Holistically Katie

I realize birth control is a sensitive topic and many people have different opinions, but these are my personal thoughts. I have been on the Lutera birth control pill, as well as the Reclipsen birth control pill. I believe both have had negative impacts on my health and well-being.

I started Lutera in September of 2014 when I had a serious boyfriend for the first time. I took it for 3 months before switching to Reclipsen in November. The reason I switched is that the Lutera gave me acne on my chin area and on my cheeks. I never had skin problems prior to taking this pill. I’ve also eaten a clean diet, drank tons of water etc so this bothered me. My doctor switched me to a higher form of estrogen. The estrogen in Reclipsen helped my skin, however the effects this pill had had on my overall health has been extremely detrimental. I have been on Reclispen from November 2014 to March of 2016. This means a total of 15 months taking a hormonal birth control pill.

I have had the following ailments for the entire year I was taking this pill:

*Urinary tract infection

*Skin staph infection

*Sinus infection

*Toe infection (called paronychia)

*Perioral dermatitis

The ailments above have required me to take a course of antibiotics, which I am sure you are aware, are very terrible for your body. They essentially destroy all your healthy bacteria and make you more prone to infection because they weaken your immune system. Although I have supplemented with probiotics, I still believe that my gut bacteria is severely altered from this. Hormonal birth control weakens your immune system, depletes certain vitamins and minerals and alters your gut flora. This is why I got so many bad infections. It’s a terrible cycle: birth control leads to infections, antibiotics treat the infections, and the infections continue to come back. A classic example of this is perioral dermatitis which I am still suffering from unfortunately. I have taken my health into my own hands. I am now treating my candida from antibiotics naturally and doing everything I can to treat the perioral dermatitis without antibiotics ( my dermatologist recently suggested 2 entire months of doxycycline- no thanks!!!) I am now taking supplements, eating an abundantly rich fruit and vegetable diet, and taking care of my self holistically. I know this is a handful to take in but if you are on birth control and suffering from health problems, consider finding different methods. I will discuss alternate methods in a separate post.

As a side note, since going off the pill, I feel absolutely amazing! I no longer have bad mood swings, feel depressed and cry for no reasons, have trouble sleeping etc. I fought off a recent cold within two days. I am much happier off that tiny little pill. Stay tuned!