Did you know that 1 in 3 women take hormonal contraception for non-contraception related issues such as irregular bleeding, excessive pain or cramping, PMS, acne, etc? Furthermore, ⅔ of women are on the pill in part for gynecologic reasons that remain unidentified and untreated. If a woman goes on the pill for one of these issues, the synthetic hormones introduced to the body prevent the natural rhythmic cycle of the hormones produced by the brain and ovaries for natural menstruation, ovulation and fertility.
According to Anate Brauer, MD, a Greenwich-based ob-gyn and fertility specialist, reports, “ I see many women who state that their periods have been irregular ever since they stopped the pill, but on [looking at] further history, it turns out that they have been on the pill since a young age, and in fact went on the pill to control their irregular cycles,” says Brauer. “So really, the irregular cycles were not a side effect of the pill; rather, stopping the pill unmasked their irregular cycles. The same goes for menstrual cramps, another common reason women go on oral hormonal contraception.” (https://www.byrdie.com/how-to-balance-hormones-after-birth-control)
At True Choice, we offer fertility education to empower women to be informed participants of their own healthcare. FEMM (fertility education & medical management) collaborates with the Reproductive Health Research Institute to provide accurate, unbiased, and comprehensible information .
Through FEMM education, we teach women to become acquainted with their bodies, recognize hormonal and other vital signs of health. FEMM education empowers women to gain a better understanding of their biology and monthly cycles as an indicator of their overall health. As a result, FEMM education helps women recover healthy hormonal dysfunction through lifestyle changes, stress management, diet and exercise.
FEMM gives us the opportunity to place more value on women by helping them manage their health in the most educated, natural and healthy way possible. FEMM provides the opportunity to liberate women through trustworthy, complete medical resources by helping them gain awareness of how hormones influence their overall health.
Our fertility education equips our clients to understand how their hormones continuously progress from childhood, adolescence to adulthood. As the hormones become sufficient through the progression and maturation of the ovulatory mechanism, the body gradually changes from the amenorrhea of childhood, an ovulatory activity in the early stages of puberty to the eventual establishment of the fully fertile ovulatory cycle from mid-to-late puberty through adulthood.
Many of our clients report that they were started on oral contraceptives at a very young age and were never educated on discontinuing them especially as they prepare for having children. As a result, they are fearful of withdrawal symptoms of removing the hormones or the impact the long-term oral contraceptives may have on future fertility. This information is helpful in helping women understand the necessity of understanding how hormones change through the continuum of ovarian activity, how to address the root causes of symptoms that may occur invarious phases and not mask them through the use of synthetic hormones introduced through oral contraceptives. In the long-term, the woman does not have to wonder if she will have withdrawal symptoms or infertility because she will know her body and the roles that hormones play.
