Birth Control & Your Mental Health – 5 Benefits of Going Off the Pill
At 2 AM, I finally realized sleep wasn’t coming and got out of bed.
I grabbed a book off my nightstand and headed downstairs, feeling exhausted and angry. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I sleep?
After hours of reading, desperately hoping to feel drowsy, I glanced at the clock and my heart sank. 5 AM. I had to be “up” for work in an hour.
I sighed and closed my book. I had to go to bed.
Closing my eyes, I willed myself to sleep. Clear your mind and think of nothing. Absolutely nothing, I told myself.
It didn’t work. The rushing of thoughts, questions, and wonderings wouldn’t stop no matter how hard I tried to silence them.
After a week of 6 hours of sleep total, I began to trace back when this had started. I soon realized it had come when I’d started taking birth control.
The birth control pill has been most OB’s answer to many problems. Have acne? Try oral contraceptives. Are cramps bothering you? Try birth control. Heavy bleeding? Let’s try the pill. Anxiety or depression? Maybe birth control is the answer? Basically, if your hormones are causing you any issues, the medical world’s solution has been birth control.
But is birth control really the answer?
Birth Control & Your Mental Health – 5 Benefits of Going Off the Pill
After my sleepless week, I reluctantly decided to go off the pill (I wasn’t ready to have a baby).
It took some time, but my anxiety gradually went away and I was able to sleep again. I also no longer had extreme mood swings, unexplainable rage, and extreme hopelessness with bouts of crying over minor issues.
At this point, I started to wonder why my doctor had assured me that there were no side effects to birth control when it was clear to me that there were. Was it all in my head?
I began to research and found confirmation that it wasn’t.
If you search “hormonal birth control effects on the brain,” you will quickly find that some data suggests that hormonal birth control alters your brain, permanently.
In 2014, Frontiers in Neuroscience published an article titled, “50 years of hormonal contraception–time to find out, what it does to our brain.” The study found implications that oral contraceptives may alter the brain but concluded that more research was needed.
But Wait, There’s More
In 2020, other articles were published and there was a review of neuroimaging studies, which begins by noting that: “Convergent evidence from animal research indicates that contraceptive substances can alter both structure and function of the brain, yet such effects are not part of the public discourse or clinical decision-making concerning these drugs.”
Meaning there is evidence that birth control alters your brain but this evidence is not discussed publically and not included in decisions about the safety of birth control.
They concluded that: “The included studies identified structural and functional changes in areas involved in affective and cognitive processing, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and cingulate gyrus.” But, again, more research is needed.
Another article by Neuroscience News in July of 2020, found that: “Early adulthood exposure to oral contraceptives was linked to significant structural changes in brain areas associated with memory and emotional processing.”
Amen Clinics’ posted an article on their blog in June of 2020, which states that “…in some women, taking the Pill is associated with a wide range of mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, fatigue, compulsive behavior, anger, and neurotic symptoms.” They also note that these symptoms often do not subside after discontinued use, depending on how long the woman has been on the pill.
So it turns out I wasn’t wrong about the effects the pill was having on me.
The benefits of going off the pill include regaining control of your mind and your emotions. Dr. Sara Hill (2019), even indicates in her book, This Is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences that birth control can have an effect on a multitude of areas in your life – like critical decision making.
The 5 Benefits of Going Off the Pill
- Reclaim Your Mental Health
- Level Your Emotions
- Prevent Future Brain Alterations
- Get Better Sleep
- Make Better Decisions
But What About Pregnancy?
The key reason most women are on birth control is to prevent pregnancy. So what can you do if you want to quit birth control, but don’t want to get pregnant?
There is one way to prevent pregnancy naturally.
This is a method called the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) or the Rythmn method of birth control. This method requires you to learn about your body’s cycle and avoid intercourse during your fertility window.
FAM has a 75% success rate with normal use (Cinelli, 2022). This is mainly because of user error (you forget to take your temperature every day or misread data). With perfect use, it can be as effective as 98% (Cinelli, 2022).
Note: Because of this potential error rate, I would suggest being ok with having a baby before you attempt this method.
What is the FAM/Rhytmn Method?
With the FAM method, you learn about your body and cycle to determine when you can and can’t get pregnant.
Essentially, your cycle is broken up into two phases–pre and post-ovulation (called the follicular and luteal phases). Your period comes at the beginning of a new cycle. After ovulation, your body temperature shifts up .5 to 1 degree. So when your temperature shifts up, you know you’ve ovulated.
The tricky thing about this method is that you don’t know you’ve ovulated until it’s too late. You can get pregnant from having unprotected sex up to 5 days before you ovulate.
How to Implement FAM/Rhytmn Successfully
Step 1: Read the Book
Start by reading the book: Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health.
The more homework you do on the process, the more successful you’ll be. So learn as much as you can about this method before implementing it.
Note: If you want to stop birth control immediately but remain sexually active, use condoms to prevent pregnancy until you feel confident in the method.
Step 2: Get a Good Basal Body Thermometer*
Buy a basal body thermometer and start taking your temperature every morning when you wake up.
Tips:
- Put your thermometer by your bed
- Measure right when you wake up
- Stay laying in bed
- Record your temperature
Step 3: Get Familiar with Your Body
Learn your body’s signs of ovulation (these will be outlined in the book). Record them so you start to notice what happens with your body during each part of your cycle.
Step 4: Wait 6 Months
Wait 6 months after going off birth control for your cycle to regulate before trusting your data.
I have found that after birth control and pregnancy, cycles tend to be longer and gradually shorten. If you start trusting your data too soon, you may end up pregnant because you ovulate earlier in an upcoming month.
Step 5: Use an App
There are a few apps now that store and track your data for you. Making implementation of this method much easier and less time-consuming. I use Natural Cycles. It stores and analyzes your data to give you green days and red days (use protection). This removes much of the user error. In fact, with typical use, Natural Cycles is 93% effective at preventing pregnancy and 98% with perfect use Healthline.
Planning Pregnancy
If you do decide that you want to get pregnant, this method can help you achieve that as well. Instead of avoiding your fertility window, you would plan to try to conceive during that time.
Learning about your cycle can also help you determine and address the reason that you may not be getting pregnant if you are struggling with infertility.
The Natural Cycles app has a mode for trying to conceive.
Note: Using FAM After Pregnancy
As I noted, it takes time for your cycle to regulate after pregnancy. Give your body at least 6 months of recording (after your period returns) before using a back-up method.
If you are breastfeeding, you need to also be careful in the 6 months after you stop breastfeeding. Breastfeeding can cause a delay in ovulation. If you breastfeed for long, you may think your cycle has regulated, only to find you ovulate 5 days early a few months after weaning.
Be very diligent about tracking and/or use backup protection until your cycle regulates and use backup protection whenever you have a change in breastfeeding frequency, or just be extra careful.
If you’re worried about the effects of birth control, maybe it’s time to try going off the pill. Share this post to help other women learn about the negative effects of birth control.
References
Brønnick, M. K., Økland, I., Graugaard, C., & Brønnick, K. K. (2020). The effects of hormonal contraceptives on the brain: A systematic review of Neuroimaging Studies. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.556577
Cinelli, E. (2022, August 31). Rhythm Method: Can It Prevent Pregnancy? Verywell Family. https://www.verywellfamily.com/rhythm-method-as-birth-control-what-you-need-to-know-6503299
DiLonardo, M. J. (n.d.). Natural family planning: Methods to control pregnancy. WebMD. Retrieved August 22, 2022, from https://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/natural-family-planning-methods
FeaturedNeuroscience·July 28, 2020, also, S., & FeaturedNeuroscience·May 22, 2022·5 min read. (2020, July 28). Your brain on birth control. Neuroscience News. Retrieved July 28, 2022, from https://neurosciencenews.com/birth-control-brain-16718/
Hill, S. E. (2019). This is your brain on birth control: The surprising science of women, hormones, and the law of unintended consequences. Avery.
Mona, B. (2022, August 5). What to know about the natural cycles birth control app. Healthline. Retrieved August 22, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/natural-cycles-review#how-to-use
The Pill’s surprising (and scary) effects on the brain. Amen Clinics The Pills Surprising and Scary Effects on the Brain Comments. (2020, June 29). Retrieved July 28, 2022, from https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/the-pills-surprising-and-scary-effects-on-the-brain/
Sharma, R., Smith, S. A., Boukina, N., Dordari, A., Mistry, A., Taylor, B. C., Felix, N., Cameron, A., Fang, Z., Smith, A., & Ismail, N. (2020). Use of the birth control pill affects stress reactivity and brain structure and function. Hormones and Behavior, 124, 104783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104783
Weschler, T. (2015). Taking charge of your fertility: The definitive guide to natural birth control, pregnancy achievement, and Reproductive Health; 20th Anniversary edition. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.
Suggested Reading
Hill, S. E. Ph.D. (2019). This is your brain on birth control: The surprising science of women, hormones, and the law of unintended consequences. Avery.
Weschler, T. (2015). Taking charge of your fertility: The definitive guide to natural birth control, pregnancy achievement, and Reproductive Health; 20th Anniversary edition. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.
