Does The Pill Trick Your Body Into Thinking It's Pregnant?

Have you been told that the pill tricks your body into thinking it’s pregnant?

I’ve been there. I was put on the pill at age 13 when my skin started breaking out. My OB assured me that I couldn’t get pregnant on the pill - because my body thought it already WAS pregnant!

It wasn’t until I moved to the States and went in for a consultation with my new OB, that someone first told me the pill did not mimic pregnancy but that it, in fact, prevented me from ovulating.

The feeling began to grow in me that the pill was messing with my body. I also knew I wanted to have children down the road and felt I’d better give my body the chance to go back to normal before conceiving.

After being on and off the pill and the nuva ring for nearly a decade, I decided to ditch the hormones at age 22.

One thing I noticed immediately after coming off the pill was that my libido made a grand re-entrance into my life. Which made me think; why would I take a pill every day that prevents me from getting pregnant, if I don’t want to do the very thing that could get me pregnant in the first place?? (But I digress)

I also noticed my mood swings diminishing and completely disappearing. As a teenager, I was VERY unpredictable, and even as a young adult I had emotional melt downs over the littlest things, and I thought that was just who I was. Now, I’m questioning how terrible of a teenager I would have been had I not been manipulated by fake hormones.

Did you know that the #1 side effect of the pill is depression and anxiety? These are normally downplayed as “mood swings” and of course since women are just generally “hormonal”, this is nothing to be concerned about.

Many women are also experiencing a myriad of other side effects and are turned away by their doctors. They’re being told that their particular symptom could have nothing to do with hormonal birth control. Only to find out later, when they come off the pill to try to conceive, that all their symptoms are improving or disappearing!

One of my favorite resources for the different experiences women can have on hormonal contraceptives is the Pill Reality Series of the Fertility Friday podcast. If you like learning audio style, I would highly recommend giving this podcast a listen!!

So what DOES the pill do if it’s not tricking your body into thinking it’s pregnant??

I will cover this in great detail in my blog post - so stay tuned!

Now I want to know, what is your experience like on hormonal contraceptives? Are you experiencing any side effects?

If you’ve come off for any period of time, what changes did you notice?

What do you wish you’d known when you first started taking hormonal contraceptives?

We’ll be talking about this topic in my facebook community The Health Club, so make sure you join the conversation over there as well!