Dr. Tabatha Barber explains how NuvaRing, Depo-Provera, and arm implants like Nexplanon work. Progestin-only methods can thin the uterine lining so much that you get irregular bleeding or bleed continuously. Estrogen promotes growth while progesterone limits it.
Progestin only (no estrogen).
You could do a vaginal ring. So NuvaRing is essentially a birth control pill. In ring form. Those are the same as synthetic hormones. They have the same risks and side effects. They have the same potential for vitamin and mineral deficiencies and leaky gut and hormone imbalance trying to come off of them. There are shots like the Depo Provera shot. Okay. Depo Provera is just a progestin. There's no estrogen in it. So progestin only would be a Depo shot or a Norplant implant. It goes in your arm. It looks like a little matchstick. They used to do Implanon, and before that it was Norplant. There was six of them. So they've got it down to having less things put in your arm, but it's still just a synthetic progestin that gets slowly released day after day over time. So here's the deal. Estrogens grow the lining of your uterus, and they grow other things. Estrogen is a growth hormone. It grows your boobs, it grows your hips, it grows. It grows your uterus lining. It's preparing to get you pregnant. Progesterone is your balancing hormone to estrogen. So it keeps that growth in check. And so progesterone prevents the lining from growing too thick. When you use a birth control that is only a progestin, and progestins are synthetic progesterone, there's a huge difference. They don't stick. Talk about that in conventional gynecology. Your gynecologist might not even realize the difference, but there's a huge difference. So when I use those words, try not to get confused. But either way, these synthetic progestins prevent the lining of your uterus from growing. And without any estrogen to balance that progestin, sometimes the lining gets too thin and you bleed through it, because all the little thousands of arteries that are in your uterus, those get exposed and they start bleeding because there's nothing to stop that bleeding, because there's no estrogen. And so it's really common with a Depo shot or Nexplanon rod to have breakthrough bleeding or to have bleeding constantly that just never stops. The goal is for you to have no bleeding. That would look like the lining getting thin enough that nothing is growing, nothing is shedding every month, and that it's not too thin that you're bleeding through, that your arteries are exposed and bleeding through.
