The Pill.

Hello bloggees!  Whoof.  I’m feeling uber bolstered by online-love and so excited to continue, especially now that I know there’s a demand for this kind of discussion.  Onward and upward folks!

Today on the agenda: Pill talk.  Trust me, it flows nicely out of the treat-the-cause-not-the-symptom angle in my last entry… not to mention a pretty concrete starting point in terms of my own personal health issues.  I started taking the Pill (Alesse, and later Minovral for any of you interested) and was on it for the duration of my near-five year relationship, plus a few months afterwards.   So what are the symptoms of taking the birth control pill?  I am both sheepish, and baffled at the fact that during those years I never took the time to research what the pill actually does to prevent contraception.  I’ve since taken that time. 

*sidenote* (think of this as a choose-your own-adventure novel.  If you already know the science and inner workings of The Pill, please ignore my little lesson and skip to the bottom of the paragraph.) In a nutshell, there are two types of oral contraceptives a woman can take.  The first- and most commonly used- contains both hormones required to create an egg: progestin and estrogen.  The second type contains only progestin.  Both these pills, however, work to the same affect through a number of ways: such as the increase of cervical mucous, creating change in the uterus lining and finally- by suppressing ovulation.  So think about that for a second.  There is No creation of an egg.  All those cramps you gals still have?  That period that comes like clockwork on day 21 of your pill pack?  Not menstruation.  Menstruation only comes when an egg goes unfertilized in the female body.  So what happens is called withdrawal bleeding- something that happens when you finish your pack o’ pills and either a) go on the 7 day break or b) take the white/other colored placebo pills at the end of the month.  Your body is no longer getting it’s daily dose of hormones… and you bleed from withdrawal. 

Obviously there are exceptions- because women do continue to get pregnant while taking oral contraceptives- and there are effectiveness percentage rates to reflect this… they seem to lie anywhere between the 92-98% range.  Yup.  Many shades of grey even when it comes to science. 

Ok- so why am I telling you all this? Because the symptom of my being on birth control for 5+ years, is that my body seemingly forgot how to ovulate on it’s own.  And it didn’t stop there- I also learned that the Pill was responsible for my lipids shooting sky high during that time, which sent me to specialists that recommended Lipitor for high cholesterol.  And you wonder why I have the tendency to sway (or rather leap) towards being somewhat of a hypochondriac?  26 years old, healthy, a petite runner-type…and I was being handed pamphlets for (god love ‘em) happy looking blue-hairs noshing on bowls of steamed broccoli and oatmeal.  And believe me, try to take away Sunday morning eggs and sausage with my buddy and you’ll get stabbed with a fork.  But…. all the talk sank in.  I thought it was something I was doing wrong, and reasoned that high cholesterol did run in my family.  Enter new gameplan: I quit stocking the fridge with four kinds of cheese (opting instead to hit the brie HARD at opening nights), started taking my coffee black, ate whole grains every morning, and began taking flax and fish oil.   Still each year my cholesterol continued to go up- until I went off the pill.  And only then was I told birth control could be a contributing factor in heightened lipids.

I digress.  I think it’s important to recognize that oral contraceptives are still a relatively new drug, and only time will sort out all the possible side effects.  But what frustrates me is that until I took away these symptoms by chance through discontinued use… doctors were insistent on prescribing me more medication to treat (again- and for the last time I swear) the symptom instead of the cause.  No one seemed interested in getting to the root of the problem; all they were concerned with were my numbers checking out.

I hesitate to shit all over the Pill (yeah I said it.)  For oh-so many reasons.  It has been credited with launching the women’s movement.  It helps regulate menstrual cycles (obviously in certain cases), reduce cramps and the risk of ovarian cysts, improve acne and help with iron deficiency…  just to name a few.  If you take into consideration the moral implications that come with taking the Pill- it has lent (*rim shot*) itself to the slow reform of the Roman Catholic Church… but the going. is. slow.  Because oral contraceptives inhibit the sperm’s ability to fertilize an egg, it is still widely condemned as being an immoral and sinful act.  The rationale being that couples have sex solely to procreate- anything else is a sin.  Sigh. 

But maybe the largest selling point- is that women are finally able to make a specific choice in regards to their bodies.  The Pill gave us sexual liberation and agency over our decisions.  Now for myself, I know I won’t begin unnecessarily putting hormones into my body again.  It’s just not a choice that I’m willing to make.  That’s not to say I consider it an evil act, or wouldn’t recommend it under certain circumstances… but I’m a grown woman that has made her decisions and am now beginning to feel an odd but certain degree of power in letting things unfold, naturally. 

Always keeping in mind that self-love and acceptance can be a choice, too.

Josephine

P.S Please, please if you have some time to spare for some damn-fine and interesting radio, check out this link to CBC radio’s Rewind.  It revisits the creation of the pill in the 60’s with interviews of Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles, the fire-crackin’ women’s lib Dorothea Palmer, and a public forum of the Catholic Church’s stance in 1968.  Here’s the link:  CBC's Rewind "The Birth of the Pill"