A short YouTube segment by Dr. Tabatha Barber claiming long-term use of birth control pills (synthetic hormones) causes systemic harm—microbiome shifts, leaky gut, nutrient deficiencies, autoimmune and chronic conditions, hormonal suppression, and symptoms including chronic fatigue, vaginal dryness, mood changes, and potential long-term amenorrhea after discontinuation. Speaker cites general literature and provides clinical anecdotes about timelines and measured hormone levels.
Questions this video answers
Approximately 3–5 years.
24 years.
Less than 15 (speaker: 'it just said less than 15').
0.03 (speaker reported 'progesterone was .03').
10 (speaker reported 'testosterone was 10').
Chapters
The common scenario that happens is. Women will go on birth control pills, and about three to five 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. 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, 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.03, which is not registering. Her testosterone was 10 in. Her free testosterone was 0.1. She, 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.
