#142: How Birth Control Pills are Making You Sick

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha.

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I can't wait to see you in there. Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Gutsy Gynecologist. I'm a triple board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determines your gyn health and your overall And it's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more Band-Aid medicine, ladies.

We're talking root cause resolution on this show.

So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. And I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome.

Thank you.

Okay, so I need to do this episode because I am hearing it every single day in my private practice. So as you probably know, I have a functional medicine for women practice that's almost all telehealth. You know, I see women all over the country virtually on Zoom, um, and some in person at my local location in Spring Lake, Michigan. But I will tell you, like, this is a problem that I hear at least once a day, sometimes multiple times a day, most days of the week. So the birth control pill, you guys, I'm all for the birth control pill if you need it for birth control. Literally, that's how, you know, I went back to school and was able to get my GED and got into college and eventually went on to medical school because I had a baby in 11th grade, right? So I couldn't have another baby right after that if I was going to do all the stuff I needed to do. So birth control pills helped me succeed in that fashion, but I would not have been on them as long as I was if I knew the truth about the consequences they have on your health. So I really want you to understand that even though Gynecologists are trained to literally hand out birth control pills for every complaint that you have when you walk in the door. It is not a healthy option for you. You should only use it for the shortest amount of time that you need to be on it, and if there's better birth control options, you should consider them. And here's the problem: birth control pills, along with Like the mini pill, the NuvaRing, the Nexplanon rod, the Depo shot, and some of the hormonal IUDs. Those are all synthetic estrogens and synthetic progestins that destroy your health. Okay, I'm, I'm just being super honest with you. What they do is they stop your own hormone production. So that your brain and ovaries are no longer making the hormones that they make and talk to each other and create a cycle for you. You take synthetic hormones, it shuts down your own production, your own HPO axis, hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. And so that's why you get— usually get a bleed, but it's a synthetic response to those hormones. And the bigger problem is that those birth control pills and those synthetic hormones chronically over time cause a change in your microbiome in your gut. So it changes what bacteria live in there. It causes you to produce less stomach acid, which causes bad bacteria to multiply and overgrow and end up in your colon where it doesn't belong. You You can actually end up with SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. You can end up with yeast in your gut and all of these issues that cause fatigue and eczema and acne and headaches, and that can turn on autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's and celiac and Raynaud's and lupus and rheumatoid and all these things you don't want. So The birth control pill is a big deal. In addition, because you make less stomach acid and it shifts your microbiome, you don't absorb your vitamins and minerals the way that you're supposed to or that you should. So even if you're trying to eat a healthy, balanced diet, or even if you're taking some supplementation, you're not always getting enough Vitamin D, vitamin A, B vitamins, magnesium, because your body isn't able to absorb them from this birth control pill. So the common scenario that happens is women will go on birth control pills, and about 3 to 5 years into it, they start having chronic fatigue. Or they develop autoimmune conditions, or they have chronic gut and digestive issues. And so they go on to develop new conditions and diseases. And it's because the birth control pill, those synthetic hormones, have shifted your microbiome. They've caused chronic leaky gut. They've caused vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and your body can no longer do its processes and stay in a healthy, balanced state. And unfortunately, I didn't learn this in conventional medicine or conventional gynecology, not at all. But the literature is all there. If you go to PubMed and you type this in, you'll probably get 10,000 articles on how synthetic hormones affect our overall health, how they contribute to autoimmune conditions, how they contribute to gut dysbiosis and increased intestinal permeability and vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which lead to other chronic conditions, getting sick all the time, weight gain, thyroid disease, adrenal dysfunction. Like, it's all related, you guys. And so I'm constantly having to explain to my patients why these synthetic hormones contributed to the state that they're currently in. You know, most of us are on these for 10 or 20 years. I just had a woman who was on for 24 years, and we don't know if she's going to have a period coming off of them because her body has never had to make hormones. And so a really common picture is if you're on these hormones and you get your hormone levels drawn, you're super deplete. Like her estrogen wasn't even registering. It just said less than 15 because they don't have a number lower than that. Her progesterone was 0.03. Which is not registering. Her testosterone was 10 and her free testosterone was 0.1. She's not making any hormones. It's so unhealthy for your cardiovascular system and your bones and your brain and your skin and your vagina. And all of these systems need estradiol and progesterone and testosterone. To be healthy and thrive. So the birth control pill ages you, and it causes disease. And that is why you don't want to have sex, and you have vaginal dryness, and you're oftentimes depressed or anxious because it's changing your physiology. And so I I just want to encourage you to number one. If you are going to be on a birth control pill or any synthetic hormones, get on vitamin and mineral replacement. You at minimum need a multivitamin with methylated B vitamins, and you probably need magnesium as well. Those are like essential for anybody on birth control and synthetic hormones. You have to, you have to like double up on what you're getting because you're having so much trouble absorbing them. So get on my MultiLift, get on my B-Lift, get on my MagLift. Like, you will notice a difference. It's amazing. Number 2, if you feel like you want to come off of those, there are other safer options. Okay, so I have a whole episode on birth control options and the true risks, benefits, and alternatives of those, because unfortunately conventional gynecology is only telling you one side of the And so you're not really getting true informed consent. That's what I wish I would have had because I would have went off them a long, long time ago and saved myself so many years of heartache of my autoimmune condition being flared up and my IBS being way out of control and my depression being out of control. Like, I didn't really have those conditions. That's what they're called. That's what we call them. But really, I just had a microbiome imbalance from my birth control pill and a nutrient depletion. So I don't have depression. I don't have IBS. Those were diagnoses that were given to me because of the symptoms I had from the birth control pill. Does that make sense? So I really want you to just like take a step back and really think about what's going on and ask why and Question the answers that you're getting because unfortunately conventional gynecology is only showing you one side of the story, and it's a very biased side because they just don't have the tools to actually keep you healthy or return you to health. That's the biggest thing is conventional medicine is a sick care model. They are very much focused on disease. And giving you a pill for an ill and a surgery for a symptom. And what you are searching for, I have no doubt, is health and vitality and joy. And that's just not at the doctor's office. It's not in their medications. It's not in their pills. And it's definitely not in the birth control pill. So I am not, you know, against having control of our reproductive health. Like, I'm all for that. I just want you to have informed consent of what you're putting in your body, because if you don't need it— I have so many patients who take it and they're not even sexually active. They don't even need birth control, but that's what they've been given as their treatment for their other symptoms and conditions. And that is not the treatment. I promise it's contributing to more dysfunction and even maybe disease. So please let me know what you thought of this episode. It's so important. And I literally— every woman needs to know about this because it affects all of us. We should all have the freedom and ability to control our reproductive health, but we should also be fully informed so that we can make the right decisions for our health and our bodies. So please let me know how this episode hit you and what else you need— have questions about, because this is a difficult topic. But shoot me your questions and we will tackle them. Okay, so go have a kick-ass week. If you need to listen to the birth control option episode, go check that one out. Otherwise, I will see you back here soon. Go have a kick-ass week. Bye, ladies.