How healthy is oral hormonal birth control?
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There is strong evidence of an association with hormonal birth control and higher depressive symptoms.
However, this is correlational evidence and hence not necessarily causal.
Source:
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap
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FWIK:
It has been proved to diminish sexual desire in women, as well as changing the way in which the female brain evaluates attractiveness in men.
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Some formulations cause a 400x spike in SHBG concentrations, and it doesn’t go away when you stop taking BC. This reduces the amount of free circulating testosterone, which leads estrogen dominance: low libido, brain fog, depression/moodiness, and weight gain.
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It even affects the way in which females' brain find men attractive.
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“Healthy” is pretty vague. There are trade offs, as with everything. I was on the pill for 12 years and it decreased my libido and increased my anxiety, but it reduced my PCOS symptoms (irregular cycles and body hair). I went off them in my late 30s due to cancer risk.
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Well, far as I know, nobody ever got pregnant from oral. So 100% effective is my guess.
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if you don’t care about hippocampal shrinkage and don’t smoke (higher risk of blood clots) and if you don’t get depression or acne or hair falling out or liver tumours— i think it’s ok
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