Hormonal Birth Control and Your Health with Dr. Jolene Brighten

Dr. Cates: 00:06 Welcome to The Spa Dr. podcast. I’m Dr. Trevor Cates. On today’s podcast we’re discussing hormonal birth controls impact on your skin and overall health. Many women are put on birth control pills for managing symptoms like acne irregular cycles and peri menopausal symptoms. But did you know that this approach could actually be doing more harm than good to talk about this today. My guest is Dr. Jolene Brighten. She is a naturopathic physician and nutritional biochemist with a focus on women’s endocrine health. She is recognized as a leading expert in post birth control syndrome and the long term side effects associated with hormonal contraceptives. Dr. Brighton is author of Beyond the Pill, a 30 day plan to support women on birth control help them transition off and eliminate symptoms of post birth control syndrome. She is a speaker, women’s health advocate, and medical advisor for one of the first data driven apps to offer women personalized birth control recommendations. On today’s podcast. Dr. Brighton explains how hormonal birth control works so that you understand how it’s impacting your physiology. Also how it may be impacting your health in ways you didn’t even realize that you weren’t aware. I want you to be educated on this because I think a lot of times people aren’t understanding the impact when they start taking hormonal birth control so I think it’s important for you to understand this and how it may be playing a role in your health. And Dr. Brighten also explains alternatives for both birth control and symptom management. So for acne, and solutions for acne, perimenopause, and other symptoms that women are often put on birth control pills for. So I hope you enjoy this information and that it is valuable for you or someone that you know you can share this with them. Please enjoy the interview. . Jolene it’s so great to have you on my podcast welcome.

Dr. Brighten: 02:20 Hey I’m so grateful to be here and really excited to be chatting with you it’s evening for me right now.

Dr. Cates: 02:27 I know you’re in Paris right.

Dr. Brighten: 02:29 Yeah. Crazy right. Yeah. And you’re sitting in Utah. So thanks for making this happen with the time zones.

Dr. Cates: 02:37 Yeah absolutely. So we’re talking about birth control pills and all the issues with this. And I think this is going to be a bit of a surprise for people because I think so many women are put on birth control pills not knowing the possible downside and they’re not taught that before they’re put on birth control pills they’re not aware of the various symptoms. So I’m so excited to have you on to talk about all of this.

Dr. Brighten: 03:03 Yeah yeah. And you know it’s something that you know I like to say straight out the gate for women I’m not anti hormonal birth control in fact I used it for 10 years it was part of my tool in becoming a doctor and a first generation college student. But there’s a lot of things I wish my doctor would have told me before I pop that pill and then I would have just been able to take care of my body in such a better way than driving through the fast food drive through windows and all of the things that teenagers do. So you know it’s it’s it’s a topic this near and dear to my heart not only because of the patients that I work with but because I did 10 years on the pill as well. And so how many women are currently on the pill and are they you know because it’s not just for preventing pregnancy right. So a lot of different reasons. So you know if we’re looking at the United States alone it’s about 11 million women are estimated to be on hormonal birth control, the pill specifically, at this time. And when we expand that globally we’re looking at about 100 million women 100 million women. That’s a lot of women. And like you were saying they’re not all taking it for contraceptive reasons. In fact, when we look at some of the surveys that are done. It’s estimated anywhere from 50 to sixty five percent as high as 65 percent of women are using hormonal birth control. The primary reason is for symptom management and as you and I know these symptoms have a root cause but hormonal birth control has really evolved from being something to help us really control the reproductive system. And when we want to get pregnant to know that I call it the pill for every female ill. And so yeah I mean we’re looking at a lot of women worldwide who are using hormonal birth control primarily to control symptoms.

Dr. Cates: 04:48 Right. So when it comes to skin a lot of women are put on birth control pills for acne for example or they have PCOS. Right. So what are I mean what are the some of the other reasons why women might be put on birth control pill.

Dr. Brighten: 05:01 Yeah. And I just want to say I think that’s one of the biggest dis services that we see in women’s medicine is when you pass the pill for any kind of symptom without any conversation about what is going on and it’s just like you said acne. That’s something that when we pass out birth control for. And is it turns out they find out like decades later they actually had polycystic ovarian syndrome which we know is a metabolic disorder. So it’s rooted in inflammation blood sugar dust regulation leads to diabetes and heart disease. And while your skin may be clear, your other organs are suffering. So you know on top of acne we’ve got PCOS as you mentioned so are regular periods of acne and regular periods is why PCOS women often get put on a hormonal birth control but irregular periods can also be due to things like hypothyroidism. We also see endometriosis being a common reason and not just endometriosis but generally painful periods so you’re having period pain you’re having heavy periods like I said the irregular periods anything they term a period problem. And so the reason to put a woman on hormonal birth control from the conventional perspective and then we’ll start to see that a lot of women who are having hot flashes and you know they’re starting the night sweats they’re having pre menopausal symptoms can also be passed hormonal birth control as a solution for that which is very short sighted and certainly not the ideal therapy for those kinds of symptoms.

Dr. Cates: 06:28 Right. So let’s talk backwards in a way from from this and because you said that you’re not opposed to hormonal birth control so you think it’s OK or a good idea.

Dr. Brighten: 06:37 Yeah. So. Well I first will say this. The only person who can decide the best form of contraceptives is you. And so it’s not my job to be like Oh I think you should or shouldn’t take hormonal birth control. my job as a doctor is to educate you and informyou so so at the end of the day you feel you made the best decision for yourself and whatever that decision is that I support you in that decision. So if you want to use hormonal birth control to not get pregnant then I’m going to support you in that decision. If you are a woman with endometriosis you know you’re in crippling pain. I mean endometriosis is sometimes they’re in pain for 10 days or more out of the month what does what does it take to heal the body naturally we’ve got to eat. Well we’ve got to exercise like we’ve all heard these things. But when you’re in debilitating pain for almost half of the month that can be near impossible to do. Or women who have extremely heavy periods where it’s getting to the point where they can’t reboot or build those iron stores fast enough to keep up with the amount of blood. Some things you need to come in. That blood loss is just too much you need to come in and stop the period for a period of time period for a period time. But you need to stop her from menstruating so that she can rebuild those iron stores because if you get anemic your periods get heavier and then you get more anemic and it just keeps going in the loop and then there’s other situations where sometimes women excuse me have a little tickle there they will choose that like I’m getting married and I don’t want to have to deal with menstrual cramps or bleeding through my wedding dress being a threat and they want to use birth control temporarily. And then there’s the idea for our leaders some women are going through IVF they need that that’s a necessary tool to use that hormonal birth control so that they can get that cycle right. So they’re IVF is successful and so I think there’s I mean as you say to hear there’s a lot of reasons to consider using hormonal birth control but if we’re going to use it we need to know what those side effects are how to stay safe when we’re on it. And I would say that you know as I said before I don’t think that hot flashes are a good reason to be using hormonal birth control ,but it’s your choice if you want to use hormonal birth control for symptom management. More power to you. That’s one hundred percent your choice but if you’re using it because your doctor is giving you no other options. That’s where I take issue because you should be able to know why your body is presenting with those symptoms. What is the root cause. What to do about it and make the decision for yourself rather than being told the only option you have is something like the pill.

Dr. Cates: 09:09 Right. And I think it’s you make such a great point that it is these medications that we have out there like the birth control pill. They could be a good tool. But the problem is that oftentimes we’re too quick, doctors are too quick to use that instead of what’s really going on with this person. Are there other ways that we can help address that and educating patients and educating people on the different options and what it will take. Well I guess you could do this everything from here to here what what what are your what are you comfortable with what can you do right now? Or maybe there are different different phases like we we need to start here but then eventually get you off the birth control pill and support your body during the process. So I think that’s one of the things that’s great about naturopathic medicine or naturopathic doctors is that we talk about the root causes and we really look to find those that support the patient and realize that sometimes medications. And then I see that with skin issues sometimes people’s skin is so inflamed that it’s it’s important to get it calmed down first and using medications can be a good place to kind of help some people during that. But the goal is to really to get to that root cause. Right. So I mean and that’s why I feel that using birth control pills for acne typically is not a great approach because.

Dr. Brighten: 10:31 You know it’s really not. Yeah yeah. And I mean to your point I think that is why my book is called Beyond the pill is because you know like I know like every woman knows she can always go to the doctor and get put on hormonal birth control to manage your symptoms. But let’s go beyond that. Like let’s go deeper than that let’s see what other solutions are out there so that you really do feel like you’ve made the best decision and given the best information that you could have. Now with acne, you know the thing that’s so it’s such a bummer about acne is that with some women on hormonal birth control it can get worse. But there’s others that it does get better but then it comes back with a vengeance when they stop and for some women they never even had acne and they come off of hormonal birth control to find they have new onset acne that happened to me. I never had cystic acne in my life. Ten years on the pill I come off suddenly I have a jaw line full of cystic acne and I was like what what just happened here. No idea. And so I give solutions about acne. I give lots of solutions in my book but acne is a big one because it’s what kind of makes us addicted to hormonal birth control look I certainly went through it , I was like Maybe I should just go back on it like maybe I should. Maybe that’s it. And I have patients who come to me and they’re like you know it’s so bad. I went back on the pill tried to come off again. Same thing happened. Now I’m terrified and I don’t want any woman to feel afraid of being on hormonal birth control be afraid of coming off of it. And so I provide all of these solutions in my book but we’ve got to first understand why. Now as long as you’re on hormonal birth control it’s doing several things for your body one of which is depleting nutrients like zinc which is super important in skin health and immune system regulation plus antioxidants which is what keeps our skin looking youthful and you know I mean you’ve got an entire product line that helps with that as well. And it’s something that I’ve had patients absolutely say to me you know I feel like being on the pill once they started that they started aging a little more quickly I’m like well it’s depleting a lot of nutrients that your skin needs to be healthy and your body will always choose vital organs first, skin second and as much as acne sucks because it really really does. You’re not going to die from acting so your body’s like Oh OK. That’s where we can put things so we’ve got the nutrient depletion. That’s one piece of it. Now the other piece is not birth control. Well it’s depleting nutrients that impede liver detoxification. It’s also causing a burden on your liver and your liver is responsible for detoxing all those hormones out and you’re taking enough hormones to shut down brain and ovarian communications. So it’s not like you’re rubbing a little bit of hormone cream on your wrist. No this is enough oral medication to be able to pass through your liver and still shut down the way your brain and your ovaries communicate. So we’ve seen studies there’s lots of studies on how hormonal birth control can actually cause genetic changes to your liver but also structural changes. And your liver is responsible for detox. And if it cannot detox and move things get things back and to move down to the gut you’re going to find you start having skin symptoms and acne is definitely one of those ways. But you know you can also have things like eczema and you can have just strange rashes as well where it’s like I mean I’ve seen this with women where they come off of hormonal birth control nearly my dermatologist has no idea what’s going on. Now I have these strange rashes and it’s really comes down to nutrient depletion liver health and then we’ve got what’s going on the gut. So birth control. Researchers have said birth control what it does to your microbiome is similar to what antibiotics do. We know antibiotics, they pretty much decimate the microbiome. They lower diversity. And so I I don’t know about you but I don’t know anybody who takes antibiotics for decades on end. That’s not a common thing and so if your gut is seeing the diminished amount of healthy microbes and hormonal birth control also leads to intestinal hyper permeability or leaky gut. Now we’ve got inflammatory state going on like that’s a perfect recipe for skin issues. And then when you come off there’s this thing called the androgen rebound that I talk about in my book which is where basically the ovaries are like finally we can do our thing and then they’ll overshoot the male sex hormones. We have them to just men have them a lot higher and that can cause the oily skin. Now we’re getting actually we’re losing hair on her head and getting it on our chin chest and abdomen. Nobody likes that. And then you go to your doctor and they say the solution is to go back on the pill only I’ve had patients where they come off they have this androgen rebound. Acne comes up then they get back on the pill and things just keep getting worse and worse and worse and that comes down to you know what I’ve seen. It’s all about the liver and the gut. Again liver has to package up those hormones to move them out then you have to poop them out and those bacteria have to help in that. So that system’s not working right. You’re sure not going to have skin symptoms. Yet.

Dr. Cates: 15:38 So then it creates all these hormone imbalances when you go off. But even when people are on there can be issues. I mean I know actually I remember when I was when I was like 20 I took birth control pills that made me break out when I went on them and I had my face was completely covered in acne. And I didn’t know I didn’t know it was acne because I’ve never seen anything like that before. And nobody mentioned you know that this might be a side effect right. So I go in to see a dermatologist and they’re like Oh I think maybe you have poison oak on your face. Did you get exposed it? Oh what was wrong with you was that bad. And then eventually they figured out that it was the birth control pills on and I went off it and then it went away. But I did enough to take some steroids to get it to go away because it was I was just a mess. Well I don’t remember what birth control pill it was.

Dr. Brighten: 16:37 Oh man if we would have known what we know now back then I went on a birth control pill that had me like I was just so depressed and incapacitated and I. And then I switched pills and my mood completely shifted and I so wish I knew what that pill was I’m sure when I wrote it down and I knew which one it was and I could have documented that.
Dr. Cates: 16:59 Yeah but there are costs of birth control pills that are do tend to make people break out and acne and more you know more than others. So you do that but but there’s also so in addition to acne what are the other big things that you mentioned where is it women being put on birth control pills around perimenopause so let’s talk some more about that because what. So can you explain why people are put on how that works works and then you know what it’s actually doing and harmful way.

Dr. Brighten: 17:34 Yeah. So you know what happens in perimenopause is the ovaries begin their decline as they should. We’ll start to have irregular periods and that can be one reason why a doctor will say well you having irregular periods hormonal birth control will regulate your period once you get your period. If it’s ever regular This is the story will be told it’s really important to understand that. Period that you get on hormonal birth control is a withdrawal bleed. So it’s a medication induced bleed it’s not actually a period because you’ve shut down ovulation because that’s how birth control works. Now the other thing too is that doctors will say well you know when it comes to being in perimenopause you may or may not obviously like it’s kind of a moving target. So you’re at higher risk of getting pregnant especially these irregular cycles which is true. And then a woman says I have hot flashes. I’m having night sweats I’m feeling moody I’m having weight gain by the way. Birth control is not going to help your weight gain in perimenopause or menopause. And so a doctor will offer that up like here and this is what I used for my 20 year old. This will work for you hormonal birth control. Was designed to be used in a healthy female. And we have come to understand that after age 35 the risk for stroke and heart attack rise. And so if you’re putting a woman at forty eight on a hormonal birth control that’s putting her at really high risk for these side effects which you know are are thought to be minimal risk in a younger population. So with that in mind we also have to view through the lens that a study came out in 2018 showing if you’ve been on hormonal birth control for just six months in your life you have an over 30 percent increased risk of developing diabetes as you go into menopause. So hold up like six months of my life and I can develop diabetes later and then you want to put a woman so close to menopause on hormonal birth control knowing that it induces insulin resistance and blood sugar is regulation. Now the best thing that you can do though if you want to use bioidentical hormones like I know this is something I support patients with. They are not the same as synthetic hormonal contraceptive. So let’s just be really clear about that like the dose that you need and especially with where we’re using topical estrogen that’s much safer. The dose you need to get symptom relief to protect your bones your brain your heart is much lower than the dose you need to shut down your brain from talking to your ovaries. So one, it’s a very short sighted solution because we’re just talking about synthetic estrogen and then progestin which doesn’t have the benefits of progesterone and in fact decline of progesterone from lack of ovulation that causes all of those side effects in perimenopause and rosacea is something that comes up during this time can actually be made worse by hormonal birth control and you can get the plasma to developing which for people listening mylasma is hyper pigmentation of the skin. So it’s where your skin gets dark really think pregnancy. It’s well-documented hormonal birth control causes this as well which is a super bummer because now you know as I talked about. It depletes and dioxin. Which is you know fighting free radicals and the aging process. You can develop hyper pigmentation. And because if that synthetic estrogen not having the same effect as your natural estrogen you can get thinning of the skin. And we see this like the place where it shows up where women started talking about this the most so the vagina and the the labia and the choice to the opening of the vagina it atrophies. Women start having pain with intercourse. It can become friable which means that terrorists easily. Pain with orgasms. So you might lose your libido on hormonal birth control then you’re having painless sex then even if you do achieve an orgasm it’s painful like that’s just that’s lame. That’s not OK. But with all of that a woman that’s in perimenopause like she needs natural based progesterone she needs you know if she’s going to use estrogen using a topical bioidentical estrogen she likely needs testosterone which this is why I said hormonal birth control is not going to help with that weight loss because it actually gobbles up all your testosterone. Now we get muscle cells that are atrophy. So. That can lead to urinary incontinence can also lead to osteoporosis because you don’t have substantial muscle mass and you’re going to gain weight because that muscle is starting. It’s very metabolically active. So it’s starting to decline and you can get what’s developed later in our older population certain obesity where now you’ve got fat cells pleading are coming in and you’re deleting your muscle cells. So we start to see that shift. But even more concerning you delete those muscle cells. You we know that there’s actually like there was a study shown that the meatier your thighs ladies the less chance of dementia like because of your mitochondria and what are you’re not mitochondria need antioxidants like coke you tell that hormonal birth control is depleting so you women and not phase of life. It’s in all phases of life. It’s much more complex but when it comes to those symptoms it’s much more complex and I’m sure that you’ve seen this if estrogen declines or you’re using a medication that messes with your adrenal and your ability to make DHEA really see hair changes skin changes uh changes to your nails as well. So using synthetic birth control is actually you know keeping women from getting those natural estrogens during that period of time they would be exposed to. And it can cause those unfavorable tissue changes throughout the body. Does that all make sense. I know I just talked for a bit there.

Dr. Cates: 23:18 We just went through a lot of information. So I love that because I think I hear this in my practice so often that I have somebody come in and they say oh I was my doctor suggested I am going through perimenopause so they suggested hormones. So they put me on birth control pills. So like doctors a lot of conventional doctors think of and communicate or at least that’s what my patients are telling me that that that there are other doctors are saying oh you need bioidentical hormones are not required to continue doing hormones you need hormone therapy. Let me put you on birth control pills and I think that you know there is a lot of talk that women are talking about all I’m getting going through perimenopause so that means I need hormones and that to them equates to the birth control pill. So I’m glad that we’re clearing this up that there is. And what you’re talking about about how different the birth control pill is versus bioidentical hormones. So just to kind of back up a little bit what exactly is the birth control pill.

Dr. Brighten: 24:19 Yeah. So it’s a actually there’s two. One is the combination tell which is a synthetic estrogen with progestin. So there’s only one progesterone and your ovaries make it progestin is made in a lab. Now there’s the other pill which is the mini pill and that’s progestin only. It has a really high failure rate. So it’s really rare that a woman is given that, it’s usually only postpartum that would do that because a woman has such high stroke risk postpartum that you don’t want to give her the estrogen. So with that excuse me. The synthetic progestin is what’s important. Then I want to speak to this because what you said is that doctors don’t really understand. So they’re all trained in using hormonal contraceptives and then it’s like a woman’s in a different phase of her life cycle and they’re like hormones just all the same. Right. But most doctors and researchers don’t understand the difference between progesterone and progestin. And the reason I say this is because almost I mean almost every study that I’ve found that they’ll say progesterone is bad and progesterone can do these things you get into what they actually used as progestin. Yet the researchers were using progesterone and progestin interchangeably. I hear this from doctors all the time as well. Where. I mean I’ll have doctors sometimes who are like well I tested her progesterone and it’s not showing up and I’m like well she’s on progestin like that. You can’t you can’t test that. Let’s get through some of this is not the same thing. And so you know if you’re a woman listening to this and you felt confused about this know that like a lot of people in medicine and research are confused about this and you know just give a few comparisons like progesterone will help you feel chilled out and calm by stimulating the Gabba receptor in your brain. So when you’re feeling like why am I having anxiety coming out of nowhere and I’m having these racing thoughts at night and I never was an anxious person that could be your progesterone, progestin doesn’t have those same facts it doesn’t have those same benefits. Progesterone is a diuretic so it’s going to help with water weight. Progestin doesn’t have the same effect. This is partly why women will get on hormonal birth control and noticed right away they gain weight. They’re just like in a week I gain all this weight. That’s usually water weight coming on because progesterone has the diuretic effect progesterone helps us maintain a pregnancy progestin. It’s never been shown to do that. Like there’s a lot of things going on here words like they’re not the same and structurally when you look at them they’re not the same at all.

Dr. Cates: 26:51 And I think it’s so interesting when you were talking about how many women are on birth control pill for. For regulating cycles and for perimenopause. And yet there are so many doctors out there saying that hormone therapy is not safe Biogen hormones aren’t safe and there’s so much controversy out there and misunderstanding this confusion. So I’m I’m happy to have you on today to clear up some of this specifically around birth control pills and I love that your book is about beyond the pill. What else can we do besides the pill. So let’s talk more about that too. So what else can people do that are struggling with some of these issues. I mean I you know I talk a lot about about actually but you know it’s like perimenopause you talk about these kind of things in your book or what you know what are we doing beyond beyond the pill.

Dr. Brighten: 27:42 Yeah. So I want to say like I think your book is an excellent resource when it comes to skin and what you can do with your skin overall. And they do it know in my book I go through a whole protocol so what is the secret sauce. Like if you want an awesome hormones at any phase in your life but you best have this dialed in if you want to have a successful and why they say successful transition into menopause is that you’re not that like what you see in the movies kind of seeing going on and not is going to take care of you but. Take care of your liver. Balance your blood sugar and make sure your adrenal and thyroid are on point because once the ovaries quit it’s up to the adrenal is to make DHEA that is going to then be your estrogen or your testosterone. So with that. If you’re going to be on the pill. I have an entire chapter on liver health which you know my you read a book. So you know how this goes with publishers my editors were like Why are you talking about liver and then you’re talking about God like what people just want the sex hormones solutions I’m like Yeah. But like I don’t want them to have to keep treating the same stuff over and over. So. If we can take care of your liver then and then we take care of your gut like that’s the foundation of hormones right there and then there’s an entire chapter about adrenal and thyroid health as well because we have to have all those in place. You know sometimes things like hot flashes. It’s not about estrogen. It’s about cortisol and epinephrine norepinephrine misfiring from the adrenal glands. And so. That’s something they’re you know shifting your adrenal glands. It actually if you take care of your drills and your thyroid is going to be so much easier for your estrogen and for your progesterone and testosterone to be imbalanced and at the same time if your liver’s working right to detox that estrogen and for your body to be able to move it out less likely to have hot flashes less likely to have night sweats. And so I go through that in detail in my book I give you a bunch of recipes so I’m like OK here’s all the foods that are going to help you. And like here’s a ton of recipes for that and I’m very much like if you’re going to present a problem of the kind of person that like when I read a health book and it’s like. Here’s a problem but the solution comes one hundred pages later I kind of get a little bit anxious where I’m like I don’t know what’s happening right now. And so when you get into Beyond the Pill there’s actually right away in the first chapter a quiz. So you can figure out what your hormone and balance is from that quiz. It’s like hey if this is what is true for you this is what you figured out jumped to this page that you need to read this chapter and then jump to these pages. This is exactly where your solutions are so that you don’t because like look if your hormones are imbalanced like you don’t have time to read a book from front to back and I went through this with my publishers too where they were like We want people to read the whole thing. They’re not going to read the whole thing. I wouldn’t read the whole thing like I’m not designing it that way like it is a manual for you to figure out things and so you can read it front to back. It does work that way as well. But you can also just get right to the point of solutions and then when I start talking about things like irregular periods or heavy periods heavy periods can be really common and perimenopause. And that’s something doctors will be like take the pill you need to know why that’s happening because whatever is happening then it’s still going to be there five years from now if you don’t address it and might be fibroids you might be finding yourself with a hysterectomy later because no one addressed what was going on and so. They have these. I have an entire chapter where it’s like here’s what’s going on with your hormones. OK here’s here’s what your doctor should be investigating what might be going on. Here’s the lab testing they should do and here’s what you should do right now so that while you wait for that doctor’s visit or wait for the lab results you can start working on those things because as you and I know natural therapies take time. So let’s not waste any time. Let’s start those interventions now and then work on the root cause and in the book it’s like whatever you start to work on now. So for heavy periods for example starting to increase sources of iron and making sure they’re getting lots of iron and then bringing in foods that help detoxify estrogen. That’s only going to help you. You’re only going to get healthier from that. That’s a major side effect there with that is that you’re going to get healthier. And then if it turns out that it’s a guy it is iron deficiency anemia you can bring in an iron supplement and start rebuilding those stores. And so I address a whole lot in this book. And so you know I really wrote it. So it’s like you there’s solutions beyond the pill. There’s also life after the pill. So I want you to know that if you did struggle with acne there is life beyond the pill and there’s an entire protocol set up in there so you can be as successful as possible. I felt a lot of women I mean I have clear skin now like lifting so you can for the people in the video to see it. I always hate when you’re like Wait did did they actually clear their skin like what’s going on there. You’ve been on YouTube. You know what I’m talking about. But you know with that you know you can absolutely get amazing skin. You can normalize your period and you can get your energy back if hormonal birth control is part of why your adrenal is in your thyroid I’ve been struggling I’m going to help you figure that out so you can be more energized and there’s an entire chapter dedicated to mood. So you don’t have to be anxious you don’t have to be moody. You don’t have to feel depressed or wonder why and what’s going on with you. And then one of my favorite chapters is the one all about libido and fertility. And I will say and I say that and fertility because women will say wait but I’m using the pill because I don’t want to get pregnant. I’m coming off like why are you trying to make me fertile only because for as however long that you are in your fertile window you want to be fertile because that’s how you get your progesterone up. Which makes you feel chilled out and calm helps with weight helps with skin, helps with all of these things but like honestly drive us all to want to get on the hormonal birth control someday. So and in that chapter it’s just fun because I prescribe orgasms.

Dr. Cates: 33:30 That’s great. So. So for those of us that, which is a lot of women obviously, have been on birth control pills at some point in our life there are recommendations for for getting ourselves back on track. So are there any general recommendations that you can share with us today about. Getting you know kind of reversing what damage may be there and maybe people aren’t even having symptoms after taking birth control pills but but maybe they’re kinda. Deficient in things or what are some things that people can do to kind of build themselves back up after taking birth control pills.

Dr. Brighten: 34:08 Yeah. And you know that’s the thing that we see often is that someone will come off and they’re like. Oh. It’s OK. There’s maybe some mild symptoms. And then you know months later sometimes years later they’re like. And now I can’t handle those now they creeped on to me and so. Well you know you might be someone who’s transitioning offer you come off and you’re like I can live with this. Can you live with it if it’s like amplified by like 10 in the next couple of years. Because if you don’t address what’s going on things are going to be left to prove. So number one replenish those nutrients or so get yourself on a good multivitamin or a good prenatal depending on where you’re at in your life cycle really build up those nutrient source you if you’re on hormonal birth control you just know diet and lifestyle are always foundational but you cannot just out diet hormonal birth control you’ll have to have a supplement on top of that especially if you’ve just come off of it and you’re starting to have symptoms bringing on a quality multivitamin, a prenatal but you’ve got to get the diet dialed in as well which means and it’s not the sexy stuff I’m going to say that like it’s it’s the stuff you’ve heard so many times that’s lots of leafy green vegetables high quality proteins high quality fats yes you need to eat the cholesterol. I will teach you all in my book the chapter called The lowdown on your hormones how you actually build hormones how your hormones work in your body and you’ve got to eat fat for those. Anti inflammatory Fats. I’m going to say that because we don’t want the skin flaring and you’ve got to also be starting to look at things like your lifestyle and we know what is going on with your stress and so right now let’s get those nutrient stores up so start shifting the diet to include more vegetables can be a really easy thing that you do especially crucifix vegetables with help with liver detoxification get yourself that quality multivitamin going and then consider doing some repair to your gut that’s going to vary for each person but you bring in you treat foods like bone broth started to take a probiotic eating probiotic rich foods can really help so that you start detoxifying those hormones and we know you know you’re the one who is like but I think you’re saying goes like your skin is a mirror of the inside of your body am I saying you’re quote right.

Dr. Cates: 36:19 Ya the magic mirror, you got it.

Dr. Brighten: 36:21 So with that if your gut is healthy and a lot more functional your skin is going to look a lot better as well. And then the other thing is that if your symptoms are kind of extreme you want to consider doing like a two week liver detox like where and when I say liver detox it’s nothing extreme. They’re not going to drink swamp water. That’s not what we’re talking about here. Some of that stuff is like small water but you know more making sure that you’re really up regulating the liver detoxification pathways by getting the foods that your liver needs to function. So drinking things like dandelion root tea getting in like burdock root into the diet again the price of rice vegetables can help. You’ll need those high quality proteins you can’t detox without amino acids. And most women are going to benefit from using some physician grade supplements on top of that and that’s. You do all the diet stuff you put the supplements on top of that detox and when women are like my skin is never looked better by the end of that. So that’s why I want to add that in there because if you’re like I’m eating all that way I’m doing the little things things are not getting better. Definitely consider adding the supplements on top of that. And then don’t forget to sleep because yes if you don’t sleep you are going to age a lot more rapidly because you don’t get all those yummy hormones repairing your skin at night. But there’s also the fact that we now understand well Chinese medicine always knew this. Then we had a research study come out. Now we really know this that you know your organs are in a circadian rhythm and we know now that if you’re not sleeping optimally that your liver detox appropriately and it took a big hit for however long you were on hormonal birth control so say thank you to your liver. It’s over here on your upper right hand side. That’s why I’m saying thank you right now but say thank you for your liver because it does so much for you. And it did so much to keep you safe so you didn’t get overwhelmed and overburdened with that hormonal birth control.

Dr. Cates: 38:16 So with all this talk. Thank you. That’s fantastic. I love all those tips and of course you know a lot of that stuff is you know things that I talk about in my book and there are things that support the body overall. And and so those are all lined up right. So as people are listening watching to this I think there if there’s anybody that’s on birth control that I’m sure there people are there going to be immediately going I’m going to get off my birth control pill so don’t do that. All right I wanted to give you a few moments to talk about if you’re on birth control pills right now. Somebody is what. What should they do if they want to get off.

Dr. Brighten: 38:56 Yeah. So. Well the first thing is and you will read this in my book where I really prepare you in like a we’re like we’re gonna weigh the pros and cons here. If you got on it for symptom management of any kind you’re going to need to give yourself a good three months maybe more to prep your body before you come off less because we want you to be successful and I don’t want you to be in hormonal health. They don’t want you to look like you know you’re 14 and you’re in your 30s or 40s and that is you know it’s something that I’ll say I’ve noticed that the younger a woman is put on hormonal birth control the worse the almost puberty that comes back after coming off of it. I say that because there’s part of me that’s like is Kubrick actually necessary. Is that a necessary thing for us to all go through the body go through it again. And so if you were put on it so let’s say you were born on it. You knowat 14 15 16 give yourself three months of really prepping your body and then come off and you’ll find a whole protocol and be on the pill and then we’ll go into like individualized thing for you. It doesn’t mean you need to do a super restricted diet for three months it doesn’t mean that you have to be taking boatloads of supplements for three months. You really going to have to do some work to prepare your body and then dial it in as you transition off you’re going to have to track your symptoms so that you know what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. Now the other thing is. You do not want to get pregnant after hormonal birth control immediately and even if you’re coming off of it and you’re like yeah you’re pregnant that’s why I’m coming off you need to prep your body for at least six months. There’s tons of research to support this and just an everything I’ve said that you’ve been listening to so far. That’s more than enough reason to do this. So you’ve got to have a backup method before you come off of hormonal birth control make sure you have a backup method that really is step one because even if you do want to have a baby it’s just not time yet. OK. There’s some work you got to do on your body so that you’re as healthy as possible babies as healthy as possible and then you have a healthy postpartum and then just because your doctor put you on the pill and you were like well I’m in perimenopause and I haven’t seen my period doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant because obviously issue comes before menstruation and I cannot tell you how many women that I’ve had to come into my clinic and I’m like What’s your contraceptive that you’re using they’re like I’m not using anything and I’m like well a side effect of getting healthy is not like your body will be more fertile. No no no my periods of been so irregular I’m about to end up 48 and pregnant and I was like. I’ve said I’ve had a 50 year old pregnant and I’m like that’s supposed to not happen and I’m sorry that happened but like we talked about this thing. So that’s why I have this fear at night that sometimes keeps me up where I’m like There’s if women just hear these things and they jump off birth control and then there’s this generation of Brighten babies where everybody had all these unintended pregnancies and then history is gonna look back and be like that curly haired girl like look what she did.

Dr. Cates: 41:51 Because you know fertility definitely improves with health. Oh yeah. And I’ve heard that so many times that you’re saying oh I just can’t get pregnant I can’t get pregnant. You know it’s just not even possible. And then they get healthy and boom they get pregnant and sometimes it’s a blessing sometimes it’s a whoops. But be prepared like what you’re saying. So I definitely want to reiterate that.

Dr. Brighten: 42:16 Yeah. Totally. And I’ll say right now you know if you go to beyondthepillbook.com. So when you grab the book I’ve got a bunch of bonuses for you and one bonus is a recipe guide. So there’s a bunch of recipes there for you. The other one is nutrient depletion is created by hormonal birth control and how to use food to help start replenishing those nutrient depletion. So that is really like one of the step ones. And there’s also a lab guide in there as well. If you want to start getting testing going with your doctor that can really help guide you in that as well. Yeah that’s great. I mean B vitamins are another one that’s that get depleted from birth to and they’re so important for skin.

Dr. Cates: 42:54 So just one last thing is what. So if somebody doesn’t want to use hormonal birth control. What do you suggest.

Dr. Brighten: 43:03 So you know one thing I really want to say as we go into this piece is that hormonal birth control never was preventing sexually transmitted infections. And I say that because while searching you know talking about their methods and using a condom then sometimes people are like nobody wants to use condoms. And nobody wants to get chlamydia or anything else like that either but like and not something that I got so many of my patients have been like. I’ve been talking like there’s just so much not even misinformation just like a void of information not provided to women where I’ll talk to them about like oh you have a new partner you wearing condoms and they’re like well I’m on birth control I’m like . Hold up what it’s like what happened in that conversation. And I feel like I mean this is definitely younger women that I’m talking to that I’m like OK. OK. That’s not how that works. So you know there is always barrier methods that are condoms diaphragms that you can use. There’s cervical cap. And then there’s the copper IUD. If you don’t want to use hormonal birth control I detail all of these Chapter 13 of beyond the pill. There’s an entire chapter to non hormonal contraceptives, copper usually works for some women not for all women. I always recommend chart your symptoms when you start a new form of hormonal or non hormonal birth control continue to treat your symptoms understand if it’s working for you if you have heavy painful periods. Skip the copper IUD it’s not going to work it’s going to just make everything worse. Trust me too many times I’ve seen that and then there’s also fertility awareness method and fertility awareness method these days is a whole lot easier because there’s all kinds of femme tech devices like Daisy and natural cycles or two that the United States has the FDA actually approved natural cycles as a contraceptive device in 2013 which was huge but just like I said before don’t take a backseat to your health. So even if you’re using one of these femme check devices or you’re doing basal body temperature and you’re recording that. So fertility during this method. How would I tell people what that is. So it’s the most you know the what the form. So you may have heard rhythm method before but the form of natural family planning fertility awareness method that actually has the highest efficacy is when you’re taking your basal body temperature and you’re paying attention to your symptoms and so first thing in the morning. Eyes pop open. Take your basal body temperature with a thermometer under the tongue. You can use one of the femme tech devices you can plug it into an app or you can hand paper chart it get a book like Taking Charge of Your Fertility that’ll help you be able to do that and what you’ll notice is there’s a spike right before you obviously. So there’s gonna be a spike egg is coming. So that’s what we’re looking for in that change. You’ll also see fertile cervical mucus. And so you’ll see fertile cervical mucus. You can try to assess your cervix. That’s a little bit trickier for women. But the other thing is is that you’ll notice your libido is suddenly up and you’re like Oh I’m very interested very interested in having sex. Odds are that you’re going to ovulate soon so there’s lots of then there’s more symptoms and not that you can pay attention to to really dial in when you’re fertile. Now when you’re going through perimenopause cycles you’re not regular so that’s not going to be as accurate. There are other forms out there where you can actually take the P.H. of your vagina and your mouth and be able to understand if you’re going to obviously those work a little bit better for women with irregular cycles. And then there’s new gels coming on the market one that changes your cervical mucus. So it’s when it’s supposed to be fertile cervical mucus it’s less fertile and then there’s other gels that will actually kill sperm. And so there’s lots of other options out there. It’s just about what works for you. What works for you in your life. Like I said you know if you’re someone you’re not in a monogamous relationship getting tested then you’re going want to use condoms anyways. So that’s something that’s going to be part of your routine as it is. And so you’ve got to really evaluate those things like in the context of your health your family history what symptoms you’ve had with different contraceptives. And then when you when you start that contraceptive you’ve got to figure out if that’s right for you or not. And it can sometimes be trial and error for some women. I mean some women are like I I’ve had women write me they’re like I’ve tried 10 pills. Every single one. I’m a wreck hormonal birth control doesn’t work for me. And you know for other women they’re like Oh I tried this pill but then I switch to like the Skyla IUD and that seemed to work for me. So just know that like there is no one size fits all and well like yes naturally we would never be on these synthetic hormones. There’s also the reality that like we have things to do in this world. So getting pregnant may not be on your agenda at this moment. And it’s absolutely 100 percent your right to choose when it’s time to make a baby.

Dr. Cates: 48:04 Right. Absolutely. Awesome. Well Jolene I mean we could just keep talking and there’s so much to cover when it comes to birth control and hormones and an optimal health and fertility and all that good stuff. But I know people could find a lot of information in your book. We already covered a lot. So that’s probably enough for everybody to digest today. So tell everybody where they can find you find out more about you and in your new book.

Dr. Brighten: 48:32 Yes. So you can find me at Drbrighten.com. My book is there. My book is also everywhere that they sell books. I get to be that tagline and say that so you can buy my book anywhere they sell books. You can also find me at Instagram at Dr. Jolene Brighton. They also have a youtube channel where I educate women via video. So whatever format works for you. And then of course if you’re grabbing the book grab the bonuses we have a lot of really cool bonuses for you and that’s beyondthepillbook.com.

Dr. Cates: 49:02 Great. And we’ll have all those links up on the website below your interview. All right. Thank you Jolene. It was great to see you.

Dr. Brighten: 49:09 Thank you. So good seeing you.

Dr. Cates: 49:12 I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Dr. Jolene Brighton. I’d really love to hear from you. Have you heard any of these kinds of issues that Dr. Brighton talked about during the interview. If so please send us an email at the spot actor or post a comment and the section below on YouTube or on the spot Dr web site below the podcast and let us know give us your feedback as to whether or not this is an issue for you. Also please think of other people you could forward this along to other women in your and women in your life that that you think might benefit from this interview. Please share with with other people and if you haven’t already taken this skin quiz I ensure encourage you to do that just go to theskinquiz.com takes just a few moments you get personalized personalized recommendations for you and give you information about what your skin’s trying to tell you about your health. Go to theskinquiz.com. Also I invite you to join me on social media. The Spa Dr. is on Facebook on Pinterest Instagram YouTube and join us there for the conversation on social media. And I’ll see you next time on the spot Dr. podcast.