Now I am off the Pill, in retrospect I can see that each of the four kinds of Pill I’d used had negatively affected my wellbeing. All contain the synthetic oestrogen ethinyl estradiol plus one of a variety of synthetic progesterones. All can have negative repercussions on mood as they stop ovulation, flatten natural hormone fluctuations to create a very low unchanging level, produce a deficiency in B vitamins and meddle with the workings of the pituitary gland.
The Pill enacts a very crude, wide-reaching impact on the body. The reproductive system is shut down. When we talk about the Pill preventing pregnancy, we should also mention it does this with a whole-body effect. The monthly hormone cycle is integral to many of the body’s central functions, including the metabolic, immune and endocrine systems.
There’s research that reveals the health benefits of continuous ovulation, showing consequentially the dangers of cycle suppression. Yet the Pill is prescribed and taken without care. This drug accounts for close to half of the $16bn women’s healthcare market and 96 per cent of birth control education for doctors in US medical schools focuses on it.
At a time when we are more concerned about what we eat, wear and use to clean the toilet than ever, we are celebrating millions of otherwise-healthy women taking a powerful medication every day, for years. James Balog is right: these women are not sick, they’re fertile and for just a few days a month. The Pill is on so high a pedestal that alternatives are undermined in comparison. Pill-mania has eroded the fundamentals of reproductive rights – choice, freedom and education. The Independent
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