Birth control…it’s becoming a controversial topic in more and more conversations everyday. Specifically hormonal birth control (because yes there are forms of birth control that are considered non-hormonal). It wasn’t until only a few years ago that I decided to dig in and learn more about hormonal contraceptives, how they actually work and all of that good stuff so today I wanted to share a little bit about my personal journey.
To begin we need to all the way back to being about 15 years old. I got my first period fairly late by most standards, but I was an elite athlete and that’s not super uncommon. Even after I got my first period I was incredibly irregular and all over the place. What I didn’t know at the time is that as you enter your reproductive years this is fairly common and normal. I was also an elite athlete which was another layer on top of that. It made things frustrating and unpredictable so my mom suggested we talk to the doctor about birth control. This is super common as well…young girls are put on the pill all the time for reasons completely unrelated to preventing pregnancy including things like dealing with acne and regulating cycles. It was just a normal thing to do…I would argue that even to this day it still is the “normal” thing to do.
I remember going into the doctors office and being put on the pill for the first time. I didn’t ask questions. To be honest…I didn’t even know that there were questions I should have been asking. They just told me it would make my period regular and I was like okay cool. I was an elite swimmer and not knowing when your period was coming each month was a huge pain…so if this could make my life a bit easier I would take it (in hindsight the things that were a pain at 15 were pretty minor…but that’s rather unrelated).
If I’m being 100% honest…I was 15. Did I notice changes or any negative effects on my body at that point no. Did it affect me? Probably, but at 15 your hormones are all over the place anyways so who knows. I continued to take the same pill for years…I honestly can’t remember exactly how many years, but my quick math tells me it was probably about 8 years.
In my early to mid 20’s there was a period of time that I went off the pill. Which meant for the first time in my life I was actually seeing what a period without hormonal birth control looked like for me. I count myself lucky. Although in my teenage years my cycle was incredibly irregular, I’ve learned as an adult that I have a fairly regular cycle and I don’t typically have difficult symptoms to deal with throughout my cycle and on my period…as I said lucky.
After a period of a year or two I was back on birth control and the experience was drastically different although it was years before I realized that was the birth control that was impacting me. I literally tried everything…and when I saw everything I mean everything. Obviously working in the health and fitness I know this. But no matter what I tried my fatigue was up (all the time) and my mood wasn’t. I reached a point where no amount of exercise (more or less) made a difference. Changes in nutrition didn’t improve mood or energy levels. There was a point where I thought I wasn’t getting enough sleep, then a period where I thought I was getting too much sleep. At the end of the day I just felt off…all the time. It was a weird thing that I couldn’t put my finger on or explain, but at the end of the day there was one thing that I could think of left to try myself before reaching out and exploring additional options within the healthcare system…and that was dropping my birth control pill.
So that was exactly what I did….
Did it improve instantly…obviously not. Did it take time…absolutely. Was there an adjustment period…for sure. Did I start to feel better after a period of time…you better believe it. It was like a hazy fog lifted and I vowed to never go back again!
Now I want to be clear here…I’m not saying that hormonal birth control shouldn’t be used…instead I’m saying that it wasn’t the best option for me. There are a variety of different hormonal birth control options and the reality is that I could have tried some of those different options but at the time I wasn’t even sure that’s what it was, I was mostly just experimenting and I wanted to come completely off it in order to see how my body responded. It may have not made a difference at which point I would have had to look to other options and sources, but the fact that it did make a difference left me feeling torn. At the end of the day I share this information so that you know that there are other options out there that are not hormonal birth control. And if you are feeling off, it’s just one more thing to add to your list of possible options to explore. Have you had negative or positive experiences with hormonal contraceptives? Share them in the comments below!
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