Turning 16 was such a liberating moment. My Mum let me stay out later with my friends, I no longer had to worry about openly wearing a bra (now that I was a woman), and talking about my period with my girlfriends was something of maturity, not embarrassment.
Many of my friends had started using oral contraceptives – the pill – and I too had started taking it. I presume my mum had no intention of dealing with a teenage pregnancy, and I guess I can’t blame her.
When I broke up with my high school sweetheart at 18, I subconsciously chose to stop taking the pill, at least for a little while.
I never used it again.
In a world where sex is no longer taboo, young girls are encouraged by health care professionals, their parents, and each other to start taking the infamous pill. However, little is communicated to them about the potential side effects of what this medication does to our body, both acutely and long term.
Copper: The Link Between Anxiety and the Pill
Copper is a heavy metal. It’s found in foods such as grains, soybeans, nuts and seeds. In soil, copper is very important for the growth of plants, however copper content in soil has risen due to the onslaught of fungicide use. Once levels become too high, it’s difficult to minimise due to the fact that copper has low solubility, allowing it to persist within soil for years.
On top of food intake, copper is used in the process of making the pill and is also linked to increased estrogen levels. Copper has a very close relationship biochemically with estrogen (the main hormone being mimicked by the pill) and thus allows even further elevation of copper in the body when taking the oral contraceptive.
Despite the need for copper in our systems, copper toxicity is becoming an epidemic. I like to explain this theory to my clients with a scale:
Copper should always sit in a neutral position between both the good and bad heavy metals. The issue arises when copper starts tipping toward bad metals such as lead and mercury. The balance of the body becomes disturbed, and symptoms consist of anxiety, depression and worse than normal PMS. This is because copper is a neurological stimulant that aggravates our brain when in excess, which is why you can feel a little crazy at times!
One way to minimise the damage is to supplement with zinc.
Zinc and copper have an inverse relationship in the body. The rule of thumb is that zinc should always be 25% higher than copper.
The richest source of zinc is found in animal protein, and picolinate in supplement form.
Thrush, Warts and Dandruff: How They Are All Linked
It’s now widely understood that oral contraceptives increase candida overgrowth within our gut. Candida is a naturally occurring bacterium that lives within our gastrointestinal tract. In a bid to protect our immune barrier (gut) it starts to coat the surface of the gut when a foreign invader (the pill) is introduced. The candida can become systemic, causing many immune responses. These can range from eczema, hair loss, mood swings and more.
Candida is also a yeast, hence the symptoms associated with overgrowth are that of a yeast nature, thrush being the most obvious.
It’s difficult to minimise the overgrowth without removing the source, however doing things to help reduce the damage can help.
The simplest way to correct gut flora is with the use of both pre and probiotics.
Fermented foods can also assist in healing the epithelium of the gut, as well as eating foods that have minimal inflammatory properties such as grass-fed proteins, green vegetables, and activated nuts and seeds.
Nutrients: How the Pill Robs Your Body
One of my biggest concerns with the long-term use of oral contraceptives is the damage they cause in our gut’s ability to uptake and absorb nutrients.
Researchers have been linking low folate, B12 and B6 with the use of the pill for quite some time. Without our ability to absorb these essential nutrients, many breakdowns will occur. Dr. Carl Pfeiffer has been linking the side effects of low B vitamins and zinc to depression and other mental health issues since the 70s.
In addition to mental health, low levels of essential vitamins and minerals can increase a person’s susceptibility to autoimmunity, cancer, neurological problems and a host of other chronic diseases.
Each essential vitamin and mineral is needed in order to allow our body to function optimally, both in the short and long term. It’s just as the saying goes: an apple a day, keeps the doctor away. We know that nutrition and lifestyle goes a long way toward preventing disease later in life.
The decisions we make for ourselves today will have repercussions later in life, and fertility for women is an important aspect to look at in regard to oral contraceptives.
The pill is clinically regarded as a folate robber, folate being essential for a healthy pregnancy.
Getting Back to Basics
Education is the key toward optimising your health. Often the people we hope will provide information are blinded with ulterior motives, e.g. Big Pharma having too much influence over our practitioner’s decisions. Health care systems are overloaded with patients, and shorter sessions with your practitioner can also force quick decisions toward your health (or lack thereof).
There are always choices in regards to our health, most notably when it comes to pregnancy. So what can you do if you are considering transitioning off the oral contraceptive?
Track your cycle
As women, we have a unique built-in system that allows us to take stock of how healthy our insides are every month. When taking the pill, this system becomes manipulated and it isn’t until we remove it (the pill) that we understand the state of our reproductive system. A good way to track it is after bleeding. You have roughly 10 days of high estrogen, and then as we have discharge (it should look like white glue), that’s ovulation! This is the best time to get pregnant.- Take a Good Quality Zinc and B Complex
If you don’t want to stop taking oral contraceptives, it’s very important you try to counterbalance with nutritional compounds that are otherwise robbed from your system. These supplements should be taken with food, toward the beginning of the day. - Go Old School
The pill has a contraceptive rate of roughly 80%, with condoms sitting closer to 92%. Don’t be afraid to go back to basics with contraception – especially if it helps your health!
You always have choices. I would never tell somebody to stop taking the pill, however it disappoints me how little is truly known regarding the side effects, especially when many women are blindly taking it for up to 20 years! If removing it completely is not an option, it’s worth having a break for 6 months or so. I encourage you to speak to your health care professional about what you can do to minimise the side effects, or how you can transition off the pill. Again, explore the options and make a choice that’s right for you.
Embrace your periods, ladies! When our bodies work against us (for example heavy and painful periods), that’s a clear sign that other things are happening internally.
Toxicity, nutrient deficiencies, and gut dysbiosis could all be the cause of why they’re painful. The pill just acts as a Band-Aid and doesn’t fix the cause.
Take your cycle as a measure of health, not something to dismiss. It’s the best gift nature has given us for taking stock of our health. Check out quercetin australia if you wanted to boost your immune system.
