Periods and Birth Control – Madison Ayers Writes

Women Are Being Coerced into Birth Control in Their Most Vulnerable Moments

“When Crystina Hughes, a thirty-five-year-old Black woman, went to the University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital to give birth, she wasn’t considering birth control.

Immediately after giving birth to her daughter, a doctor asked if she wanted to get an IUD inserted. After all, her cervix was already dilated. Hughes said no, but once her husband left for the neonatal ICU with their newborn, the doctor asked again: Could he insert an IUD?

In her vulnerability, Hughes assumed that it must be important to have the IUD inserted now, so she relented. Around six weeks postpartum, her milk dried up, and she had to have the IUD removed after her uterus prolapsed.”

What The New York Times misses on the birth control / low libido connection

““I am convinced birth control destroyed my sex drive” says the title of a Reddit post in r/TwoXChromosomes, a women’s issues forum. Hundreds of comments follow with women describing how being on the Pill has completely changed their sex drive—and not for the better. “When I was on hormonal BC, I completely lost my sex drive” says one commenter. “[Birth control] destroyed mine and took the better part of a year to come back so I could experience what a natural female sex drive felt like,” says another.

But you don’t have to go down Reddit rabbit holes to discover women who are pinpointing their birth control as the culprit behind their weak libidos. This woman on Tiktok describes getting her libido back just days after going off the Pill, and there are a plethora of other videos describing how to fix low libido caused by birth control.

It’s not just individual women on social media who are opening up about this touchy subject — even The New York Times picked up on it. In a January 2024 article titled “The Link Between Birth Control and Sex Drive”, the author delves into what we know about how birth control can change your sex drive. While the NYT article gets a lot right, it ultimately misses the complete picture: birth control radically changes sex for every woman who takes it, on top of its disastrous effects on sex drive for some.”

Read more at Natural Womanhood.

How does blood sugar change over the course of the menstrual cycle?

“It has never been easier to accurately track our health. With smart watches, continuous glucose monitors, and a plethora of fertility monitoring devices, we now have the ability to gather precise data on many of our various biomarkers. A recent study from the University of Toronto and Queen’s University in Canada used various biotechnologies to allow participants to draw connections between their menstrual cycle and their blood sugar [1]. The conclusions from this study will help women with diabetes better tailor their insulin dosages. Women who are insulin resistant or pre-diabetic can also use this data to more fully understand how to naturally control their blood glucose.”

Read more at Natural Womanhood.

How common are PMS and PMDD in teens?

“Have you ever had that moment—perhaps right after losing your temper on an innocent friend or while crying during a rom com—when suddenly the light bulb goes off? Ah, I’m about to start my period. Why is it that our emotions can shift so much in those days right before menstruation, often coupled with physical symptoms like bloating or headaches? For many women, the challenging symptoms right before their next period starts are caused by Premenstrual Syndrome, or PMS. And for teen girls in their first few years of experiencing periods, there can be unique challenges in dealing with these issues. “

Read more at Natural Womanhood.

My experience with 28, the #1 cycle syncing app

“Five years ago, few people had heard of cycle syncing, but it has surged in popularity thanks to viral videos on TikTok and other social media sites. For young women who came of age in the 2000s or early 2010s, the idea that wellness and nutrition can work with your menstrual cycle rather than against it is revolutionary and exciting. Videos of influencers doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) during ovulation then taking a step back during their luteal phase are a welcome change from the conventional health wisdom of twenty years ago, which focused mainly on weight-loss and encouraged unhealthy dieting practices.

A new app called 28, founded in 2022 by Evie Magazine Editor-in-Chief Brittany Hugoboom, leans into this trend by bringing an algorithm to women to help them organize their life around their cycle. Even though I already use the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness for cycle charting and family planning, I decided to use 28 for a few cycles to see if this cycle syncing app could help me not only better understand my cycle, but also reach fitness and lifestyle goals with greater ease. Here’s my review of the 28 app as someone with training in an official fertility awareness method (FAM).”

Read my review at Natural Womanhood.

Too much estrogen: The risks women on the birth control patch need to know about

“Though not as well known as the Pill or the IUD, the birth control patch is often touted as a good option for women who have trouble remembering to take a daily pill but do not want the more invasive hormonal or copper IUD. Around ten percent of women report that they’ve used the patch to prevent pregnancy, and that percentage has ticked up slowly over the past twenty years. What makes the birth control patch different from other forms of hormonal birth control? And is it really a good option for pregnancy prevention, or could it’s estrogen-related side effects actually cause more harm than good?”

Read more at Natural Womanhood.

Do female athletes perform worse during their periods?: How the menstrual cycle impacts athletic performance

“I don’t think I performed very well today,” Fu Yuanhaui, Chinese Olympic swimmer, said in her post-swim interview at the 2016 Rio Olympics. “It’s because my period came yesterday, so I felt particularly tired — but this isn’t an excuse, I still didn’t swim well enough.”

Female athletes in all arenas of sport might be able to relate to Yuanhaui’s sentiments. Many women believe their athletic performance is worse during their periods due to symptoms like cramps, headaches, or fatigue.”

Read more at Natural Womanhood.

Teens and sex: Why the risks and side effects of birth control can be especially bad for teens

“According to a 2017-2019 survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around a quarter of girls aged 15-19 are on some form of hormonal birth control, and the vast majority are on the Pill. This number has increased over time, despite the fact that fewer teens are having sex (or getting pregnant) now than ever before. Many girls choose to take birth control for reasons other than preventing pregnancy, such as for painful and irregular periods or in order to take acne medication like Accutane. But what these young women don’t know could hurt them—teens may be at higher risk than adult women of experiencing birth control side effects.”

Read more at Natural Womanhood.

Why do I crave sugar before my period?

“It’s a few days before your period is supposed to start, and all you can think about is a giant slice of chocolate cake. Or maybe a donut, or milkshake, or the classic pint of ice cream. Or maybe all of the above?

If you’re like me, the time right before restarting your cycle is the most difficult time to resist all sorts of sugary treats, especially when you start thinking to yourself “well, I deserve this.” While it’s okay to indulge a craving from time to time, eating endless amounts of sugar (or other simple carbs) at any point in your cycle is not the best option in terms of your hormonal or physical health. So, why is it that we crave sugar so strongly before our periods, and (more importantly) what can we do about it?”

Read the rest of the article at Natural Womanhood.

Study suggests lower estrogen dose in birth control could still prevent pregnancy

“According to a study (hereafter referred to as Gavina et al.) from the University of the Philippines Diliman, the amount of estrogen currently in hormonal birth control pills is higher than it needs to be in order to effectively prevent ovulation (and, therefore, pregnancy) [1]. This is welcome news for millions of Pill users who are at risk of multiple side effects, some serious, because of the synthetic estrogen in their hormonal birth control. Although the amount of estrogen in the Pill has drastically decreased over time, many women still notice a plethora of estrogen-related side effects from their contraception [2]. Some effects, such as thrombosis (blood clots) or cancer, can even be life-threatening.”

Read the rest of the article at Natural Womanhood.