Do hormonal contraceptives cause moodiness, depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues? Or do they help it?
That tends to be a common question asked by most women as well as slews of scientific researchers. Because of that, you’d think we’d have more answers by now, but they don’t really seem to be rolling in.
I love science and I love reading scientific studies, but I tend to nit-pick out everything that’s wrong with studies (even when I want to agree with their conclusions! I’m ruthless like that).
One of the places I see a whole helluva lot of controversy in science is in how hormonal birth control changes our moods and psychology (either positively or negatively). I know many many women have felt extremely terrible on hormonal birth control, and others don’t seem to have much of a reaction (buuut, I’d venture to say that the over 60% discontinuation rate within the first year speaks for itself), so obviously some of that is just due to how different individuals react to certain drugs, but it’s also interesting to me we don’t see a bigger sway one way or the other.
Obviously, one thing that could be to blame is the people doing the studies and the people funding the studies. What are their biases and where’s the money kind of thing.
But I think there is something more than that, too, and I think a lot of it can be seen in the way psychological symptoms are worded in these studies.
This week I was reading a few different articles and studies that I think can help give context for how much controversy there is around hormonal birth control use and emotional and psychological issues.
This article says women are supposed to be moody (bitches) and we are medicating ourselves out of it
This study uses a word I find interesting when talking about side-effects of hormones
This article, most potently, talks about trusting women’s feelings
I know they don’t really seem to go together, but in my mind they do. First of all, we have the article saying women are supposed to be moody… And I know it’s supposed to be sort of positive in a way, but I feel like their are people on the other side of it saying “Yeap! Women are moody so you can’t trust their feelings.”
Then there is this study. I clicked on it thinking it was about whether women’s perception of what side-effects on hormonal birth control were like had any kind of effect on their actualy side-effects, but they were really just using perceived throughout the study on anything to do with psychological side-effects. While I totally understand that that is because of the way the data was collected (they had women fill out questionnaires), there isn’t actually a way to note psychological side effects other than perception. What the hell else are they? Certainly they can become physical manifestations (trying to commit suicide or kill other people comes to mind, both of which I have heard anecdotes of), but for the most part people’s psychological side-effects are relegated to how they feel and perceive every day.
And the next article, the kicker, and one of the reasons I feel a lot of studies aren’t conclusive. WE DON’T BELIEVE WOMEN.
This article particularly talks about how men don’t tend to believe women’s feelings, and he also ties in race at the end, which I think ties in well due to power. This is similar to all instances of those with power (and what they obviously believe is correct knowledge) tending to not give as much importance to the feelings of those with less power. Especially if it doesn’t line up with what they believe to be true. (Doctor patient relationships, I’m looking at you).
Sometimes I get bored with writing things, and I really just want to talk to you about it, so let’s talk about it in the comments. Tell me:
- Did you have adverse effects on hormonal birth control and what were they?
- Did people take you seriously if those effects were psychological? Who was more (or less) likely to take you seriously?
- Do you think a lot of the reason we can’t reach good conclusions with our scientific studies is because of underlying bias which has less to do with hormonal birth control and more to do with gender?
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I had issues on my BC. It was a low dose combo pill and it gave me horrible anxiety and panic attacks. The solution according to my doc was anxiety meds and continue my BC. It was never even suggested to not take BC. I think it all has to do with money loss. Its a chain. If the doc says go off BC they lose money, so does the pharm company and so on. Money is more important than health. I decided to use fertility awareness on my own about 5 mons ago and havent looked back. I feel great! No more anxiety. No more panic attacks. I was able to come off my anxiety meds with help from my doc. Its funny that they will help you come off a medicine for psychological issues but not a medicine for hormonal issues… :(
That’s awesome that you were able to get it all figured out.
When they wanted you to go on anxiety medication instead of hormonal birth control, had you also told them you were feeling fine before birth control and thought that was the culprit. So irresponsible, if so!
And by that I mean they were being so irresponsible, not you. Ha.
When I took BC I had anxiety, depression, change in personality, I lost interest in things I liked to do, loss of muscle tone, cellulite, food cravings, terrible fatigue, trouble sleeping, insomnia, hair loss, no sex drive, no lubrication, hot flashes, brain fog, trouble concentrating, forgetfulness, no tolerance for even one alcoholic beverage, etc. I did not have any of this before I started taking BC. After a year and three months I quit taking it because I couldn’t stand the side effects anymore.
Ugh, how awful. Did you begin to get the symptoms very quickly or did they take a while to develop for you? Or did you not immediately connect them with BC?
I feel like that is one thing with the more mild mood changes on HBC, too.. A lot of people don’t immediately connect the two.
The hair loss and fatigue I noticed with in the first two months. All the other side effects started around six months. The longer I was on the pill the worse the side effects got. I connected them all with the pill right away because the was the only thing I changed in my life. After stopping the pill it took about 4 months for the side effects to start going away.
Wow, the hair loss was really early for you. Usually that one is slower moving. Great that they went away for you.
I had a severe issue with depression while on the pill which had something to do with the higher dosage. I’m now on the NuvaRing which reversed my symptoms completely. And this may be coincidental, but May of last year I was so depressed that I attempted suicide and was Baker Acted. I was at my lowest of lows and that was my only plausible explanation. I immediately switched because I was prescribed a sleeping pill and an antidepressant that I really didn’t want to be taking. I truly believe high dosage birth control was the culprit. (Will be getting off of NuvaRing in November for family planning reasons.)
Thanks for sharing your experience. Good to know that you found something that worked for you. Do you like being on NuvaRing or is it just “good enough”?
What many women do not realize is that synthetic hormones deplete vital nutrients from your body – including the nutrients that affect your mood – and those that prevent cervical cancer. I posted this article to my blog many years ago – and it is still relevant today. http://bit.ly/1HfdM5F
We also have to be aware that our food sources no longer have the essential nutritional content to provide our body with the fuel it needs to function optimally. And of course, the added xenoestrogens in our environment add an additional body burden.
Optimizing your nutritional status is crucial – otherwise your body will not able to effectively deal with any medication/vaccine/hormone birth control method you are exposing it to.