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How Birth Control Effects the Brain 🧠 & the Uterus
In today's video we're going to discuss birth control- how it works and some of the long-term effects that it can have on fertility and the woman's body reproductive health and even mental health.
Let's talk about what birth control is
Birth control controls pregnancy, so it helps to lessen the chances that a woman will get pregnant. It's mostly used for that sole reason but is sometimes prescribed for women who have menopausal symptoms and also for those who have hormonal acne, as a way to regulate the hormones.
How it Works
Birth control works in a lot of different ways. There are all different types of mechanisms that one can use, and they all work to suppress hormones. Some of them have low levels of man-made progesterone while others have estrogen and progesterone, all man-made. They work to suppress the hormones which also stops the brain from signaling to the body that there's a need to increase progesterone (which is needed for ovulation).
That's probably one of the most concerning ways that it works.
It also works to thin the endometrium. The endometrium builds up in order to implant an egg, if fertilization actually happens. If there's no pregnancy, that's when the menstrual cycle starts and the endometrium sheds. It also works to thicken the mucus of the cervix; that makes it harder for the sperm to be able to travel to an egg.
Let's look into how it affects the body
I mentioned briefly that birth control stops a signal from the brain. It was actually found that women who use birth control had a smaller hypothalamus. That's concerning because the hypothalamus has very important functions like regulating our sleep and rest cycle. The hypothalamus also helps to regulate mood and sex drive, so if you have a smaller hypothalamus, once you are trying to conceive it can make a little bit harder because you have to have libido in order to feel in the mood.
There was a study in The Washington Post, which was concerning (how vague it was) but it said that the uterus of women who were on birth control were much smaller. From digging I was able to find that concrete numbers, overall, it was 47% smaller and for women aged 19 to 30 it increased to 52% smaller on average. I'm not a doctor so you want to always do your own research and consult with your physician before you use you know herbs, however; it makes sense that when you don't use something it signals to the body that it's not needed. It makes sense that these organs would atrophy, decline and ultimately shrink over time.
The National Library of Medicine found that using birth control pills can deplete your body of some antioxidants, like vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium and CoQ10. Now this is important because your body needs antioxidants but a deficiency in CoQ10 is linked to age-associated egg deficits. Egg deficits can lead to infertility. Another study that was done on 833 Danish women aged 18 to 46 that were using birth control pills. It was found that the birth control pills make their eggs look old, the reason why was that when younger women take the pill, they contain lower levels of hormones that are needed to mature the healthy eggs. Here's a quote "hormonal birth control suspends the eggs maturation process in an earlier age"; so, you have a lesser quality of eggs, they look old, or they look like the eggs of older women. Also, the levels of hormones because they're suppressed, look like the levels of menopausal women which you know are not fertile anymore.
The reason why I wanted to talk about this is because
I want all women to have access to the information
that they need to make informed decisions.
Whether you're currently taking the pill and you're deciding whether you want to continue in the future or if you are a parent that is thinking about advising daughter to get on birth control. With this information you can understand what's going on in the body and the long-term effects.
I also want to give this information because if you did use birth control,
I do believe that for most things the body does regenerate,
the body does heal itself naturally
You can improve your reproductive health, your brain health and balance your hormones after using birth control. These things don't just happen overnight, but I wanted to make you aware of some of the things you may be going through, symptoms or issues and you're now suspecting that birth control could be the reason.
If you want more information about hormonal support and the women's reproductive health, read more about my Mastering the Womb Course below.
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