65. Birth Control Break Up: Restoring Your Natural Cycle

In this episode, Dr. Monica Minjeur dives into the essential steps for stopping birth control, whether you're dealing with side effects or trying to get pregnant. Learn about restoring nutrient levels, managing potential cycle irregularities, and the benefits of tracking your cycles. Dr. Minjeur shares insights from a real patient case, offering practical advice to help women transition off birth control smoothly and address underlying health issues naturally for long-term health and fertility.

Transcript

Monica: 0:04

Before we get into the episode today, I want to make sure you know about my free discovery calls. If you are interested in learning how the medical services I provide would be a good fit for you, go to our website, radiantclinic. com and click on the link that says book free discovery call. You can choose a time to chat with me about our process and how I can help you achieve your menstrual cycle and fertility goals. I'm looking forward to visiting more with you soon. And now, on to the episode. Welcome back to cycle wisdom, where we empower women to restore natural menstrual cycles to improve health and promote fertility. I'm your host, Dr. Monica Minjeur, and I'm so glad you're listening today. On today's episode, we're going to be talking all about how to stop birth control. Now, whether you're dealing with negative side effects or are wanting to achieve a pregnancy, there are important things you need to know to help you transition smoothly and minimize the bumps in the road. I will talk through general theories about how to stop birth control, what you need to know about restoring your nutrient levels, what to do if things go sideways or not expected, and how you can track your cycles to have a better understanding of what's coming next. So let's get started as always with a patient story about a past client of mine who we'll call Miranda. Now Miranda had started having her periods when she was about 14 years old and by the time she was 15 she had a history of very heavy and very irregular cycles. She was oftentimes missing days of school and life and she was told that birth control was her only option for treatment. Now, Miranda came to see me at age 28, which was 13 years later after starting birth control, and she was wanting to achieve a pregnancy. However, she was very scared about the return of her heavy periods and what might happen when she stopped birth control. So we got her started as always with some charting instruction. Now we'll talk a little bit more about this during the rest of the episode, but you can begin starting with charting even before you stop birth control. This helps you to have a better understanding of what comes next and how different methods work. It also allowed Miranda the opportunity to ask lots of questions before we just pulled the plug on her birth control. So we met for a medical visit first because we wanted to have a plan in place to deal with the possible return of her heavy and irregular cycles. Now, unfortunately, many labs and ultrasounds are not going to be as helpful while you're still on birth control or an IUD or an implant. And so we did create a modified plan as far as what labs could be assessed and what things may need to be rechecked again after she had been off of birth control for a while. In Miranda's case, we decided to choose the time that we were going to stop birth control that worked best not only with her schedule, but that also allowed her to have adequate time in place to create a plan for what would need to happen if she did have a return of those fairly heavy periods. So when her next period came up and she was on the placebo pills or the sugar pills, she just stopped taking them and then did not continue with the next cycle. As we worked through the next few months. Miranda did have some bumps in the road. It took a while for her cycles to come back, and we worked through each of those issues. We also worked through restoring her vital nutrients that had been depleted, and we'll talk more about this in a bit. But we wanted to make sure that we were managing not only her symptoms that were occurring, but also making sure that we were helping to restore her long term health. As we got back to more regular cycles, we worked together to prepare her body for achieving a natural pregnancy and corrected the underlying abnormalities that had been present all along, but had just been masked by years of birth control. Now, Miranda's story is fairly typical, and sometimes we hear these stories where a friend of ours stops taking birth control in order to get pregnant. everything returns normally, and then they're able to achieve a pregnancy the very next cycle. But this isn't always the case. And so some people ask, well, why would I even stop? You know, things are going okay. But really there are lots of different reasons why people choose to ditch their birth control. So one main reason that I see, of course, is that if people are wanting to achieve a pregnancy, you know, they may be started on birth control. Um, many, many years ago to try and deal with irregular symptoms or acne or menstrual migraines or heavy bleeding and they were told that it was their only option and so now they're trying to come off of birth control in order to achieve a pregnancy. Another big push recently is that many people have been trying to lean more towards a natural, clean living, clean eating, environmentally friendly. And we know that birth control not only has a negative impact on our bodies, but can have a negative impact on the environment in general, as well as create significant long term side effects for people. And so many women have been either choosing not to start birth control altogether, or have been deciding to try and ditch their birth control as they're cleaning up the other areas of their life. Other reasons for stopping birth control may include negative side effects. So commonly we might see weight gain, mood imbalance, decreased libido, irregular bleeding, and sometimes more rare side effects like blood clots or other serious health conditions that have arisen because of birth control. Specifically IUD, many women note pelvic pain or irritation, and Abdominal bloating, inflammation throughout their whole body, or even recurrent genitourinary tract infections. Now these are all great reasons to try and come off of birth control, but I would encourage people that it's not just about stopping it, but also having a better plan in place for what comes next for the long term. So let's talk a little bit about timeline and logistics. Now, as I mentioned, we often see that there can be an immediate return of fertility, but in many women it can be quite delayed, sometimes six to eight months or even a year or more in other women. So, how do I know when it's time to come off of it? You know, basically once you've made the decision that I want to stop birth control, it's time to start discussing what does that timeline look like. And some methods are easier than others to stop. So for example, if you have an IUD or an implant, just get it removed. If you are getting depo shots, just don't get the next one. Now depo shots in particular can take quite some time to get out of your system completely, because it depends upon your metabolism how long it takes the medication to wear off. And then as far as oral birth control pills, just stop taking it when you have your next period. Now, I know that seems fairly simple, but certainly if you have concerns as far as return of significant symptoms, it's always a good idea to meet with a healthcare professional who understands what to do instead. So at any point in time, you can begin charting instruction. And again, as I had mentioned, as was the case of Miranda, it's really important to know and understand what you're getting into when it comes to charting. Now, even though you won't have a return of full fertility signs, you can start charting your cycles even when you are still on birth control just to get the hang of the idea, to understand what to be looking for, and to learn what biomarkers are most relevant for you and the easiest to track and chart. Now, a lot of times women will get concerned because they're worried that maybe if I'm just charting, it's not as effective as whatever birth control method I was using previously. It's very specific depending upon which method you use as far as fertility awareness charting, but overall, most of the more modern methods approach 95 to 99 percent efficacy at avoiding pregnancy if that is your intention. For comparison's sake, for typical use of methods like birth control pills approaches approximately 95 to 97 percent efficacy at avoiding pregnancy, so fairly equivalent. As an added bonus, if you're trying to achieve a pregnancy, charting your cycles with a fertility awareness method will help to identify a fertile window and even the exact day of ovulation to target in order for optimal chances of achieving that pregnancy. So, now that you've decided to come off of birth control, what are some important things that you need to know in order to get things back on track and to regulate what may have been an abnormality in the past? You know, one of the biggest concerns that we have for long term use, especially of oral birth control, is that you can develop some significant nutrient deficiencies. There are many, many years of research and studies showing that your body will become deficient specifically in B vitamins. So we look at B6 and B12 as causing big time issues because vitamin B6 deficiency can increase your risk of blood clots and depression. Vitamin B12 deficiency will increase your risk of anemia, heart brain fog or confusion, depression, and even neuropathy. So it's really important to make sure that we're restoring these vitamin deficiencies. And if you are somebody who is currently on birth control, it's really important to make sure that you are getting enough of these nutrients on a regular basis. Even though you may not absorb all of the prenatal vitamins or the multivitamin that you are taking when you're on birth control, if you aren't taking anything, you are most definitely going to have some significant deficiency problems. One of the other B vitamins that can be significantly impacted is vitamin B9, which is also known as folic acid. Now, the deficiency of folic acid can lead to an increased neural tube defects for the fetus if you are pregnant. Now neural tube defects are important for development of the spinal cord and the brain and it's recommended that you are getting an adequate source of folic acid at least three months prior to trying to achieve a pregnancy. Again at our clinic we recommend using methylfolate because it is the methylated version of that folic acid. It is absorbed better and for people that have any concerns with MTHFR mutation, the methylfolate is the kind that your body can actually absorb. Other nutrient deficiencies that need to be restored or considered when it comes to coming off of birth control include vitamin C. Now this one is fairly straightforward and easy to get through dietary sources, especially through citrus fruits and other vegetables and fruits. And then the last category is going to be things like magnesium, selenium and zinc. And these are important not only for regular brain function, but especially important for thyroid function. And so if you're not getting enough of these additional nutrients, you can actually develop thyroid dysfunction. So in general, as far as trying to get restored on these, if you're not already taking a good quality prenatal or multivitamin, that's a great place to start. There are other dietary sources that you can get a lot of these different things, but if you're looking for just kind of the easy version, a good quality prenatal vitamin and making sure that it includes all of these pieces, the folic acid in the form of methylfolate, the selenium, iodine, zinc, and B vitamins that you need in order to not only restore your deficiencies, but also to help improve the overall health and the health of any upcoming pregnancies that you may be having. So, what do I do if I stop birth control and my cycles just don't come back? You know, we do see that this happens quite frequently, and you can have a delay of ovulation or a delay of the return of your menstrual cycle, and for some women, that can actually last for a really long time. Now, especially if you had troubles with irregular cycles prior to going on birth control, you You know, we haven't treated those issues, and the birth control was just covering up this underlying issue. So it's really important to understand what's the underlying cause, correct that cause, and work with a healthcare professional trained in restorative reproductive medicine to get back on track and evaluate your cycles further. Other times we know that prolonged artificial hormone exposure from birth control, whether that's from an IUD, an implant, the injections, or birth control pills, this prolonged exposure can cause problems with a delay in ovulation, delay in the return of menses, and cause some issues other issues longer term. So especially if you have been on birth control for quite some time, if it has been more than five years, it may have actually been creating other issues that are arising in the background that haven't been dealt with and have just been masked this whole time. So this is why it's really important, especially if you don't have a return of your menstrual cycle within a couple of months after stopping birth control, that you again are working with a trained healthcare professional to get things back on track. Now, sometimes that may look like just a one time treatment in order to kind of jumpstart your cycles and sometimes it requires a longer term therapy depending upon what your intentions are. Either way, it's really important to know that not everybody has the experience of having their cycles just turn back on again once they quit birth control. Imagine if you were able to come off your birth control and never go back to it. There is a better way forward by learning how to chart your cycles and managing rather than covering up the underlying health conditions that caused issues in the first place. This more natural approach will empower you to have a better understanding of your cycles to improve your health and promote fertility. If you're ready to work with our elite team of healthcare professionals, go to our website, radiantclinic. com, to schedule a free discovery call with me and learn more about our package based pricing for comprehensive care. We are currently able to see people for in person appointments in our Cedar Rapids, Iowa clinic, or can arrange for a telehealth visit if you live in the states of Iowa, Illinois, or Minnesota. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Please share this podcast with someone in your life who would benefit from our services. 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