Oooo. This hits home. I was put on the pill at 15 to control my periods, which were beginning to last two or three weeks instead of just one. I was essentially bleeding out. Shocker: nobody tried to figure out why. I was just a kid, so I didn’t know any better. It stopped the excessive bleeding and improved my horrific cramps as a bonus. By the time I stopped taking the pill 15 years later (also due to joining the church, funny enough) I was lucky my condition hadn’t left me completely infertile. The only Catholic gynecologist in town solved my period problems literally overnight via dietary changes and I’ve never looked back. The whole thing was a scam, due to doctors too lazy and uncaring to actually figure out what was going on, and who knows what health problems I’ve had or will have because of it. I’ll never know.
Your experience with the Pill very closely resembles my own. I remember going to the gynecologist to complain about the side effects to be told I was probably just making it up, but if I was insistent, I could also be prescribed an antidepressant. I said no thanks, never saw her again, ended up doing a lot of research and stumbled onto fertility awareness methods, and then got really mad that this information about how the female body works is considered fringe and weird, and so the mainstream approach is still control, control, control. In my experience even most providers who are open to natural childbirth and other "crunchy" practices still tend to assume every woman will be using contraception for the entirety of her fertile years except for the carefully managed time when she's trying to conceive (or opts for sterilization after a respectable number of children.)
Once you step out of that frame of reference, it's wild to see just how much it permeates medicine, our understanding of human relationships, everything. And contraception as a normative way of life is still not even a century old.
You mention conversion to Catholicism. Some women chuck out the pills and potions for good natural reasons. But we are also supernatural beings. When this is understood, women come to see the harm done to their souls as well as their bodies.
A further thought. The Pill was invented by a man, so that women could be permanently sexually available to men. How demeaning this is. How reductive of our true femininity. How damaging to authentic male- female romantic love.
The harms of hormonal contraceptives are my personal soapbox, and this was fantastic. Women's bodies are interconnected with the rest of us... and it's time to stop lying about how cool it is to shut down our reproductive systems.
"For what?" To prevent unwanted pregnancies. Your essay brings up very relevant and important questions about the risks and impacts of the pill on women's health, and on the way that side effects are minimized or not made clear to users. There are also more (and potentially better) birth control options these days. But that doesn't disregard the main reason people take them in the first place or why it was such a huge achievement for women when the pill was broadly legalized in the 1960s/70s. Fewer unwanted pregnancies also equals fewer abortions (which are more invasive and more dangerous, especially with decreased access).
I was on Loestrin for about a year and what you say confirms my experience. I was in my mid 40s and, suddenly, I began to have severe acne and memory loss. From one minute to the next I couldn't remember things. At the time it didn't cross my mind it was the pill, but later I realized that it was the only explanation. The idea that we could modify our natural hormones in an artificial way without consequences for our body is at best naive.
The pill literally made me crazy. I was 23 years old and my periods were not regular. Otherwise I was fine. My doctor recommened the Pill to help regulate my menstration and I did what she said. I mean, she's a doctor right? Fast forward one year and I'm sitting in a therapists office and he's bewildered. He wants to diagnose me as bipolar based on my mental health issues but he's confused because it suddenly appeared with me in my early 20's and he had never seen that before. Most patients presenting as bipolar had issues starting in their teens and sometimes even as children. It was very unusual for me to just suddenly start having bipolar issues. He asked again if anything had happened in the past year and then I remembered the Pill, but I couldn't imagine how that could be the cause. His face relaxed then and he told me to stop taking the pill and he would wait to diagnose me for a few months. I wasn't seeing him a few months later. I was back to normal. I was livid my Dr never mentioned that the Pill could cause such issues. It can.
I have very recently come off the pill after about 30 years on it. I did a video about how it was basically blunting my psychic abilities and I never knew it... great article here; I would love to discuss this more with you on a show if you are open to it :)
Beyond all the physiochemical stuff, which I'm sure advocates and opponents can debate incessantly, there is a more fundamental reason why practicing contraception would result in "poor mate selection": with a "contraceptive mindset" as the lens through which one is selecting a spouse, the ordering of values shifts from "Who will make a good father?" to "Who will make a good...?" Life-companion, lover, traveling partner, home remodeler, etc. If kids are by definition an optional accessory, even if you WANT to have kids, the question of "appropriateness for fatherhood" falls behind.
But I would argue "Will make a good father" or "I want to have this guy's kids and have him help raising them" contains every other marker of the value of a man fit for marriage. So by not having that question at the forefront, I propose that a woman will always be settling for a guy who will be more likely to fail expectations in every other realm of value. The same goes for men selecting wives as well: it's the "mindset," not just the chemicals.
Example: Can a "will make a good father" fellow also be someone who will fail to love his spouse properly? I argue no: The very qualities that would make a man a good father would overlap with those that make him likely to really love his wife. On the other hand, a man might have all the qualities of "companionship," in all its dimensions, and yet still not be fit to be a father. (Yet, in this case, I would wonder about the quality of the companionship actually experienced.)
In short: The "mindset" induced by the practice of artificial contraception disorders the values at play when men and women are selecting spouses, or even just interacting with one another in society. My hypothesis is that this accounts for many of the relational pathologies between men and women today. The only solution is for "potential for raising children" to become the prime value once more. I'm not arguing for personal perfection on this front, only a prioritization of the value.
I was on the pill for about two months at age 20 before the horrific side effects sent me down a research rabbit hole which I credit with a lot of my lifestyle choices and views to this day. I stopped immediately and never looked back but continued to suffer from a hormonal imbalance which it definitely triggered (if not directly caused), having never had any symptoms before. The gaslighting I was subjected to while trying to address this was almost unbelievable, and just cemented to my mind how inadequate research in women's health is ('so you have a hormonal problem caused by the pill? here, take the pill!'). It's frankly preposterous to use the pill as a cure-all for the whole gamut of reproductive ailments, even if women are prepared to accept the risks of tampering with healthy human physiology for contraceptive purposes - and most often they are utterly misinformed about the risks of this. The obfuscating language about how the pill actually works is rampant - a few years ago I remember an article in the Guardian reported research on the effects of vaccines on period regularity - the scientist actually said that while the the vaccine frequently caused some temporary side effects, it did not do so if women were on the pill, failing to mention that the 'withdrawal bleed' is not a period at all! I too love Dr Hill's work on the subject, and I would also recommend the 2021 documentary 'The Business of Birth Control', which is good for getting people interested in the issue. I now (aged 27) regard my experience as wholly positive, because it sent me down the path of natural living, gave me a healthy dose of scepticism about the medical establishment, and also planted the seeds of doubt about the foundations of so much liberal feminism in the sexual 'liberation', which I had unquestioningly adhered to prior to this. It is incredibly empowering to learn FAM, which as far as I am concerned should be required in all sex education classes, despite many doctors' continued belittlement of it. Knowledge about your body is what actually places your health and choices back in your own hands, which is what feminism should be all about, rather than acting as a handmaiden to the biopolitics of a medical-pharmaceutical complex (there is an excellent piece on this by Mary in her review of Erika Bachiochi's book on Wollstonecraft, I believe).
Doing actual research -- what an amazing concept. I can't help but wonder whether the colossal failure of the medical profession during COVID made the author more willing to trust herown research and instincts on this subject.
"Women in the estrogen-heavy phase of their cycle prefer men who have a higher prevalence of what Dr. Hill calls “testosterone cues” in their face, voice, and behavior." Translation: the pill encourages "toxic masculinity".
The idea that coming off the Pill "removes the blinders" to the world reminded me of a sci-fi story called "Liking What You See", about a technology which can temporarily eliminate your ability to perceive ugliness. Of course, this also affects your ability to perceive beauty to some extent. The story revolves around a college coed who is considering getting this technology implanted. It's in the book "Story of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang. Unlike a lot of sci-fi, Chiang's stories are often highly socially perceptive and even theological.
I see examples of this regularly.. Young girls (16-25) start this form of contraception and 9-12 months later start an SSRI. Anecdotal I know, but its a consistent (and peristant) anecdote.
I went on the Pill at age 17.5 to “regulate my periods”
Which had been irregular with lots of cramps. I was then on it for almost 10 years. I had depression and anxiety from the pill but didn’t realize it was caused by that until years later. I had to take other medication to counteract those side effects. I had trouble coming off the pill when I wanted to get pregnant and no doctor had told me I would have issues. It took about 5 months for my body to regulate and for me to have a normal cycle and ovulate again. I have told my daughters who are 16 and 12 about the bad side effects I had and why that’s one of the reasons I want them to not go on it. They have heavy and painful periods but we are working with supplements, food and with a holistic nurse practitioner to help them. I also have changed my views on birth control and teach them about how to know when they are ovulating and when to expect their period.
I was on the pill for 3 months when I was 25. I felt “weird” in a way I just couldn’t define, but this essay gives me some insights. It just felt instinctively bad for me…
Oooo. This hits home. I was put on the pill at 15 to control my periods, which were beginning to last two or three weeks instead of just one. I was essentially bleeding out. Shocker: nobody tried to figure out why. I was just a kid, so I didn’t know any better. It stopped the excessive bleeding and improved my horrific cramps as a bonus. By the time I stopped taking the pill 15 years later (also due to joining the church, funny enough) I was lucky my condition hadn’t left me completely infertile. The only Catholic gynecologist in town solved my period problems literally overnight via dietary changes and I’ve never looked back. The whole thing was a scam, due to doctors too lazy and uncaring to actually figure out what was going on, and who knows what health problems I’ve had or will have because of it. I’ll never know.
Your experience with the Pill very closely resembles my own. I remember going to the gynecologist to complain about the side effects to be told I was probably just making it up, but if I was insistent, I could also be prescribed an antidepressant. I said no thanks, never saw her again, ended up doing a lot of research and stumbled onto fertility awareness methods, and then got really mad that this information about how the female body works is considered fringe and weird, and so the mainstream approach is still control, control, control. In my experience even most providers who are open to natural childbirth and other "crunchy" practices still tend to assume every woman will be using contraception for the entirety of her fertile years except for the carefully managed time when she's trying to conceive (or opts for sterilization after a respectable number of children.)
Once you step out of that frame of reference, it's wild to see just how much it permeates medicine, our understanding of human relationships, everything. And contraception as a normative way of life is still not even a century old.
You mention conversion to Catholicism. Some women chuck out the pills and potions for good natural reasons. But we are also supernatural beings. When this is understood, women come to see the harm done to their souls as well as their bodies.
A further thought. The Pill was invented by a man, so that women could be permanently sexually available to men. How demeaning this is. How reductive of our true femininity. How damaging to authentic male- female romantic love.
The harms of hormonal contraceptives are my personal soapbox, and this was fantastic. Women's bodies are interconnected with the rest of us... and it's time to stop lying about how cool it is to shut down our reproductive systems.
"For what?" To prevent unwanted pregnancies. Your essay brings up very relevant and important questions about the risks and impacts of the pill on women's health, and on the way that side effects are minimized or not made clear to users. There are also more (and potentially better) birth control options these days. But that doesn't disregard the main reason people take them in the first place or why it was such a huge achievement for women when the pill was broadly legalized in the 1960s/70s. Fewer unwanted pregnancies also equals fewer abortions (which are more invasive and more dangerous, especially with decreased access).
I was on Loestrin for about a year and what you say confirms my experience. I was in my mid 40s and, suddenly, I began to have severe acne and memory loss. From one minute to the next I couldn't remember things. At the time it didn't cross my mind it was the pill, but later I realized that it was the only explanation. The idea that we could modify our natural hormones in an artificial way without consequences for our body is at best naive.
The pill literally made me crazy. I was 23 years old and my periods were not regular. Otherwise I was fine. My doctor recommened the Pill to help regulate my menstration and I did what she said. I mean, she's a doctor right? Fast forward one year and I'm sitting in a therapists office and he's bewildered. He wants to diagnose me as bipolar based on my mental health issues but he's confused because it suddenly appeared with me in my early 20's and he had never seen that before. Most patients presenting as bipolar had issues starting in their teens and sometimes even as children. It was very unusual for me to just suddenly start having bipolar issues. He asked again if anything had happened in the past year and then I remembered the Pill, but I couldn't imagine how that could be the cause. His face relaxed then and he told me to stop taking the pill and he would wait to diagnose me for a few months. I wasn't seeing him a few months later. I was back to normal. I was livid my Dr never mentioned that the Pill could cause such issues. It can.
I have very recently come off the pill after about 30 years on it. I did a video about how it was basically blunting my psychic abilities and I never knew it... great article here; I would love to discuss this more with you on a show if you are open to it :)
Beyond all the physiochemical stuff, which I'm sure advocates and opponents can debate incessantly, there is a more fundamental reason why practicing contraception would result in "poor mate selection": with a "contraceptive mindset" as the lens through which one is selecting a spouse, the ordering of values shifts from "Who will make a good father?" to "Who will make a good...?" Life-companion, lover, traveling partner, home remodeler, etc. If kids are by definition an optional accessory, even if you WANT to have kids, the question of "appropriateness for fatherhood" falls behind.
But I would argue "Will make a good father" or "I want to have this guy's kids and have him help raising them" contains every other marker of the value of a man fit for marriage. So by not having that question at the forefront, I propose that a woman will always be settling for a guy who will be more likely to fail expectations in every other realm of value. The same goes for men selecting wives as well: it's the "mindset," not just the chemicals.
Example: Can a "will make a good father" fellow also be someone who will fail to love his spouse properly? I argue no: The very qualities that would make a man a good father would overlap with those that make him likely to really love his wife. On the other hand, a man might have all the qualities of "companionship," in all its dimensions, and yet still not be fit to be a father. (Yet, in this case, I would wonder about the quality of the companionship actually experienced.)
In short: The "mindset" induced by the practice of artificial contraception disorders the values at play when men and women are selecting spouses, or even just interacting with one another in society. My hypothesis is that this accounts for many of the relational pathologies between men and women today. The only solution is for "potential for raising children" to become the prime value once more. I'm not arguing for personal perfection on this front, only a prioritization of the value.
I was on the pill for about two months at age 20 before the horrific side effects sent me down a research rabbit hole which I credit with a lot of my lifestyle choices and views to this day. I stopped immediately and never looked back but continued to suffer from a hormonal imbalance which it definitely triggered (if not directly caused), having never had any symptoms before. The gaslighting I was subjected to while trying to address this was almost unbelievable, and just cemented to my mind how inadequate research in women's health is ('so you have a hormonal problem caused by the pill? here, take the pill!'). It's frankly preposterous to use the pill as a cure-all for the whole gamut of reproductive ailments, even if women are prepared to accept the risks of tampering with healthy human physiology for contraceptive purposes - and most often they are utterly misinformed about the risks of this. The obfuscating language about how the pill actually works is rampant - a few years ago I remember an article in the Guardian reported research on the effects of vaccines on period regularity - the scientist actually said that while the the vaccine frequently caused some temporary side effects, it did not do so if women were on the pill, failing to mention that the 'withdrawal bleed' is not a period at all! I too love Dr Hill's work on the subject, and I would also recommend the 2021 documentary 'The Business of Birth Control', which is good for getting people interested in the issue. I now (aged 27) regard my experience as wholly positive, because it sent me down the path of natural living, gave me a healthy dose of scepticism about the medical establishment, and also planted the seeds of doubt about the foundations of so much liberal feminism in the sexual 'liberation', which I had unquestioningly adhered to prior to this. It is incredibly empowering to learn FAM, which as far as I am concerned should be required in all sex education classes, despite many doctors' continued belittlement of it. Knowledge about your body is what actually places your health and choices back in your own hands, which is what feminism should be all about, rather than acting as a handmaiden to the biopolitics of a medical-pharmaceutical complex (there is an excellent piece on this by Mary in her review of Erika Bachiochi's book on Wollstonecraft, I believe).
Doing actual research -- what an amazing concept. I can't help but wonder whether the colossal failure of the medical profession during COVID made the author more willing to trust herown research and instincts on this subject.
"Women in the estrogen-heavy phase of their cycle prefer men who have a higher prevalence of what Dr. Hill calls “testosterone cues” in their face, voice, and behavior." Translation: the pill encourages "toxic masculinity".
The idea that coming off the Pill "removes the blinders" to the world reminded me of a sci-fi story called "Liking What You See", about a technology which can temporarily eliminate your ability to perceive ugliness. Of course, this also affects your ability to perceive beauty to some extent. The story revolves around a college coed who is considering getting this technology implanted. It's in the book "Story of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang. Unlike a lot of sci-fi, Chiang's stories are often highly socially perceptive and even theological.
I see examples of this regularly.. Young girls (16-25) start this form of contraception and 9-12 months later start an SSRI. Anecdotal I know, but its a consistent (and peristant) anecdote.
I went on the Pill at age 17.5 to “regulate my periods”
Which had been irregular with lots of cramps. I was then on it for almost 10 years. I had depression and anxiety from the pill but didn’t realize it was caused by that until years later. I had to take other medication to counteract those side effects. I had trouble coming off the pill when I wanted to get pregnant and no doctor had told me I would have issues. It took about 5 months for my body to regulate and for me to have a normal cycle and ovulate again. I have told my daughters who are 16 and 12 about the bad side effects I had and why that’s one of the reasons I want them to not go on it. They have heavy and painful periods but we are working with supplements, food and with a holistic nurse practitioner to help them. I also have changed my views on birth control and teach them about how to know when they are ovulating and when to expect their period.
I was on the pill for 3 months when I was 25. I felt “weird” in a way I just couldn’t define, but this essay gives me some insights. It just felt instinctively bad for me…
And the amount of OBGYNs and other doctors who study the human body for years... and yet have no clue what a fertile window is. lol
Sr. Sarah Hill’s book, “This is Your Brain on Birth Control” is a real eye-opener for every woman.