Women love sex every bit as much as men. It’s a simple fact that I think it’s time we acknowledged. Moreover, lots of us enjoy sex very much without the desire to currently hand over our womb as living quarters for a human fetus. A super-cute puppy? Sure, maybe. But human babies are a lot of work, and sometimes we want to get it on in a monogamous relationship and don’t want to deal with leaky boobs, diapers, and spit up right now. That’s okay! We have options!
Condoms, for example, are a great way to not get pregnant. But what if the idea of reaching for a rubber in the heat of passion fills you with frustration and annoyance? What if that doesn’t fit your lifestyle or relationship with your partner? (However we always advocate the use of condoms outside of a monogamous relationship as they are the only way to prevent infection and disease.) Enter the birth control pill.
One of the most important inventions in the history of the female fight for equality, birth control pills gave us the ability to make decisions about our body that empowered us to take on better jobs, have better sex lives, and have sex just because we felt like it.
They’re amazing, they’re easy, and they come in so many varieties that there’s a pill for just about everyone. But are they as safe as we assume they are?
If the only side effect of birth control you ever think about is the fact that it keeps you from getting pregnant, you are not alone. Most of us gratefully accept our prescriptions and go running to the pharmacy without a second thought. My pants are already around my ankles—let’s DO THIS!
But wait! There’s more! Birth control pills can come with a whole host of complications that can mean real danger to otherwise healthy women. According to the CDC, 10.7 MILLION women in America alone are using birth control pills. Even if complications are relatively rare (approximately 1 in 300o women will experience a dangerous side effect), in a sample group of 10.7 million, that’s still a lot of healthy women at risk.
The most significant risks to women taking hormonal contraception are cardiovascular in nature. This means blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, and deep vein thromboses. According to the National Blood Clot Alliance, adding estrogen, which is found in most birth control pills, to a woman’s body means a 300-400% increase in risk of developing a dangerous blood clot. Blood clots are responsible for heart attacks and strokes, and this risk goes up alarmingly to a 3000% chance if the woman taking birth control pills is also a smoker. The FDA recently announced a stronger warning label for birth control pills containing drospirenone due to increased stroke and blood clot risks. The maker of Yaz, a popular birth control pill (containing drospirenone) is currently paying $110 million dollars in damages as the result of a class action lawsuit over the pill and damages caused by related blood clots.
There are also studies that taking hormonal contraceptives increases risk of developing breast, cervical, or liver cancers. These risks must be taken hand-in-hand with the studies that show taking hormonal birth control reduces risk of endometrial or uterine cancers, however. If you are already in a high-risk group for breast cancer or cervical cancer, this may be something you want to take into consideration before jumping aboard the BC Wagon.
To be sure, birth control is a beautiful thing for many of us. I’ve been taking it for close to 15 years, and potentially, as a result, have prevented, like, 17 pregnancies. That’s 17 toddlers not currently coloring on my floor with the one toddler that I planned and conceived thus far. Win! More seriously, make sure that you’re taking to heart the risks involved with birth control pills. Consider your family history of clots/cancers/and cardiovascular disease. Talk to your doctor. Read the pamphlets. Educate yourself on what you’re taking, because it’s ultimately *YOUR* body and your family planning that are at stake.
You can read more about the risks and benefits of birth control pills at CDC.gov and cancer.gov. Once you’re educated and protected, feel free to plan that romantic weekend away if you know what I mean…..
image via Creative Commons
This is a great post, and a great reminder to pay attention to your body while you’re taking birth control! I never had good experiences on birth control, including the pill, the Depo shot, and Nuvaring, but no one–including me!–ever put 2 and 2 together until I got blood clots in my leg while using Nuvaring. Thankfully (!) they were “just” blood clots and they didn’t migrate to my lungs and become potentially fatal pulmonary embolisms. There was no other readily identifiable cause for the clots–no recent travel, no sedentary lifestyle (I was training for a half-marathon 3-4 days a week), no history of clotting disorders in me or my family…just hormonal birth control. I took anticoagulants for 13 months and still have pain in my leg at night. I was not diagnosed with a clotting disorder after the fact, and my OB has suggested that the hormone shift that BC causes is the most likely culprit. I can’t use any hormonal BC now and may have to go back on anticoagulants if I get pregnant. It’s a little scary to think about, but I’m well aware that it could have been so much worse.
In the 2 years before I got the clots, I’d had migraine auras (not headaches–just blind spots in my vision for 20-30 minutes at a time), irregular bleeding, and light sensitivity while using hormonal birth control. I dutifully reported these systems to 2 different doctors, but neither made the connection–these aren’t symptoms of blood clots, but because their onset coincided with my starting BC, they should have been a sign that something was wonky. Of course, hindsight is 20/20!
I know I’m an outlier, but it still bugs me that when I had a bad side effect on BC, the immediate response was to try a different hormonal approach. I wish I’d been more informed, but even then it can be tough to convince the professionals that you know something just isn’t right. In fact, when I went to urgent care with horrible throbbing pain in my leg, the doctor actually laughed out loud when I said I was concerned about blood clots after googling my symptoms. I didn’t have visible symptoms (my leg wasn’t swollen, hot, or red), and I’m sure he thought I was being a little paranoid, but I’m thankful he eventually took my concerns seriously.
Anyway. Moral of the story – pay attention to your body!
Thank you for sharing your story! That is *exactly* what healthy women have to consider before taking birth control. You actually made me a little nervous– I’m almost always in marathon training of some kind or another, and I get migraine auras without getting the headaches from time to time (have only ever had one migraine headache in my life, but soooo many visual auras). Especially when pregnant! I’ll have to mention that to my doc. Thanks again!
It sometimes surprises people who know me just how much birth control was a huge part of my life. I have five kids. I had them in eight years. The snide remarks about a *lack* of birth control for a while were almost more than I could take some days. But here’s the thing. My body did not like birth control. I would go on a pill, get pregnant, have a baby, and then get put on a stronger pill. Three times this happened. Five times over the years the strength of my pills was upgraded. One of my kids was conceived on pills and with the use of condoms.
After I had my cervical cancer problem and my collapsed uterus problem and my hysterectomy at age 28, I finally had a female doctor who explained to me that due to my already hyper active ovaries and hormone levels, the pills that they put me on and subsequently kept upping were doing me more damage than good. They’re probably a big part of the reason I had the cancerous cells and the hysterectomy.
I love that you ran this post. So many women have no idea the damage that *can* (not necessarily will) be done from very strong birth control pills. I’m just glad I had my family young, intentionally or not, because if I had waited, with the health problems I wound up with at such a young age, I might not have had kids at all.
Well done.
Fantastic post! BC played a part in my recent diagnosis of a pulmonary embolism & 2 blood clots. It’s a great thing and im so thankful that its out there for women but we all need to be more aware of what we’re putting in our bodies & the risks associated with it.
I used a couple different pills for a few years before not using them for a years. Then I got a shot of Depo because I planned to have my tubes tied, didn’t have the procedure done after all, and spent the 3 months after the Depo shot connecting a variety of symptoms to hormonal birth control.
Back when I was on the pill, it didn’t occur to me that moodiness, weight gain, vaginal dryness, lack of libido could all be tied to the pill. It wasn’t until all those symptoms hit me like a freight train almost immediately after the Depo shot, that I made the connection. I then talked to a lot of friends who also suffered with the same symptoms while on hormonal birth control.
Then during my last pregnancy I learned a lot more about what hormonal birth control does to the body, how the body works, etc. I decided I didn’t ever want to use hormonal birth control again, and did get my tubes tied finally. When I think about the pills that boast how you only have to have a period once or twice a year, I shudder. Of course I can see the attraction, but menstruation is a normal thing for a healthy female body. Are we sure we really want to prevent it from doing its thing 90% of the time? Isn’t anyone worried about what that can mean, especially since we only have a few decades of research behind hormonal birth control at all?
I’m not trying to convince anyone not to use hormonal birth control, that’s completely unrealistic. I do hope women will do more research and consider alternatives, and that they will pay close attention to what their bodies are telling them.
When I was in high school, I was on the pill. I began showing signs of depression. My mom noticed, because she had first suffered from depression when she began taking the pill (she’d been keeping an eye out for it). I quit the pill, and things got better.
In college, I went on a different pill. I went to the doctor with depression symptoms. She offered to put me on yet a different pill (I’d told her about my earlier experiences), but I decided to take an antidepressant instead. When bf and I called it quits, I quit the pill, tapered off the antidepressant, and was fine.
I found a pill that worked for me. Then I went to grad school and student health didn’t have that particular pill, so they put me on a different one. Sure enough, the depression came back. My bf and I sat down and discussed it, and I decided then and there never to use hormonal birth control again. And I haven’t.
I’ve since been medicated for depression twice more as an adult, and I suspect it was linked to hormone fluctuation. And there is a surge of hormones that bring back my symptoms every month, 6 days before my period starts. Like clockwork. I think it is important for women to have this information. Without my mom’s experience, I would not have connected depression and hormonal birth control. But for some of us, there is a strong link.
Thank you for posting this and for all the responses. I’m a nurse and have heard this many times. However, what many women don’t realize is the effect that BC also has on libido. Anybody notice you want to do it less when you are taking the pill? I do. Big time. For the longest while I was thinking I might be crazy, but I did my homework and realized that BC decreases your androgens (testosterone) and certain other hormones responsible for female libido. My boyfriend and I are pretty OCD about using BC AND condoms (his idea that has now become my extra security blanket), but I definitely notice a difference that sometimes makes me want to quit BC. That one week while I take the placebos, I want to pounce the guy. However, once I start back on the pill– that drive is definitely subdued. Anybody else get this?
I did. Also (and I think someone else mentioned this above) dryness. When I used hormonal bc, lube was an absolute necessity!
Yes! When I was on the Depo shot, I noticed dryness almost immediately–literally the day after I got the shot. I was stunned. I don’t remember it having an effect on my libido, although the lengthy periods kind of interfered with things. Then on Nuvaring, my libido was gone, just like that! It never seemed fair
It’s been really interesting to read all of these responses. I know that hormonal BC does great things for millions of women, but it just seems like it’s hard to get the word out that it can be risky, too.
Great post! Estrogen does put you at a greater risk for blood clots and more women need to be aware of this risk. That being said, NO hormonal birth control puts you at as high a risk for blood clot as PREGNANCY does, about 5 times your risk non-pregnant. Depending on the study, 0.5-3 per 1,000 pregnancies are complicated by some form of blood clot, whether deep vein thrombosis in the leg or pulmonary embolism. So, if you have problems with taking hormonal birth control and can use a different method, that’s awesome! But, for ladies who can’t be consistent with their condom/diaphragm/fertility awareness/whatever, getting pregnant does not decrease your risk of blood clot.
I was on depo for years, and it took over a year to get out of the system so we could conceive. My doctor put me on the pill to get my period back and the hormones in it made me suicidal within weeks. Condoms? Give me yeast infections, as do diaphragms. We are using withdrawal and natural family planning right now and husband is getting the good ol’ snippety snip shortly after we conceive/have baby #2.
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