The Dr. Lam Show

The Secret Dangers Of The Birth Control Pill

Dr. Lam

Do you know what you’re taking when you take birth control pills? Taking birth control pills can help reduce the risks of an unwanted pregnancy and help manage acne and problematic periods. Learn here about the health risks associated with the pill so you can make the right choice for your health.

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Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

Birth control pills. Are you one of the 10.6 million women in the US who use birth control pills? Were they prescribed to you by your doctor? Numerous people use birth control. Are you one of the 10 point 6 million women in the US who use birth control pills, and were they prescribed to you by your doctor? Numerous people use birth control pills these days and doctors prescribe them without any second thought. Yet birth control pills like any kind of medication can have very serious effects on your health. And some of these effects are irreversible. Preventing pregnancy isn't the only reason that women are put on birth control. That is totally understandable. But the pill can also be used to manage other complaints like irregular periods or heavy periods, PMS, premenstrual symptoms, or acne. However, using the pill for these types of reasons are not really getting to the root cause. The pill usually contains a lot of artificial versions of estrogen and progesterone. These are two very powerful hormones in the female body. And some of these health concerns can occur because these hormones are imbalanced. And using the pill to just shut down the brain to produce these hormones is not really fixing the root cause. Something underlying that could be happening is poor gut health. For birth control pills can actually disrupt normal balance of bacteria in the gut, allowing for overgrowth of bad bacteria and yeast. And this can not only cause gut issues like constipation, diarrhea, it can actually also affect your brain. And the health of your gut is very closely tied to your mental health. So you might actually find that your mood and cognitive function is negatively affected while you're on birth control pills. Birth control pills can also affect your nutritional deficiencies. As the health of your gut continues to decline, your body's ability to absorb nutrients can also decline. And that can put you at risk for nutritional deficiencies even if you are eating a good diet. Birth control pills can also lead to increased inflammation. The pill can increase oxidative stress in your body, increasing inflammation and your risk of conditions related to inflammation, like pain and autoimmune diseases. Birth control pills also can be related to increased cancer risk. It's well documented that taking the pill increases your chance of developing certain types of cancer, like breast, liver, uterine and cervical cancer, and you also have an increased risk of stroke and blood clots. Modern birth control pills contain a lot of estrogen which can actually increase your risk of heart attacks, blood clots, stroke, pulmonary embolism. I'm not talking about natural bioidentical estrogen, I'm talking about synthetic estrogen in birth control pills. And taking birth control pills also disrupt the level of your hormones in the body. This is because it increases sex hormone binding globulin as HBG and thyroxin binding globulin levels. These proteins bind with the free hormone so that your body can't use them. Here's some of the effects you can actually experience because of elevated as HPG and our thyroxin binding globulin. You can have a low thyroid function which affects your weight, your skin, your hair, your brain, digestion and mood. You can also have low testosterone levels, which will negatively impact your libido and your muscle mass. And then you can also have higher estrogen levels after you stop taking the pill which can bring on estrogen dominance. So all of this doesn't mean you should stop taking your pill of course as this can lead to unwanted pregnancy, or the return of your other health issues. Instead, definitely talk to your doctor about your options. Work with them to find what option is right for you. If you're not using them for not having a pregnancy then try to fix the underlying root cause of whether the heavy periods the PMS, irregular periods, those are not normal. So try to get down to the root cause. That's what we have today regarding birth control pills. So thanks for listening and we hope you got something useful from what we've shared, and you'd like to hear more great tips make sure you click your like and subscribe button. And we would love to be able to share more education and information for you as we are here to empower you to take control of your health.