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Transcript

Getting off Birth Control with Jenny Mahoney · Mocktail Minutes

0:21
Bayle: All right.
0:22
Bayle: Hi, everyone.
0:23
Bayle: Welcome to Mocktail Minutes.
0:25
Bayle: This is Bailey.
0:26
Brianna: And this is Brianna.
0:27
Jenny: And I'm Jenny.
0:28
Brianna: Yes.
0:28
Bayle: We have Ginny here with us, too.
0:30
Bayle: So, we're super excited to have her as a guest.
0:33
Bayle: If you have been listening to the episodes, we do a little mocktail, each episode because it's Mocktail Minutes.
0:39
Bayle: So, this week I found, it's called a super coffee from Schnucks.
0:44
Bayle: It's blueberry flavored, and it actually tastes really good.
0:46
Bayle: It literally tastes like a blueberry, so I give it a 10 out of 10.
0:51
Bayle: Not bad.
0:52
Jenny: sounds good.
0:53
Brianna: I'm just doing my, again, jigsaw electrolytes in the fruit punch.
0:58
Brianna: I have a double scoop today because I need like all the minerals that I can get because my adrenals are upset with me.
1:04
Brianna: But yeah, it's my favorite flavor from them, hands down.
1:07
Brianna: Jenny, what are you having?
1:08
Jenny: Okay, this is my pregnancy mineral mocktail.
1:11
Jenny: I just have, it's real simple coconut water, orange juice, a little splash of pineapple juice, a little salt and some trace mineral drops.
1:18
Bayle: Yes, I love that.
1:19
Bayle: It's such an easy go to little mocktail.
1:23
Jenny: Yeah.
1:23
Jenny: I used to do all the fancy stuff with the powders and then, you know, pregnancy aversions happen.
1:28
Jenny: So I just had to dumb it down and keep it super simple.
1:31
Bayle: Yeah, you gotta do what works.
1:32
Bayle: How far along are you?
1:34
Jenny: 22 weeks.
1:35
Jenny: It's flying by.
1:36
Jenny: Sometimes I forget I'm pregnant.
1:38
Jenny: I'm like, oh crap, I still have to design a nursery and, do all the things.
1:43
Brianna: That's all
1:43
Bayle: Yeah, it'll be fine.
1:44
Bayle: That's the fun
1:45
Jenny: I already have one, so I, you know,
1:47
Bayle: Yeah.
1:48
Jenny: a lot of the stuff already.
1:50
Bayle: Yes.
1:50
Bayle: And that kind of goes into what we're talking about today.
1:53
Bayle: Breaking up with birth control is kind of like your signature program.
1:57
Bayle: And we're super excited to just ask you more questions about birth control.
2:02
Bayle: What are kind of the next steps when you're over birth control?
2:06
Bayle: So yeah, I'm super excited to dive into this today.
2:09
Jenny: Yes.
2:09
Jenny: When you asked me to join, I got so excited because birth control hormones are my jam.
2:14
Jenny: So it was a total heck yes moment whenever you asked me to be a guest.
2:18
Brianna: Jenny, tell us like a little bit about yourself and what you do.
2:22
Jenny: Yeah.
2:23
Jenny: So I am a functional medicine dietician.
2:25
Jenny: I started out actually as just a conventional dietician.
2:28
Jenny: I worked in a hospital.
2:30
Jenny: Here for about five years, I was on the stroke and rehab floor primarily and basically just dishing out heart healthy diet educations to 80 year olds.
2:40
Jenny: And believe it or not, got super burnt out on that.
2:43
Jenny: So then I transitioned to go work at a local fitness center where I did a lot of like weight loss counseling, got burnt out on that as well, but that's kind of where I was introduced to the concept of functional medicine.
2:55
Jenny: And at the same time, that is when I came off my birth control, went cold turkey, and just had a cluster F of symptoms arise, like cystic acne and hair loss and waking and mood swings, and it was just It was an awful time but being introduced to functional medicine around that time, it really piqued my interest and I started diving into women's health and hormones and just got deep in the rabbit hole and found this passion and decided, you know what?
3:21
Jenny: I don't want to do weight loss counseling anymore.
3:23
Jenny: I want to do more of the functional medicine approach.
3:24
Jenny: So I left there and started my private practice and that's what I've been doing since.
3:29
Brianna: I love that.
3:30
Brianna: Okay.
3:30
Brianna: So your whole thing is like breaking up with birth control.
3:33
Brianna: So what are the do's and don'ts when coming off birth control?
3:36
Brianna: Because I've never heard of like, Hey, don't just do, do it cold turkey.
3:41
Brianna: And like when I came off birth control every time that I did, that's how I did it.
3:44
Brianna: So now I'm like, Oh wow.
3:45
Jenny: Oh my gosh.
3:46
Jenny: How many, you said every time, how many times?
3:48
Brianna: Well, before I had kids, I was on the pill, and then after that, IUD, I did a couple of IUDs, and then I just was like, I'm not doing anything.
3:56
Jenny: that so many women, it's like this rocky relationship, we can call it, where we go on and we go off.
4:01
Jenny: So, that's actually one of my points for the don'ts of coming off of hormonal birth control.
4:06
Jenny: I mean, obviously, if you want to come off of it to have kids and then go back on after kids, that's understandable.
4:10
Jenny: But I think so many ladies...
4:12
Jenny: They come off of birth control.
4:13
Jenny: They don't do the proper prep.
4:14
Jenny: So they come off cold turkey and then they experience these symptoms and then they feel like the only way to fix those symptoms is to go back on the birth control that was controlling those symptoms.
4:25
Jenny: But really what birth control is, it doesn't fix our hormones.
4:29
Jenny: It simply is like a band aid.
4:31
Jenny: So it shuts down our hormone production, essentially.
4:34
Jenny: It shuts down the signals from the brain.
4:36
Jenny: To the ovaries, so we're not making any sex hormones, and that's specifically the birth control pill.
4:42
Jenny: There are IUDs that are progestin only, and some women continue to ovulate and still continue to make estrogen with those but my point is, is that essentially, birth control shuts down that hormone production, and And mask hormone imbalance symptoms.
4:55
Jenny: So when we come off of it, those symptoms come back with a vengeance and and oftentimes we get more symptoms post birth control because any kind of birth control has negative effects.
5:05
Jenny: And I'm sure we'll get into those in a little bit.
5:08
Jenny: So that's, I guess I covered 2 points there.
5:10
Jenny: 1 don't quit cold turkey.
5:12
Jenny: Two, don't go back on birth control if you experience symptoms because it's not fixing the problem.
5:16
Jenny: It's just suppressing it.
5:17
Jenny: And we probably aren't going to want to stay on birth control our entire lives.
5:20
Jenny: Right.
5:21
Jenny: And my third point is another reason a lot of ladies come off birth controls.
5:24
Jenny: They want to start to have a family.
5:26
Jenny: So I recommend if that's the case that you plan ahead and give yourself like a three to six month buffer between coming off and trying to conceive, because there are so many side effects of birth control that impair egg quality.
5:41
Jenny: We have to give ourselves time for our hormones to kind of reboot to reestablish that connection between our brain and our ovaries to start that hormone production again and really get consistent ovulation and good progesterone production to hold a baby.
5:53
Jenny: So just for the best fertility outcomes, I recommend that ladies wait three to six months after coming off of birth control to try to have a baby.
6:02
Bayle: when I first started following you, that was one thing that really resonated with me was to not quit birth control cold turkey, because I had asked before about what do I need to do?
6:12
Bayle: And my doctor was kind of like, well, you just stopped taking it.
6:15
Bayle: And I was like, oh, that's it.
6:17
Bayle: Like I feel, I was like, I feel like there should be more.
6:19
Bayle: So I don't even remember how I found you, but I found you on Instagram and then come to find out we actually live pretty close together, which is crazy.
6:27
Jenny: Like 45 minutes from each other.
6:29
Bayle: I know.
6:30
Brianna: a small world.
6:31
Bayle: I
6:31
Jenny: I know.
6:32
Bayle: have to meet up sometime.
6:33
Bayle: We need to plan, but when that happened, I was like, okay, well, this makes more sense.
6:39
Bayle: Like, I can't just come off of this.
6:41
Bayle: I've been on birth control since I was 15.
6:43
Bayle: And so that's like 11 years now.
6:46
Bayle: It's been a long time.
6:47
Bayle: Like, how can I just quit cold turkey?
6:50
Jenny: Yeah.
6:50
Jenny: And I find that so many ladies don't go on it simply for contraception.
6:54
Jenny: They go on it to mask symptoms.
6:57
Jenny: And that was me.
6:58
Jenny: I was senior in high school and I had.
7:01
Jenny: Such painful cramps.
7:02
Jenny: I was like throwing up every single month having to leave school and the idea of transitioning into college and having to live in a dorm with a community bathroom and like be throwing up from cramps every month.
7:12
Jenny: That was just terrifying to me.
7:14
Jenny: And so I went to the OB for the first time and she was like, here, this pill will fix all of that.
7:18
Jenny: And I didn't, you're not, they're not, you're not told, you're not given informed consent on like what are the side effects.
7:24
Jenny: I mean, I think back then.
7:27
Jenny: This is like 20, 2010.
7:29
Jenny: I know that there is big talk around like the stroke risk and blood clot risk.
7:33
Jenny: And we actually knew someone personally that experienced that.
7:36
Jenny: So my mom was really heated and worried about it, but we're not told about all the other stuff.
7:42
Jenny: Like it increases inflammation in our body.
7:44
Jenny: It disrupts our gut microbiome.
7:46
Jenny: It is like gasoline on a fire when it comes to autoimmune disease.
7:50
Jenny: So if you have like predisposition to autoimmune disease, so things like Crohn's or Hashimoto's thyroid.
7:56
Jenny: Disfunction.
7:56
Jenny: It's like gasoline on a fire with those types of things.
8:00
Jenny: So yeah, we're just not given that information.
8:02
Jenny: And we're not really told that it's not fixing our poor bones
8:05
Bayle: I wish we were because especially a lot of us that have been on birth control, like we usually I feel like we started at a younger age.
8:12
Bayle: We're usually in high school and around that.
8:14
Bayle: So when we're going to our doctors and asking questions about it, it's just like, okay, here's the pill.
8:19
Bayle: You say, okay, I'll take this every day.
8:21
Bayle: And that's just
8:22
Jenny: Oh yeah.
8:23
Jenny: When you're 18 and you're suffering from pain or whatever hormonal acne, whatever it is, you're like, heck yeah.
8:28
Jenny: If this pill can fix all my problems
8:30
Brianna: Mm
8:30
Jenny: and you're not told of any of the side effects, why wouldn't you?
8:33
Brianna: And then it's just something to do.
8:35
Brianna: Yeah, I was like, oh, you know, I'm getting older now, I take birth control, like, this is a normal thing.
8:40
Jenny: it is.
8:41
Jenny: It's like a status quo.
8:42
Jenny: Like every, everyone takes it, right?
8:44
Bayle: And so I guess this was kind of like my personal reason why I really wanted you to come on the podcast.
8:50
Bayle: But as we get to the point where we're ready to come off birth control, but we're not quite ready to have kids or anything.
8:56
Bayle: What are your thoughts on how to avoid just like not getting pregnant?
8:59
Bayle: If it's not the right time, you're ready to get off birth control.
9:02
Bayle: Besides like the obvious using continuos.
9:05
Jenny: Yeah, that is such a great question.
9:07
Jenny: There are three condoms being one of them.
9:10
Jenny: There are like three birth control methods that I recommend.
9:13
Jenny: There's more mainstream.
9:14
Jenny: There are so many different types, but my personal favorite is fertility awareness method.
9:19
Jenny: I don't know if you're familiar with that, but essentially it's using Cervical mucus, so tracking cervical mucus output and basal body temperatures to predict your fertile window.
9:29
Jenny: Because so many ladies are not aware that we are really only fertile for five to six days out of the month.
9:35
Jenny: I thought we could get pregnant every day, every single day until I was like 25 about to be married and going through pre cana wedding courses.
9:42
Jenny: And I'm like, wait a minute, what?
9:45
Jenny: I had no idea.
9:46
Jenny: So it's really using those, those bodily indicators to be confident in when your fertile window is to avoid unproductive intercourse.
9:55
Jenny: So in that time frame, those five to six days, you would use a condom and the rest of the month, you're like free to not use anything.
10:02
Jenny: One of the downsides with fertility awareness method is that it.
10:06
Jenny: Can be unpredictable for like three ish to six ish months after you come off of birth control.
10:12
Jenny: Just like I said, your hormones are rebooting, your cervical mucus can kind of be all over the place ovulation can kind of be spotty, so it's, it's kind of hard to confidently predict that fertile window for avoiding.
10:25
Jenny: In which case, I do recommend, like, whenever I came off and I was learning fertility awareness method, we just used condoms.
10:31
Jenny: Until until we were confident in that rhythm.
10:34
Jenny: I also, so obviously condoms are another option, but I also like the copper IUD.
10:41
Jenny: It doesn't come without any side effects, but the reason why I like it is because it's non hormonal and essentially just changes the pH of the vagina and Makes the uterus a less hospitable place for a baby to implant.
10:54
Jenny: So it still allows you to have a normal menstrual cycle.
10:57
Jenny: Like you still have your bleed.
10:58
Jenny: You still ovulate.
10:59
Jenny: You still have that natural fluctuation in estrogen and progesterone.
11:03
Jenny: Like our bodies are meant to be in that cyclical pattern.
11:06
Jenny: Whereas when we're on hormonal birth control, we're not getting that.
11:10
Jenny: One of the downsides though of the hopper IUD is that a lot of women complain of, first of all, it's very painful to insert, I had a friend that was like, why was I not given like numbing, anything to numb down there like that, that was so painful and it can also make periods more heavy and more painful as well, so if that's something you already struggle with, that might be one to steer clear from.
11:33
Brianna: Is that ever even out because I have had a couple of girlfriends who tried the copper and they're like my cycle is so heavy, and they just like got it taken out so I'm wondering if it's kind of like, is there a waiting period of when maybe that evens out.
11:45
Jenny: That's a good question.
11:46
Jenny: I'm not really sure.
11:47
Jenny: I think it really is.
11:49
Jenny: It's probably super individualized like I know several people that have it and like my sister, for instance, doesn't really complain of any side effects.
11:56
Jenny: And then I have somebody else she messaged me this week actually that she's made an appointment to get hers out because she gets so bloated and her periods are so painful and she just doesn't want to deal with it anymore.
12:07
Bayle: Do you notice more people have side effects like that, or more people just are completely fine, or is it kind of like 50
12:14
Jenny: It's probably 50 50.
12:15
Jenny: I can't say I know enough people to really get a great, a great gauge on that, but the people that I do know, it probably is about 50 50.
12:24
Bayle: Yeah, that's
12:24
Brianna: Well, yeah, I will say like from experience of being not on birth control.
12:29
Brianna: Eventually you do start to really understand your body like you'll notice like wow I'm just like really hot, you know, like I'm
12:35
Jenny: Yes.
12:36
Brianna: They, you know, like, yeah, the cervical fluid, it's different, but I never experienced any consistencies like that when I was on birth control.
12:45
Brianna: This was like something I started to experience like in my late twenties, I was
12:50
Jenny: Mm hmm.
12:51
Brianna: like, I kind of understand how my body works now.
12:53
Brianna: Like
12:54
Jenny: Yeah.
12:55
Brianna: easier, it gets easier, but I, I could see would be scary.
12:59
Brianna: Cause like, for me, I know I'm done having kids.
13:01
Brianna: So I'm like, okay, I'm a little bit, I feel a little bit better about this than we have.
13:04
Brianna: You know, my husband got snipped.
13:06
Brianna: So that's also like a really nice birth control, but like, is there an app that people can use that you recommend or something like that to
13:14
Jenny: Yeah, I love, I think you have to pay for it.
13:18
Jenny: It's really inexpensive, maybe like 20 bucks a year, but it's called read your body.
13:21
Jenny: So if you're using fertility awareness method, it's great.
13:24
Jenny: My friend nurse with Nina, she is a fertility awareness educator, and this is the app that she has her clients use until you can track your cervical fluid in there.
13:34
Jenny: You can track your basal body temperature if you're into tracking your pulse too.
13:37
Jenny: That's something I have my clients do because temperature and pulses are a really great way to track like metabolic health.
13:43
Jenny: So you can put that in the notes section.
13:44
Jenny: You can basically track everything, whether you've had intercourse, unprotected or protected, like there's so many things that you can put in one spot, which is great.
13:53
Bayle: And do you recommend tracking as far as like your basal temperature and your pulse right away when you wake up, I'm assuming?
14:00
Jenny: Yeah.
14:00
Jenny: Yeah.
14:01
Jenny: So if you can remember, I'm not the greatest at this, but I will have my little pool socks and my thermometer on my nightstand and try to remember.
14:11
Jenny: I kind of quit now that I'm pregnant and, you know, not cycling.
14:14
Jenny: I'm not trying to pinpoint ovulation or anything like that.
14:17
Jenny: And I'm also way more tired getting up in the morning.
14:20
Brianna: Oh, okay.
14:22
Brianna: That's really cool.
14:23
Brianna: That's good to know because I think just so many women don't even know that as an option, or they feel like it's a like, Oh, that was our grandma's method.
14:30
Brianna: And look at like, they had all the kids and I just feel like it's more of like a lack of awareness.
14:35
Brianna: I don't think women have ever really been taught about their bodies.
14:38
Bayle: Mm hmm.
14:38
Jenny: No, I think that's where big pharma comes in and I don't want to get all political here, but as soon as birth control at the market, like that was like, you take birth control.
14:46
Jenny: That was like the only option ever presented to us.
14:48
Jenny: And like I said, we're not really taught about our menstrual cycle in health class.
14:52
Jenny: Like this is something that we should be taught when, as soon as we start menstruating, we should understand what's happening in the body.
14:59
Jenny: Like our hormones fluctuate and we should be able to be able to track the cervical mucus and like.
15:05
Jenny: No, just be really in tune with our body because you can learn so much.
15:08
Jenny: It's more than just birth control.
15:09
Jenny: You can actually use it.
15:11
Jenny: to your advantage when you're trying to conceive too.
15:12
Jenny: So it goes both ways.
15:14
Jenny: Once you can pinpoint that fertile window, if you, so if you plan on coming off birth control and you want to wait that three to six months to avoid, but then want to flip into trying to conceive, this method works the same way.
15:24
Jenny: You just, instead of avoiding sex during those five to six days, you, that's when you try.
15:30
Jenny: Yeah.
15:31
Jenny: And it's like 99.
15:32
Jenny: 6% effective, if you use it correctly and I highly recommend working with a fertility awareness educator.
15:39
Jenny: So Nina Boyce is the one I always recommend.
15:42
Jenny: She's nourished with Nina on Instagram she works one on one with clients and she has an online course called Luna, which is like a self led online modules.
15:50
Jenny: And then she has like two calls a month on zoom for support and a Facebook group.
15:55
Jenny: So it's just a really great way.
15:57
Jenny: For our ladies to get that support that they need because I remember when I first started it I'm gonna like text pictures of cervical fluid to my coach and be like, what does this mean?
16:06
Bayle: is happening?
16:07
Brianna: Help me.
16:09
Bayle: Yeah.
16:09
Bayle: I think that's, it's just so important because exactly what you were saying, we don't have the education there.
16:14
Bayle: And even being a dietician, like I work mainly with fat loss clients and so I talk to them about being in tune with their body and their hunger hormones, but there's also other things to start to get in tune with.
16:25
Bayle: So getting in tune with your cycles is something that I've been trying to learn more about probably within the last year, like.
16:32
Bayle: I really did not understand what was happening.
16:34
Bayle: I mean, I've been on birth control for so long.
16:37
Bayle: Take the little brown sugar pill.
16:38
Bayle: That's when, like you have your period.
16:39
Bayle: And that was just kind of the extent of what I knew.
16:44
Jenny: I have a funny story a client of mine actually I'm working with her one on one, but she came off birth control months ago and she had her withdrawal bleed.
16:52
Jenny: And then like two weeks later, she messaged me and was like, this big, clear, stretchy glob just fell out.
16:59
Jenny: And I'm like, girl, I was like, so excited about it.
17:03
Jenny: And she's like, what is this?
17:05
Bayle: Yeah.
17:06
Jenny: I remember that in high school too.
17:07
Jenny: Like just all of a sudden walking and like feeling something come out.
17:10
Jenny: And you're like.
17:11
Jenny: You have this panic moment.
17:12
Jenny: You're like, Oh my God, did I just start my period?
17:13
Jenny: Like, we should know it's ovulation.
17:15
Jenny: It's
17:16
Brianna: Well, and girls are like walking around out there just like this is happening to all of them but no one is talking about it and we're just like oh my gosh what's going on with our body like you know and then I.
17:27
Brianna: We're like, even when I first started my period, like asking my mom, what do I do?
17:31
Brianna: And she's like, here's some pads.
17:33
Brianna: Like you're a woman now.
17:34
Brianna: Yeah.
17:34
Brianna: And I'm like, that was it.
17:36
Brianna: I was like, she didn't know.
17:37
Brianna: She's like, you're going to need all.
17:39
Brianna: And yeah, there you go.
17:40
Brianna: Like,
17:41
Jenny: I felt so misled when I started my period.
17:43
Jenny: I can't remember like the first summer, how many times I had to sit on the dock while everyone else at the lake was like in the, in the lake swimming and tubing.
17:51
Jenny: And I'm just sitting there wearing my pad, sitting on the dock.
17:54
Jenny: Like I had no idea that you could swim with a tampon and I'm like, mom.
17:57
Jenny: What
17:58
Brianna: Oh yeah.
17:59
Brianna: My mom didn't teach you that either.
18:00
Brianna: I learned that at a sleepover.
18:02
Brianna: It was so embarrassing.
18:02
Brianna: Like.
18:03
Brianna: Full party sleepover and I was like, I can't go swimming.
18:05
Brianna: And they're like, why I'm looking for me period.
18:07
Brianna: And one of my other friends was like, yeah, me too.
18:09
Brianna: And one of our girlfriends whose mom was like the cool mom.
18:12
Brianna: She's like, wear a tampon.
18:13
Brianna: I'm like, I don't know how to do that.
18:14
Brianna: So we're like all in the bathroom.
18:16
Brianna: They're like yelling at us, like do it like this.
18:19
Brianna: It was so traumatizing.
18:22
Jenny: really should
18:22
Brianna: And now I'm
18:23
Jenny: course.
18:24
Brianna: You can get your daughter's like, or even, I mean women, hello, but like these days like you can get the swimsuits that are like,
18:31
Bayle: Oh yeah.
18:32
Jenny: I know.
18:33
Brianna: like what?
18:33
Brianna: I'm about to get some.
18:34
Jenny: It's the most traumatizing thing being a teenage girl and having to like sit out of all the fun stuff in the summer because you're having your period.
18:40
Jenny: Like that's just stupid.
18:41
Jenny: It shouldn't, shouldn't hold us back.
18:43
Jenny: It should be something that we celebrate.
18:45
Brianna: Agreed.
18:46
Bayle: as we're talking about like the birth control piece of everything, what are the common side effects you see when people are starting birth control and then even like when they're getting off of it because I know you had mentioned that sometimes symptoms or side effects get worse once they're trying to wean off birth control now.
19:03
Brianna: Good
19:03
Jenny: Yeah.
19:04
Jenny: So I'll start with what the common side effects of birth control are.
19:08
Jenny: And I think a big one is gut disturbances.
19:11
Jenny: So ladies who go on, especially the pill, because it travels through the gut and goes through first past metabolism in the liver will experience bowel movement disturbances, whether that's constipation, diarrhea, because it's changing the microbiota, which is the bacterial balance in our gut.
19:26
Jenny: And it can lead to overgrowth of pathogens, like Infections and yeast, things like that, which can also, so we'll segue into this, can lead to increase in vaginal yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis.
19:41
Jenny: So what's going on in the gut kind of happened like that, that connection between the vaginal microbiome and the gut microbiome are very much connected.
19:47
Jenny: So when we have yeast overgrowth happening in the gut, which is.
19:49
Jenny: Common when you're on hormonal birth control, then you can experience more instances of those vaginal yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis.
19:59
Jenny: Like I said, with autoimmune disease.
20:02
Jenny: hormonal birth controls like gasoline on a fire for those things.
20:05
Jenny: So ladies might start to experience disruptions in thyroid hormones, specifically Hashimoto's, which is an autoimmune type of hypothyroidism.
20:14
Jenny: So we have basically antibodies attacking our thyroid.
20:17
Jenny: That's how that's diagnosed.
20:20
Jenny: So low libido, that's like A number one side effect of birth control.
20:25
Jenny: I had no idea.
20:26
Jenny: I had no idea.
20:27
Jenny: I, like, when I was getting ready to be married and my libido was so poor and I mentioned it to my OB, she's like, oh yeah, you have a double whammy because you're on birth control and you're on Lexapro.
20:35
Jenny: Like, well, why was this number?
20:37
Jenny: I, how did I not
20:38
Brianna: that the point of birth control is like,
20:41
Jenny: Yes, it's so ironic.
20:43
Jenny: Like, we go on it, I mean, most of, a lot of us go on it for reasons other than contraception, but for those of us that do go on it for contraception, it's like, as soon as you go on it, you have no interest in sex.
20:54
Brianna: so there's my contraception.
20:55
Bayle: Yeah.
20:56
Jenny: Yep, exactly.
20:57
Jenny: It's so stupid.
20:58
Jenny: And then lastly, another big one is increase in anxiety and depression, especially with progestin only birth controls.
21:04
Jenny: So those are going to be things like the IUD, I think the Depo shot implants.
21:10
Jenny: Those are those progestin only ones significantly increased risk of depression.
21:14
Jenny: So mood changes.
21:16
Jenny: And that, I mean, I wonder if that's connected to the gut disturbances because there is such a connection between, there's a gut brain axis that basically connects our gut in our brain.
21:24
Jenny: So if the gut's on fire, I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's connection there.
21:28
Jenny: It also depletes so many important nutrients too.
21:31
Jenny: So it impacts neurotransmitters that way by depleting things like B vitamins, especially B six, so many things.
21:39
Bayle: Yeah.
21:39
Bayle: It's so interesting because my sister, when she was looking out to get on birth control, she was actually researching so many different things, which go you.
21:48
Bayle: Cause I'm proud that she did that.
21:49
Bayle: She's like younger than me.
21:51
Bayle: And she was researching and she was like, I looked at the one that you've been on and all the side effects are like things you have experienced since high school.
21:59
Bayle: And she's like, maybe it's not a you problem.
22:01
Bayle: Maybe it's a birth control problem.
22:03
Bayle: I
22:03
Jenny: Yeah.
22:04
Bayle: you're not, you might be onto something because like I've always had.
22:08
Bayle: terrible gut health issues.
22:10
Bayle: And well, part of it was because I had a dairy allergy that I didn't know about until I was 18.
22:14
Bayle: So that was a big part, but it was just probably add to it.
22:18
Bayle: I have fibromyalgia, so inflammation, and then again, adding to that.
22:22
Bayle: And
22:24
Jenny: too, right.
22:25
Jenny: Yeah.
22:26
Bayle: so, so many things are adding up.
22:27
Bayle: I'm like, maybe I should get off of it and see like, what am I actually like without birth control?
22:34
Jenny: Yeah.
22:35
Jenny: When we take that gasoline off the fire, what actually happens?
22:39
Bayle: Yeah.
22:40
Bayle: So, it was super crazy to hear what she was reading, and I was like, yeah, I need to start learning about this more and look into it a lot more, because I just never questioned anything.
22:49
Jenny: And you said she's how much younger?
22:51
Jenny: Six years?
22:53
Jenny: That's amazing.
22:54
Jenny: And I think that this is kind of a wake up period for a lot of, a lot of women.
22:58
Jenny: We're just waking up to the fact that birth control, like why are we not asking questions?
23:03
Bayle: Yeah.
23:04
Jenny: And it's a period where we're waking up and saying, this isn't right.
23:07
Jenny: What are my other options?
23:08
Jenny: How can I better support my body?
23:10
Jenny: How can I get more in tune with my body?
23:11
Jenny: And I love it.
23:12
Jenny: I love being part of this movement.
23:13
Brianna: Yeah.
23:14
Brianna: And I think it's hard too, because a lot of times I know when women ask their doctors, like, Hey, what are the side effects?
23:21
Brianna: Or, Hey, I have been noticing it.
23:23
Brianna: A lot of times doctors are like, oh, that's.
23:25
Brianna: That's not a thing.
23:25
Brianna: There's like very low side effects.
23:26
Brianna: This isn't it.
23:27
Brianna: And then it's like, you get together with a group of women and it's like, Oh, what have you experienced on the IUD?
23:32
Brianna: Or what have you experienced?
23:33
Brianna: And it's all these women are saying the same things.
23:35
Brianna: And it's like, well, that's frustrating.
23:37
Brianna: Cause clearly like there's some sort of connection.
23:39
Brianna: If like all these women are saying it, even though like your doctor might be like, this is a good option.
23:43
Brianna: There's such low side effects.
23:44
Brianna: No, that's not from the birth control.
23:46
Brianna: That's probably from this.
23:47
Brianna: And it's like, okay.
23:49
Jenny: so much gaslighting in the, in just mainstream medicine, not even just in relation to birth control, but it's a huge, huge conversation that often is we get gaslighted with gas lit with that's just so sad.
24:02
Bayle: And it's not ever just, like, trash doctors or anything.
24:04
Bayle: I think more of what we're saying here, too, is just to question things and to...
24:10
Bayle: Start advocating more for yourself.
24:12
Bayle: That's something that I'm really starting to learn now and wish I would have known when I was younger.
24:18
Jenny: Doctors are incredible.
24:19
Jenny: They, they know so much and there's definitely a need for doctors, but I think that we do, we need to be better equipped with tools to better advocate for ourselves.
24:27
Jenny: Like when I have had a couple of clients come to me with primary goals, like I want to know how to better advocate for myself when I'm sitting in that, in that chair in the doctor's office.
24:37
Jenny: Like if you, knowledge is power.
24:39
Jenny: If we don't know, we don't ask.
24:41
Jenny: We never find out.
24:42
Jenny: So
24:42
Brianna: Be equipped with what to ask.
24:44
Brianna: How do I ask?
24:46
Brianna: How do I push for what else can I push for?
24:48
Brianna: Yeah.
24:50
Jenny: Yeah.
24:51
Bayle: guess with that being said, like what, what are your kind of your advice today to kind of help with sex hormones or just hormones in general?
24:59
Jenny: Yeah.
25:00
Jenny: So there's so much that goes into this, which is why I built an entire course, but we'll start with like the most foundational thing.
25:05
Jenny: And I just emphasize this all the time.
25:08
Jenny: I guess there's, it's two parts.
25:10
Jenny: One, make sure you're eating enough because if we are not eating enough, we won't ovulate.
25:14
Jenny: We won't make robust progesterone.
25:16
Jenny: We won't make robust.
25:17
Jenny: Cervical mucus.
25:18
Jenny: Like we just, it's impossible to have balanced hormones without eating enough.
25:23
Jenny: So one eating enough and number two, making sure we're eating for, for balanced blood sugars.
25:28
Jenny: So what that means is making sure that we're eating every three to four hours.
25:31
Jenny: Cause we don't want our blood sugars to crash when our blood sugars crash, that triggers our adrenals to produce cortisol, which then tells our liver to make its own glucose and it's like, and that has to stop the liver from doing.
25:42
Jenny: Detox job which is so, so, so important, especially on birth control.
25:47
Jenny: So making sure we're eating every three to four hours and eating protein, fat and carb in combination with each other and not just eating naked carbs all day long.
25:54
Jenny: And when I say naked carbs, I mean like eating a banana by itself or toast by itself or cereal for breakfast, which was literally what we grew up on.
26:02
Jenny: I was talking to my dad yesterday about like, Oh my gosh.
26:05
Jenny: Yeah.
26:06
Jenny: The 90s, 2000s, like we had no idea.
26:09
Jenny: We just had no idea.
26:10
Jenny: How did we, how did we get through school with straight A's?
26:12
Brianna: I don't know.
26:13
Brianna: I
26:15
Bayle: In school.
26:16
Jenny: Yes.
26:17
Brianna: what's going on.
26:18
Brianna: That's so funny.
26:19
Brianna: And I'm glad you said blood sugar balance.
26:21
Brianna: Cause I feel like this is something Bailey and I preach on all the time.
26:24
Brianna: Like what's the first thing you should do?
26:25
Brianna: And a lot of people, when they think blood sugar, they're like, I don't have diabetes.
26:29
Brianna: I don't need to worry.
26:30
Brianna: And it's like, this is for everyone.
26:32
Brianna: This is like the, how our bodies run optimally, like in every sense.
26:36
Brianna: What do you want?
26:36
Brianna: You want more energy?
26:37
Brianna: You want to lose weight?
26:38
Brianna: You want better hormones?
26:39
Brianna: Like, what do you want?
26:40
Brianna: Start with blood sugar balance.
26:42
Bayle: Yeah.
26:43
Bayle: We actually have an episode that we're talking all about blood sugar control and we're also going to, like, have an episode.
26:50
Bayle: I'm wearing a CGM right now at the time of this recording, so kind
26:53
Jenny: I saw that on your Instagram.
26:56
Bayle: Yeah, something weird's going on with my sleep there, so we'll see
27:00
Jenny: Yeah.
27:01
Brianna: I'm scared to wear one right now because I know, like, I know it's all over the place because I'm at such a stressful time in my life.
27:07
Brianna: I'm like, and it's funny cause it's like, you know, before I knew anything about it, I'm like, what's wrong with me?
27:13
Brianna: Why am I like this?
27:14
Brianna: Oh my gosh, I just need to do this.
27:15
Brianna: I probably need to eat less.
27:17
Brianna: It's probably this.
27:18
Brianna: And now like having all this knowledge, I'm like, oh, I know it's because I need to nourish my body better.
27:22
Brianna: Like I need to be eating more consistently.
27:24
Brianna: I need to like, You know, my blood sugar is like not happy with me.
27:27
Brianna: So knowledge is the more, you know, so yeah, ladies, if you're listening and you're like, my hormones are all out of whack before going anywhere else to get all kinds of crazy testing done or anything, I would say probably start with the basics.
27:41
Jenny: Yeah, always the way that I describe it is I posted this on Instagram last week, but I describe it as a three legged stool.
27:49
Jenny: And there are three legs of the stool or ovaries, adrenals, and your thyroid.
27:53
Jenny: And this is what we call the OTAXIS because these ovaries, adrenals, and thyroid, they all operate on this thread.
28:00
Jenny: And that's it.
28:01
Jenny: If one leg of that stool is shorter than the others, the entire stool is going to wobble.
28:05
Jenny: So if we have an FDEP thyroid or FDEP adrenals that we can't have balanced sex hormones because that leg is shorter than the others.
28:13
Jenny: And then the floor beneath that stool is your blood sugars.
28:17
Jenny: It's like, start with the blood sugars.
28:19
Jenny: Cause if that floor isn't sturdy and even, then the stool is still going to wobble.
28:23
Jenny: So start there.
28:24
Jenny: And that filters into supporting thyroid and adrenal health.
28:28
Jenny: It just all goes together.
28:29
Jenny: Balance blood sugars are everything.
28:32
Bayle: The blood sugar piece.
28:34
Bayle: I love that you bring that up as kind of that first foundation because that's exactly what we do to like if your blood sugars are not balanced, it's going to filter into so many other things that are not going how you want, even if it's like the energy piece, that is something that people notice within the day one of doing it because You're not crashing every day and now you're not, well, sleeping in class or sleeping during work.
29:00
Bayle: You have energy to just get through your day.
29:02
Bayle: And then when you have energy to get through your day, you're probably going to move more.
29:06
Bayle: Maybe you're going to get in that workout now.
29:07
Bayle: Maybe you're going to have more energy to cook dinner for your family.
29:11
Bayle: And it just trickles into so many of these different things.
29:14
Bayle: And then now you're going to sleep better, which is also going to give you better energy.
29:17
Bayle: So yeah, blood sugar control is always number one.
29:21
Jenny: Yeah, it trickles literally into everything.
29:24
Brianna: I like thinking of it as the floor.
29:26
Brianna: Cause that's so true.
29:27
Brianna: Like if your floor isn't stable, I mean, you're going to be tripping wobbly.
29:32
Jenny: Yeah.
29:33
Bayle: Any other foundational pieces you recommend to kind of get started with?
29:37
Jenny: Okay.
29:38
Jenny: So eating enough blood sugars.
29:40
Jenny: And I would say the third thing is replenishing nutrients that are depleted by birth control, especially birth control, the birth control pill, because like I said, it passes through the gut, goes through first pass metabolism in the liver and a lot of these nutrients.
29:54
Jenny: I don't think that this is a Coincidence.
29:56
Jenny: A lot of the nutrients that are depleted by birth control are the same nutrients that are essential for liver detox.
30:02
Jenny: So the pill, it really, it really bogs down our liver detox pathways.
30:07
Jenny: So things like B vitamins, vitamin E, selenium, vitamin C, magnesium.
30:12
Jenny: Those are all nutrients that are depleted by birth control.
30:15
Jenny: So in general, I just recommend eating a whole food diet with lots of colorful, lots of colorful foods.
30:21
Jenny: And then just kind of as an insurance policy, I do recommend taking a quality prenatal.
30:26
Jenny: My favorite is full well prenatal.
30:29
Jenny: And this goes for ladies who are not necessarily wanting to try to conceive.
30:35
Jenny: I get this question all the time.
30:36
Jenny: Like, what if I'm not trying to conceive?
30:38
Jenny: I still recommend taking it for three to six months simply because it is, is such a what do you call it?
30:45
Jenny: Comprehensive.
30:46
Jenny: It's such a comprehensive way to make sure you're getting all these nutrients that are depleted by birth control.
30:52
Jenny: It's that you're supporting your body, supporting those liver detox pathways as you're getting rid of all that synthetic estrogen you've been exposed to for years.
30:59
Bayle: Yeah, I actually recently started taking that prenatal.
31:02
Bayle: I started full well, probably four months ago, I would say.
31:07
Bayle: And I actually, I only take two a day, so it's not as much as you're supposed to.
31:12
Bayle: And I mean, I assume it's still effective.
31:14
Bayle: I'm kind of just taking it more for birth control purposes of being on birth control and kind of replenishing those
31:20
Jenny: Yeah.
31:21
Jenny: Supporting your body better while you're on it.
31:23
Bayle: Yeah.
31:24
Bayle: What are your thoughts on taking kind of like half the dose?
31:28
Jenny: I'm glad you mentioned that because being pregnant and like, especially in the first trimester, I was so sick and with my first, it was even worse.
31:34
Jenny: So I didn't take a prenatal honestly until five months and I'm about five months now and like, I think, was it last week or two weeks ago?
31:41
Jenny: I was like, you know what, I'm going to try and get my toes back in the pond of trying to take a prenatal.
31:46
Jenny: And I started taking two and I was thinking, you know what, but it is such.
31:51
Jenny: a comprehensive, like, Ayla who created, she's a dietitian, fertility dietitian, so she jam packed really high doses based on research of what we need in pregnancy.
32:03
Jenny: So honestly, what we're getting in two capsules, because for those that don't know, the dose is eight caps a day, it's a lot and you can open them up and put them in yogurt or smoothies or whatever or split them out throughout the day, but taking two is probably equivalent to taking, like, a gummy from Target, right?
32:19
Jenny: Like, A lot of those over the counter prenatals, they're just not as robust as what full well contains, so even if you are just taking two, it's still better than nothing, and it's still probably better than some of those over the counter ones.
32:34
Bayle: That's good to know.
32:35
Bayle: Cause I was like, I'm not like trying to get pregnant or anything right now.
32:39
Bayle: So just kind of for that reason, I was like, I'll just do two right now.
32:43
Bayle: And what I really liked about it.
32:44
Bayle: So I was taking the full servings when I first started and something that I did like about them is that it didn't make me nauseous or anything.
32:51
Bayle: Like I know a lot of prenatals
32:52
Jenny: Yeah.
32:54
Jenny: I don't think that they have a really bad smell, honestly.
32:57
Jenny: Like, my smell, trust me, I'm like a bloodhound right now.
33:00
Jenny: Like, I can smell anything.
33:02
Jenny: But honestly, like, I don't get that whiff of like, oh god, the smell is so bad.
33:06
Jenny: it's really not.
33:07
Jenny: And I don't get that, like, Burping up anything like I
33:11
Bayle: I
33:12
Jenny: pretty, pretty well tolerated.
33:14
Jenny: I did just get an email from her this morning, though, that they did trial adding in a lemon essence, like a, I think it was like a essential oil packet into their full well.
33:22
Jenny: And some ladies loved it and some ladies hated it.
33:25
Jenny: So they essentially like, it was like a pilot.
33:27
Jenny: So they did away with the lemon essence and now ladies have wanted it back.
33:31
Jenny: I think a lot of pregnant ladies, they want it because Coleen, the Nutrient choline, which is really rich in the prenatal because we need it for baby's brain development.
33:38
Jenny: That one's kind of stinky.
33:39
Jenny: So she's now added an option to buy it with or without the lemon essence.
33:46
Jenny: Which I liked it.
33:47
Jenny: I kind of liked the, it wasn't like super strong and it wasn't, it was very natural.
33:52
Bayle: a weird thing I noticed was once I started taking it, my, like, urine turned like a radioactive color, and I was like,
34:00
Jenny: Yellow.
34:01
Bayle: what's wrong with me?
34:02
Jenny: Yes, it's riboflavin.
34:03
Jenny: I get this question literally every person that starts B complex or prenatal it turns your urine yellow because there's a Decent amount of riboflavin and actually if you look at I think Gatorade, like the lemon lime Gatorade, I think they use riboflavin to actually color because it's, it's so potent.
34:22
Jenny: It's such a potent yellow color.
34:24
Jenny: So it doesn't mean you're not absorbing it.
34:26
Jenny: It happens.
34:27
Bayle: Yeah, it was so funny when that happened.
34:28
Bayle: I was like, I'm drinking the same amount of water, like nothing really changed.
34:32
Bayle: And I was like, well, this started when I started taking the prenatal.
34:35
Bayle: So I researched it and I was like, oh, okay, well, that makes sense.
34:38
Bayle: And then my friend Ellie was actually just started taking it too.
34:41
Bayle: And I told her, I was like, Hey, does your pee look like it's radioactive?
34:45
Bayle: And she's like, yes.
34:46
Bayle: And I was like, well, I researched it.
34:48
Bayle: I think it's the riboflavin in it.
34:49
Bayle: And she was like, okay, I thought it wasn't drinking enough water.
34:52
Bayle: And I was like, I did not know what was going on.
34:53
Bayle: I was like, me too.
34:55
Jenny: Yes, I'm glad you brought that up because some ladies might, might think that they need to like drink three gallons of water a day.
35:00
Jenny: And that's not necessarily the case.
35:02
Bayle: Yeah.
35:03
Bayle: All right.
35:04
Bayle: Yeah.
35:04
Bayle: This is super helpful.
35:06
Bayle: You have lots
35:06
Jenny: Yay!
35:08
Brianna: I love that.
35:08
Brianna: I'm so happy we got to chat with you and hopefully, yeah, hopefully everybody got some good insight on like what to do if you're on birth control, if you're thinking about coming off birth control, how you can prevent pregnancy, all that good stuff.
35:21
Bayle: Yeah.
35:22
Bayle: Do you want to share where they can find you and any last tidbits of information you want to share?
35:28
Jenny: Yeah, so they can find me on Instagram at Jenny Mahoney RDN ways that they can get extra support.
35:35
Jenny: I take clients one on one.
35:37
Jenny: So we work within a four to six month retainer.
35:40
Jenny: We do deep dive labs.
35:41
Jenny: We get really specific on where, what, what we need to do for hormone healing.
35:44
Jenny: Or I also see a lot of clients with gut issues.
35:47
Jenny: We can't have.
35:48
Jenny: We can't have balanced hormones without also having good gut health.
35:51
Jenny: So they kind of go together.
35:52
Jenny: And then a lower investment way to get support is through my birth control breakup academy.
35:58
Jenny: And that is an online course.
36:00
Jenny: So it's all pre recorded modules.
36:02
Jenny: So you kind of lead yourself through that.
36:04
Jenny: And then we have a private Facebook group.
36:07
Jenny: So if you have questions you can pop in there.
36:10
Jenny: And we dive really deep into that three legged stool that I mentioned, how to support your sex hormones, your adrenals, your thyroid, how to, you know, basically unravel all the damage from birth control.
36:20
Jenny: I do a really detailed crash course on what's happening in your menstrual cycle since so many of us didn't get that in in health class just to really empower us.
36:30
Jenny: Know what's happening during that time.
36:32
Jenny: So yeah, both of those resources.
36:35
Jenny: So the link to apply for one on one coaching and the birth control breakup Academy are in the link in my bio on Instagram.
36:43
Brianna: Yeah.
36:43
Brianna: You guys be sure to check that out.
36:44
Brianna: That's super awesome.
36:46
Bayle: Well, thank you so much for coming on today and getting all of our questions answered.
36:51
Jenny: Thank you so much for having me.
36:52
Jenny: This was so fun.
36:54
Bayle: Yes.
36:54
Bayle: And everyone make sure you tune in next week because we're going to kind of continue the women's health journey with another dietitian friend of ours.
37:03
Brianna: Yeah, stay tuned.
37:04
Bayle: right.
37:05
Bayle: Have a great day, everyone.
37:06
Bayle: Bye.
37:07
Jenny: Thank you.