Understanding Women's Health - On "the Pill" 💊 and Problems in Puerto Rico
Life is vastly different for women today since the introduction of the pill. Here's how...
They say THE PILL changed everything… I wondered how, why, when, and what did it change? 🤔 What I came to understand was brutally shocking to say the least.
Some of the most common side effects of being on the pill include: increased risk of depression while on the pill and later in life, especially for those who start the pill as teenagers, abnormal mood symptoms, emotional dysphoria, changes in mate attraction, and other symptoms related to other forms of hormonal birth control: migraines, nutrient depletion & deficiencies, cramps, bloating, skin rash, decreased libido, water retention, and more.
The Pill doesn’t just prevent pregnancy or help with your acne—it also disrupts the way your body is designed to function.
As you should know by now, I am an adamant fan of full-informed consent. Whether that comes down to vaccine side effects, contaminated drinking water that a local industrial company is trying to cover up, endocrine disrupting chemicals in all kinds of perfumes for young girls causing anxiety, or the wild and true complications of going on the birth control pill for women.
Some 85% of women in America will take birth control for an average of five years, with many beginning in their early teen years. Clearly, this is an important topic for us to better understand as a society.
I’ve written on this in the past about women’s health in a different lens, but only recently have I taken another deep dive into this topic for my XX chromosome humans. This is a topic I care about a lot because of the damage I’ve seen it cause in the lives of women and young girls around me throughout my life and I’m sure you can relate. Beyond just the medical and psychiatric implications to the birth control pill, comes a whole lot more for societies and cultures as a whole.
Let’s dive in…
You see, the birth control pill was brought to market in the 1960s with the help of research by Gregory Pincus, a notable scientist and biologist at the time. On June 23, 1960 the FDA approved the sale of Enovid for use as an oral contraceptive. It was manufactured by G.D. Searle and Company.
Another important figure of the birth control movement was a woman named Margaret Sanger, with philosophical roots in eugenics and a focus to make sure women “had the ability to control their own bodies.”
What people don’t often reflect on about the pill, is how it ultimately transformed the lives of women and young girls forever around sex and sexuality. And as a result, the pill has led to larger social and cultural shifts as well. Sex no longer holds sacred grounds in our society. Sex no longer comes with great respect, thoughtfulness, or integrity. With the pill, society evades the anthropological norms of responsibility and community found throughout all of human history. As we will see, the pill has ultimately “changed everything.”
The pill was developed during a very interesting time in human history, as we all know the 1960s brought with them much social distress. Coming off the end of the Great Depression, there were increasing perspectives around limiting the size of the common family in order to conserve resources and prevent poverty.
Less children = more resources to go around per child, right? Seems logical enough.
Also musing around during this time were thoughts and comments about eugenics. People were overly concerned with the population growth on the planet. The eugenics movement brought with it the perspective to stave off reproduction for those who were struggling with poverty, with the hope to lessen the burden of poverty on the larger society at the time.
Thus, birth control came at a very interesting time to say the least. Let’s remember, it is in fact described as birth “control.”
If you want to read up on the unethical history of testing women in Puerto Rico as the first candidates of the birth control clinical trials, go ahead and take a gander here for this story by The History Channel where they showcased this topic back in 2018. This would be worth your time if you care about this topic - which you should.
The pill had a bright future, but its past—one intertwined with eugenics and colonialism—was fraught. Its clinical trials took place not in the mainland United States, but in Puerto Rico, where poor women were given a strong formulation of the drug without being told they were taking part in a trial or about any of the risks they’d face. Three women died during the secretive test phase—but their deaths were never investigated.
Historically, women who were pregnant and did not want to give birth ended up making very risky decisions, and sometimes life-threatening actions, to try to perform their own abortions. In comparison to dangerous abortion tactics, the idea of a hormonal birth control pill seemed like a modern miracle to introduce to women.
And for those of us who are unfamiliar, the pill consists of synthetic estrogen and progestin (a type of synthetic progesterone).
Our real hormone known as progesterone is an impressively powerful hormone in the body that deserves our time to explore together. Literally, without Progesterone, women wouldn’t be able to get pregnant. Progesterone plays a vital role in women’s health and ability to thrive throughout their lives.
Bio-identical hormones for progesterone have even been employed to help women during the beginning stages of perimenopause and menopause to stabilize and reduce some of the less-than-helpful symptoms like mood fluctuations, insomnia, hot flashes, fatigue, and more. Estrogen, progesterone and testosterone are the most commonly used bioidentical hormones used in methods like compound bioidentical hormone therapy (BHRT).
The problem with “The Pill” isn’t progesterone, but the synthetic form of progesterone used, known as progestin.
Maybe you’ve been curious in the past… Can certain foods naturally increase natural progesterone in the body?
Although research is limited, eating foods that contain certain vitamins may help support healthy progesterone levels. These include:
Zinc: Beef, shellfish, cashews, chickpeas, lentils and eggs.
Vitamin C: Citrus fruits, peppers, strawberries and broccoli.
Vitamin B: Carrots, spinach, walnuts and poultry (chicken and turkey).
Magnesium: Green vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans.
As we reflect back on thoughts and ideas around synthetic vitamins and minerals in supplements and fortified foods, synthetic drugs, synthetic fragrances and synthetic colors and synthetic flavors, etc. etc. we can recognize the pattern of dis-ease that occurs when we introduce a synthetic product to the body. Our biological bodies are designed aligned with biology.
Synthetic forms of common molecules and substances our body needs really causes some issues, such as autoimmunity, driving up our fight or flight central nervous system, provoking anxiety, and more. But when it comes to the pill specifically, there are several significant side effects that I believe every woman deserves the chance to know before they are swiftly introduced to the pill.
When it comes to birth control in general, one of the biggest problems comes by way of this synthetic form of progesterone, known as progestin (mentioned above). Synthetic forms of estrogen live in and around us every single day now, so I’ll leave that fact to dive into for another day. But the synthetic form of progestin has some wild implications for how wildly it can affect women in their reproductive years.
During those controversial and hidden trials in Puerto Rico, what inevitably unfolded was that around “one-third of Puerto Rican women were sterilized—many involuntarily—under policies that pressured women to undergo hysterectomies after their second child’s birth.” The fact is, the history of the pill is marked by controversy, lack of full disclosure, absence of fully informed consent, and other problems in both ethics and medical research.
When Enovid was finally approved in 1957, it was an instant hit. American women were willing to do almost anything—including go through side effects like spotting and the risk of blood clots—in exchange for discreet, inexpensive and effective birth control.
Societally, what we’ve also observed since the introduction of birth control is the rotting decay of respect and responsibility for taking care of women from standard medical systems to mating relationships now promoted towards increased promiscuity or licentiousness for both men and women due to the lack of historical responsibility around sex.
Nowadays, sex holds less respect, loyalty, sacredness, and expectations for future bondship between partners. Thoughts and decisions around sex have become superficial, impulsive, & inconsequential instead of precautious, cherished, and embraced at a deeper level. Just look out at our cultural trends of increased pornification, dopaminergic exploitation with media, advertising, tech, and more. Clearly, these trends are not to our societal and cultural benefit.
If you want to learn more about this deep dive for yourself, I highly recommend checking out the resources below 👇👇
🎧 Recent Podcasts and Interviews I’ve listened to in prep for this story:
Dr Sarah Hill - The Psychological Impact Of Hormonal Birth Control | Full Video Interview
Attraction, Beauty, Growth, and Sex | Dr. Sarah Hill | Full Video Interview
Louise Perry - Are Women Actually Happy With Modern Dating?
Mary Eberstadt - Did The Sexual Revolution Actually Benefit Women?
Additional books and resources on the topic:
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control - How the Pill Changes Everything by Sarah Hill
The Birth of the Pill by Jonathan Eig
Beyond the Pill by Dr. Jolene Brighten
Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler
In the FLO by Alisa Vitti
Hormone Intelligence by Dr. Aviva Romm
Birth Control by Allison Yarrow
How does hormonal contraception affect the developing human adolescent brain? | PubMed