Ditch The Pill: The Risks Of The Birth Control Pill And What To Do About It With Dr. Jolene Brighten -- #086

Why should we ditch the pill? What are the risks of hormonal birth control that we don’t know about? Take a listen as Dr. Jolene Brighten answers our questions about hormonal birth control and gives us the tools we need to make the best decision for our health and wellbeing.

Visit http://www.shawnmynar.com/ketoforwomen/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• Dr. Jolene Brighten’s story with the birth control pill and why she wrote Beyond the Pill
• The reasons why doctors prescribe the pill instead of turning to other means
• The top symptoms that women who are on the pill experience
• Post-birth control syndrome and how to handle it
• Getting the right nutrition and what foods to eat when you’re coming off of hormonal birth control
• What to do when you’re afraid to get off the pill because you were diagnosed with endometriosis or PCOS

Key Takeaways:

• Hormonal birth control can lead to insulin resistance. It’s inflammatory, and it does cut down on your gut microbes.
• Prescribing the birth control pill to women with PCOS can delay its diagnosis and even make it worse.
• Although you were told that the pill will fix your reproductive issues, you weren’t necessarily told that your reproductive issues impact every other system in your body, which leads to a whole host of other issues.
• Post-birth control syndrome is a collection of symptoms that go together but show up, on average, about four to six months after you come off of hormonal birth control.
• Once you get into your 30’s, you’re five to eight times more likely to get diagnosed with thyroid disease. Half of the women with hypothyroidism walk around without even knowing that they have it.
• We get heart disease when we lose our hormones. That’s when everything escalates and our risk factors go up. So we need to build our hormones from cholesterol.

Action Steps:

• Walk away from the “calories in, calories out” argument.
• Know the underlying cause of your symptoms before you decide for yourself if the birth control pill is the way that you want to go to take care of those symptoms.
• Grab a copy of the book Beyond the Pill and get a wealth of information about how to reverse the dangerous side-effects of hormonal birth control.
• Stop making decisions based out of fear. If you were diagnosed with endometriosis or PCOS or something major like that and you’re afraid to get off the pill, partner with a clinician who can help you transition off of it.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:

As I mentioned before, one of my goals for this year is to meet more of you guys in person, and so I have a few meet-ups scheduled and ready for you all to come and hang out! On the first week of March, I will be in Portland, Oregon for the Nutritional Therapy Association (NTA) Annual Conference where I will speak about building and running a business and what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, especially in the nutrition/health space. So while I’m there, I have decided to host a Keto for Women Meetup on Friday, March 1st in Downtown Portland. Head over to my website, www.shawnmynar.com/ntameetup and reserve your spot!

The following weekend, I will be in L.A. So if you are in L.A., come hang out with me at the new Osso Good Bone Broth storefront on Saturday, March 9th and head over to www.shawnmynar.com/lameetup to reserve your spot.

All of my meetup schedules throughout the year will be sent out in my newsletter, so make sure you are on that list over at my website. And you can also check my posts about it over on my social media channels, @shawnmynar on Instagram and @shawnmynarhealth on Facebook.

The next round of The Fat Burning Female Project is happening in March, beginning on March 4th. So if you’re wanting to make a change or wanting to do keto the right way, make sure to catch the one-day enrolment on February 25th.

As always, if you have any questions, be on the lookout for the next Keto Hot Seat call for questions on Facebook and Instagram.

Take care!

Jolene said:

“If you want to use the pill or any form of hormonal birth control to manage your symptoms, that’s 100% your right. But you should at least know why you have those symptoms and know how to stay safe and know what to look out for while you’re on it.”

“There hasn’t been a published study that says hormonal birth control causes these mood symptoms, but there hasn’t been a woman who hasn’t complained about mood symptoms since the introduction of hormonal birth control somewhere in your social circle.”

Resources mentioned in the show:

• Beyond the Pill: A 30-Day Program to Balance Your Hormones, Reclaim Your Body, and Reverse the Dangerous Side Effects of the Birth Control Pill by Jolene Brighten

• Beyond the Pill Book Bonuses

Sponsor Links:

• Four Sigmatic - Use the coupon code shawn and get 15% off your order.
• Artisana Organics - Use the coupon code keto4women and get 15% off your first order.

More from Dr. Jolene Brighten:

Jolene’s Website

Jolene’s Instagram (@drjolenebrighten)

Jolene’s Facebook

Jolene’s Pinterest

Jolene’s YouTube

More from Shawn Mynar:

Shawn's Website

Shawn's Instagram

Shawn's Facebook

The Fat Burning Female Project

The Fat Burning Female Self-Study

Best Ketone Test Kit

Precision Xtra Blood Ketone Meter

Precision Xtra Blood Ketone Test Strips

The advice and opinions in The Keto For Women show are intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical care or advice. Please always consult your medical professional for your specific health concerns.