HOUSTON – The birth control pill has been around for decades and while it was initially used to prevent pregnancy, doctors now prescribe it to treat a whole host of other ailments.
One Texas author and professor at Texas Christian University, Dr. Sarah Hill, says the pill can affect a woman's thinking, emotions, and behavior.
In her new book, The Pill Changes Everything, Hill claims the pill can transform a woman’s personality and can affect sex drive, attraction, stress, eating patterns and even a woman's taste in men.
Jenna Longoria, a functional nutritionist in Houston, agrees.
"A lot of women feel that a period is a nuisance, they might feel that their period brings them problems, but actually the period is not the problem," Longoria said. "It shows the problem. If something's wrong with our period it's signifying there's a health problem."
In one recent study, women were asked to choose which scent of sweat they were attracted to the most.
"Women on the birth control pill choose the sweat that is most genetically similar to them, but women that are not on the birth control pill choose the sweat of a mate that is different, so they will produce stronger offspring,” Longoria said.
Another study blamed higher divorce rates on birth control pills, claiming after some women went off the pill, they were no longer attracted to their husbands.
Longoria also says women who take the pill are more likely to take anti-depressants.
"There was actually a very large study, the University in Copenhagen in 2016 they studied over 1 million women over 13 years to see if birth control use was linked to depression treatment, and they found that yes it is linked to depression.”
Longoria believes doctors do not spend enough time giving women all the information they need to make an informed decision and says birth control pills should not be given to teens when there are healthier alternatives.
"We should not be putting our teenagers on the birth control pill for acne, to regulate periods... it's going to mess up the communication between the brain and the ovaries because they haven't yet established that hormonal rhythm,” she said.
Longoria wants to make it clear that she has nothing against women using the birth control pill and that millions of women take it with no problems. But like Hill, she wants women to have all the information available to decide what’s best for them.
Longoria has a free ebook available that has information on periods, contraceptive pills and alternatives.
