Birth Control: I’m Getting Off And Here Is Why

As a registered dietitian nutritionist, I’m getting off birth control. In this post I’ll share what I’ve learned about it and how I’m rebalancing my hormones post birth control.

Listen to WHY I’m making the leap off birth control, what I’ve learned since I began doing my own research, my own experience on birth control, and the 5 things I’m doing as I come off the birth control pill here. Or read below!

This is a 3-part series on my journey off hormonal BC, read/listen to the others here:

Listen to the Podcast on iTunes right here

Listen to the Podcast on Spotify here

A little disclaimer: I’m not anti-birth control. I just wish we were more informed to make the best decision. I’ve been on it for over a year now and I used to feel like it was my only option. I had a feeling that what i was putting into my body may not be the best but I also didn’t really know my cycles well enough or trust myself to do any natural method to protect myself as I went into my wedding day. So that being said I want you to know there is no judgement whether you use birth control or not!

My Story On Starting Birth Control

During fall of 2018, I was about 6 months away from my wedding day. I realized I needed to figure out this whole birth control thing. I was saving myself for marriage so I had never had to think about it before. Well of course when you go to your gynecologist they automatically want to prescribe you birth control. Unfortunately I wasn’t that educated on it, and since everyone I knew was on birth control I went with it.

Fast Forward to three months in of taking birth control, I start realizing I was going crazy. My moods were up and down, I was crying every other day, my gut/digestion was totally off my skin was bad, and my sex drive was diminishing. I kept trying to explain what I was going through as side effects of stress from work, or wedding planning. Finally one night my finance at the time and I starting googling the symptoms I was having and my birth control and it all came together. There were so many stories of women going through exactly what I was, as well as information connecting my symptoms to the pill.

How I Knew This Was One Of The Bigger Last Things I Needed To Ditch

It became clear I needed to get off of birth control but at that point I felt like it was my only option to protect myself. So I went back to my gynecologist and told her how the birth control was making me feel and asked about other natural options for myself. Sadly, the conversation we had was being offered a different type of birth control, and then sending me on my way home. Im not saying all gynecologists are like that but mine was telling me that it was all in my head, and that it’s basically a trial and error game of finding what one works for your body.

This conversation should of been a red flag but I trusted her as a professional and decided to get on a new birth control pill. I will say the side effects were a little better on the new birth control, I felt slightly normal and less crazy which is probably why I’ve stayed on it for as long as I have. But I still didn’t feel myself, the happy go lucky Sarah Grace that I used to be. Because it’s been a year since I’ve been on this, feeling like this has become my new normal.

My Journey Switching To Natural Products

Around the same time as getting on the new birth control, and trying to rebalance my body, I came across YoungLiving from a friend which is essential oils and non-toxic products. I had always thought oils were a fad, and just bought the cheapest self care products. Sadly, at the time I did not care about ingredients. I decided to give it a try and get the starter kit, at the same time my mom was sending my pages from her hormone book and its talking about how there are so many hormone disruptors in our products and cause imbalances in our hormone levels.

I started switching over my toxic products for non-toxic products in order to find balance in my hormones even though I was still on birth control. So that kind of been the last year of my life. If you go to my other insta account @rootedsoulutions you’ll see the journey of my switching over my products from my hair car, candles, house products. I used to be a big candle person who thought essential oil companies were a fad, and now I only diffuse essential oils and loove my nontoxic products.

Now the past 6 months of my life I got married in may, and I finally realized I’m switching over all my things to more natural things, claiming to be living a more healthy life and theres still the big elephant in the room; the birth control pills. I know I need to ditch the synthetic birth control pills I’m flooding my body with. Become educated, and start to learning my cycles so I can do it naturally. I am now weeks away from stopping birth control. I have been researching and researching in order to prepare myself to go off of it.

How Birth Control Works

When you hear “Get on birth control it’ll balance out your hormones” or ” If you’re heaving heavy bleeds or a hormonal issue like acne get on birth control it’ll fix it”. Well what I’ve learned through my research is that birth control doesn’t fix any of that stuff. It might mask some of the symptoms, but it won’t heal the core issue. All it’s doing is shutting down your natural hormone production. So basically this is how birth control works, its flooding your body with synthetic hormones.

In a normal cycle without birth control you have levels of estrogen and progesterone going up and down and fluctuating all month long. With birth control you’re literally flooding your body with synthetic estrogen and progesterone every single day for those 3 weeks on the pill. During the 7 days on the sugar pills you’re completely dropping the hormone levels which is what causes the fake bleed. It’s not a normal period, it’s not a real mensuration. It’s just a fake pill bleed.

What happens when on hormonal birth control:

The issue with these synthetic hormones is that when you flood your body with them your body tried to auto-regulate itself. Your brain gets the message that there is way too much estrogen and progesterone in your body. In order to try and regulate it, your body turns off all natural production of it. So now you’re totally disputing the production of natural hormones in your body and shutting it down. This shuts down the communication between your brain and your ovaries so that ovulation doesn’t happen.

I think we can all agree from hearing that, that it’s probably not a good thing. This is why it takes months to get your period back after going off of the pill. Your brain has to relearn how to communicate. Plus your body has to relearn to produce those hormones itself again.

This is one thing I wish I knew before starting birth control. I think we should be given the information in order to make an informed decision whether or not we want to get on birth control. Not just be told that its the only way, or lies such as it’s going to “fix your acne”or “balance your hormones”.

How I’m Preparing To Heal After Birth Control

Going off of that I wanted to talk about what I’m going to do in order to take that leap in a safe way. And try not to go crazy with Post Birth Control Syndrome. PBCS is all those symptoms and crazy flare ups you get the first few months after getting off the birth control. It’s important to prepare yourself and have a course of action in going forward.

1) Fixing nutrient deficiencies

One of the first and biggest things is fixing the nutrient deficiencies caused by birth control. Hormonal birth control causes this by the excess hormones which your body is trying to process and get rid of, which are harder to process so you’re bodys working harder to process. Theres a couple vitamins, and supplements I have been researching which are beneficial to take during this time. Vitamin B2, B6, and folate, with that being said taking a quality B-complex with folate in it.

I’m taking a supplement called Super B by my company Young Living, which I would recommend but as long as you find a quality B-complex you should be good. Others are Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Magnesium, Selenium, and a really good quality probiotic. Your gut health is also going to be all messed up during this time.

With that being said trying to figure out how to get those all in. Usually a quality multivitamin or prenatal can cover all of these in one. Personally speaking I am showing things on instagram as I take them! So you can follow along if you want at @SarahGraceMeck or my natural journey account @NaturallySarahGrace. If you have any question you can definitely ask me on there. These are the supplements I am making sure to take.

Consuming a nutrient dense diet by eating foods high in everything mentioned before, but also supplementing as needed. As a dietitian I wish I could say foods can cover it. But when you’re flooding your body with hormones you need something powerful to correct it. I also recommend the book Beyond The Pill by Jolene Brighten! This awesome book breaks down all of these different vitamins and minerals and why.

2) Ridding excess hormones

A lot of the time were going to have excess estrogen, and estrogen dominance. Make sure you’re loving on your liver, and eating to support it. Your liver is at great naturally detoxifying! But when there is so much excess hormones it’s important to give it extra love and support.

3) Fixing Gut

Our gut microbiome gets disrupted while on birth control creating a environment more likely to grow harmful bacteria such as yeast. Our sex hormones and gut have a relationship. Plus the birth control can lead to leaky gut and inflammation. You have to have a healthy gut to rid this excess estrogen! Supporting your body with a probiotic will replenish your gut with good bacteria and restore the balance.

I am also going to be consuming prebiotic and probiotic rich foods along with a probiotic supplement. Making sure I am going to the bathroom regularly, if not upping my fiber consumption. Last but not least making sure I am consuming lots of omega 3’s + lots of healthy fats.

4) Learning how to prevent pregnancy without it

I have explored so many apps and tracking methods. But Ive decided to use the fertility awareness method. This can be done many different ways but I am just going to be taking my temperature and tracking it through an app. When your temperature spikes the app will tell you to use protection or abstain from sex. I am also going to be using either condoms or the pulling out method for the first month or two. In order to make sure I know what Im doing before we rely on that method. I’m an open book on this so if you have any question on this let me know!

5)Identifying any specific PBCS symptoms I’m having and treating naturally

Identifying any specific post birth control symptoms I am feeling and treating the naturally. If my acne comes back stronger, if I’m noticing estrogen dominance, or my period comes back heavier. I have a whole list of natural remedies to fix these issues rather than masking them with a pill. I will be sharing these later on social media as well on my podcast as I go through this journey.

Follow me on this journey on instagram at @Sarahgracemeck! I also have a instagram dedicated to my non-toxic healthy lifestyle @rootedsoulutions. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions! 🙂