How to Get Off Birth Control without Side Effects
Today we're going to talk about birth control. Specifically how to prepare your body to get off birth control. We’ll also talk about post-birth control syndrome and how to support your body during this transition. We are going to talk mainly about the hormonal birth control pill. We're not really going to dive into the copper IUD because that's a whole different ballgame that has different effects.
And I definitely want to put the disclaimer out here that this is not a shame post whatsoever. This is literally just to provide education. Also, this is not medical advice. I want you to become more informed, but please also talk to your doctor about making a plan to get off birth control.
What the Pill is Really Doing
So the first thing I think everybody should know is that you can't balance your hormones while on birth control. Birth control cannot balance your hormones. It literally shuts down ovulation, which is the most important part of your cycle. Ovulation is what triggers your body to produce progesterone and it's what brings your period.
The bleed you experience while on birth control isn’t actually a period.
It’s called a pill bleed or a withdrawal bleed from the absence of the synthetic hormones that the pill provides. During the “period” week, you’re taking sugar pills instead of synthetic hormones and while taking these sugar pills, your body responds to the withdrawal of the synthetic hormones, which triggers a withdrawal bleed.
In order to have an actual period, you need to ovulate, which hormonal birth control prevents you from doing. So if you think you are only getting your period while you’re on the pill but you don’t have one when you’re not on the pill, it’s important to know that you weren't having one on the pill either. That's why you still have the same issues when you get off birth control. And women aren’t told this!
Women are told that going on the pill will fix your problems but it actually just masks them.
This makes me literally furious. Like I could get so mad and so heated about this because so many women go to their doctors asking for help because their hormones are messed up. And they're just told to go on the pill, it’ll solve all their problems. And not only does it NOT solve your issues, it actually gives you a whole host of other issues.
I’m especially frustrated when I'm talking to women who are trying to get pregnant and they have no cycle so their doctor puts them on birth control. Why on earth would you do that to someone who’s trying to get pregnant? Why would they put someone on something that inhibits ovulation? Just to give them a “regular” bleed.
Once you start to understand that birth control is about shutting down ovulation, it all starts to sink in. Birth control literally puts your body in a postmenopausal state, which is why when you get off birth control, or when you're still on hormonal birth control, you can't test your hormones right away. You have to wait at least three months after you stop taking it because your hormone levels at that time are similar to postmenopausal levels.
Side Effects of the Pill
Another thing that’s often not talked about is microbiome disruption. Birth control compromises your gut microbiome and disrupts your normal flora. It creates an environment that is basically a breeding ground for yeast and bad bacteria. So it’s no wonder why women get a lot of UTIs while they're on birth control!
So often I see women get off birth control and try to get pregnant the next month, without realizing that they pass on their gut biome to their babies. A healthy gut is also needed to remove excess estrogen from your body and much of our serotonin is made in our gut. This explains why anxiety and depression are such big side effects of birth control.
Birth control also increases your sex hormone binding globulin and your thyroxin binding globulins which basically bind free hormones making them so your body can't use them. This causes low thyroid hormones and also low testosterone, which can explain why many women experience thyroid issues and have almost no libido while on the pill.
Additionally, the pill can deplete your vitamin B minerals, antioxidants, selenium, zinc, and magnesium, which can also affect pregnancy if you try to get pregnant right away.
How To Prepare to Get Off Birth Control
So, after experiencing all of these symptoms and issues, what happens when you finally decide to get off birth control? Basically, the communication between your brain and your ovaries has been shut down for as long as you have been on the pill. Once you remove these synthetic hormones that you’ve been on for years (possibly decades!) you need to reboot that communication again. This starts with supporting your gut microbiome and replenishing all of these minerals that your body has been depleted of.
Women are often just told just to stop taking the pill, that’s it. But you actually need to prepare your body. You need to replenish those minerals and support yourself to help your body find it’s natural rhythm again.
Hair Mineral Analysis
Something you can do while you're on birth control to prepare is to get a hair mineral analysis. This is one of my favorite tests to do and it’s one of the more cost-effective ones. This will tell you what your mineral levels look like so you can specifically target any minerals that are low. I always run a hair mineral analysis with my clients inside Hormone Reset Premium Access.
Seed Cycling
Then, I would start seed cycling. If you have a pill bleed, I would do it with the pill bleed. So during your bleed, take a tablespoon each of pumpkin and flax seeds each day. Then, smack dab in the middle of your cycle, switch to one tablespoon each of sesame and sunflower seeds every day.
If you aren't having any bleed, I would do it with the moon. Treat the full moon like ovulation. So with the full moon, you would start taking sesame and sunflower. And then on the new moon, you would switch to pumpkin and flax seeds, a tablespoon of each a day.
Supplements
It’s also worth looking into a magnesium supplement as well as a prenatal to get your folate up which is being depleted by the birth control pill. And then it would be really helpful to get on a spore-based probiotic. I like Megaspore. This isn’t your average probiotic that's already dead, this one actually can influence your gut bacteria. So that helps the good bacteria create more as well as target and get rid of the bad bacteria.
Test for Food Sensitivities
It may also be helpful to do an elimination protocol to figure out if you have any food sensitivities. This can be super helpful because these food sensitivities can inhibit your absorption of minerals and nutrients, specifically glyphosate.
So, do all these things before you go off the pill, if you can. Then once you come off the pill, about three months after you stop taking it, you can get a DUTCH panel done. This is a comprehensive hormone panel to help you see where your hormone levels are at which will help you understand better what you can do to support your body while it adjusts to being off the pill.
What to do After Getting Off the Pill
Once you’re off the pill, you need to be balancing your blood sugar. This is going to be so important for you post-pill because often, women will experience what is called post-birth control PCOS. Which is basically symptoms of PCOS, but you only experience them after going off the pill.
One of these symptoms could be insulin resistance. When your blood sugar spikes, your body releases insulin. If you're insulin resistant, your cells aren’t absorbing the insulin, so your body just keeps producing more and more of it. Then, these high levels of insulin can cause your ovaries to produce excess testosterone, which can impact your ovulation and leave you with excess androgens. This can then lead to unwanted hair growth or hair loss and lots of other PCOS symptoms, so it’s important to understand how to balance your blood sugar!
Remember - The Pill Didn’t Fix Anything
Remember, if you went on birth control for hormonal acne, or for really painful periods, or really heavy periods, birth control didn't fix that, it was only masking it. So once you come off, you're probably still going to have that issue and you’ll need to work on figuring out the root cause.
Balancing your hormones is the key! It’s important to figure out the root issue that is causing your hormones to be imbalanced. Is it your mineral levels? Is it stress? Is it your digestion? Is your body not even absorbing nutrients from your food because of food sensitivities? There are so many things that could be going on, but masking them with birth control will never cure those issues.
So To Recap…
This is what I recommend. Do a hair mineral analysis, support your gut, and replenish your minerals. Figure out if you have any food sensitivities and eat very nutrient-dense foods, THEN come off the pill. And of course, talk to your doctor about all this. I can’t give you medical advice, I'm not advising you to do anything because it’s going to be different for everyone.
Then post-pill, continue with your mineral support, getting a wide variety of nutrient-dense food, and continue your seed cycling. I would also make sure you're getting movement in every day. Just thirty minutes a day is plenty! Getting some movement in and really focusing on your blood sugar balance will help drastically as you come off the pill. Also, look into a prenatal and maybe taking that magnesium.
Then three months after you've been off birth control, you can get a hormone panel and see where your hormone levels are at and retest your hair mineral levels.
This is exactly what I recommend when working with clients who are coming off the pill. We test their hair right away and get on a personalized mineral supplement based on their levels. Then, we support their gut, figure out any food sensitivities, and start seed cycling. Then, three months out, we will do another hair test and another DUTCH panel to see exactly where their body is at and how we can support it.
And that's how my clients have pretty smooth sailing when they get off birth control! Most of them have had a much easier time because we really prepped their body before coming off birth control and then we supported their body post-pill as well.
To learn more about how to get off birth control without all the crazy side effects, check out Breaking Up With Birth Control! I will teach you the exact strategies to come off birth control seamlessly. You will learn how to replenish nutrients depleted by birth control, how to eat for your hormones, and how to help your body find a rhythm and support detox.
Join Breaking Up With Birth Control!
The recommendations presented in this blog are not a substitute for medical advice from a qualified doctor. Before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle, please consult with your health care provider.
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