This blog post is half reader success story and half awareness raising for the dangers of the birth control pill.
This topic is near and dear to my heart, because it’s the birth control pill that took my IBS symptoms from annoying and manageable (constipation, gas and bloating) to severe and torturous (migraines, yeast infections, anxiety, depression, fatigue, chronic colds, rashes, etc.) These are the side effect that legal drugs can have on our bodies. And I need to bring awareness to this topic.
I wished someone had warned me that the birth control pill kills beneficial bacteria, promotes candida overgrowth, worsens constipation and sends you into emotional hell. It doesn’t have such severe effects on everyone, but because my body was already out of balance and because I was so sensitive, it wreaked havoc on my health. And I had no idea of the cause.
The worst symptoms from the birth control pill were anxiety and depression and because of that, I started taking antidepressants. This put more stress and strain on my body and liver, throwing my bacteria further out of balance.
I learned the hard way. So now, I try to spread the word. Awareness is everything. What you do with the awareness is up to you.
Two months ago I had an e-mail conversation with a reader about the birth control pill. She read one of my blogs that briefly mentioned the side effects of the pill. She asked me if she should get off the pill to heal her IBS. I told her about my experience and let her make up her own mind.
I also recommended a few other things to help her along on her recovery.
IBS success story
I got an e-mail from her recently about how much better she was feeling.
Getting off the pill was the missing piece in her recovery. She said that I could share her e-mail with you
This is what Elisa wrote:
“I wanted to let you know that I am healing, thanks to you. I followed your advice and got off birth control pills on Oct. 1st and have been feeling well ever since. I had been on the pill for 15 years, the last 7 taking the hormones continuously so that I didn’t have a period. It was a tough decision to give up this convenience, but with my husband’s support, I took the leap. From the first week, I was amazed at how my body seemed to relax and start digesting the way it is supposed to. I had been gluten free for a couple of months before this, and had still experienced a bad week of IBS while traveling in Europe in September. Since Oct. 1st, I’ve been grain, dairy, sugar, processed food free most of the time at home and then I relax my rules when eating with friends. I’ve been sipping on the Great Lakes gelatin that you recommended 1-2 Tbs. a day in my tea and taking Align probiotics and oregano oil pills each morning. I agree that having hope is also a big factor and finding ways to relax during the day. I was actually excited to see that I got my period this week, only 34 days after getting off the pill. I’ll keep you posted with my progress. Keep up your brilliant work. Thank you for helping those of us who have tried everything else. Best wishes, Elisa from Boston
It is a personal decision to get off the pill, and it is not for everyone, but I’m compelled to put this information out there because it may make a huge difference for someone. There is a lot to learn from my agonizing experience and the experience of my Superhealer reader.
The worst kind of birth control pills are the kind that only let you have 3 or 4 periods a year or skip over your period completely. Women were meant to cleanse every month. Having a period is incredibly detoxifying, even if it is inconvenient. Your body needs to do what it was meant to do.
Share this message with someone in your life who could benefit from this information.
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease, but a cry for help from a gut out of balance. When the body AND mind are complaining, it’s an opportunity to examine what’s not working and change it. After solving her own IBS mystery almost two decades ago, Angela became as a health coach to help others. Angela uses root cause medicine protocols personalized to the individual to solve each IBS mystery. Her tools are lab testing, dietary changes, supplementation, subconscious mind work and nervous system rebalancing . Learn more here.
I’d never taken the pill and, putting religious and personal reasons aside, I realized it seems somewhat wrong for a completely healthy individual to take heavy hormonal medication to disable certain functions of the body. Being fertile once a month regularly is a sign of health, not a problem to be treated. You could say it’s just my bieliefs, but it seems logical that hormonal pills don’t really fit the natural-healthy lifestyle.
And apparently hormonal imbalance and IBS are related.
That’s right Gabi, the body systems are connected so hormonal imbalance can disrupt other systems like digestion. That was certainly the case with me. Just sharing my story to raise awareness. Thank you for your comment.
I just came across this by shear luck. I figured it would be an old post but from the looks of the other comments it’s new and so I think it was meant for me to see.
Two years ago I had a massive cyst on my ovary rupture leading to a hemorrhagic episode, which allowed for a large amount of blood to flood into my abdominal cavity. A hospitalization ensured, followed by two weeks of hellish recovery. I was immediately put on Generess, a combo pill that was relatively new to the market. Around 3 weeks following the start of the pill I had a MASSIVE gallbladder attack for the first time. I went to the er, where they did nothing but refer me to have a Hyda scan (which revealed my gallbladder to be functioning at 2%). My mom talked me into waiting to have it taken out because she had hers out and was left with post-cholecystectomy syndrome. So I waited, and had three more large attacks over the next nine months. By January I was forced to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy. I was 21 at the time. After having a severe episode with this and my dr telling me he didn’t know what was wrong (I was having frequent diarrhea, nausea, fatigue..to the point I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning, and he didn’t feel that was related to my gallbladder and instead diagnosed me with a faulty gallbladder AND IBS), I accepted that I would never be normal again and that I may never recover. I had researched gallbladder/IBS along with taking the pill but couldn’t find anything correlating them at the time. That’s when someone pushed me to see their dr who told me I was having hormone issues. She immediately took me off the pill and placed me on a progestin only pill. I have not had a gallbladder attack in a year. I still have IBS and am hoping when I am able to stop taking the pill (hopefully the dr will say it is safe when I see him next month) my IBS issues will be resolved. The word ABSOLUTELY needs to be out there about what the pill can do. I lost over a year of my life. If it works for you, great. But there was NO warning and many doctors thought I was crazy by thinking birth control killed my gallbladder. I am praying I will be able to go a few more years before I have to remove it, as it seems to be functioning at a level acceptable to my health, but not exactly something I would consider “top-function.”
Thank you for posting this. It helps to know other people out there are like me.
[…] right (step 1), managing stress (step 5) and removing non essential bacterial killing medications is an important part of rebuilding healthy gut […]