Post Birth Control Syndrome with Dr. Jolene Brighten

Hi, everyone. This is Sachin Patel with the Living Proof Institute. Today I have a very special guest, a dear friend of mine and colleague and badass entrepreneur with a super healthy microbiome, as I like to say, my dear friend, Dr. Jolene Brighton. Jolene, welcome. Thanks for joining us today.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me here. I'm excited to chat with you today.

Thank you. And today we're going to be talking about. For those of you that are tuning in, we're going to be talking about post birth control syndrome. This is something that Jolene has had a deep interest in. We're gonna learn more about why in just a few moments. But if you're a female, if you have a daughter, plan on having kids, you need to know this information. If you're struggling with infertility, you need to know this. If you're struggling with other hormonal imbalances, you need to know this. If you are dealing with cancer or if you're looking to prevent things that can increase your risk of cancer, then you need to be paying attention to this presentation. And I encourage each and every one of you watching to share this, because half of the population is women, and a good percentage of those people will be offered birth control at one point in their life, and it can create some devastating effects on them. Sure, there's benefits. We're not here to argue that there aren't instances where birth control can be beneficial. But it's also important to understand what the implications are to your health and what can be done to mitigate any of those risks. So we're not painting a dire situation here. We're providing you with a solution. So. So no matter where you are on the spectrum of this issue, please tune in, please post any questions that you have. We'll be sure to get back to you if we can't answer all of them during this time. But, Jolene, let's get into this. How did you get involved in this? Because not many people talk about this. Right. So in my years in practice, we've kind of known that birth control isn't the greatest thing from a. Yes, it carries out a specific function, but it can also create some issues. But nobody's really tackled this until now. So what inspired you to take on this? This flag?

Yeah. So I first want to check. Can you hear me?

Okay, Perfect.

All right, Awesome. I saw there were some comments of people asking me to turn it up, so I just switched mics. So, you know, the funny thing is, is that I actually spent two years doing rotations in a homeless youth clinic. And we were dispensing birth control all day, every day. And you know, when I was leaving that rotation, I was like, I don't want anything to do with birth control. I'm so over this. And what I actually observed though is that this was a state funded program. And so what I had to tell a woman about birth control was very different than when I was observing in internist office, general doctors, primary care doctors, where when they would pass out the birth control pill, it's like, oh, you're going to college, you need to take a pill. That's the responsible thing to do. No discussion about the risks that were going on. And that was something that I observed early on. And it really wasn't until I started my own private practice that I started to piece together now my background. I am the nutritional biochemist and a researcher before I ever became a naturopathic physician. I started to piece together that the majority, if not all of women struggle when they come off of hormonal birth control. And what was more startling to me is how often they were dismissed and how often their doctors were like, couldn't be the pill. There's no evidence of this. What you're saying isn't true. And that is something that I take issue with. I believe we need to believe women's stories and know that that's her truth. And whether or not it's based in complete reality or science, you know, that's something that like we can dig deeper and understand. But with a woman comes to you and says, this isn't normal, this isn't right, this is something different. My body, we definitely need to believe that. So it was really through my observation, my patients and my husband who, you know, laughs that he's like, you were like, you were like, I'm not going to do birth control anymore. I don't want anything to do with it. And he's like, and then all of these patients came to you. And I really got known as the doctor who believed the birth control stories, which allowed me, I mean, so grateful for that because I began documenting all of this and developing protocols around post birth control syndrome. And so the ironic thing is that yes, I thought I wouldn't do birth control anymore and yet I did become the doctor who is very in the know on birth control, helping women around this, but I'm helping them transition off or stay safe on it. I love that you started this conversation with saying, we're not trying to scare you and we're not anti birth control. It's more about. Women need to have the full story so that they can feel they made the best decision for themselves.

Yeah. And even if they've already made that decision for themselves, they want to be in on this conversation because there's certain steps and precautions and measures that they can take. And, you know, as we know, I don't know how much we want to get into the nutritional, genetic biochemistry of all of this, but, you know, it's going to affect different people in different ways.

Absolutely.

And so if it's. You could be a rare breed. I mean, we're all, you know, unicorns at a genetic level. But, you know, you could be a person who's more predisposed to these types of side effects, and you could be in the minority of the population. But that doesn't discount what's going on with you. And with a, you know, with a system that kind of paints everyone with the same brush, you know, that isn't really fair. So, you know, your story, if you're watching this, deserves to be heard. You know, and certainly we're gonna, we're gonna provide you with some, you know, solutions during this conversation and some insights and some ideas, things that you can do to get, you know, get the ball moving in the right direction immediately. I know, Jolene, you're all about action taking. So I'd love to discuss, you know, certain tips that women can do, maybe what lab testing people can get to see if birth control has created an impact on their body. I know that's something that you discuss as well, but why don't we just start with the symptoms? What are some of the symptoms that these clients are coming into you with that nobody's really paying attention to?

Yeah. So the thing about post birth control syndrome that makes it so tricky is that hormonal birth control impacts every system in our body. And so there's this story in medicine that if you just shut down the reproductive tract, which, by the way, that's how hormonal birth control works. It shuts down your reproductive system, the story goes, it's only going to impact the ovaries, the uterus, like the reproductive tract, and it's not actually going to impact the rest of our system. But we understand that, you know, estrogen alone impacts the gallbladder, impacts our brain, impacts our gut. And so with post birth control syndrome, it's really a constellation of signs and symptoms that arrive, arise, on average about four to six months after discontinuing hormonal birth control. Now, I've seen women, it Comes on sooner. Just like you said, there's genetic unicorns and that we're all different. And I see women who, the symptoms are really subtle to begin and maybe a year out from stopping hormonal birth control. Now they recognize, oh, something very significant is going on. So with post birth control syndrome, we can certainly see the return of symptoms that were suppressed with hormonal birth control. In fact, about 58% of women are using hormonal birth control for symptom suppression, not for primarily preventing pregnancy. Which is startling to me because you and I know these symptoms have a root cause. So with that, we can see new onset of acne. So cystic acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis. So skin symptoms come up. Hair loss can begin. Women can develop digestive symptoms. So sometimes women will say to me, you know, I started hormonal birth control, My digestion felt a little bit off when I came off of it, it was so much worse. Well, starting or stopping hormonal birth control can be a triggering event for developing autoimmune disease, IBS symptoms. We also see sibo and yeast overgrowth. It's been well documented in dentist that we have more yeast in our mouth when we're on hormonal birth control, and we're more susceptible to gum disease and possibly losing our teeth. We can also see mood symptoms coming up. Anxiety, depression, mood swings, lack of motivation. And these are things that again, women get passed more medications for. And then of course, there's the reproductive tract. You can lose your period altogether, or maybe it comes back with a vengeance. Heavy, painful, irregular. I've seen patients who were like, I, I had 28 day cycles, every cycle, 28 days, completely predictable. I went on hormonal birth control. And after that time when I came off, now I have no idea when my period is coming. And so you know what I just described? It's very far reaching. And so it's something that I recommend that women track their own data. So as you transition off of hormonal birth control, write it down, what is going on and when is it coming up in your cycle, if you are cycling so you can start to understand how are you being impacted by this?

Yeah, that's so huge. And you basically listed almost every chronic condition that people come in to see their functional medicine practitioner for, or even their primary care practitioner. But I guess when somebody doesn't listen to you anymore and you have such symptom wide degradation in your health, of course people are gonna think you're crazy, right? In a compartmentalized allopathic model and a reductionistic model of healthcare people. A we don't believe that one thing can heal everything. So we don't believe that one thing can destroy everything. Because for whatever reason we think that the same blood doesn't go everywhere, right? And one of the things that we focus on, and I know you do too, is mitochondrial health. So can you tell us maybe how post birth control syndrome impacts the mitochondria? Because for those of you that are hearing that word for the first time, your mitochondria, the little engines inside your cell that turn your food and oxygen into usable energy. And if the mitochondria are not working well, then every organ in your body stops working the way it's supposed to. Every cell in your body except red blood cells has mitochondria. The highest concentration of mitochondria are in the brain and in the heart. But in women, it's in the ovaries. That's where you have the highest mitochondrial density. So if something's affecting mitochondria like birth control, pill or other hormonal interventions, then of course your reproductive health is going to pay the price for that. So how does birth control affect mitochondria?

Yeah, this is a great question. I talk about this a lot in my book beyond the Pill, which is like where I put every protocol I got to help women. And you know, I really designed the book to help women go beyond the pill for solutions. So if you want to use it for symptoms, then like, let's think about what's actually going on and give you solutions and then safe on it and transition off and reverse post birth control syndrome. And the mitochondria are so paramount in all of this. So if we look at just alone that hormonal birth control depletes CoQ10. So while you're on it, you are depleting CoQ10. You don't have enough CoQ10. That is absolutely necessary. I mean, it's necessary for all of our health, but definitely for mitochondrial health. You also are depleting crucial B vitamins which are used in energy production. And I think the other thing that's really startling about hormonal birth control is that it gobbles up all your testosterone, which might feel like a good thing if you have testosterone driven acne or hair loss or hair growth on your chin like we see with pcos. But the issue is we start dropping muscle mass. I don't know if you've seen the study. There's an interesting study that was talking about the size of the muscles in your thighs are actually correlated with longevity of brain health. And it all came down to mitochondria. And so if you don't have adequate testosterone as a man or a woman, we're talking about women here, you will start losing muscle mass. And this is what we'll see where women are on hormonal birth control. And it's something, I don't have a paper for this, but my research when I was getting my master's was in sarcopenic obesity. And so what I've seen with hormonal birth control is that we start lowering testosterone. We're not getting muscle self stimulation. Now women's body composition is changing, so we're seeing a decline in muscle and increase in fat cells and then they transition off perhaps in their 40s when the mitochondria on their decline. Now they're, why is it that I'm exercising the same, eating the same, but I'm putting on weight, I have all this brain fog. And it really comes down to what is hormonal birth control been doing in terms of depleting those nutrients and affecting your muscle mass? And we have to question. So research is looking at the impact on the microbiome. And I have an entire chapter in my book. I have to share that my editors, my book starts with like the protocols on liver health and gut health before we get into adrenal and then thyroid and then the sex hormones are way in the back. And my editors are like, I don't understand. Women are going to want this sex hormone advice. And why aren't we just getting into that? I'm like, well, if your liver is not right and your gut's not right, nothing is going to be right. Like, you have to start there. And then it comes adrenal and thyroid. And really, if you can get those pieces together, the sex hormones, I laugh and I joke in my book. I say, you know, they're basically followers. Like if you're, if your cortisol and your thyroid hormone are jumping off the bridge, then your estrogen and progesterone testosterone are going to follow them too. They're going to be jumping off the bridge too. So you have to be setting that whole foundation. But with hormonal contraceptives, the pill in particular, there was a study where they actually compared it to antibiotics and said the impact of hormonal birth control on microbial diversity in the gut and creating dysbiosis. They likened it to being on an antibiotic. If you think about that, an antibiotic is like a 7 to 14 day course. And we know that can impact your microbiome for up to a year. You're on the pill every day for decades at a time. I did the pill for 10 years and I think back to like, oh yeah, when I got my blood drawn to look at my food sensitivities and I had like 92 of the out of 96 wells come up positive, it was obvious I had leaky gut. Well, it's. I really wish my 20 something year old self knew what I knew now because now we understand in the research that absolutely hormonal birth control can contribute to intestinal hyperpermeability, which is more commonly called leaky gut. Are you still there?

I'm still here. It looks like I lost you there for a second, but. Oh no. So you said you talked about leaky gut and as we know, leaky gut is the impetus to autoimmunity. Right. One domino falls and then everything else is. You just never know. Right. It could turn into something quite significant if it's not being addressed appropriately. So this is very, you know, I don't want to call it controversial because the chemistry is not controversial, the science really isn't controversial, but it can be a very charged topic. So what kind of resistance are you facing in getting this message out there? Because I can't imagine that this is being welcomed with open arms. Right.

Well, you know, I will say that my audience, my fans, my patients, they've been incredibly supportive and they're who I get out of bed for in the morning. I ain't got time for haters. I didn't wake up today for haters. I woke up today to serve women. And that's really where I focus my attention. But you know, there has been pushback and it's, it's a funny thing to me because I have OB gynecologists who are writing me and so these are DOs or MDs and they're saying, oh my gosh, this makes so much sense. Where can I get more information? And this, this, that lights me up. I'm like, these are doctors who are really wanting to serve and doing what we should all be doing in medicine and science, which is staying curious and staying humble. We do not know enough about the human body and we really haven't questioned hormonal birth control to the degree that we really should to understand the individual impact. So not just like, what's the generalized effect on a general population, but like you were saying at the top of this interview, the individual sitting in front of us. It's really important to counsel them. But I've also had people who are writing me saying, this isn't real. You're not a real doctor. You're, like, just trying to, you know, scare women. I'm like, I am not a fear monger. I'm like, I never. And I actually say this in my book, beyond the Pill, as well. I'm all about, if I present a problem, I'm going to give you a solution. There's no way that I'm just going to leave you high and dry and try to freak you out. And fear does nobody any favors. We all got enough anxiety and fear anyways, so I'm not going to feed into that. But, you know, it's interesting because when these docs will come in and they'll post sometimes on my page and they'll say, you know, this isn't real. You know how many women come in and say, I am so sick of being dismissed by a doctor and having one more doctor tell me that what I'm experiencing is not real. It's really a disservice that conventional medicine. And I'm not, you know, we're running an event right now, a free women's hormone conference, and we've got conventional docs in there who are rallying the charge to change women's medicine. So I'm not throwing everybody under the bus, but there's certainly, you know, these docs who are like, I'm only going to believe everything I've been taught in school and everything that I've been taught in my continuing medical education classes. And I'm not going to believe the patient sitting in front of me. That is not how we are going to advance medicine whatsoever. Our patients are telling us, they're giving us such good data. And I tell people all the time, they'll say, like, how is it that you're able to get results and you solve these complex cases? And I say simply, I listen. Whatever that person is saying in front of me, that's exactly what I need to know to be able to help them. So there's certainly pushback. But I think that for every one doc, you know, one person with credentials writing me saying, like, this isn't real, there's a hundred more people without credentials with real stories that have lived it and know it to be true. And this is so much about, you know, what I'm about is stop dismissing women. She's the only one who lives in her body. She's the only one that knows what normal is. And how dare you tell her that what she's waking up and experiencing every day is just in her head. Like that is archaic. That is what got us in trouble in the 1950s in women's medicine. So it's 2018. Can we stop this already?

I just love your charge and your passion. It's so inspiring to see people who are spending so much energy and effort to get this message out there and to lay it out there for people to really take charge of their health. And. And right now, people are, unfortunately, they're flying blind. Right. It's like you close your eyes and open your hands and mouth and you just put whatever in there that people will tell you to without doing the investigative research that's required. A lot of people don't realize this, but maybe they do once it's obviously laid out to them. But the people who are giving you these pills may have never taken those pills ever before.

Very true.

So they don't even know. They can't even fully empathize with the changes that are taking place in your body because there's always new, different pills coming out. So it's hard to keep track of what the side effects are going to be. And trust me, they're not making drugs any weaker than they used to. They're making them stronger than they used to. So we don't know. Right. And women's bodies are not a petri dish for us to experiment on. And if we are going to do that, which I of course, do not agree with at all, but we have to at least acknowledge when people are coming to us and reporting these type of syndromes and symptoms and, you know, kind of trace back. Where did this start? You know, looking at a timeline and coming up with a matrix type of solution and looking at the multiple areas that her body can be impacted by this and, you know, finding a root cause and centralized solution. So you mentioned kind of in passing, so I just want to come back to it, that you have a summit going on right now. So you've interviewed experts on this topic from all over the world, and you've brought them together and you're sharing this education. This week, I've actually shared a link in the Facebook page, so I hope everyone gets a chance to jump in and check out some of the interviews. But with that being said, what were some of the biggest takeaways that you found, and what are some of the easy things that people can implement maybe today or tomorrow or sometime this week that can help them traject in the right Direction.

Yeah. So I have to share that. One of the most impactful. So we have these different tracks, like buckets of like, what is your issue? And let's get you to the right classes. This skin track, I actually changed my entire skincare routine after talking to these experts. It's simplified now. My skin looks so much better. And it's something that women who have been joining this, they're like, I'm no longer breaking out. Like, I like this, what I got. These tips have completely transformed my skin. And so we have speakers who are talking about. So Jen Pike, I think you know Jen, she's a fellow Canadian.

Yes.

She's talking all about, like, liver detoxification, the role of the gut in your skin health. And we have Dr. Trevor Cates talking about, like different skin types and how you can identify what's actually going on at the root cause. And then we brought in other skin experts like Rachel Pachevas and Rachel Pontillo and Dr. Tony Yoon, and they actually gave topical solutions for that as well. I think, you know, the biggest thing that I learned. Do you know Karan Krishnan?

Of course.

I love him. And some. He actually taught me. I, you know, I've been researching all this birth control stuff for over five years now. And he taught me that when you take hormonal birth control, you actually, the little, the little gut bugs will metabolize that. And they're supposed to transport your estrogen to the vagina so that the vagina ecology is set right. But instead when they take, they take the metabolites of synthetic birth control to the vagina. That is what is part of what causes complete dysbiosis and why women are susceptible to chronic yeast vaginitis. And so, you know, one solution is if you're on hormonal birth control now, you need to feed the critters. Okay, Everybody likes to start with probiotics. And I agree that those are necessary and those are important, but you got to feed them. If you're not feeding your gut and you're not practicing like basic, you know, gut hygiene, which is like food hygiene, then you don't stand a chance in really repopulating that gut. So eating things like artichoke, getting in fibers like fresh ground flaxseed, but also making sure that if you have elevations in sex hormone binding globulin, which is common in women with birth control, Dr. Jessica Drummond actually taught her class about this, that if you're exceeding, you know, 25 grams of fiber a day, you may actually work against you with your Testosterone. What's interesting about testosterone that not a lot of people realize is that it's actually involved in immune modulation, cytokine production and through the NF kappa B pathway can be inflammatory if you're too low in testosterone. So this is something where it's like testosterone is working with the gut as well. So eating fiber rich foods like celery and getting apples in and then of course, probiotic rich foods, so like your kimchi and your sauerkraut. And several of our experts talked about and going and finding weird, strange foods you would never put in your mouth, usually that we're not usually exposed to because the more variety we have in our diet, the more variety we have in our microbiome and then bringing those probiotics in. I think that was a really interesting conversation for women to join into to understand why, you know, they may be having some of these chronic gut symptoms or chronic vascular vaginal infections. And then Issa Herrera, she taught an awesome class on pelvic pain. She actually teaches women how to assess if your pelvic pain. So if you're having pain with intercourse or you're just having pelvic pain in general, is it hormonal or is it muscle based? And in the class like she actually walks you through doing that test. And we very much, in my mind, I'm like, I think women are going to be doing this right along with us. And she teaches reverse kegel versus a full Kegel and when to use that and when not to use that. So that's just like some of the highlights. But, you know, I know you have a big thyroid audience. We brought in Dr. Isabella Wentz and Dana Trentini, the hypothyroid mom, to cover thyroid health. And so this conference is all about how do we support women in understanding their bodies so well, supporting their hormones across the board. And we're raising awareness about post birth control syndrome and birth control related side effects. And so this, we really aim to have something for a teenage woman to have something for the 20 somethings, the 30 somethings, you're trying to get pregnant, you're trying to get your libido back, or if your doctor is sadly passing you birth control to manage perimenopause and menopausal symptoms. And we had Dr. Anna Kabeca and Dr. Shanta Stone talking all about how that can put women into really big trouble, especially as you were talking about if you're not testing the genetics. And I have a whole chapter in my book beyond the Pill on this metabolic issue. That can arise because being on hormonal birth control can put us at higher risk for diabetes, stroke, stroke, heart attack, cancer. And it's our women over 35 who are at the highest risk, who are still being passed the pill and not having this discussion with their doctors. And you're absolutely right. There's genetic testing that we can do. I outline all of this in my book to understand at the individualized level. And just if you are like, I can't wait for your book right now, come into the conference and catch Dr. Ben Lynch's talk all about MTHFR issues and being on hormonal birth control and how that can impact your fertility long term. Great, great discussion.

I was actually very blessed this past weekend to have lunch with Ben and we were talking about fertility. And, you know, I posted something a couple of years ago about how it's sad, but it's almost ironic that, you know, infertility can result from taking birth control for many years. And in particular, women, they're going to be more susceptible to this problem. But there was so much backlash to that. What I think is a common sense concept, right? You take a pill that tells your body not to get pregnant for 15 years and then you try to get pregnant. Well, kind of in sending a mixed messages this whole time. So since you bring up infertility, how. What kind of stories do you hear about infertility? Or what are some of the red flags that, you know, women or couples who are struggling with fertility can look for so that they know to go down the right path? Because another thing that's actually not even controversial, but can be very heated as a debate is children who are born via IVF have been documented to have more health challenges. And of course, a lot of that has to do with methylation and B vitamin status, which birth control can impact. So for somebody who's watching this, who's having a hard time getting pregnant, who's taken birth control, what are some of the things that they can do to start trajecting in the right direction?

Yeah. As we enter this conversation with IVF and all of this, we have to recognize that in medicine, it's often about get pregnant, get pregnant, get pregnant, get pregnant. But there's no recognition that mama is both the seed and the soil. So she is going to ovulate an egg. Sperm is going to meet that egg. We want that egg to be as healthy as possible. So the egg maturation period. So, ladies, listen up. If you are ovulating, we're coming up on a new Moon. So some of you may be ovulating right now, by the way, you can ovulate New moon, full moon, doesn't mean you're infertile or it has with fertility is just who you are. And if you dig moon stuff, I went all deep on that in my book as well. So with that, you know, if you're ovulating now, you have to understand that egg was maturing 90 days ago. And so 90 days is the minimum to get that egg ready. But we know if women have been on hormonal birth control, they really should be giving themselves a good six months. Now, I would argue two years. Two years is ideal. Come off birth control and really, you know, you have to fix the gut, you have to get the liver functioning optimally. We need to replenish nut stores. And so if you're on hormonal birth control right now or you're anticipating getting pregnant, starting a quality prenatal is step one. Hormonal birth control is depleting many of your nutrients, including B12 and folate, which are absolutely essential in pregnancy. Now, all of these are essential in pregnancy. All these nutrients are. But these ones in particular, you need them, baby needs them before you ever know you're pregnant. Which is why it's important to be on that now. And, and any woman who's on hormonal birth control should be taking these not only for their health, but because there's about a 9% failure rate with the pill with typical use, that means you could get pregnant while taking hormonal birth control. So definitely getting on a good prenatal. And you want to do that six months, 12 months in advance. There was just a study that came out in September of 2018 showing us that if a woman gets pregnant with it, six months of stopping birth control, so in that six month window, her baby's at higher risk for childhood cancers. Now, it's a small risk, but this is the first study to show this, which means that we need to ask more questions. And given the family history, the genetics, the environment, that risk might be higher for that individual. And this is what I'm all about, is like, sure, research might say it's a small risk, but we have to ask about, well, what about the individual? Is it a small risk in the context of their life, in context of their health, in context of their mother's health? Because, ladies, your eggs were forming when you were in your mama's body and her eggs were forming when she was in your grandma's body. So no judgment, don't be hating on anybody. Whatever your grandma and great grandma were doing impacted your health and impacts your future children. So one thing is not prenatal. Second is you've got to get your gut right. Your microbiome becomes baby's microbiome. And we know that if women have autoimmune disease or inflammation in their gut, so one, they can be at higher risk for miscarriage and infertility, but two, there can be more complications with their pregnanc outcomes with baby. Now, the other thing is you must check your thyroid hormone because hormonal birth control, while you're on it, raises thyroid binding globulin, so your total hormones will appear higher. And if that's all your doctors looking and they're like, your total T4 looks awesome, but it's your free T4 and your free T3 we care about. Free T3 is for mama, that's for you. Your mood, your energy, your menses. That free T4 is for baby. Without that, if you have low, if you're hypothyroid or you have elevated antibodies going into pregnancy, you're at higher risk of miscarriage and infertility. But if that maintains to the pregnancy, you are able to maintain the pregnancy. Your baby is at higher risk for developmental delays, both motor skills and cognitive delays. And they've measured this over a 16 year cohort. That means baby born. And they watch them over 16 years and they found these children are significantly behind their cohorts. So checking your thyroid is absolutely paramount if you are struggling with fertility. TSH, free T4, free T3, TPO antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies, those are non negotiables. Your doctor should be looking at that. And sadly, the reproductive endocrinologists are in the know on this. But why should you have to get to a reproductive endocrinologist? Why, why can't we get your PCP or, you know, and this is where it's like, go work with a naturopathic or functional medicine physician because they can help get you this lab testing so that you can understand what's going on with your body. I know that's kind of a fire hydrant bit of information there.

I would expect nothing less from you. No, this is, this is very fascinating. You know, I'll be totally transparent and say that, you know, I would never have connected a lot of these dots because women don't come to us and say, oh, you know, I took birth control. I think it's that, you know, they might not even, they might not even connect the Dots. And in clinical practice, this could be something that's very overlooked. Is there a part like, do you have a quiz or do you have some sort of page on your intake form that your clients fill out that clues them in, into whether this is a challenge for them or not?

Yes. So we ask all about hormonal birth control. So all forms of birth control, when did you use it? When did you. And of course, we're asking, when did your symptoms start? But we asked ask, when did you start this? How did you feel? When did you come off? How did you feel? What were you given this for? You're given this for pcos, endometriosis, like symptom management. That's going to be a different, different case than a woman who's like, I took it just because I was going to college. And so we ask all of that. And as you talked about with the timeline, this is something that's absolutely crucial. And I would say every provider should be doing this. And this is how I really clued in. Every one of my autoimmune patients had a history of hormonal birth control at some point in their life. And I'm like, hold up. That's why I wrote extensively about this in beyond the Pill of like, women are getting autoimmune disease at such a high rate, we've got to question this tool that was part of women's liberation. Like, what impact did it have on us? So with that, in the timeline, you actually ask women. So I ask women, I asked them not only, like, when did your symptoms start, but when was the last time you felt like yourself? And that question right there usually tunes in to when they started hormonal birth control. And so, you know, if you are a provider and you don't know what the timeline is, I'm sure you have a resource about the time, about the timeline, but that is something I think is absolutely crucial because you will find so often that a woman's like, she's been dismissed.

She.

She's believed the story of doctors that the pill or the patch, the ring, all of these, they could not have had an impact on. But when you ask, oh, I started hormonal birth control at age 16. And I actually usually. So this is. If anyone becomes my patient, they're gonna know my trick. I actually ask all about the symptoms first, and then I ask about birth control. When did you start that? And I have them give me the date. And that is usually when we clue into when this was a trigger.

Oh, man. So, you know, people are probably wondering, because if you haven't taken birth control or you are taking birth control currently, what are some safe, you know, natural, effective alternatives? Because you mentioned that, you know, up to almost 10%, like 8 or 9%, you said of people birth control isn't even effective for. So is there anything A, more effective and B, safer that women can use as an alternative?

Yeah. You know, when we approach the discussion of birth control in general, we have to recognize that all birth control has side effects. And so it's all about what's best for that person who's sitting in front of us. And, you know, as you were asking about, I have a ton of resources@drbrayton.com and I have several articles on non hormonal contraceptives where women can really go through and get a deep dive on that to know what to bring to their doctor so that they can have an informed conversation. One, you know, one iud, there's only one that's non hormone, is the copper IUD of the Paragard. It works for some women, not for all women. And I recommend that if you have heavy periods, painful periods, you consider something else because it'll make them worse. And if you feel like that's the best one for you, you need to track your symptoms, get baseline labs, and then once you have it placed, continue to track your symptoms and then reevaluate labs about six, maybe eight months later so that you can understand if it's impacting you. Because for some women, it doesn't work. We start to see hormonal shifts, we start to see rise in inflammation. Now there's also barrier methods which, you know, nobody like, people always eye roll at me and they're like, I don't want to use the condom. Well, the pill does not protect against HIV or hpv. Human papilloma virus, the number one sexually transmitted infection that can lead to cervical cancer. So we've got to be thinking about that too. Like, the pill will not fix everything in terms of, you know, preventing baby and preventing infections. And then there is fertility awareness method. And in the United States states, the FDA just approves Natural Cycles as the first femtech device. That's a contraceptive device. And so what that is is you put it, you put it, you take your temperature, you just put a thermometer under your tongue every morning. It measures your basal body temperature. You'll have a tiny little spike right before you ovulate and the device will light up and let you know that that. Okay, it's not, it's not a good time for you to be having unprotected sex. You need to avoid sex or use a condom. And you know, there's also in the United States, the Daisy Fertility Monitor. It's a fertility monitor, so it's not termed as a contraceptive device like Natural Cycles is. With these, they have had research showing they're over 99% effective with perfect use. Now the pill is also over 99% effective with perfect use. But you can't vomit or have IBS or malabsorption issues. If you're taking the pill, you have to take it at the same time every day. Can't be drinking alcohol or you're taking the pill. And I say that because we're passing it to gals that are going off to college. And college is the time before your frontal lobe is developed where you do all the dumb things. Nobody's judging you for that. We've all been 21 before. But you know, I think it's a really important thing to understand that if you are relying on fertility awareness method, you're getting great data about your body, you're tracking your cervical mucus, you're knowing when you ovulate, you're very tuned into your body. And because you're not a backseat driver to your fertility, I find that women are way more invested in this method and that they have great success rates with, with it.

Okay, very good to know. She kind of said something about being 21 and I laughed because I think I was 21 for like five years straight. No, this is super, super generous information, Dr. Jolene, and I'm so appreciative for you sharing this with us and, you know, getting this message out there because this can save an entire generation of women. And with infertility rates and women's health issues at an all time high, especially when it comes to chronic illnesses and, and even acute events like myocardial events. This information is literally life changing. And not just life changing from a symptom standpoint, but when your reproductive health is working the way it's supposed to, that has a global impact on your health. It's not just about your monthly cycle. Right. It's really about the rest of your month as well. And how energized you show up every day, how healthy your children are going to be, your unborn children, for example. And you know, your body as a woman is a vessel for this amazing child to grow in. And it's a vessel to keep your family healthy as well. So, you know, we, you women, I say we women. But, you know, women need to stay strong and they need to keep fighting this fight for themselves and protecting themselves and be heard and listened to. And I'm so grateful that, you know, women have someone like yourself that they can turn to. And your body of work is nothing shy of amazing. So keep up the amazing work. I just want you to give us a few websites and links where people can find more information so that they can follow along in this information. They can join the summit and of course, pick up a copy of your book when it comes out.

Yeah. So you can head over to doctorbrayton.com my last name is a little tricky. It's B R I G H T E N. I have so much information on there about birth control, about hormonal health, about post birth control syndrome, and I've got a free guide there. So if you feel like you need support on hormonal birth control or coming off. Drbrighton.com pbcsdiet Post birth control syndrome Diet. That's a resource you can find me on Instagram. I hang out there the most, answering women's questions, dropping every knowledge bomb I possibly can. So that's just rjoelenebrighten. And then I know you've shared the link for our Post Birth Control Syndrome Awareness week. I really hope any woman listening right now, I hope you'll not only attend, but you'll share this. Because the change we so desperately need in women's medicine, it's going to come from you. It's not going to come from one doctor standing on a box with a bullhorn saying, we need to change women's medicine. It's going to come. When we put the medicine in women's hands, we remind them of their power, their ability to heal, and they go out into the world and show they are the living proof of what is possible in women's medicine. So I really hope you'll join us. I know you put a link in there. Ladies, click it, get in on this. There's. There's so much incredible information that we're sharing, 100% free, because we want to change women's medicine for the better and we want to do that by supporting you.

Yes. And I'll add to that, Jolene, if you're going to click on this and join in, add your friends. So share this information. Let's make this go viral. Because again, about half the population is women. So 50% of people automatically are going to benefit from this. And when the queens are happy, the kings are happy. So I know that men, if you're your wife or significant other has been on birth control, then you might be the first one to actually see some of the signs and symptoms, some of the personality changes, the energy changes. If you're a male watching this, please share it. Someone that you love is being impacted by this, and they probably need to find answers for whatever is going on in their beautiful body. Jolene, thank you once again. I know you've got a busy launch week this week, so I appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to share with our tribe, and we're going to reciprocate by getting this information out to as many people as possible. So lots of love to you and your family. Have an amazing rest of your day.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your support of women's health.

Bye now.

Bye.