7 Reasons why Hormonal Birth Control is NOT female empowerment.

1. Using hormonal birth control disconnects you from the most intuitive, feminine, divine part of yourself - your womb. As the most feminine part of our bodies, our cycle, womb, and life-giving portal represent constant creativity and 'creation' of the feminine, a never-ending life force energy that connects us to our essence as women. However, shutting down the natural cycle of our womb and relying on external drugs to suppress or run it can lead to a disconnection from our natural bodies. The suppression of real hormones and increase of fake hormones, the hijacking of the connection between your brain and your ovaries, and nutrient depletion all support this disconnection.
   
   
   
2. Hormonal birth control can also make women feel like they cannot trust their bodies or their cycle in its natural form. The marketing surrounding the pill, IUD, implanon, shot, and any form of hormonal birth control often uses scare tactics to make us afraid of our natural cycle and believe that our bodies in their natural form are dangerous and scary. However, the Fertility Awareness Method, which involves tracking your cycle naturally, has a lower chance of unwanted pregnancy than the pill. (1.8% typical use failure rate vs 9%, respectively). The narrative that hormonal birth control is 'female empowerment' is ironic, as doctors don't often make conversations about our periods and cycle empowering. Moreover, hormonal birth control is not always better at preventing pregnancy anyway. Many people still fall pregnant on the pill or IUD, making it a less desirable option for those who want to avoid unwanted side effects.
   
   
   
3. Using hormonal birth control can also create more fear around unwanted pregnancy, fertility, and hormonal issues. It's often sold to us through the story of 'not having our period disrupt our life' or 'fixing' conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, or period pain. However, hormonal birth control only masks the issue and makes us believe that our bodies require external help to function optimally. This narrative breeds a story that hormonal issues are normal, and that the cure is taking a drug that can have more side effects than we'd like to know about. In fact, hormonal birth control has been linked to depression, anxiety, and gut issues.
   
   
   
4. It causes depression, anxiety, gut issues, nutrient deficiencies, inflammation and so much more. The pill has been directly correlation to depression for years. Studies have shown that women taking the pill or other HBC were also found to have higher rates of anxiety, fatigue, neurotic symptoms, compulsion, anger and negative menstrual effects. Taking the pill for as little as 6 months can potentially destroy a woman’s sex drive forever. The pill dramatically reduces the levels of testosterone which is vital to both female and male libido. And, stopping the pill doesn’t necessarily reverse the effects. The pill affects vitamin, mineral, lipid, essential fatty acid and amino acid metabolism and vitamin B6 metabolism, for example, is disturbed by the pill. 
   
   
   
5. It can wreck havoc on relationships as it changes your smell receptors and it can make women feel crazy when their preferences change. Biologist Claus Wedekind researched women on and off the pill, and who they were sexually attracted to. He Found that the pill reverses the usual smell-immune system signals and that when a woman is on the pill she tends to choose a mate who has a similar immune system. This gives any later children they have together a narrower immunity and makes it harder for them to fall pregnant.  
   
   
   
6. It can have major complications that women are often not warned about before taking/having it inserted. Unfortunately most women don’t get told about all the complications/side effects of being on hormonal birth control. They don’t get told about possible depression, breast cancer, endo, anxiety, loss of libido, mood swings, pelvic inflammatory disease, “unexplained” infertility, brittle bones, PCOS, cardiovascular disease, and blood clots. Just to name a few. And why would we? If I was told all the risks before I went on it back in the day, I would have said FUCK NO, but I was sold the story of painless periods,  perfect skin, and not hurting my body at all. And when I started to bleed every 2 weeks, my doctor just gave me a higher dose of the pill. 
   
   Of course, if you Google ‘Is XYZ hormonal birth control bad for you?” it’ll tell you “no.” But a moment of thinking about how HBC affects your body should make you realize that fake hormones or a foreign object in your womb cannot surely be healthy. – and the stories & research proves that it’s not. 
   
   
   
7. It takes away the education around s3x and pregnancy, and instead, we place our power and trust in something outside of us. AND pregnancies still happen, so it makes us have a constant fear of unwanted pregnancy. One of the missing pieces in this conversation is often the part about handing over your power. Whilst there is always a place for hormonal birth control (when you’re using it AS you solve the root issue), many women give their power to the system, modern medicine, and something outside of themselves. They don’t believe that they have the power. That their body is powerful. They put all their trust in their hormonal birth control instead of feeling like they know their own body. 

Whilst I'm so grateful for modern medicine, it’s also often a money-making scheme that doesn’t encourage personal power and responsibility. 

Depending what hormonal birth control you’re on, will obviously affect what sorts of problems it’ll cause.

But the fact that the pill is a class 1 carcinogen, and that the IUD can cause infertility if it’s dislodged (unfortunately very common) is often is not always not something that women are told before going on HBC.

When you sit in a conventional doctors off (who you trust to give you the best information), when are you EVER given a solution of non hormonal birth control? The fertility awareness method? Condoms? Or told to first try cutting out gluten, dairy, sugar and vegetable oil to see if that helps your raging cramps?

It’s pretty basic information (there’s a whole host of other things to do for period issues) but st the very least women deserve that. Instead, we’re made to fear our cycles and feel like the only thing that’ll ‘fix’ us is hormonal birth control. When I’m reality is often does more harm than good.

⚠️ NOW I’m not Anti HBC. I’m anti a *lack of information*.

Because if you have raging endometriosis and so you’re on the pill to help with the pain AND you’re also fixing the root st the same time *with* the goal of coming off the pill. Then you’re using the pill to help you. Because sometimes band aids SRE needed whilst you fix the root of the issue. In a situation like this, then when you come off the pill, you’ll be able to handle any last bits of endo pain whilst we now clean up any damage from the pill and bring your inflammation and estrogen into balance whilst boosting your immune system (only so much work for the root issue can be done on the pill). 

If you're ready to get off HBC WITHOUT a horrendous rebound of symptoms .... "The Art of Coming off Hormonal Birth Control" is your saving grace