Many of us know the hormonal birth control pill as a fix to common issues many women face such as irregular periods, acne, painful cramps, and more. But the potentially dangerous side effects of birth control, paired with our misunderstanding and lack of knowledge surrounding these prescriptions, have caused chaos in many women’s bodies. Dr. Jolene Brighten acknowledged the need to do more research and has since started asking the tough questions to fight for women’s autonomy over her own body.
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A functional naturopathic doctor, nutritional biochemist and author of Beyond the Pill, Dr. Jolene Brighten is here to drop some major knowledge on the ‘pill to fix every ill’ and why you should be trying to fix your hormones without birth control. Learn ways to recover your nutrient storage and gut health, which areas of the body hormonal birth control affects the most, and habits that you can develop to support your body through post birth control syndrome.
Women are often dismissed or misdiagnosed when presenting symptoms to their general practitioner and are given birth control as a band-aid. In reality, hormonal birth control is chemical castration that can interrupt your bodies natural cyclical physiology, and can affect everything from your brain chemistry to mood, libido, and relationships. Dr. Brighten is breaking down the walls and empowering you with the knowledge you need to get to know what works for your body.
It is time to stop messing with your body and let it tell you what it needs to be supported and thrive. How does Dr. Brighten’s research relate to your own health struggles? What do you suffer from the most surrounding hormonal birth control? Share with us in the comments below!
In This Episode
- Illustrating the historical lack of respect for women’s bodies and women’s medicine
- How hormonal birth control impacts everything from your brain to your gut health
- Practices to help re-establish the communication between your brain and your ovaries
- Exploring the connection between stress, anxiety and hormonal birth control
- Ways to build a user manual of your body to stop others doubting your symptoms
Quotes
“While medicine likes to compartmentalize things, the body doesn’t care. Everything is connected.” (10:37)
“If we don’t want a baby, that unintended pregnancy becomes our decision to make because we can’t just walk away from our body. But really, if you want to go upstream… it’s actually sperm meeting egg… so why is it me that has to be medicated every day?” (16:01)
“I’ve heard from multiple pharmacists, ‘once we see a woman pick up her birth control pill prescription, what we see next is either a proton pump inhibitor, thyroid medication or an anxiety and depression medication, it is just a matter of time before she is back in for the next medication’.” (20:29)
“Preventative medicine is everything, and preventative medicine isn’t a pap smear, that’s a screening exam. Preventative medicine is what you do every single day in your life.” (31:20)
“That’s the difference. Naturopathic philosophy comes in and says well what is the obstacle that is keeping your body from doing what it should be doing. Whereas the allopathic philosophy is what can I do to basically strongarm your body into submission.” (35:01)
“It’s not that your doctor is bad, its an upstream issue of the education they receive or the lack of education that we have all received about hormonal birth control, both women and physicians, which is why I set out to write this book.” (39:22)
Links
Dr. Jolene Brighten Root Cause Women’s Medicine Website
Beyond the Pill by Dr. Jolene Brighten
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