Coming Off Hormonal Birth Control: Here's What You Need to Know

I have this conversation all the time in my office. It’s often the only option that is presented to a lot of women and it’s certainly the first so it’s like a major act of rebellion to choose that the pill or IUD is no longer the right option for you. On top of that, if you’ve been on hormonal birth control for some time, it might take some time and a little extra intention to bring your body back into balance.

With the feedback loops that exist, having more hormones around than you’re technically supposed to leads to the glands that should be producing those hormones to feel like they can take a break because they aren’t really needed. Excess hormones also have their own direct effects on the body and then your detox mechanisms have to work harder to clear the extra hormones from your system. That is one of the reasons hormonal birth control depletes nutrient stores and if your detox pathways are also bogged down by other toxins from your environment (poor quality skincare, food, water, yada yada) then you might have more trouble.

When you take out the external source of hormones, your own systems need to come back on line to start producing appropriate levels of hormones again. The longer you’ve been on birth control and the more toxic your lifestyle, the harder that can be. If you have other issues going on, like leaky gut, an imbalance in your microbiome, chronic stress or other illnesses the whole process can take longer and you could need more support to help your body find its rhythm.

Important areas to focus are a super clean diet (I’ll go more into this in my next post), liver support and helping your body reconnect with a rhythm. Go to bed at the same time every night, eat at the same time throughout the day and seed cycle (check out my seed cycling guide. Link in profile) If you’re still struggling beyond 3-4 months of stopping birth control, reach out. If you want to be super proactive, start working with someone before you stop your birth control to help guide you through the transition as held and nourished as possible.

Now Is The Perfect Time To Reverse Your PCOS

To watch the live FB video that this information is pulled from, head here!

Have you been having irregular or totally absent menstrual cycles? Maybe, hair loss or acne? Or maybe you’ve been trying to get pregnant for months and it’s just not happening. Or you’re worried about how easily you’ll be able to get pregnant in the future.

I know what that is like because I’ve been there, not to mention worked with so many women experiencing the exact same thoughts and symptoms.

I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was in my early twenties after struggling for years with severe symptoms. I hadn’t had a period in two years, my hair was falling out, there was acne all over my jaw, and I was depressed and feeling really, really poorly about myself; I went to several doctors who told me that I should get used to my symptoms and that there really wasn’t anything I could do besides going back on hormonal birth control.

For some reason I just knew that that wasn’t the right thing for me. I had been on hormonal birth control before and I didn’t like who I was, not to mention there were so many side effects—instinctively I knew that that wasn’t how a young woman was suppose to feel, so I kept asking around. Finally, I was put in touch with a naturopathic doctor, and as soon as I sat down he seemed to know exactly what was happening on a foundational level. He then ran a few tests and confirmed that I had PCOS when a lot of other doctors didn’t take the time to understand what was going on.

And within four months I was cycling again, my skin was clearing, and I was generally feeling better about myself; I was nourishing my body and really giving it what it needed instead of just trying to mask symptoms with the birth control. The best thing about it was when I was ready to get pregnant, about ten years after all of this, I was able to do so really easily; I knew my body was healthy and fertile, so as soon as the timing was right, it happened, and now I have a beautiful daughter.

This is a huge part of why I’ve decided to help hundreds of women with PCOS and other hormonal imbalances, helping to restore their cycles, and their fertility; I’m so grateful to be able to share this message and guidance with other women so that they too can heal and reverse their PCOS, living the lives they know they’re mean’t to live.

We get there by working to individualize a plan.

To support the gut health, thyroid health, rebalance the adrenal glands, all the while reducing inflammation, which is always present in PCOS. The other two things that are emphasizing stress management and treating the emotional aspects of a person and of this particular diagnoses or constellation of symptoms.

The typical approach of dealing with PCOS is through hormonal birth control pills and blood sugar stabilizing medications. Once on those, you stay on them until you’re ready to get pregnant, and once you come off of them, you just hope that that your body is going to naturally bounce back, though more often than not, it doesn’t. At this point, you’re either encouraged to take other medications to help you get pregnant or to rely on pretty invasive and very, very expensive infertility treatments like IVF or IUI.

Unfortunately, those medications simply mask the symptoms and don’t address the underlying issues, which are a lot of what I was speaking about before: your gut health, adrenal health, how you manage your stress, and how your inflammation levels are at the moment. And that doesn’t even address all the side effects you might be experiencing because of those medications.

What I choose to do instead is to really dig deeper, rebalancing your body on a foundational level and making it so you don’t experience those symptoms anymore because your hormones, gut, and adrenals are working as they should and you’re living more in balance with the natural rhythms.

Like I mentioned before, this condition is something that I’m really passionate about because I’ve been there myself. I think it’s really important that we start working on that level so that you can start feeling better while pursuing your dreams; whether that’s starting a family or starting a business, you’re worth it, and this is one of the best ways that I know how to make that happen.

So, if you are interested in learning more, you’re welcome to message or email me or go ahead and book an appointment here.

I’m so excited to share this with you and I really look forward to hearing from you!

Progesterone Cream for Fertility and Hormone Imbalance?

Progesterone cream is often the recommendation when a woman has low progesterone. It's easy to find over the counter and it makes sense that if you're low in progesterone, it's probably worth supplementing. I like to take a few steps back from that thinking and consider why you might not be producing enough progesterone and start building up the system that way. Let's first take a look at what progesterone does for you body and why it's important.

Progesterone versus progestin

Before diving into what progesterone is, let me first explain what it is not. Progesterone is a hormone produced in your body or produced in a lab from a medicinal herb, generally Wild Yam. Progestin is a synthetically produced compound that is commonly found in hormonal birth control pills and hormone replacement therapies. Progestin does not have the same effect in the body as progesterone. Over-the-counter progesterone creams usually contain manufactured progesterone, not progestin. Got it? Ok, let's move on to what progesterone deficiency might look like in the body.

Progesterone in your body. 

Progesterone is a hormone produced from cholesterol and is important in the second half of your menstrual cycle in order to create the ideal environment for implanting a fertilized egg in pregnancy. It's super important in fertility and also other conditions like PCOS, hypothyroidism, PMS, Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation and many other types of hormone imbalance. After ovulation, the corpus luteum forms in the ovary and starts releasing progesterone. So, if ovulation isn't happening, then progesterone isn't happening so well. Recent research is also highlighting the effects of progesterone in breast, cardiovascular and nervous system health. Needless to say, progesterone is essential to our whole health picture.  

Symptoms of progesterone deficiency

• Hot flashes

• Low libido

• Headaches

• Anxiety and depression

• Irregular menstrual cycles (particularly short luteal phases, which is the time between ovulation and when your period starts)

• Poor sleep

• Thyroid hormone imbalance
  
  Progesterone levels can be measured with a simple test that can be run to see if it is contributing to your symptom picture. Keeping track of your menstrual cycle and when you ovulate is another great way of determining general progesterone status.

Is progesterone cream the answer?

Like I said above, progesterone cream does treat the progesterone deficiency but misses the deeper underlying meaning of why you might be deficient in progesterone in the first place. It might be a lack of nutrients like cholesterol or magnesium in the diet, chronic stress or elevated estrogen. I would much rather see an increase in the natural production of progesterone rather than supplementing, if possible. That being said, if a woman were to not be interested in waiting to increase progesterone levels naturally and is interested in becoming pregnant or becomes pregnant, progesterone cream could be beneficial in maintaining a healthy pregnancy. That might be my one exception. Not my first choice but, there's the ideal scenario and then there's real life, right?

So, what is the best way to increase progesterone? 

If you know you're progesterone deficient, check out my post on ways to increase progesterone naturally. 

If you suspect you may be progesterone deficient and are looking to for a practitioner to help identify and treat the root cause of your symptoms, click here to find out how to become a patient. I work with people locally in Bend, OR and long-distance.

Photo by Nicole Mason