Are you on birth control pills? or do you plan to take the future?
Sexual responsibility is one of the most talked about issues in the 21st century and birth control pills takes the forefront in this struggle.
But certain important questions can not be avoided as more and more women decide to go under the pill.
Questions like, Is it safe for the body asides from preventing pregnancy? Can it cause any type of irrevocable harm? Could it cause lasting damage to my chances of having a baby when I'm ready?
As more women raise concerns and complaints about birth control pills regardless of what big pharma tells us ( that it is harmless) it is high time we addressed the elephant in the room.
We will be talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly associated with taking the pill.
The good
The first is the most obvious, birth control. You can be sexually active without worrying about falling pregnant when you are not ready.
Another good thing about them is that they come in different forms. Emergency pills prevent pregnancy if taken within 24 to 48 hours after unprotected sex. Continuous use pills are taken on a regular basis.
Also, compared to other birth control measures, pills are user-friendly and have a high success rate in preventing pregnancy.
The bad
Like all other types of drugs, birth control pills have side effects that vary from woman to woman. Headache, nausea, and breast tenderness are the most common and these side effects manifest differently in each woman.
Changes in the normal menstrual cycle and bleeding between periods are also usual side effects.
This is because of the interaction between the normal female hormones (progesterone and estrogen) with the pill which is made of synthetic forms of these hormones to prevent pregnancy. These symptoms are not life-threatening in most cases and disappear as the body gets used to the pill.
The Ugly
Birth control pills increase blood pressure. You are more disposed to getting a heart attack or a stroke as a result. Hypertensive women will do well to stay clear of the pill.
Also, these pills cause suppression of the immune system. They mimic the normal female hormonal cycle using synthetic versions of the natural female hormones, estrogen and progesterone in order to suppress ovulation. This is how it prevents pregnancy. The synthetic versions of these hormones can do a lot of harm to the body's immunity. A weakened immunity means more risk of getting an infection and diseases that the body will normally be able to get rid of with ease.
By mimicking the hormonal cycle, these pills cause a change in the normal vaginal flora predisposing its user to yeasts and vaginal infections.
Of particular interest, birth control pills can influence mating choices. How exactly?
The body has a compatibility complex(MHC) that influences what type of men a woman is attracted to.
A woman who is not on the pill is attracted to men that have gene characteristics that are largely different from hers. She is also attracted to more masculine men.
As you would expect, the opposite is the case for women on the pill. They are attracted to men that are less feminine and with similar genetic characteristics as themselves. This is a result of the synthetic pregnancy hormone, progestin, present in the pill that gives the illusion of pregnancy to the body so the body can reject sperm and avoid an actual pregnancy.
A study done on a group of women, some on contraceptive pills and others not show that when asked to choose between pictures of men with masculine and feminine features to have a relationship with, those on birth control pills exclusively opted for more feminine-looking men while the others went mostly for the masculine looking ones.
Find out more about this study here(http://bit.ly/3Z8eLmL)
It can therefore be deduced that since birth control pills mimic the state of pregnancy causing it's user to opt for more feminine men than they would if not on the pill, women that choose partners while on the pill might have problems finding their partner attractive when they get off it.
It will be safe to get off taking the pill before choosing or moving forward in your relationship with your partner.
Conspiracy theories will say that might be the cause of the rise in divorces and relationship issues that plague our generation. Might be far-fetched but better safe than sorry right?
Worse still, the influence birth control pills have on mate choices leads to more problems down the line.
You see, nature has made attraction to members of the opposite gender with dissimilar gene characteristics for a reason.
The more different the pair of genes from both genders the healthier and stronger the offspring. The more similar, the higher the occurrence and severity of health problems in offspring.
Incest is medically discouraged for this reason. Relationships between first cousins too. The gene pool is just too similar.
To understand why these health problems arise consider genotype. Two individuals with AS genotype are advised not to procreate together why? They both have the sickle cell gene. Though they are unaffected, their offspring have a high chance of getting the dominant form of the disease.
In the same way, each gene pool has recessive diseases lurking in them. Hence mating between people with similar gene pools predisposed offspring to a higher chance of getting these diseases in a dominant form.
Conclusion
Considering the good, the bad and the ugly as regards birth control pills will help you make better-informed choices about if to go on the pill and how to go about it if you choose to.
1. The good;
•Preventing unwanted pregnancy
•User friendly
2. The bad
•Headache
•Nausea
•Bleeding between periods
3. The ugly
•Increase in blood pressure causing a higher risk of getting a heart attack, or stroke.
•Higher risk of yeast and vaginal infections
•Influencing mate choices
•Health risk for offspring
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