Beyond The Pill: A Book Review
- Spark&Spill
- Jul 3, 2020
- 5 min read
Before I start this week’s post I would just like to announce that by no means am I a scientist and the furthest my knowledge goes on these scientific topics is up to A Level Biology... However, I have always been interested in science and naturopathic ways which complement our health, and after listening to a podcast which recommended reading this book I went straight to EBay and got my own second hand copy. Dr Jolene Brighten, founder and clinical director at Rubus Health, is a leading expert and pioneer in women’s health and medicine and specifically looks into the oral contraceptive pill, hence the title, ‘Beyond The Pill’.
On first glance at this book, I was immensely sceptical as I wondered whether it was going to be another doctor throwing about their opinion on whether or not the pill is horrific or is the best thing ever invented. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was neither for nor against it. Instead Dr Brighten aims to help educate and deepen women’s knowledge on birth control so that they are more informed to make the best decision for their lifestyle choices and their own body. She also wants governments to include more education about the birth control on school’s curriculums, so that more girls and young women have crucial information on how these pharmaceuticals work. Dr Brighten makes it very clear that for her the pill had huge benefits, as it enabled her to do what she wanted with her life and achieve many of her lifetime goals. She also goes on to discuss how there has been an increase in women getting a higher level of education, earning more money and being more successful since the pill became widely available for women.
She then discusses how she believes that doctors often hand the pill over with no real in-depth talk about how it changes your body, and the only piece of information is a paper leaflet that goes alongside the subscription, bullet pointing a list of possible side effects. Studies have shown us that 58 - 65% of women are on the pill for reasons that don’t have anything to do with birth control*. Brighten considers within one of her chapters that a possible reason for the high amount of birth control subscriptions is that there may be a medical gender bias, and that health problems are largely dismissed a lot of the time with the attitude that it's ‘all in your head’. One of the main reasons why girls take the pill is to release them from the side effects of hormones, acting as a form of symptom management. However, this occasionally can mask potential symptoms e.g irregularities, period pain and so forth, and Dr Brighten aims to encourage women to be able to have discussions with their doctors about this, and wants to go ‘beyond the pill’ when it comes to solutions, as we deserve better than that.
When it comes to science, many people want it to be one single variable: it to be either right or wrong. But the most amazing thing about science is that it is never clean and simple and there are always lots of variables that come into play. So when I came to a potentially controversial piece of research within one of the chapters, I carried on reading with an open mind, delving deeper into the research done on how the birth control can alter your mate selection. I read that as humans, we are always subconsciously seeking out a mate who has a different immune system to us, so when people say ‘they have a type’ this is essentially true.
This is because we want to progress our natural selection and diversity by looking for an evolutionary advantage. The microbiome (a vast community of trillions of bacteria and fungi that inhabit your gastrointestinal tract which have a major influence on your body weight, immune system, metabolism and susceptibility to illness) also plays a big part within your immune system, and so when you take the pill it affects your microbiome and consequently your immune system. Therefore, your body and immune system then shift over to wanting a mate who has similar immune system to you, reducing evolutionary advantages. For me, this was something that I had never heard of before and so when reading up on other academic research it made me wonder why we have to go to such lengths to explore possible effects of a pill that so many women take around the world?!
As well as this, Dr Brighten goes on to indicate that environmental toxins may have affects on our hormones, and although they are an amazing thing to have, sometimes the harsh, synthetic products we put on our body have extra oestrogen. In turn, this may cause oestrogen dominance which can alter your chemical receptors. The pill can mask many symptoms like a lot of drugs do, preventing us from getting feedback from our body. These are the symptoms from our body that are saying this isn’t right, or something’s wrong. Here she goes on to state that a big part of the issue is when birth control is prescribed for something other than contraception. Too many times the pill has been passed as one size fits all. It’s like when you see a website flogging a dress as ‘one size’ and we ALL know that dress won’t fit each and every woman in the world. There are millions of women around the world and each and every one is completely different, and so what works for one might not work for another. Obviously there are lots of different pills out there but we deserve more research and education into this.
The main point I took away from this book was that conversations are changing, and every type of birth control does come with risks. Of course we don’t want unwanted pregnancies, but Dr Brighten’s number one goal is to encourage women to listen to feedback that you are getting for your own body. Often in modern society we put our bodies under so much stress and don’t listen to it, but we need to take the time to do this.
If you do get the time, I would strongly recommend reading this book as so many women put these hormones into their bodies and I don’t think we are educated enough on it. Within this book there was so much detail of how the pill works - not just your standard GCSE 10 min recap on it, but a full in-depth discussion. It also goes on to explore the relationship between the pill and the liver and antioxidants, but we’ll save that for another post;) The main model to set is to try to understand other people’s points of views and seek to understand other peoples’ perspectives and encourage them on whatever choice they make.
*Beyond The Pill, Dr Jolene Brighten
For more information on Dr Jolene Brighten visit her website:
I also have added a link which directs you to Waterstones if anyone is interested in her book!
Izzy xx
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