Why I decided to quit hormonal birth control

I had been on hormonal birth control for 11 years until I decided I was ready to quit. In this post, I will explain in more detail why I resolved to stop taking hormonal birth control. If you are on hormonal birth control yourself, these are a few points you should consider.

I am not saying everyone should quit birth control. I didn’t do it myself when I first explored non-hormonal birth control alternatives. However, I hope my story will encourage you to do your research and figure out what’s the best option for you.

Artificial hormones may be masking some underlying health issues.

Health practitioners are eager to prescribe hormonal birth control for avoiding pregnancy. However, acne, heavy or irregular periods, and other symptoms are also often treated with hormonal contraception. This is the part that worries me, because for instance with irregular periods, artificial hormones are utilized to treat the symptoms instead of identifying and treating the root cause.

The same applied in my case. I never asked for birth control to avoid pregnancy, but to make my periods more manageable. The first option was to get on the pill, not to figure out if there was some health issue that was causing the difficult periods for me.

Health risks and other side effects of hormonal birth control

The pill and other hormonal birth control methods increase the risk of blood clots, some cancers, etc. However, they may also protect against some types of cancer. [1, 2]

The point here is to weigh the benefits against the risks and determine if they are worth it. For me, the risks related to hormonal birth control seemed too high compared to getting more regular and lighter periods.

All medications have side effects, and hormonal birth control is no exception. For me, the pills caused cramps, severe mood swings, for example. The IUD caused some breakouts and significantly decreased libido.

Like with the health risks, it all comes down to weighing the benefits against the side effects. For me, they weren’t worth it.

Working with my body instead of interfering with its functions with hormonal birth control

At the time, I was getting into health and wellness. I had started lifting weights and cleaning up my diet due to a recent celiac disease diagnosis and was looking into many natural alternatives to support my health. For example, I switched my cosmetics for cleaner alternatives and introduced superfoods to my diet.

Because I was reading a lot about health and wellness, I stumbled upon the topic of optimizing hormones and following the natural menstrual cycle with diet and exercise. I learned that you should phase out your exercise routine in sync with the phases of the menstrual cycle. I was disappointed that I couldn’t try that as long as I was on hormonal birth control.

Besides all the cool biohacking I could do to optimize my menstrual cycle, I was curious to see what my period was like nowadays. As I mentioned earlier, I had started experiencing cramps during the first pill I was on and was still experiencing them. I wanted to know if the cramps would stay or not. I also wanted to find out if I would have irregular and heavy periods again or if they had calmed down during the past eight years.

Conclusions

I took the leap and quit hormonal birth control after being on hormonal birth control for 11 years in total. I was on the pill for eight years and had an IUD for three years after that.

I’m quitting hormonal birth control for the following reasons:

1. I didn’t want to be potentially masking underlying health issues with the pill
2. Health risks and side effects outweigh the benefits in my case
3. I wanted to start working with my body and letting it do its thing instead of interfering with artificial hormones

Although hormonal birth control is an excellent option for some, many people are on it without decent knowledge about how it works, what risks are involved with taking it, and what other options exist.

For everyone currently on hormonal birth control, I would recommend doing your research and working with your healthcare provider to weigh out the risks and benefits of hormonal birth control in your case. Consider all options and make an informed decision about which one is best for you, be it hormonal or non-hormonal!

This post was originally published in my blog.

References

1. Gierisch, J. M., Coeytaux, R. R., Urrutia, R. P., Havrilesky, L. J., Moorman, P. G., Lowery, W. J., … & Myers, E. R. (2013). Oral contraceptive use and risk of breast, cervical, colorectal, and endometrial cancers: a systematic review. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers, 22(11), 1931–1943.
2. Soini, T., Hurskainen, R., Grénman, S., Mäenpää, J., Paavonen, J., & Pukkala, E. (2014). Cancer risk in women using the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system in Finland. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 124(2 PART 1), 292–299.