The Key 🔑 To Coming Off of Birth Control

Whether you’ve been on birth control for 1 year or 15 years, removing it is not something we take lightly at our practice.

Whether you are going back to still having a period, or if you are in menopause and hormones may be low, we still need to prepare the system to be able to detoxify and stabilize as we bring back communication between the brain and ovaries.

So let’s dive into what you want to be prepared for, as well as how to prepare your body to minimize symptoms and side effects that con be commonplace when removing a birth control.

What Actually Happens When You Remove it?

Regardless of what birth control you were on (i.e. progestin-IUD, copper-IUD, progestin-only pill, combination pill, patch, etc.) there are three big pieces we want to account for:

1. Detoxification Pathways Being Opened - Hormones that have been circulating due to the birth control in place, as well as additional hormone levels that will begin to come back online from HPO axis (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Ovarian) signaling restarting now need to be detoxified properly.
2. Managing Stress and Inflammation - Hormones coming back online, even in small amounts, can cause some water retention for some women and we want to ensure that our inflammation elsewhere in the body before we remove it is low!
3. Nutrient Deficiencies - Unfortunately birth control has been shown to drive specific nutrient deficiencies that are very important for hormone health and detoxification (i.e. Magnesium, Zinc, Selenium, B-Vitamins) and we want to support those levels before pulling the birth control.

What Symptoms May I Experience When Removing Birth Control?

There can be many symptoms that happen, and not all of these WILL happen, but we want you to be prepared and aware of what can be related to hormones and brain signaling coming back into place:

1. Water Retention/Weight Gain 💦  Unfortunately our wonderful hormones can cause some water retention through a number of mechanisms. One is because estrogen can cause water retention in the belly specifically when it fluctuates up. Another is because estrogen can stimulate the immune system and drive inflammation, which can appear as weight gain.
2. Heavy/Irregular Periods 🩸 Typically when coming off of birth control, progesterone may be low or rise slower than estrogen. This can drive heavy bleeding or periods that are a bit irregular.
3. Mood Swings 😩 Our hormones can make us feel all kinds of ways, and when you are on birth control, the fluctuations of our hormones stop. Bringing hormones back in, and the body taking time to regulate them can mean your mood takes some time to regulate back as well.
4. Immune-Based Symptoms 🔥 I mentioned above that estrogen fluctuations can trigger the immune system in certain ways. This is where I will often see skin conditions (eczema, psoriasis), or joint pain, or other auto-immune based symptoms may start to flare for a period of time.
5. Post-Pill PCOS 💊  It isn’t uncommon to come off of birth control and due to the inflammatory state birth control can sometimes cause, as well as the low progesterone, we will see a loss of a period, and/or a variation of PCOS. It is a bit more of a temporary PCOS, but we want to address it sooner than later! It’s why I always recommend bloodwork around 3 months post-birth control, especially if you still haven’t gotten back a period (and you are supposed to and not in menopause).