Did you know that an estimated 150 million women worldwide take birth control pills?
Such widespread use of birth control pills worries me because many women are not aware of the serious health implications of these drugs. I understand that birth control pills are often prescribed for reasons other than birth control such as to address unwanted symptoms (like cramping, spotting, irregular periods and acne) instead of naturally addressing the underlying causes of these symptoms. Much like other prescribed medications, this masks the problem and allows it to become much worse. Many women do not consider the dangerous consequences and side effects of these synthetic hormones and take them for years only to strongly regret having done so later on. Some women even take additional medications to combat the side effects they are suffering from by taking birth control!
Birth Control: Synthetic Hormones
First, let’s understand how birth control pills work in your body.
Typically, your body ovulates once a month, ripening a new egg that will then journey down a fallopian tube. Eventually it reaches the uterus, where it would implant, if fertilized.
If not fertilized by a sperm, then the lining of the uterus that had built up in preparation for the fertilized egg is unnecessary. Both egg and uterine lining leave your body, cleansing your system and preparing for a new month.
When you take birth control pills, you impose unnatural and synthetic hormones on your natural cycle.
Many birth control pills contain high levels of estrogen that swindle your pituitary gland into believing you are pregnant and that you don’t need to ovulate. This explains some of the side effects of the drugs. Because your body thinks you are pregnant, the uterine lining thickens. Once you start the placebo pills, however, your estrogen level drops suddenly, and your body menstruates “normally.” This abnormal cycle is not what Mother Nature intended and is what millions of women experience every month, and yet few doctors discuss the consequences of taking these prescriptions for years.
Real Risks
Here is an overview of the reported risks and side effects of birth control pills. Some physical and emotional changes take place that are permanent while you stay on the pill. Many of these changes occur as your body’s response to synthetic estrogen.
These changes include:

• Weight gain or loss
• Slight nausea
• Reduced or increased acne
• Larger breasts
• Emotional sensitivity right before your period
• Mood swings throughout your cycle
• Irregular bleeding or spotting
• Breast tenderness
• Loss of sexual function
• Nausea
• Fluid retention
• Increased blood pressure
• Decreased libido
The above side effects might be enough to deter some women from taking birth control, but many women are just not aware of them, while others justify the side effects because the pill is so convenient.
But imagine taking your birth control pill, feeling depressed and then taking an antidepressant to handle your mood swings and hypersensitivity. Adding an antidepressant could then contribute to an even longer and nastier list of side effects which might cause you to seek yet another medicine for. What a goose chase!
And even scarier than the “mild” side effects are the serious health risks that accompany birth control pills. These include:
• Increased risk of cervical and breast cancers
• Increased risk of heart attack and stroke
• Migraines
• Higher blood pressure
• Gall bladder disease
• Infertility
• Benign liver tumors
• Decreased bone density
• Yeast overgrowth and infection
• Increased risk of blood clotting
Cancer, heart disease, stroke and infertility! Surely these side effects make birth control pills a less than desirable option for contraception. And now that heart disease has become the leading cause of death among women, one has to wonder if there is a connection between the widespread and long-term use of oral contraceptives, which debuted in 1960… just as the first of the baby boomers were entering their teens.
Another commonly misunderstood side effect of birth control is that regular use destroys the beneficial bacteria in your intestines, much like an antibiotic, making you more susceptible to yeast overgrowth, lower immunity and infection. After years and years of taking birth control pills and creating an imbalanced inner ecosystem with an overgrowth of bad bacteria and yeast, it is no wonder that women are at greater risk for infections as well as chronic diseases like cancer.

While many drugs do provide some benefit in certain situations, birth control pills are rarely, if ever, necessary. In exchange for the convenience of preventing pregnancy—which you can do naturally just as well—you are putting yourself at risk for a barrage of serious health problems.

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So either I launch chemical warfare on my body with the birth control pill, or I raise 12 children. These are my two options? What are some natural alternatives?
Fertility awareness is a collection of methods using your body’s natural and normal functioning to determine the days of the month you are most likely to get pregnant. It is also called Natural Family Planning (NFP), the Sympto-Thermal Method, the Ovulation Method, or the Billings Method.
Fertility awareness or Natural Family Planning is a method of birth control that does not use any drugs or devices. It combines the calendar/rhythm method, the basal body temperature method, and the cervical mucus method. You can study how your body works as a means of preventing pregnancy as well as targeting the most fertile time for getting pregnant.
How does fertility awareness work?
The calendar; basal body temperature; and cervical mucus methods are combined to give you the awareness of when your body is most fertile. As you become familiar with your body’s ovulation and fertile periods, it provides you the opportunity and choice to continue or abstain from sexual intercourse during that time. This is such a wonderful, natural and safe alternative to taking medication for birth control. In reality, our body gives us many signals of how it is performing at any given time. By studying these signals, you are studying yourself and gaining powerful insight into your health and how your body functions. You can even find healthcare practitioners who are able to interpret your body signals and treat accordingly for powerful results.

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Please visit these websites to find out more about Natural Family Planning. If you are in the Lenexa, Kansas area, visit this first link to find a teacher at Holy Trinity:
http://htlenexa.org/natural-family-planning
http://www.archkck.org/nfp-instructors-and-providers
http://www.creightonmodel.com/
http://www.nfpandmore.org/

Choose health,

Kelly Baltuska, DC