Oral contraception...
Does the oral contraceptive pill change women?
Absolutely, without a doubt it does.
How can it not if it disrupts the very hormones that are part of what makes us a woman?
How can it not if it stops a woman from conceiving, something our bodies were naturally created to do?
How can it not if we have hormone receptors all over our body, including our brain, immune system and metabolic system?
By all means, as modern women, we now have freedom of choice and any of us can chose to take it. But not under the false pretence that it is a safe little pill that does nothing to our bodies.
I was handed a script for the oral contraceptive pill (OCP) at the age of 17 alongside the words, “It’s safer than aspirin”. Perhaps it is as we don’t know how safe aspirin is either, but the real point is that it shouldn’t have been prescribed with such flippancy. Because it did change me, it did change my life and it did impact my health. And it disconnected me from the essence of my womanhood.
Those who know me well or who have worked with me over the last 10 years, will appreciate that this is a bugbear for me. And it’s not just my own personal experience, but also having researched the subject and read many books, spoken to and mentored countless other women, and liaised with practitioners in this field, I know it really isn’t a subject up for debate.
However, apparently it still is. I’m forever gobsmacked that there has been very little progress in the medical field on this since I was a teenager 25 years ago and given it as a script and remedy to ‘stop’ painful periods. The majority of doctors out there in 2024 are doing exactly the same thing. It continues to be prescribed for ‘period pain’ as much as contraception.
I bring it up again in today’s piece because I came across an article published in The Washington Post last week, titled ‘Women are getting off birth control amidst misinformation explosion’, damning the new generation of social media influencers/health experts encouraging women to reclaim their reproductive health and get off the pill or other hormonal contraceptive devices. So much so that social media giants are taking it upon themselves to screen/filter/remove posts that support this movement.
I appreciate this is a contentious issue in the US because of the abortion ban/restriction in nearly half of the states, which in itself is horrific for women’s rights but I’m not going there in this piece. However it does’t mean we can easily dismiss it in Australia or other countries.
Yes, I agree, there are probably a number of influencers or coaches profiteering from this (as applies to other women’s health issues too) and perhaps really not versed in coaching or mentoring or educating. But there is also a whole lot of wonderful information out there that simply helps women get back in touch with our own bodies and return to our natural cyclical rhythm.
I’m one of the women working in this industry and attempting to finish my own memoir that will explore the topic as part of my healing. I don’t see myself as a medical expert, but the thing is, as women we don’t need to be professionally trained to understand and work with our bodies. We were born to do this. Our cycle is not a medical concern or pathology, it is simply part of being a woman. We’ve become so removed from this way of thinking though that many women do need a nudge in the right direction, back to our own innate intelligence. I did. And that’s why I offer my guidance now.
The OCP took me far away from my own innate intelligence. I know this only in retrospect of course, but at the time I also knew something was seriously wrong, I just didn’t know how to pin point it.
I started my menstruating years like most women, curled up in foetal position in pain, holding a hot water bottle to my tummy and popping Naprogesic and Mersyndol tablets. Aka puberty, that probably would've passed if we’d known that was kind of normal.
This went on for a few years until my mum dragged me to a gynaecologist, the one who told me about the aspirin.
So, yes, the pains eased, my flow decreased, my emotional roller coaster levelled out, I didn’t have to worry about falling pregnant and I could ‘get on with life’ instead of being stopped in my tracks once every 28 days. Yet I also spent the next 15 years of my life oblivious to my natural cycle. Oblivious to the truly amazing gifts this non-linear female hormonal world entails. Because I wasn’t having a real period. My hormones had been disrupted as had many systems in my body.
Fast forward to my late 30s, I developed a chronic illness and lost my menstrual cycle for 2.5 years. In this loss, I deeply mourned something. It was a profound mourning and in it I went on a mission to learn everything I could about menstruating and ovulating with the hope of assisting the return of my own cycle. Which I did and what I discovered in the process changed my life and the way I lead it today.
All up, I’ve not had a period in three phases of my life. 15 years on OCP, during my illness and now with menopause. When I first went into peri-menopause I was distraught, thinking that I’d feel the same way as I did in the previous two phases, that something was missing, that something was wrong. But now I know the difference. Menopause feels right not to bleed, the other times didn’t. And this says it all for me.
My perspective on The Washington Post article comes over and above the medical issues, but if you wish to read about them have a look at this counter-piece written by Dr Sarah Hill in Evie, titled: ‘The real story behind women getting off hormonal birth control and misinformation’. Sarah starts her piece with this potent paragraph:
‘In the (Washington Post) article, the authors reprimanded women for having the audacity to question the wisdom of hormonal birth control, longing for the days when women would politely accept their birth control prescriptions from their doctors without asking any questions…because, apparently, this is what adequately informed, empowered women do’.
Ahh, a woman after my heart! She is one of the trail blazers in OCP and hormonal research and I can highly recommend her book: How the pill changes everything. Your brain on birth control.
As much as I’m not a fan of Tik Tok or any other social media platform for first level information and news, Sarah quite rightfully states that women aren’t just getting ‘hysterical’ about the pill because of what they read on Tik Tok. Most of the claims are substantiated by global evidence that is growing by the day.
Personally, I’m concerned about the way the OCP disconnects us from our hormones, our cyclical nature and our bodily connection and in turn our feminine essence. This is the area I focus on and reclaimed as part of my healing and I still grieve the years that I spent in the domestication of my cycles. It’s something I still am healing today because those lost years were a part of my life. Yet it’s also bittersweet in many ways because I wonder whether I would’ve ever discovered the profound benefits of a cyclical life if I’d never experienced the opposite.
When The Washington Post article states that science doesn’t bear out the claims being made, to me, again, this is putting science above a woman’s body and wisdom. Something we’ve now been dealing with as women for eons. This isn’t to say that science or medicine hasn’t added anything to our wellbeing as women, but this isn’t what it all should be based on. Our first-hand experiences are just as important as any scientific statement.
There is still a lot of gaslighting from the medical profession of women’s health concerns. I’ve experienced it. Nearly every woman I know has too. Sarah delves into this in her piece and her book.
Why is the social media influencer mentioned in The Washington Post article getting 10.5 million views sharing how to attune with our cycles? Because women want to know this. They innately feel that it’s right.
But as women in the education or coaching arena we need to be aware of this deep yearning of women AND also the lack of education that has been provided to date and the different demographics reading the information. This requires a level of responsibility and accountability that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
The thing that perhaps gripes me the most about the medical profession on this issue is that they fail to say that the ‘bleed’ you get on the pill is not a real period. It’s not regulating your period or lightening it. This is all rubbish. It stops your natural period because it stops ovulation. This is a simple fact all women handed a script for the pill should be told. It is the first fact they should be told. Full stop. Period (pardon the pun).
If you happen to be a woman struggling with your cycles, not knowing where to turn or who to trust, please reach out. I can help as a mentor and I can also point you in the right direction if you need medical support or wish to find a practitioner to support you own specific journey. Please also share this piece with any woman you may feel needs to hear it. I can’t reiterate enough how important this knowledge is for all of us.
A key part of reclaiming our feminine and rising as women is reclaiming our bodies as they were created to be. The intuitive, instinctual nature of women is highly correlated to our hormonal makeup. The more we interfere with that the more we interfere with our gifts and our unique differences. The world needs us as fully embodied women. To own this is to own our power.
With love
Sharon