Depression Risk and More from Birth Control Pills

Birth Control Pill (BCP) in young women and health risks

I frequently see women who have a history of birth control use who wish they never took it.

Why?

The pill has caused a variety of problems which include:

• Post-pill acne
• Depression
• Inability to conceive
• Digestive problems
• Autoimmune disease

Is a menstrual cycle optional?

We live in a society that has “a pill for every ill” and looks down upon a woman’s monthly cycle. What do I mean by that?

Gynecologists and primary care physicians actually encourage young women to stop their cycles. The thought is “why to be bothered with that pesky menstrual cycle when you can stop it with a pill?”

You are asked: “Do you have cramps? Heavy bleeding? PMS? Just stop your hormones completely and you’re fine.”

There’s nothing that could be farther from the truth. It’s natural and normal for a woman to have a monthly cycle. Stopping that normal ebb and flow of hormones is detrimental to your overall health.

Menstrual symptoms need to be addressed from their root cause

I agree; having cramps, migraines, heavy bleeding, or PMS is definitely NOT fun. But they’re not normal either. I used to suffer from those symptoms. I got to the root cause of them naturally, not by stopping my hormones.

If you’re a woman looking at beginning the pill, a parent deciding if it’s right for your teenage daughter, or someone who has already been on the pill, please read this information so that you’re well informed of the pitfalls associated with pill use.

The pill causes nutritional deficiencies

The pill is associated with a variety of deficiencies. These include the B vitamins B2, B6, B9, and B12. It also causes a deficiency in vitamin C, zinc, magnesium, and selenium.

It’s thought that such deficiencies can be tied to the risk of losing one’s period for a year or longer (called amenorrhea) after the pill is stopped. There’s nothing sadder than a woman who is ready to conceive who is no longer fertile after taking the pill.

Some women lose their period entirely once they stop the pill

Yes, some women bounce back almost instantaneously after taking the pill, but too often the negative effects are severe, and that’s what I see a great deal of in my clinic.

Knowing a woman’s health history and genetics could perhaps shed light on who would suffer ill effects more greatly, but most women don’t know that’s a tool they could use.

Synthetic hormones can overwhelm your detoxification systems

The synthetic hormones used in the pill are just that, synthetic and thereby foreign to your body. They must be detoxified and it’s likely that the women who seem to be unaffected from pill use have naturally robust detoxification systems.

Methylation is a process that controls our ability to detoxify. Almost half of our population (45%) has a genetic defect causing some compromise to that system. Such a defect along with certain environmental and lifestyle factors can come together in a negative way making an individual at risk for a poor outcome in taking birth control pills.

What is the birth control pill “doing” to your body?

Essentially the birth control pill mimics pregnancy so that you’re no longer fertile. That’s fine from a pregnancy prevention standpoint but let’s look at what that means for your long-term health.

Two things that normally occur while you’re pregnant:

1. Your body utilizes blood sugar differently to ensure your baby gets adequate nutrition to grow. This is known as insulin resistance and while healthy and protective for your baby, when this occurs while not pregnant the result can be a tendency toward diabetes and high cholesterol that persist even after you discontinue use of the pill.
2. A tendency to clot your blood more easily is also a natural protective tendency of pregnancy. Delivering a baby creates blood loss and this tendency protects a mother from losing too much blood. But if this occurs when not pregnant, due to the birth control pill, dangerous life-threatening blood clots can result. This has been a known risk and cause of death in women of all ages.

Post pill acne is a risk

Your skin can improve while on the pill, but often rebounds into acne and disfiguring cystic acne when you cease using the pill. This appears to be more likely with the estrogen-containing pills.

Autoimmune disease incidence rises after pill use

There’s up to a 50% increased risk of developing autoimmune disease from pill use. While the cause is not definitive, the connection is present.

Depression is a huge risk post-pill use

Depression is a serious risk with the use of birth control pills, and the risk increases depending on the type of pill you use.

The combination pill is associated with a 23% increased risk of “needing” an antidepressant. The study followed women in their teens through mid-thirties for 13 years who lived in Denmark.

The study confirmed that the women who sought out the medication for depression had no history of depression prior to their pill use. The depression was considered clearly linked to the pill use.

Even worse were the results of the progestin pill. A higher percentage, 34%, was likely to take an antidepressant.

Teens were particularly at risk with a terrifying link of 80% increased use of antidepressants in teenagers taking the progestin pill.

Other studies showed the same results, stressing that having a family history of mental health issues put you at even higher risk. Again the progestin pills were the worst for this association.

The real problem is being masked with the pill

Not surprisingly, what’s being missed is the true underlying root cause of the reasons so many young women seek out the birth control pill. Acne, heavy periods, PMS, and PCOS are all issues that can be successfully treated with balancing diet, lifestyle, nutrition, and mediating genetics.

There’s no reason to exchange one problem for another by utilizing the pill.

If you insist on the pill, please take these precautions

If you feel you have no choice but to utilize the pill, please take the following precautions:

1. Get on a “clean” diet. I know that’s a mouthful, but you can visit other blogs where I precisely list out what a generally healthy diet entails.
2. Take a good multivitamin to protect you against any deficiencies.
3. Get your genetics tested to see if you’re at risk for methylation, detoxification, or other challenges that will put you at a higher health risk with pill use.
4. Take a good probiotic to give some support to your microbiome.
5. Observe your mood. This can be tough because it’s easy to “blame life” for one’s mood and miss that internal changes, such as taking the pill, have occurred that are causing you to be depressed.
6. If you’re overweight, smoke, or have type 2 diabetes, please reconsider your options.

How’s your hormonal health?

If you are suffering from hormonal imbalance symptoms, regardless of your age, but you’re not really sure where to start, let us help you.

It can be frustrating to be affected both emotionally and physically by hormone imbalance. I know this both personally and professionally.

We can assist you to identify the true root cause of your hormonal challenges.

Contact us for a Free Consultation – Call (408) 733-0400.

If you are not local to us you can still receive help. It is the reason we created our Destination Clinic that treats patients from across the country and internationally.

We help the world’s busiest people regain, retain, and reclaim their health, energy, and resilience.

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