is a rising curve of adverse reactions.”

In my opinion, this warning should be doubled where birth control is concerned because the powerful drug is essentially being used to treat pregnancy rather than some life-threatening disease. As Mayo-trained, Dr. Philip Ball put it at the Nelson Pill Hearings, “I believe that we physicians are so used to administering very potent medications to very serious disease problems, we have not really yet learned, it is a totally different circumstance to administer powerful but nonessential drugs chronically to healthy young women.”

You can read more about specific concerns related to the mixture of psychotropic drugs and hormonal birth control here.

Suddenly Supplements

The third comment deals exclusively with the Depo injection and needs a little setup. The FDA requires a black box warning on this drug’s information pamphlet. A warning in big, bold letters accentuated by a thick, black frame states:

“WARNING: LOSS OF BONE MINERAL DENSITY”

The warning goes on to explain that your bone loss will be greater the longer you take the product and these changes may be irreversible. It reinforces these concerns by stating that Depo should not be used as a long-term birth control solution, even capping its recommended use at no more than two years.

That seems pretty clear and absolute, but many women who have asked their doctors about this warning have been told:

“Just take a calcium supplement, and you’ll be fine.”

Mind you, the FDA warning says nothing about taking a supplement to offset the affects. In fact, it doesn’t suggest there are any measures you could take to avoid the potential consequences.

The FDA is a slow-moving, bureaucratic government agency. It takes a lot of evidence to overcome the inertia associated with issuing such a dramatic black box warning. For a doctor to ignore or deny such a warning and suggest the solution is as easy as taking a calcium supplement is borderline criminal.

Health as a Business

If your doctor ever uses any of these three lines, you should seriously question his/her motivation. Do they care about your health or do they see your healthcare as a business?

One of the things I frequently tell women is to trust your questions more than the answers. If you mention a side effect that concerns you, and your doctor seems more interested in convincing you The Pill had nothing to do with it, don’t assume you’re crazy or you’re the only one experiencing this. Your body is sending you this warning sign for a reason. Keep questioning.

I once had an Ob/Gyn tell me that it’s difficult to get anyone from her specialty to say anything bad about hormonal contraceptives because it represents about a third of their business.

However, if you are a medical professional who recognizes that birth control is much more dangerous than women are being led to believe, be proactive in sharing that information, even if you aren’t an Ob/Gyn.

Women need to hear it. Many feel isolated. They’re afraid to discuss their side effects because they think they’re the only ones having a bad experience. Or worse, they wonder if they may be going crazy.

An eye surgeon recently reached out to me and shared what’s been happening at her practice after she read my book. She said she always takes a complete medical history, part of which includes the patient’s use of hormonal contraceptives. Lately, even though she doesn’t deal directly with menstrual issues, when a woman reports certain ‘mysterious, undiagnosable symptoms,’ this doctor has started recommending they stop taking their birth control. She said a few patients have already contacted the office to thank her because their symptoms have improved dramatically.

I hope more physicians will hop on board and fearlessly tell women about the myriad side effects of birth control. We still have a ways to go, but maybe someday I will be able to compile a list of my Top 10 Favorite Things Doctors Say About Birth Control.

#1
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In the Name of The Pill*

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The FDA approved The Pill despite it not being proven safe. Today, it has been linked to everything from blood clots and cancer to lupus and Crohn’s disease — and still has not been proven safe.
This book explores the medical and historical disconnects that brought us to this point.




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We Need Your Help

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This article was published originally on December 13, 2021. 

We Cannot Ignore Birth Control Side Effects

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It is interesting and devastating to look at the story arc of hormonal birth control’s acceptance in the medical community. At the time of the Nelson Pill Hearings in 1970, many top physicians were upset because they felt The Pill had been forced upon them by the drug industry. They were alarmed by significant side effects they were seeing in their young patients.

Today, the numbers have dwindled. Very few doctors recognize a problem with hormonal birth control, or at least, very few speak out about it. However, the evidence is clear that the problems persist. In fact, many of the concerns raised at the Nelson Pill Hearings have proven prophetic. So, where is the outrage from the medical community?

In his revolutionary classic, Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote,

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right… Time makes more converts than reason.”

Time has certainly made converts. It’s ironic that a booklet titled, Common Sense would so aptly describe the medical industry’s current attitude toward birth control.

Is Birth Control Safe?

Each package of hormonal birth control already comes with a large patient information pamphlet filled with infinitesimally small print that is intended to warn patients of all the dangers. But even this tiny tome is insufficient.

I recently wrote about a citizen’s petition that has been submitted to the FDA requesting that new black box warnings be included on the labeling of these potent drugs. That petition is currently posted on a government website, and your comments are requested.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of stories to be told about the negative consequences of taking hormonal birth control. If one of those stories is yours, please share it! Here’s the link to the petition:

FDA Birth Control Safety Petition

So far, comments have come in from women who have experienced consequences (some minor and some deeply disturbing), from mothers and fathers who have lost their daughters, and from medical professionals who have seen the startling side effects in their work.

Your Voice

The Regulations.gov website boasts the tagline: Your voice in Federal Decision-Making. Please take advantage, and make your voice heard if you’ve experienced any kind of negative side effect related to these drugs. You can do it anonymously, if you choose.

Be warned – this is a government site and is unpredictable. Sometimes it loads like any other website, but other times it can feel like it will never load. Please be patient, and share your story.

Here are some excerpts (in no particular order) from people who have already commented. I chose these examples to demonstrate the diversity of people contributing, symptoms caused, and birth control products implicated:

I began using the Nuva-ring after my first child. It took me months to recognize that the almost daily migraine headaches I began experiencing were from the ring. I took out my last ring, and they never came back. – Amy

I have bipolar disorder. At the time I started using birth control, it was undiagnosed. My bipolar episodes increased dramatically after beginning birth control, with depressive episodes during the 3 weeks I took the pill and manic episodes during the off week. When I started Mirena, my bipolar disorder shifted to rapid cycle bipolar. Additionally, I have had issues with excessive bleeding (heavy and long)…In all instances, the doctors told me to just keep talking it and it would get better, which it never did. – Anonymous

I took the pill for 8 years. It got me very sick. I got Interstitial Cystitis and low libido. My mood was not predictable. I suffered a lot in those years. I don’t want that for any other woman. – Julieth

While on birth control, I suffered from vaginal dryness and an inability to orgasm. Both went away very quickly after I stopped taking birth control. – Anonymous

I am an emergency department nurse. I am continually surprised at how many women I see who have a wide variety of physical problems related to various types of artificial birth control. I have witnessed hormonal birth control causing depression, mood swings, deadly blood clots, and at time hemorrhaging…- Christopher

I used a few types of birth control pills over a period of several years and suffered from depression during the duration. I was never informed of the link between hormonal contraceptives and depression, so I didn’t make the connection until later, when I discontinued their use. – Brook

My experience with hormonal – estrogen based birth control was partial loss of vision (started while i was driving!) and severe migraines that kept me in bed for a long period of time… – Jessica

Why was I offered this drug as a young woman (early 20s) with little information on possible long-term effects or without any further diagnoses of my acne? My symptoms should have been treated without a dangerous synthetic drug. More doctors need to be doctors instead of drug pushers. FIX IT. Women deserve better. Label contraceptives for what they really are – cancer causing, infertility causing, deadly, PCOS-causing, thyroid disease-causing, ARTIFICIAL hormones. – Anonymous

I’m happy to share my daughter’s story. 2 years ago at age 15 she was started on OCPs for very irregular, heavy periods. At month 4 the pharmacy switched her generic brand for some reason. Within a month of the switch, she developed an extensive left leg DVT and a right pulmonary embolism. It turns out our family had factor V leiden and didn’t know it… – Gina

After using the pill for almost twenty years, off and on, I realized the side effects that it was having on my physical and emotional well being. I most certainly gained weight. I had low libido and had no idea why. I had issues arise with my cervix and had to have it scraped several times for pre cancerous cells. Then a small non-cancerous cyst on my breast. It wasn’t until I met with a breast specialist that she pin pointed most of these issues to having been on the pill for so long, given I have no family history of any the issues I was having. – Alicia

I took the birth control pill at a young age and had nothing but problems from it. It increases blood pressure, causes bloating, weight gain…Doctors hand this out like candy without explaining the risks. – Leisa

In 2011 I was prescribed hormonal birth control to “fix” a very irregular cycle. Three months later I started to struggle with crippling fatigue, loss of appetite and disinterest in everything except sleeping. It was shortly after that diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, and still to this day have to be on medication to remain functional… The only risk my primary care doctor at the time brought up was a slight risk of blood clots, which as a non-smoker she didn’t think was really anything for me to worry about.
Women deserve better. Women deserve to be fully informed of the risks, and deserve better health care that doesn’t begin and often end with hormonal birth control. – T.F.

In my mid-30s, I went on Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo for only 9 days. On day 9 I was curled up in a ball on my floor thinking I didn’t deserve to live. I did not take another pill and woke up the next day emotionally back to normal. But in those 9 days the pill destroyed my endocrine system. I suffered terrible physical symptoms that I never had before that day: shortness of breath, tinnitis, “hot foot”, heart palpitations, loss of libido, loss of vision, burning pain, joint pain, deadened emotions…
My niece developed MS not long after starting the pill and a connection between the two things seems probable. – Holly

As a family practice clinician for over twenty years I have seen within both my direct patient population and indirectly in my community harm specifically from a combined OCP. The most profound are the thromboembolic events…I can think of three patients under my direct care that presented to the ER with CVA symptoms, two of these patients continue with deficits today, the third was more lucky having no current deficits…- Julie

On 2 different types of birth control pills, Skyla, and Mirena, I experienced the following symptoms: total loss of libido, anxiety, depression, cystic acne, brain fog, memory loss, extreme fatigue, and recurrent yeast infections. All of the symptoms resolved when I finally quit hormonal contraceptives altogether. – Anonymous

I have experienced first hand the horrible side effects of hormonal birth control that almost 10 years later I am still trying to reverse. I was young and didn’t know better. I was put on it by a dermatologist who said it could clear up my skin. Please stop marketing the pill as a cure all. It is a cheap band aid that leaves more problems when removed. – Samantha

When I was in my mid 20’s, I was prescribed the hormonal birth control pill, Ovcon, to assist in controlling periodic break-through bleeding. I experienced weight gain, debilitating migraine headaches, depression and such an overall malaise that I vowed when I was finished with this “treatment” that I would NEVER put hormonal contraception pills in my system EVER again. Hormonal contraceptive pills are a true danger to women. – Kathleen

I was never told the risks of being on hormonal birth control and when I had severe depression and anxiety on this medication, was told by health professionals that I must have lied about not having a history of mental illness. Access to contraceptives is vital, and so is knowledge about the risks to the body and mind. – Briana

I would like to add my name to the petition. As a general surgeon, me and my partners ask our breast cancer patients about OCP use since our best cancer textbooks describe an increased risk of breast cancer with OCP use. It is ethically imperative that women are made aware of the risks of ingesting hormones into their bodies. – Anthony

I have been skeptical of the pill for a long time. I was put on a low dose pill very early in my marriage. When we moved overseas due to my husband’s army assignment, I was switched to another low dose pill. Unfortunately, I developed Stage 3 cervical dysplasia and my physician was concerned about pre cancerous changes. When I stopped the pill, the dysplasia went away. The physician at the time told me that they believed the pill could cause these changes in the cervix. I learned a natural method of fertility awareness eventually and used it for 20 years for family planning. I would never recommend the pill to any woman. – Susan

I suffered horrible side effects as a result of birth control pills for years. I first started taking the pill at age 18, and immediately lost my libido, experienced sexual malfunction, severe migraines and depression. When I discussed these symptoms with my doctors, I was told that I wasn’t drinking enough water, I was simply underweight or that there was something wrong with me- not the medication… – Rachael

We lost our 23 year old daughter Alexandra to MPE caused by Lutera. She was on it for six months and dropped dead with no warning…- David

While I was on varying forms of birth control pills, I suffered crazy mood swings and severe depression issues. then I was given an IUD – the Mirena – during which i had severe mood problems, severe depression and severe anxiety including anxiety and panic attacks. – Erickajen

I had severe depression with suicidal thoughts. I had no libido and I got severe fatigue. I took on weight and was not able to lose it. And I got a Candida infection of the intestine.
After stopping with the birth control pill these symptoms vanished. But the Candida infection of the intestine remained. – Ursula

When I was taking Hormonal Birth Control (HBC) I underwent a massive weigh gain. From 120 lbs to 155lbs. That’s almost adding 30% to my body weight! I also suffered with severe stomach cramping, constant discomfort, constipation and diarrhea. My doctor diagnosed it at IBS. I was only on HBC for 8 months, and got pregnant while taking it. I stopped taking it upon pregnancy and have never touched the stuff again! – Anonymous

On July 2nd, 2015 I received a phone call no parent ever wants to receive. My 19 year old daughter Shelby had died. Shelby was very athletic, did not smoke and had no history of a blood disorder. The coroner’s report confirmed that Shelby had died from a pulmonary embolism. She had a DVT behind her left knee that traveled to her lungs causing her bilateral embolism. The coroner also confirmed that her DVT was caused by her birth control the NuvaRing. – Carol

I experienced major mood swings and depression while taking the pill (Orthotricyclin?). I stopped taking it and noticed less depression and no longer had mood swings. – Melissa

I was put on the Apri birth control pill by my PCP as a teenager due to having “short” menstrual cycles with “long” durations of bleeding (without any need for pregnancy prevention). When I felt sick for a week after beginning the medication, I returned to my PCP, and she reassured me to keep taking it and the symptoms would subside. While the gastrointestinal symptoms subsided, depression symptoms started to gain ground. After two months of persistent depressive symptoms without any triggering events in my life (everything truly was great), I went back to my PCP and told her about my new, severe depression symptoms. She prescribed Zoloft for me and I started to feel better. I steadily increased my dose under the supervision of a psychiatrist until I was able to function again. I stopped crying for no reason, but didn’t feel like my normal self. This continued for about a little less than a year until my mother looked into the side effects of birth control pills. She informed me that depression could be a side effect. I immediately discontinued the birth control pill…I was able to reduce my use of antidepressants and I felt like myself again.

Unfortunately, while the physiological depression trigger had been removed, the negative thought patterns that developed during this prolonged depressive episode had been given sufficient time to ingrain themselves into my thought processes. Though I have been to counselors and worked hard to incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy techniques into my daily routine, I still, 10 years later, daily struggle with the thought patterns that were developed during my time on Apri. I still am required to take a low dose of Zoloft. – Anonymous

Put the Informed in Informed Consent

Thanks to the silence of their doctors and the inadequacies of current warning labels, too many young women are unaware of the many risks they are exposing themselves to by taking birth control. These excerpts represent just a few of the voices of victims of The Pill who want to stop this madness.

Add your voice. Let’s make this a chorus so loud it will be impossible for them to dismiss.

FDA Birth Control Safety Petition

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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.

Learn More about the History of Birth Control

#1
In the Name of The Pill

37 customer reviews

In the Name of The Pill*

by Mike Gaskins

The FDA approved The Pill despite it not being proven safe. Today, it has been linked to everything from blood clots and cancer to lupus and Crohn’s disease — and still has not been proven safe.
This book explores the medical and historical disconnects that brought us to this point.




 Price: $ 17.95

Buy now at Amazon*

Price incl. VAT., Excl. Shipping

Last updated on October 21, 2023 at 9:38 pm – Image source: Amazon Affiliate Program. All statements without guarantee.

This article was published originally on July 11, 2019. 

Photo by Edu Lauton on Unsplash.

Birth Control and Crohn’s Disease: Doctors Have It All Wrong

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It’s funny how clearly some mundane memories stick in your mind. I still recall the first time I took my car in for an instant oil-change. The shop’s marketing had spoken to my heart with a promise to have me in-and-out in under 10 minutes. If I wasn’t already hooked, something about navigating my car over the huge hole in the floor appealed to the little boy inside me, and, in fact, the entire experience was pretty pleasant… right up until the technician approached my window at the eight-minute mark.

“You’re going to need a new valve soon, and you’re air filter is really dirty. Would you like for me to replace these today?”

He was carrying the dirty filter and PCV valve as proof. I thought to myself, “They’ve been riding in a car engine. Of course, they’re dirty!” After he told me the cost, I politely declined. I’m not really a car guy, but I suspected I could get them cheaper elsewhere.

I’m skeptical anytime I know someone is trying to sell me something. That doesn’t make me unique; it makes me human. That’s why word-of-mouth advertising is so effective. If a friend (or even a stranger on Yelp) tells us something is great and we know they aren’t being paid to say so, it carries much more weight than that same message coming from someone who stands to benefit from it.

That air filter, though. It was nasty! So, I drove directly to a parts store, and it was indeed about half the cost. My inner imp felt justified.

A few thousand miles later I returned to the same shop for another oil change. (The sacrifices we make in the name of ‘instant’). Imagine my surprise when the eight-minute interlude again included the same air filter I had just replaced. On the Scale of Betrayal, the technician was hardly Judas, but I still vowed never to take my car there again.

In my opinion, that’s the definition of a healthy skepticism, one that steers us clear of people who don’t have our best interests in mind.

What’s Behind the Message?

“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

Granted, the Man in Black was more than a little bitter when he uttered those famous words to Buttercup in The Princess Bride, but filter out the resentfulness, and you still have a grain of truth. In the oil change shop, it’s easy to spot the salesman’s motivation, but in some scenarios it’s difficult to spot the salesman, much less his/her motivation.

That healthy skepticism may never be more absent than when we visit the doctor. Ironically, because of the odd paradigm of the medical industry, that is precisely when it should be at its sharpest. I can’t think of another scenario where the consumer of the product relies completely on someone else to make the purchase decision. Perhaps our skepticism is alleviated because we believe the physician has taken a non-binding oath to ‘first do no harm.’ However, about one out of every five medical students actually reports taking no oath at all.

With or without the oath, we, the consumer, will be the ones taking the treatment they prescribe. We will be the ones living with the consequences, good or bad. Given that those consequences are all too often chronic or deadly, we should absolutely question a doctor’s reasoning and motivation.

Questioning Consensus

Crohn’s Disease affects absorption on the surface of the intestine, which can diminish the effectiveness of hormonal birth control. In this scenario, the prevailing consensus among doctors is to counter the affect Crohn’s has on The Pill by switching the patient to a higher dosage. In the long run, this can be devastating for the patient.

Unfortunately, this often the MO for dealing with problems in the medical industry. You either increase the dosage, or you prescribe something ‘off-label,’ especially when it comes to The Pill.

Hormonal contraceptives are prescribed off-label to treat everything from acne and irregular periods to PCOS and Multiple Sclerosis. But, think for a moment about what ‘off-label’ means. It means the prescribed drug hasn’t been clinically proven safe or effective for this particular use. It means treatment by consensus, rather than sound science. Alarmingly, a recent study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology revealed that a full two-thirds of practices in their specialty were based on consensus rather than ‘good and consistent scientific evidence.’

Proactive in the Wrong Direction

Recognizing the effects of Crohn’s Disease on the intestine and boosting a young woman’s birth control may seem very proactive, but it doesn’t take into account the big picture. In fact, it’s like admiring the mountainous road behind the Mona Lisa while missing her smile.

Surprisingly few doctors recognize that birth control could have actually triggered her disease despite the fact that the number of Crohn’s Disease cases exploded since the introduction of birth control pills.

In 2015, Harvard researchers conducted a massive study of nearly a quarter-million health records and discovered that women who took hormonal birth control for five years, more than tripled their risk of developing Crohn’s Disease.

But really, it shouldn’t have taken a major Harvard study for doctors to consider the link to irritable bowel disease. After all, nausea and upset stomach are among the most common complaints after starting birth control.

Estrogen is known to modify permeability and inflammation of the gut, and synthetic estrogen’s affect is unquestionably deleterious. Interestingly, the same study found women who take hormone replacement therapy face a 74% increased risk of ulcerative colitis, another irritable bowel disease.

Nothing New Under the Sun

News outlets hailed the Harvard study as groundbreaking. Any health periodical worth its weight in feathers ran an article on the study’s new findings. However, one only needs to read the study’s references to see how little ground it broke.

Citations and the year they were published, include (Condensed titles): Regional enteritis: possible association with oral contraceptives, 1969; Small intestine disease and oral contraceptive agents, 1973; Intestinal complications during the use of oral contraceptives, 1976; Colonic Crohn’s disease and use of oral contraception, 1984; The risk of oral contraceptives in the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease, 2008.

After a 1999 study associated hormonal contraceptive use as a high risk factor for a relapse in Crohn’s disease, Gut British Medical Journal published evidence that not only supported these findings, but also demonstrated a significant change in gender ratio, the incidence of female diagnoses compared to males jumped dramatically after the introduction of birth control pills.

Ultimately, the Harvard study was a massive population based study that did little more than confirm what researchers had known (or at least suspected) since 1969.

In his testimony at the Nelson Pill Hearings (1970), Dr. Philip Ball detailed how The Pill affects nearly every tissue in a woman’s body, and then offered this food for thought:

“I believe that we physicians are so used to administering very potent medications to very serious disease problems, we have not really yet learned it is a totally different circumstance to administer powerful but nonessential drugs chronically to healthy young women, as is done in contraceptive pill administration. It is of no relevance to say that the pill causes less trouble than cigarette smoking – doctors do not prescribe cigarettes. In fact, I take women off tobacco also. It is not sensible to say that birth control pills are safer than pregnancy – we don’t prescribe pregnancy. The question is simply, are the pills safer than the diaphragm or safer than the foams or rubber prophylactics? And the answer is clearly no.

“We have had much talk in our land about preserving our environment or improving our quality of life or preventing pollution of our country. The administration of birth control pills…may be termed an internal pollution by chemicals (that will) interfere with a woman’s quality of life.”

Let Those with Crohn’s Beware

Common sense and science tell us that hormonal contraceptives probably aren’t a great idea for someone with Crohn’s Disease (or someone with a family history of Crohn’s). Yet, we’ve already seen that the consensus is to increase the dosage of synthetic estrogen for these patients.

How can this be? And, what does it have to do with a speedy oil change?

Clearly, physicians aren’t receiving a commission or bonuses for prescribing drugs, but that’s not to say they aren’t influenced by pharmaceutical companies in much the same way the oil change technician was influenced by his employers. Let’s consider the commonalities of training, incentives, and pressure to perform.

Training – Drug manufacturers begin exerting influence on medical professionals early in their academic careers. These unwitting students are typically unaware of the biases that could be shaping the way they approach their future practices.

In her wonderful book, The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It, Marcia Angell, M.D. writes extensively about Big Pharma’s influence on medical education. She described the industry’s relationship with universities this way:

“The Reagan years and Bayh-Dole also transformed the ethos of medical schools and teaching hospitals. These nonprofit institutions started to see themselves as “partners” of industry, and they became just as enthusiastic as any entrepreneur about the opportunities to parlay their discoveries into financial gain. Faculty researchers were encouraged to obtain patents on their work (which were assigned to their universities), and they shared in the royalties. Many medical schools and teaching hospitals set up “technology transfer” offices to help in this activity and capitalize on faculty discoveries… One of the results has been a growing pro-industry bias in medical research—exactly where such bias doesn’t belong.”

As a former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Angell became keenly aware of the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on medical education, and it doesn’t end with the medical schools. Her book offers a comprehensive explanation of how the industry moved to virtually lock down control of continuing medical education, which doctors are required to take each year in order to maintain their licenses.

Incentives – Just for fun, watch an hour of television and don’t skip the commercials. In fact, count them. What percentage do you think will be prescription drug commercials?

I know it sounds more nausea-inducing than fun, but here’s the point. Big Pharma spends $3 billion dollars-per-year advertising to consumers. (We can also thank Reagan-era deregulation for direct-to-consumer marketing). As you think about those ubiquitous commercials and how far $3 billion dollars will go, consider this – Big Pharma spends 8 times as much on marketing directly to healthcare professionals, $24 billion annually.

The Food and Drug Administration, American Medical Association, and (PhRMA) Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have all established guidelines and regulations in an attempt to limit gifts from the drug industry to healthcare professionals. The thought is that strictly limiting gifts will eliminate the influence drug companies have over those who write the scripts. A pharma sales rep bringing lunch to the doctor’s staff on Tuesday couldn’t possibly motivate him/her to prescribe more of their drug, right?

A recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that, indeed, even a single $20 meal sponsored by a drug company can influence a doctor’s prescribing habits, and the impact increases with each meal. According to NBC News:

“Those who got four or more meals relating to the four drugs [in the study] prescribed Crestor nearly twice as often as doctors who didn’t get the free meals; Bystolic more than five times as often, Benicar more than four times as often and Pristig 3.4 times as often.”

These small gifts translate to a huge return on investment. The study found that when a drug company spends $13 on a doctor, they see 94 additional days of prescriptions for brand-name anticoagulants and additional 107 days for brand-name drugs to treat diabetes.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service track industry payments to healthcare professionals, and have made their database accessible to the public. You can discover if your physician receives payments from pharmaceutical companies and, if so, how much, by visiting: https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov. ProPublica also created an interesting search tool using the same data, which you can utilize by visiting: https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/.

Pressure to Perform – You may feel happy for Joe Mechanic when he gets Employee of the Month for selling the most air filters, but how would you feel about drug companies tracking your doctor’s performance? In fact, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Pharmaceutical companies buy physician prescribing data from companies like IMS Health. These weekly lists track every prescription written by healthcare professionals in the United States. Physician and patient names aren’t included, but each prescription does include the doctor’s Drug Enforcement Administration ID number. Interestingly, the American Medical Association makes about $20 million per year selling the master file of its physician database, which includes their DEA number.

By combining these two databases, the drug companies can see precisely how frequently each doctor prescribes their drug compared to the competition. Then, the sales reps can tailor their pitch and the amount of pressure to apply to each doctor.

Most doctors seem to realize that the gifts and pressure are influential but think that they are immune. Shannon Brownlee offered this perspective:

“Most physicians make “I’m OK, you’re not” assumptions about their profession’s susceptibility to such tactics. In one survey, 61 percent of the residents at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center reported that they themselves are unmoved by drug company gifts. But when asked if they thought their colleagues were swayed, 84 percent said yes.”

Signs of their influence over healthcare professionals are everywhere. How else would you explain raising the dosage on birth control for Crohn’s patients as the consensus? Does it seem reasonable that seven out of ten people you meet today are taking a prescription, and 20% of them are taking at least five prescriptions?!

I suppose we should just be thankful humans don’t need air filters.

#1
In the Name of The Pill

37 customer reviews

In the Name of The Pill*

by Mike Gaskins

The FDA approved The Pill despite it not being proven safe. Today, it has been linked to everything from blood clots and cancer to lupus and Crohn’s disease — and still has not been proven safe.
This book explores the medical and historical disconnects that brought us to this point.




 Price: $ 17.95

Buy now at Amazon*

Price incl. VAT., Excl. Shipping

Last updated on October 21, 2023 at 9:38 pm – Image source: Amazon Affiliate Program. All statements without guarantee.

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 Credit: Akiragiulia / Pixabay

This article was first published in December 2017.

 

Recovering From Medically Induced Chronic Illness

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Unexplained or Medically Induced Chronic Illness?

“Unexplained.”  That’s what doctors say about chronic illness. Conventional medicine says, ‘learn to live with it.’ Rather than offer a true treatment or cure for these debilitating conditions, they suppress the immune system and offer more drugs for depression and anxiety – none of which are effective. I’m here to tell you that common wisdom is wrong. I know, because my own lucky story proves we can heal from chronic illness. Pharmaceutical insults created my disabling illnesses  – Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, estrogen dominance, adrenal fatigue, POTS, Graves’ Disease, Hashimoto’s, Bell’s Palsy, infertility and more. I share my journey to offer hope. The doctors were wrong. I have recovered and am once again, healthy.

Early Clues and Pharmaceutical Insults

My childhood had some clues – things I now know predict chronic illness. My lymph glands swelled when I was otherwise healthy. Mosquito bites turned into angry 3” welts. Childhood bunions and hyper-mobile joints suggested leaky gut. All these issues correlate with chronic illness and, seen in hindsight, hint at the difficulties that awaited me in adulthood.

My immune system may have been awry from the start, but pharmaceuticals tipped the scale toward chronic illness. As a teen, I took birth control pills for heavy periods and cramps. When vague symptoms appeared in my early twenties, I asked about pill side effects. The gynecologist laughed at the idea, but I trusted my gut and finally stopped the pill. I felt better in some ways but developed new symptoms.  Sleep became difficult. I was hypersensitive to noise and light and struggled with unquenchable thirst.  The doctor suggested my extreme thirst stemmed from hot weather and salty foods. This explanation didn’t add up to me, but I was young and so was the internet. I had no resources to connect the dots. Today, I recognize that 10 years of hormonal birth control created nutrient deficiencies (folic acid, vitamins B2, B6, B12, C, and E, along with magnesium, selenium and zinc) while also raising my risk for future autoimmune disease.

Recurrent UTIs, Fluoroquinolones, and New Onset Graves’ Disease

A few years later, recurrent urinary tract infections led to many doses of the fluoroquinolone antibiotic, Cipro. Cipro now carries a black box warning and is known to induce mitochondrial damage. My mid twenties also brought pre and post-menstrual spotting and bleeding for 10 days each month. Doctors did nothing for my hormonal imbalance but diagnosed Graves’ disease (hyperthyroidism). Everything about me sped up. Food went right through my system. I was moody. My mind was manic at times. I was unable to rest and yet physically exhausted from a constantly racing heart.

The doctor said Graves’ disease was easy – just destroy the thyroid and take hormone replacement pills for the rest of my life. I didn’t have a medical degree, but this treatment (RAI, radiation to kill the thyroid) just didn’t make sense. Graves’ disease is not thyroid disease. It is autoimmune dysfunction, where antibodies overstimulate a helpless thyroid.

As I studied my options, I learned that RAI could exacerbate autoimmune illness and many patients feel worse after treatment. It was surprising to find that the US was the only Western country to recommend RAI for women of childbearing age. Armed with this knowledge, I declined RAI and opted for medication. The endocrinologist mocked my decision. I was in my 20s and standing up to him was hard, but it marked a turning point and spurred me to take responsibility for my own health, rather than blindly trusting doctors. Recent reports suggest RAI treatment increases future cancer risks. My Graves’ disease eventually stabilized on medication, although I never felt really well. I pushed for answers for my continued illness, but doctors refused to test my sex or adrenal hormones.

IVF and More Damage to My Health

Things turned south again when I was unable to conceive. The supposed best fertility clinic in Washington, DC could not find a cause for my infertility. I’ll save that story for another day, but the short version involved a few years of torment and four failed IVF attempts. The fertility drugs and the stress worsened my overall health considerably.

Our last try at pregnancy was with a specialist who practiced functional medicine. Labs and charting uncovered a clear progesterone imbalance, and also explained my spotting. This simple diagnosis was completely missed by the conventional fertility clinic. A brief trial of progesterone cream resulted in two naturally conceived, healthy pregnancies. Isn’t it remarkable that several years and over $100,000 failed to produce a baby with IVF and $20 of progesterone cream on my wrist did the trick? This could be a cautionary tale about profit motive in modern medicine, but that, too, is a topic for another day.

Years of Conventional Medicine: Thyroid Damage, Autonomic Dysfunction, and Profound Fatigue

I weaned off thyroid medications and felt fairly well after my babies, but my system took a big hit when life brought an international relocation. The move was intensely stressful and my health sunk after we landed half a world away. I had no energy, gained weight, and lived in a fog. The tropical heat and humidity of Southeast Asia felt like a personalized form of torture.

Perhaps the stress of our move left me vulnerable to the reappearance of autoimmune and adrenal dysfunction, as my next diagnosis was Hashimoto’s Disease and adrenal fatigue. Doctors ordered functional medicine tests (hair, organic acids, stool, saliva cortisol and hormones) that identified nutrient imbalances, but their treatment ideas fell short. Despite replacement hormones and supplements by the handful, I remained very sick, with profound exhaustion, brain fog, sleep disruption, pain, and terribly imbalanced sex hormones.

Taking Matters Into My Own Hands

If setbacks have a bright side, it is in the drive to get better. I started studying when my doctors ran out of ideas to treat my illness. Fibromyalgia was the best description of my pain, but I knew conventional medicine offered no help for this condition. I dug into the topic and found the work of Dr. John C. Lowe, who used T3 thyroid hormone for fibromyalgia, and Paul Robinson, creator of CT3M, the circadian method for using T3. CT3M and high daily dose of progesterone cream improved my quality of life in the short term. Near daily bleeding eventually regulated back into a normal cycle and my adrenal function improved greatly.

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) was the next bump, bringing a very high heart rate, very low blood pressure, heat intolerance, and extreme sweating on the lightest activity. By this time, I didn’t even ask the doctor for help. My research pointed to salt and potassium, and so I drank the adrenal cocktail and salt water daily. POTS symptoms vanished quickly with this easy strategy, as did the nocturnal polyuria that plagued me for many years.

I steadied after this time. I was not well but functional, despite some major life stressors, including another international move and a child’s health crisis. Even though I managed the daily basics, things like house guests, travel, or anything physically taxing required several days to a week of recuperation.

The Next Step: Addressing Nutrient Deficiencies

The next step in my recovery came thanks to a B12 protocol that includes co-factor nutrients, developed by Dr. Gregory Russell-Jones. Addressing the deficiencies connected to B12 helped and things progressed well until I had a disastrous reaction after eating mussels, which I hoped would raise iron levels. I vomited for hours and stayed in bed for days. I kept up the B12 protocol, but just couldn’t recover. Largely bedridden, and napping 4 hours at a stretch, I got up in the evening only to drive to a restaurant dinner, too exhausted to prepare food or deal with dishes.

Debilitating exhaustion lasted for a month, and then two, with no relief. It was an awful time, but hitting rock bottom proved a blessing in disguise, as desperation turned me back to research. Slowly, I pushed through brain fog and started to review studies on chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. This led me to a promising Italian study using thiamine for these conditions.

Studying thiamine, it seemed plausible that the allergic reaction to mussels drained my B1 reserves, making it impossible to recover. Inspired by the research, I started on plain B1 at very high doses. To my surprise, I felt better right away. The first dose boosted my energy and mental clarity.

I continued to learn about B1’s benefits, thanks to this website and the text by Drs. Marrs and Lonsdale.  Two weeks went by and thiamine HCL seemed less effective, so I switched to lipothiamine and allithiamine, the forms recommended in Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition. WOW. What a difference! Virtually overnight, my gears began to turn, and I felt better with each new day. In a single month, I went from bedridden to functioning well 2 out of every 3 days. I had ideas, I had energy, and I could DO things. The setback days were mild and disappeared entirely after 2 months on thiamine.

At the 2 month mark, I had to travel for a family emergency. My pre-thiamine self would have needed at least a week of rest following this kind of trip, and I expected pain and fatigue as I stepped off the plane. But to my great surprise, I felt well! I remember walking through the airport late that evening and thinking it felt amazing to stretch my legs. Maybe that sounds like an ordinary feeling, but years of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia conditioned my body to stop, to sit, whenever possible. It was entirely novel to FEEL GOOD while moving! The next day came and I did not collapse, I did not require days to recover and was able to carry on like a normal person. It was a remarkable change in an unbelievably short time.

Recovery From Conventional Medicine’s Ills Came Down to Thiamine

Getting better feels miraculous, but it’s not. The real credit for my recovery goes to experts like Dr. Marrs and Dr. Lonsdale who spread the word about thiamine. Despite years of illness and dead ends, I believed I could heal and I kept trying. Tenacity eventually paid off when posts on this site helped connect the dots between my symptoms and thiamine deficiency. More than anything, my recovery is a story of tremendous luck, as I finally landed upon the single nutrient my body needed most.

The difference between my “before thiamine” and “after thiamine” self is beyond what I can describe.  Birth control, Cipro, and Lupron created nutrient imbalances and damaged my mitochondria, leading to multiple forms of chronic illness in the years between my 20s and 40s. Replacing thiamine made recovery possible by providing the fuel my damaged cells so badly needed. At this writing, I am 7 months into high dose thiamine and continue to improve. I have not experienced any form of setback, regardless the stressors. My energy feels close to normal, the pain is resolving, and brain fog is a thing of the past. My sense of humor, creativity and mental functioning are all on the upswing. I owe thanks to the real scientists who dare to challenge wrong-headed ideas of conventional medicine, and who provide hope for these so-called hopeless conditions. My wish is that this story will do the same for someone else.

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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New Birth Control Warnings

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The FDA just received a Citizen’s Petition submitted by a group of physicians, scientists, and women’s health advocates regarding side effects caused by hormonal birth control. After a comprehensive review of literature, the petitioners believe there is enough compelling evidence to warrant new and more forceful warnings for all hormonal birth control products. I am humbled to have been invited to collaborate during the final stages of this project.

If approved, new black box warnings would specifically advise women of increased risks associated with breast cancer, cervical cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, venous thrombosis, cardiovascular events, depression, and suicide. The petition also requests that additional information be provided to patients regarding birth control’s link to multiple sclerosis, interstitial cystitis, bone fractures, as well as its effect on body mass. Finally, the petitioners request that Depo Provera be removed from the market “based on conclusive evidence that it facilitates the transmission of HIV from men to women.”

The Consequences of Birth Control

Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Deacon William V. Williams M.D. began reviewing contraceptive studies for an article he was going to write for the 50th anniversary of the papal encyclical letter titled, Humanae Vitae. The letter came out in 1968 at a time when the Catholic Church was under enormous pressure to change its teachings on contraceptives. The rest of the world, including other Christian denominations, had embraced birth control. Many anticipated the letter would be Pope Paul VI’s official capitulation. Instead, he boldly explained why the Church would never accept contraception and offered numerous warnings that have proven to be quite prophetic.

As the editor of the Linacre Quarterly, the official, peer-reviewed academic journal of the Catholic Medical Association, Dr. Williams felt a golden-anniversary nod was fitting for this important papal document. Along with some of his colleagues, he began to review scientific literature related to some of the effects of hormonal contraceptives. As the overwhelming evidence began to mount, the group cross-referenced prescribing information for several birth control products and realized many of these side effects weren’t listed – even though there was a pretty large set of peer-reviewed data available.

That’s when the group realized that this called for action beyond the originally planned article. The shocking amount of empirical data being withheld from hormonal contraceptive users represented a serious women’s health issue. They invited others to collaborate and decided a petition to the FDA was in order.

Double Standards

Kathleen Raviele, M.D., an Atlanta-area Ob/Gyn was on the team that assembled the petition. She points out that drugs with fewer risks, such as Vioxx, have been removed from the market because they affected both men and women. She says, “Women deserve respect and certainly deserve to know the risks they are exposed to with going on any hormonal contraceptive. An article in Vanity Fair in February 2014 detailed three women who lost their lives or nearly so using the NuvaRing and this should have prompted a recall of the product, but instead the company continues to tout it as: ‘The birth control ring (AKA NuvaRing) is a safe, simple, and affordable birth control method that you wear inside your vagina.’”

However, she adds that the blame doesn’t just lie at the feet of the drug companies. She explains, “Providing contraception represents one-third of an Ob-Gyn’s practice, and in the back of their minds they think this will hurt the number of patients coming to see them. However, even for medical problems often treated with hormonal contraceptives, there is always a better, safer way to manage the problem that gets to the cause rather than acting as a cover-up.”

Mrs. Information

Aside from asking the FDA to include new warnings, the petition also requests that current warnings be modified for clarity. For example, there is significant evidence dating back to the late 1960s that suggests hormonal birth control contributes to a higher risk of stroke and heart attack for any woman taking it. That already elevated risk rises even higher for women who are over 35 and smoke.

The warning on some formulations currently reads, “WARNING: CIGARETTE SMOKING AND SERIOUS CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS.” In fact, the warnings in many formulations are worded in a way that renders them completely ineffective. An argument is made in the petition that, “This is misleading and has shown to be misinterpreted by many women who infer that the increased risk only occurs with cigarette smoking and/or with being over 35 years of age.”

The petition also contends that it should be required that these warnings be included in all direct-to-consumer advertising.

Was It Really Consensual?

Despite the misleading and missing information withheld from the current patient information pamphlets, there are still a lot of unsavory side effects that are listed. However, with the complicated text printed in an unreadable, tiny font, it isn’t surprising that so few women know what they’re getting into when they start taking birth control. What is surprising is how few doctors seem to recognize the dangers. Many still proclaim that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Speaking to this apparent disconnect, Dr. Williams said, “Doctors who say the benefits of hormonal birth control still outweigh the risks are victims of the groupthink mentality in the medical profession right now. It goes something like this – people are going to have sex, and because they are going to have sex, we need to make sure they don’t suffer the consequences. Therefore, we need to prescribe The Pill to prevent pregnancy. That’s just the way doctors are trained to think. They’re not trained to think that in front of me is an individual who can make their own choices for better or for worse, who has a free will, and who, rightly informed, can make the right choices.”

The mentality Dr. Williams describes in today’s medical industry sounds eerily similar to Plato’s description of doctors of slaves versus the doctor of free people. The slave’s doctor visits the patient in a hurry with a lack of compassion. He “neither gives a servant any rational account of his complaint, nor asks him for any; he gives an order based on empirical belief with the air of exact knowledge, in the insolent manner of a tyrant, then jumps off to the next ailing servant.”

Ultimately, the goal of this petition is to pave the way to a better conversation – one more akin to what should be expected as free people. Plato described this approach as the doctor entering into a discourse with the patient. Through this discourse, the doctor is at once gathering information and instructing the patient to make the best choices for his/her health.

Putting the goal of the petition in its simplest terms, Dr. Williams explained, “We’re trying to make sure that when patients give informed consent to use this stuff that it’s actually informed. It’s not just consent.”

Weighing Outcomes

For her part, Dr. Raviele doesn’t have much faith that this scholarly petition will be taken seriously by the FDA. However, she does see another way it could ultimately serve its purpose. She described what she sees as the more practical possibility, “What this petition may do is give lawyers more ammunition for suing the drug companies over the harmful effects of these hormones on women and girls. These companies will not take them off the market voluntarily. It will only be through multiple lawsuits.”

To read and sign the petition, click here.

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.

Read more about birth control’s vast problems in my new book, In the Name of The Pill.

#1
In the Name of The Pill

37 customer reviews

In the Name of The Pill*

by Mike Gaskins

The FDA approved The Pill despite it not being proven safe. Today, it has been linked to everything from blood clots and cancer to lupus and Crohn’s disease — and still has not been proven safe.
This book explores the medical and historical disconnects that brought us to this point.




 Price: $ 17.95

Buy now at Amazon*

Price incl. VAT., Excl. Shipping

Last updated on October 21, 2023 at 9:38 pm – Image source: Amazon Affiliate Program. All statements without guarantee.

The Next Step in Birth Control Activism

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In recent hearings on Capitol Hill, freshman Representative Lauren Underwood challenged Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on his Cabinet department’s efforts to allow insurance exemptions to employers who wish not to cover birth control for religious reasons. She told him, “Women’s lives and their health depend on their ability to access contraceptives.” Then, citing the many women who take contraceptives to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, and anemia, she continued, “Your actions, sir, are denying science and putting American women at risk.”

Can we put the religious debate aside and talk honestly about the science and the risks to women for a moment?

Caring About Women’s Health

Women’s health care has grown into something very different than caring about women’s health. If we actually cared about their health, we would want women to know the truth about their options. We would want their informed consent to be informed.

I get that hormonal birth control is frequently prescribed off-label, not to prevent pregnancy, but in response to some underlying issue. Sometimes it’s a serious condition, like those mentioned by Rep. Underwood, and sometimes it’s a not-so-serious condition, like acne or slightly irregular periods.

When I’ve spoken with women about the dangers of birth control, a surprising number of them have told me that off-label issues caused them to go on The Pill. I think of one young lady in particular who told me she really didn’t want to go on birth control, but her periods were too heavy. She literally had a period that lasted 30 days, making her terribly weak. She said The Pill helped regulate her periods.

In instances like this, the problem is that The Pill really isn’t regulating the period, nor is it treating anything. It’s only masking the underlying medical issue. We wouldn’t put a band-aid on a patient who appears to have a flesh-eating bacteria and think we’ve done our job, but that’s essentially what we do with these hormonal ‘treatments.’

There has to be a better option, an actual treatment, for women like this young lady. I’m not a medical professional so I don’t know what it would be, but I’ve taken this stance regarding the multitude of off-label prescriptions: I may not have all the answers, but that doesn’t mean I’m obliged to accept the doctors’ answers – and neither are the women suffering these conditions.

A recent conversation I had with an Ob/Gyn validated that position. She explained why Ob/Gyns are hesitant to consider cutting back on birth control prescriptions:

“Providing contraception represents one-third of an Ob-Gyn’s practice, and in the back of their minds they think [reducing birth control prescriptions] will hurt the number of patients coming to see them. However, even for medical problems often treated with hormonal contraceptives, there is always a better, safer way to manage the problem that gets to the cause rather than acting as a cover-up.”

Women Deserve Better

In my new book, In the Name of The Pill, I tell the story of Anthony, a father emboldened by the death of his 20-year-old daughter, Alex, after only 8 months on The Pill. Anthony reached out to me when he read my article on Hormones Matter, which posted the very day his daughter died. In it, I discussed the many young women we have lost to birth control, and my hopes that one of these stories might trigger a chain reaction that would inspire women to stop taking The Pill.

Anthony is determined to prevent other families from experiencing the pain his family will endure for the rest of their days. I admire his tenacity. Every day, he posts informative stories and articles on social media with the frequent hashtag – #womendeservebetter.

He strikes up conversations with women about their birth control and attempts to alert them to the dangers. He told me that women are often outraged when he tells them about the Nelson Pill Hearings because they can’t believe that the vast multitude of risks have been known for over 50 years. That is the crux of the problem.

How many young women even know that The Pill has been linked to cancer, depression, and autoimmune disease? The answer is “not enough.”

The History of Birth Control Risks

If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you may know I’m slightly obsessed with the Nelson Pill Hearings. Held in 1970, these Congressional hearings featured leading physicians who exposed the diverse complications just beginning to be associated with The Pill. These warnings were largely ignored, but the reason the hearings are still relevant today is because the drug industry continues to act surprised when new studies connect hormonal birth control to the very same complications.

Imagine you’re a young woman who visited the doctor this morning and were diagnosed with lupus. You question the timing because you just started birth control weeks ago, and suspect it may have something to do with your diagnosis. When you find out that doctors 50 years ago recognized the increased risk of developing lupus among birth control users, you’re likely to become more than a little angry – and justifiably so. This is important information that should have been shared with you before you began taking The Pill.

And, it isn’t just lupus. Anthony’s daughter died from blood clots in her lungs. He said he had no idea how dangerous birth control was until after it was too late for Alex, and he’s sure she hadn’t been sufficiently warned either. He told me, “It’s easy to find articles about how The Pill helps your acne or menstrual pain, but to learn how dangerous these things are you really have to dig and know what you’re looking for.”

We have to do more to bring the dangers to light. I believe this calls for a new level of activism, but once again, I don’t have all the answers. I just know I want to do something more. I write these articles. I’ve written a book. I talk about birth control with nearly every young woman I meet, but I WANT TO DO MORE. I know there are many of us who have awoken to the dangers of this potent drug, and we all want to do more.

What more can we do? And, how can we collectively organize our efforts? Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Nelson Pill Hearings, and many of the topics discussed at the hearings deserve further investigation. I think we should band together and demand that Congress revisit the hearings. We should ask them to simply address the same two questions Senator Gaylord Nelson attempted to answer in 1970:

  • Whether The Pill (and all other hormonal contraceptives) have been proven safe
  • Whether women are being given sufficient information about the possible dangers.

I’d like your suggestions on how we can make this push. Please share any ideas you have in the comments section below.

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In the Name of The Pill

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In the Name of The Pill*

by Mike Gaskins

The FDA approved The Pill despite it not being proven safe. Today, it has been linked to everything from blood clots and cancer to lupus and Crohn’s disease — and still has not been proven safe.
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Last updated on October 21, 2023 at 9:38 pm – Image source: Amazon Affiliate Program. All statements without guarantee.

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More Side Effects from Birth Control- The Liver and the Gallbladder

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This time of year, the holiday season, can be a time of overindulgence for many of us. And how can we talk about overindulgence without taking a look at the liver? To say the liver is important is an understatement. It is the body’s largest gland and while estimates of the number of functions of the liver vary, many textbooks generally cite around 500. Nearly everything we ingest, from drugs and alcohol to vitamins and nutrients, is metabolized by the liver. The vital role it plays in the functioning of our bodies makes the testimony from the 1970 Nelson Pill Hearings about the effects of oral contraceptives on the liver that much scarier.

Research Presented at the Nelson Pill Hearings

Dr. Victor Wynn was one of the first physicians to testify about the effects of hormonal birth control on the liver.

On page 6341 he states, “if you will take cells out of the liver and examine them under the electromicroscope of women taking oral contraceptive medication, you will find some extraordinary changes.” Of these and other changes caused by the pill, he says: “When I say these changes occur, I mean they occur in everybody, more in some than in others, but no person entirely escapes from the metabolic influence of these compounds. It is merely that some manifest the changes more obviously than others.”

Later to testify was Dr. William Spellacy who was specifically called upon to speak about the metabolic effects on the liver. His testimony about the liver begins, “The biochemical effects of the sex hormones on the liver are legion.” Below is a list of liver functions that, based on the research presented in Dr. Spellacy’s testimony, are altered or impaired (NPH 6427):

  • Lowering of total plasma protein level
  • Decrease in the albumin and gamma globulin and increases in other fractions
  • Tests may be abnormal in women on oral contraceptives without disease being present
  • Estrogen (including that in oral contraceptives) interferes with liver function and varies with dosage
  • Some women taking oral contraceptives have abnormally high blood bilirubin levels
  • 1/3 of women who have jaundice on oral contraceptives will get it when pregnant
  • Discontinuation of oral contraceptives “cures” jaundice

He summed up his thoughts on the liver damage caused by hormonal birth control:

“The immediate effects include the alteration of several of the laboratory tests used in medical diagnoses. Aggravation of existing liver disease, if present, to the point where jaundice may be seen has also been shown. There is no answer to the query of will permanent liver damage result from the use of the oral contraceptives.”

The honorary Chairman of the Population Crisis Committee, a “pro-pill” organization focused on population control added his two cents about the effects of oral contraceptives on the women using them. “While metabolic alterations affecting the liver and other organs do result from use of the pill, there is no evidence at this time that they pose serious hazards to health;” General William Draper, Page 6705.

Of course, we shouldn’t assume that just because a medication causes a “legion” of biochemical effects on the livers of otherwise healthy women that there will be any lasting problems, right?

Research Since the Hearings

“Women more commonly present with acute liver failure, autoimmune hepatitis, benign liver lesions, primary biliary cirrhosis, and toxin-mediated hepatotoxicity,” according to a 2013 article in Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Like I mentioned in my piece about rheumatoid arthritis, whenever a health issue affects women disproportionately, there is often a connection with hormonal birth control. While this study doesn’t specifically mention that, it does call for further studies assess the role of sex hormones and other behaviors on liver problems in women.

These connections were well-documented at the 1970 Nelson Pill Hearings but the subsequent research gets more confusing.

Timeline of Liver Research

1980: Lancet published an article showing the connection between malignant liver tumors and women using oral contraceptives.

1989: The British Journal of Cancer found “confirmation in this population of the association between oral contraceptives and hepatocellular carcinoma” and “the relative risk was significantly elevated in long-term users [of oral contraceptives].”

1992:This study, the largest to date, adds to the number of investigations demonstrating an increased risk of primary liver cancer with use, particularly long-term use, of oral contraceptives.”

2006:Long-term use of oral contraceptives (OCs) and anabolic androgenic steroids (AASs) can induce both benign (hemangioma, adenoma, and focal nodular hyperplasia [FNH]) and malignant (hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC]) hepatocellular tumors.”

Yet a 2015 meta-analysis concluded that “oral contraceptive use was not positively associated with the risk of liver cancer.” However, the analysis also conceded that “a linear relationship between oral contraceptives use and liver cancer risk was found.” And the authors noted the need for further research into specific formulations of oral contraceptives and the duration of usage.

It makes you wonder how we went from pretty convincing and highly damning connections between oral contraceptives and liver cancer to no positive association at all. Did all the scientists from the 1960s to 2006 get it wrong? Or is something else going on here?

What About the Gallbladder?

Perhaps we can look at the liver’s little buddy, the gallbladder, for some more information. The two are intimately connected in that the liver is constantly making bile and sending it to the gallbladder for storage and dispensation. Like problems with the liver, women are more likely to develop gallstones than men. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, “Extra estrogen can increase cholesterol levels in bile and decrease gallbladder contractions, which may cause gallstones to form. Women may have extra estrogen due to pregnancy, hormone replacement therapy, or birth control pills.”

This was proven shortly after the Nelson Pill Hearings. According to the revised edition of The Doctors’ Case Against The Pill by Barbara Seaman:

“The Pill also has serious adverse effects on the gallbladder, and women who take the Pill face an increased risk of someday facing surgery for gallstones. Pill use causes higher levels of cholesterol saturation in the bile, according to a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1976. This high level of fate in the bile is considered ‘an early chemical stage of gallstone disease,” according to Dr. Donald Small of the Boston University School of Medicine… The risk of gallbladder disease rises with the length of time a woman has been on the Pill… In some studies, Pill users are two and a half times as likely to suffer from gallstones as comparable women.”

A meta-analysis conducted in 1993 found “Oral contraceptive use is associated with a slightly and transiently increased rate of gallbladder disease” and “Considering…the rapidly changing formulas of oral contraceptives, the authors suggest that the safety of new oral contraceptives be evaluated by studying bile saturation and biliary function rather than by waiting for gallbladder disease to develop.”

A much more recent study (2011) found that there was even more risk of gallbladder disease with the newer formulations:

  • Long-term use of an oral contraceptive is associated with an increased risk of gallbladder disease compared with no use
  • There was a small, statistically significant increase in the risk of gallbladder disease associated with the use of desogestrel, drospirenone and norethindrone compared with levonorgestrel
  • Both estrogen and progesterone have been shown to increase the risk of gallstones
  • Estrogen has been shown to increase cholesterol production in the liver, with excess amounts precipitating in bile and leading to the formation of gallstones
  • Progesterone has been shown to decrease gall-bladder motility, which impedes bile flow and leads to gallstone formation

The gallbladder shows us that these hormones are damaging the body.

What Now?

So what do you do when you have a gallbladder that’s not functioning properly? The current practice is to take it out! Of course, removing the gallbladder is not the quick fix many think it is and often leads to other health complications like irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, and Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction.

What about when your liver isn’t functioning properly? That’s not as simple. You can’t just take a liver out. How can the gallbladder, an organ so fundamentally connected to the liver, experience drastic and dangerous changes from hormonal birth control but the liver is supposedly unaffected? Have we researched ourselves out of that problem by declaring that it isn’t a problem? Has there been some spin-doctoring going on when it comes to the liver?

As Dr. Wynn said at the hearings, “There are more than 50 ways in which the metabolic functions of the body are modified, and to say therefore that normal physiological function has been demonstrated in the years of oral contraception is to overlook a very large amount of information.”

I think a very large amount of information has indeed been overlooked.

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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.

This article was first published December 15, 2016.