Posted on 08/06/2019 10:14:54 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
In a now-viral Facebook post from September of 2018, Breana Carlson led with a disclaimer about graphic potentially disturbing information and pictures, before exclaiming, “I genuinely feel like birth control has ruined my life.”
Carlson was put on birth control in middle school in order to “regulate her menstrual cycles.” She was prescribed the hormonal contraceptive Junel and, within a couple of months of taking it, her cramps, acne, and heavy bleeding all lightened up. Within a year of starting hormonal birth control, her period stopped completely—also causing her relief. But her mother began to worry. A gynecologist reassured them both that this was perfectly normal, and so Breana continued to take Junel.
However, this relief was short lived as Carlson began to experience other unusual and seemingly random medical issues. She found herself constantly in and out of the ER for unexplained symptoms and pain. She visited a rheumatologist, a gastroenterologist, and underwent a colonoscopy and endoscopy. All the while, doctors speculated issues with her lymph nodes, intestinal problems, and in one case ingrown toenails—all maintaining that they couldn’t pinpoint the problem. Meanwhile, her gynecologist said everything looked normal and that the Pill could not be the cause of her issues.
Getting Answers
Finally, Carlson found a nurse and gynecologist willing to do whatever it took to get to the bottom of her issues. They ordered an abdominal ultrasound, which revealed several large tumors, which had apparently been discovered several years before in an ER CT scan, but Carlson and her mother had not been informed. Carlson met with a surgeon who said the tumors were caused by her birth control.
(Excerpt) Read more at naturalwomanhood.org ...
Scary. I just knew my granddaughter had anemia. Took her to the doctor one day after he couldn’t get out of bed. I asked the doctor if they could check her blood, as I suspected anemia. She ended up getting emergency transfusions within hours. The doctor did not look at any other causes or treatments other than putting her on birth control.
Pregnancy is not a disease.
I’ve heard there are issues with hormonal birth control.
Some women have been on the pill for decades, as they seek to avoid pregnancy. I’ve heard some doctors say that birth control pills, if used by a woman at all, should be used for short periods of time. If a couple needs long term birth control, they really should seek out other methods.
sounds a lot like endometriosis, which often happens to women of child-bearing age who don’t have children ... one of the cures is to simulate pregnancy with birth-control hormones, though that works only some of the time.
bookmark
Read the article. In fact, read the excerpt.
High estrogen during gestation causes problems for male baby development followed by putting them on psychotropic drugs to counteract the side effects which have other side effects when they finally go off of those drugs. It’s a cascade.
I already read it.
They are God awful things. Not wanting a child a year, I tried them, HORRID things.
She is an outlier. Even though oral birth control is not healthy, neither is hot dogs and pizza. The effects she had don’t happen to most on BC. Hopefully they will come up with a hormonal birth control that is transdermal that will work as well but not have as many negative side effects. Barrier methods are fine, not many sides effects to those. Except you have to have them with you.
A friend shared his thoughts with me on the most effective model
Take a birth control pill and hold it between your knees, it you drop it you most likely will get pregnant
Your comment is basically a non-sequitur, as are others here. It’s not about avoiding pregnancy, but is about what can happen for some with B.C.
“Your comment is basically a non-sequitur”
No, it is a response to this line from the article:
‘As one OBGYN has said, “Prescribing contraception was bread and butter gynecology for me. It was probably one of the largest tools I had in my arsenal as an OBGYN to treat medical issues.”’
Pregnancy is not a “medical issue” or disease to be treated with birth control.
According to Robert Marshall, Ph.D., prolonged use induces a quasi-permanent B6 (vital in amino acid utilization and protein sysnthesis) deficiency, which accounts for the weight gain that many such women experience: Their bodies are less efficient in anabolic lean mass production.
Before I knew this, I once knew a young woman who was petite and who did some fashion modeling. Her mother put her on the Pill, ostensibly to regulate her menses, but really because she feared a scandal due to her daughter’s sexual activity. That young woman became forever overweight.
My own experience would have been similar, I am sure, if I’d continued with nuvaring. I was on it for perimenopausal symptoms. Fortunately, my husband and I are not that trusting when it comes to drugs and I discontinued the ring before further damage occurred. As it was, it took months for me to get back to functional and 2 years before I was completely healed.
I was all over a site called medications.com at the time and there were hundreds of similar stories to mine. Hormonal contraceptives, because they are not bioidentical, can be toxic to some. My fear is that doctors don’t do enough screening and observation of symptoms that develop, even months after. Nobody who takes prescription drugs should ever be ignorant of the obscure side effects. Unfortunately, when it comes to hormonal birth control, even some doctors are woefully uninformed.
The old aspirin between the knees. I’m sorry, but it sure is not foolproof. Think yoga, gymnastics...
It is not an illness, you are correct there. But it is a time when a vast array of things can go wrong very quickly.
OK, but again, even here OBG did NOT state pregnancy. They ARE used for medical purposes, as the focus of this article indicates.
Not even the point. BCP ARE used for many issues, not just their original purpose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.