in today's video we're going to be talking about side effects of the birth control pill
over 150 million women worldwide are prescribed to the birth control pill making it one of the
most common forms of contraceptive the birth control pill also known as oral contraceptive
is obviously a form of birth control but it is also prescribed for other reasons as well
some of these include making your period lighter reducing acne and reducing menstrual cramps and it
is also prescribed to women with pcos to regulate their periods and while the birth control pill
does have benefits it also comes with a lot of side effects both short-term and long-term side
effects and these are often glazed over or not mentioned at all when the pill is prescribed
i started taking the birth control pill when i was 19 maybe and i think i took it for about five
years when i was taking it i had no idea about the side effects and i didn't find out until
years later and when i finally got off it i realized that it was actually masking
and maybe even contributing to deeper hormonal issues that i wasn't aware of
but anyways i'm getting ahead of myself i will talk about my experience
later so in today's video we are going to be going over 17 side effects of the birth control pill
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and i post
videos on a high fat nutrient dense way of eating if you like this video please give it a thumbs up
feel free to share and make sure to subscribe and make sure to follow me on instagram twitter and
facebook where i show new posts every single day so the topic of today is the birth control pill
and side effects you should be aware of we're going to start today talking about what the
birth control pill is and how it works then we'll get into the side effects and how you can combat
some of them and make sure to stick around until the end because side effects 15 16 and 17 might
surprise you what is the birth control pill birth control pills are oral contraceptives that contain
hormones some contain estrogen and progesterone which is a synthetic type of progesterone and some
only contain progestin this combination of hormones tricks the body basically into thinking
it's pregnant because it mimics the hormonal levels of a pregnant woman typically birth control
pills are taken for 21 days at a time followed by seven days of placebo pills when you take the
placebo pills you will get your period there are other versions however that work on a longer cycle
meaning you have fewer periods over the course of a year a normal cycle has an increase in
progesterone in the second half and a decrease in estrogen right before you get your period on
the birth control pill you will experience daily hormonal spikes during the 21 days you take it
because your body thinks you're already pregnant it doesn't release an egg during ovulation no
egg means you can't get pregnant and while the thought of not having an unplanned pregnancy
might sound enticing i think it is important to be aware and consider the side effects now before
i get into the side effects i'm just going to go on a quick tangent so if you guys don't want to
hear my tangent and you want to go straight into the side effects i always have time stamps on the
progress bar so you can skip ahead but basically what i want to talk about is that when i was first
prescribed the birth control pill i think i was 19 years old and at the time i saw it as trendy
so many of my friends were prescribed it and they would set alarms on their phones their alarms
would go off and it was kind of cool to take your birth control pill and just kind of make a little
bit of a show out of it and honestly that's part of the reason i wanted to be prescribed it because
so many of my friends were now i do want to say that i did have dehabilitating periods at this
time severe cramps my flow was super super heavy i would feel nauseous and sometimes i would even
puke oh like this might be tmi and i apologize if it is but i assume that if you're watching this
you're a woman so hopefully it's not too in your face but seriously my periods from when i first
got it in middle school and through high school were so heavy i can remember being in high school
and not even being able to sit through a 45 minute class without having to get up and go to the
bathroom and even just the thought of asking to have to go to the bathroom during class and having
to stand up like it was 50 50 if i had already leaked through my pants pretty much so oh just
making this video has brought back some pretty terrible memories
anyways my point was that my period was so bad i did have a valid reason for wanting to go on
the birth control pill but honestly a large part of the reason was because most of my friends were
on it and i think that is so messed up this is a pill that alters our hormones and i don't think
it should be prescribed so easily without any mention of side effects or consequences of course
birth control is important and i think everyone should have access to it but i think there should
just be more education surrounding it and consideration of other options as well but
one thing i do want to just quickly mention before i finally get into the side effects is that when i
cleaned up my diet when i started eating low carb eating more meat supplementing iodine that was a
really big one when i started doing all these things now my periods are significantly lighter
and i do not get any cramps it blows my mind that i used to struggle so much with my periods
i would basically have to take like a couple days off of school or work every single month
now that's not an issue at all i did do a video a while back on my story with amenoria and i talked
about this um that was a while ago though but i'll link that up above if you want to check it out
and i will also link the iodine that i take in the description box down below because i am telling
you i think that's one of the things that made the biggest difference i never ate seafood growing up
i never ate any foods that had any iodine i was probably so deficient in it so yeah i will link
that down below as well the side effects number one it depletes nutrients now i wanted to start
off with this side effect because i think this is the root cause of a lot of the other side effects
the birth control pill depletes your body of vital nutrients including b vitamins b2 b6 and b12
vitamin c vitamin e folic acid magnesium selenium and zinc and this is because the pill
actually interferes with how your body absorbs these nutrients so women who take the birth
control pill have lower levels as a result and i don't know why women aren't told this
when they're prescribed the pill because it's a pretty easy work around to avoid or at least
reduce some of these symptoms simply by making sure you're getting adequate amounts of them
in into your diet and potentially supplementing if you're not magnesium is one that most people are
not getting enough of to begin with that is one that you definitely need to supplement because
just modern food in general any type of food is way depleted in magnesium so that's another thing
i will link down below is the magnesium that i recommend meat and animal products such as eggs
are important to include as well because they are rich in b vitamins selenium and zinc women
who do not consume animal products often have the toughest time with side effects on the birth
control pill b12 especially because synthetic versions are not as bioavailable to the body
number two bloating the next symptom is bloating estrogen can affect the way the body handles water
and cause you to retain more than usual excess water retention leads you to excess bloating
number three weight gain this is a big symptom that obviously people are not crazy about
but it's actually one of the most common there are a couple of different reasons why it causes
weight gain number one is that it causes an increase in appetite and cravings of course if
you're eating more you're going to gain weight the next reason is because of the excess water
retention which we just spoke about so of course this isn't actually as though you're gaining fat
but you're going to be carrying around more water and that's going to show as an increase on the
scale the third reason it can cause weight gain is because of how it influences the body to store fat
during puberty estrogen and progesterone are responsible for what is considered to be a
more womanly shape with wider hips and larger breasts some studies have shown these hormones
cause the body to store more subcutaneous fat in these areas number four decreased muscle mass a
2009 study revealed a surprising side effect of the birth control pill during the trial which
was about genetics and muscle growth the women who were on the pill gained 40 less muscle mass
than those who were not on it so if you are working out hard in the gym and can't figure out
why you're having a difficult time putting on muscle this could be why number five depression
next up we have depression some studies have shown a link between the birth control pill
and depression this is because hormones play an important role in our mood and our emotions
progesterone the synthetic form of progesterone increases monoamine oxidase which is an enzyme
that breaks down neurotransmitters including serotonin and dopamine
more mao means less serotonin which is known as the feel-good hormone depression can also
partly be caused by the nutrient deficiencies we spoke about earlier number six insomnia the
next symptom is insomnia a lot of women who are on the pill find they are more tired during the day
and yet cannot fall asleep at night women on the pill also get less deep sleep and more rem sleep
rem sleep is lighter so you are more likely to be woken up during the night
and as we just spoke about the birth control pill can also cause a decrease in serotonin which also
ties in with sleep number seven mood swings the next side effect we're going to talk about
is mood swings this happens for some of the same reasons that depression does a woman who is going
through a natural cycle without the pill might see a dip in her mood in the days before her period
due to the increase in progesterone and therefore the decrease in serotonin but progesterone causes
a bigger dip in serotonin and if you remember we spoke about earlier when you are on the pill
your hormones are fluctuating every day you take it so of course your mood is also going to be up
and down number eight headaches this is another common side effect of the birth control pill
but it often goes away after a couple months of taking it number nine breast tenderness
this is often experienced by women who are not on the pill just before they start their period
but for women who are on the pill they can have it all throughout the month number 10
bleeding between periods this is another common side effect that is mildly annoying
of course but spotting between periods is very common as the body adjusts to changes
in hormones the uterus has to adjust to having a thinner layer number 11 a decreased sex drive
this is another symptom that is obviously less than ideal the birth control pill can decrease
your libido due to hormonal changes number 12 acne so this is one that only affects some women birth
control is often prescribed to decrease acne but can also have the opposite effect this is because
progesterone activates androgen receptors which can make your skin more oily and cause acne number
13 blood clots this is one side effect that is pretty rare but it's still important to note
you're at a greater risk of experiencing blood clots during the first year you're on the pill
as your body adjusts to the hormonal changes number 14 fatigue fatigue is another
very common side effect we spoke earlier about how many women find they are tired during the day
and this can be due to nutrient deficiencies mainly magnesium and vitamin b12 number 15
rashes the birth control pill can also sometimes cause rashes this can be an autoimmune response
caused by hormonal allergies to estrogen and progesterone but this can also be caused by
an allergy to other ingredients in the pill such as the dye number 16 changes to your eyes
this one is a little bit scary to think about the birth control pill can actually cause the cornea
of your eye to thicken for people who wear contact lenses they might find that they no longer fit
comfortably as they once did 17. it masks deeper issues and the final side effect we're going to
talk about today is that it can mask deeper issues this was the case for me i didn't realize until
after i got off the pill that something else was going on several months after i got off it
i still didn't have my period back and everything looked seemingly normal i'm still not 100 sure
why i had amenorrhea for as long as i did i can't even remember now did i i think i had it for
close to two years which is crazy to think about because obviously if you're not ovulating
if you're not going through a healthy cycle something is wrong because the pill causes you
to still bleed each month even though you're not ovulating and this applies for women with pcos too
often the pill is prescribed to women with pcos to make their periods more regular but it isn't
actually addressing the issue it's just causing you to i don't want to say artificially bleed but
it's causing you to still have a period even though your hormones and everything else
are out of whack the pill isn't fixing the problem it's just masking the symptoms in this case
an irregular period anyways guys that's all i have for you today i hope you found this video
helpful and you learned something just to be clear i am not trying to persuade anyone to stop taking
the pill or to not start taking it i'm simply trying to spread awareness about the side effects
so you can make an informed decision and if you are taking it please please please make sure that
you are getting adequate nutrition b12 especially for b12 if you aren't getting enough in through
your diet i highly recommend supplementing with something like a beef liver capsule this means
that you're still getting the vitamin b12 from a whole food instead of the synthetic version
which isn't as easy for your body to absorb and i will link to some of my favorite ones in the
description box down below as well anyways guys let me know in the comment section down below
what your experience with the birth control pill was or is do you have any of these side effects
let me know down below thank you so much for watching remember to give this video a thumbs up
and click the subscribe button if you're not already subscribed if you did enjoy this video
you might also enjoy my video on how to reverse pcos which you can find here if you want to catch
up on my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto diet and
carnivore night coaching programs you can find them here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye