Birth control is a very popular form of contraceptive that has many implications for women’s health – from the deterrents to the benefits involved in pregnancy.
If you consume birth control pills and suffer from hypothyroidism, it is very important that you understand how such contraceptives can affect your brain, thyroid, liver, and hormone balance.
Birth control pills can flood your body with a large amount of synthetic hormones, which can imbalance the body in many different ways. The hormonal balance of the body depends on the nuanced communication between the hormone gland and the brain. Ultimately, the brain determines how much hormones the gland must produce based on the hormonal activities of the body.
By introducing additional hormones into the body, the brain comes to know that it already has a lot of hormones in the body. As a result, the brain ‘tells’ the hormone gland to slow down the production of hormones or become dormant. This may create a lot of problems when you decide to go off the birth control pill.
Many women have been recommended a birth control pill by their doctors. It has been estimated that more than 10.6 million women use oral contraception like birth control pills in the US alone. Doctors offer the pill in the response to common complaints like irregular periods, PMS symptoms, heavy menses, acne, and of course, for preventing pregnancy.
Birth control pills and the thyroid function
Birth control pills are responsible for completely depleting the nutrients your thyroid requires and can interfere with the thyroid hormones on multiple levels. For example, zinc and selenium are needed to produce the thyroid hormone and convert zinc into its T3 active form. This mineral is also needed to get the thyroid hormone communicate with the cell receptors.
Birth control pills can deplete the zinc mineral and prevent you from activating the thyroid glands. Not just zinc, these pills can also cut down crucial vitamins that are needed to synthesize the thyroid hormone, among other hundred uses in the body.
Pills increase the Thyroid Binding Globulin and lower testosterone levels
A study suggests that birth control pills increase the thyroxine binding globulin (TBG) and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in the body, which are responsible for binding the thyroid hormone. Once the thyroid hormone is bound to the globulin, it is not available for use by the cells.
This implies that even after you manage to overcome the nutrient depletion and the thyroid hormone comes back to normal, maximum of it will be bound and will not be available for the cells, which require the hormone of functioning. This leads to symptoms like hair loss, dry skin, cognitive and memory issues, cold intolerance, etc.
If the levels of these proteins are elevated, it can continue to remain so after a woman discontinues the use of birth control pills. This can, in turn, lead to further complications, like estrogen dominance among many others.
The relationship between birth control pills, liver, and hypothyroidism
Excess hormones produced by the body can stress the liver as it has to break these hormones down for elimination. The liver might become congested and sluggish due to being chronically overburdened, thereby increasing the risks of a poor immune function, high cholesterol, and risk for inflammation.
It is a well-known fact that a liver that is functioning poorly can raise inflammation. When you are working to dampen autoimmune flares and inflammation associated with hypothyroidism, the potential effect of inflammation of birth control pills on the liver is a point to consider.
When the liver is not able to detoxify estrogen, the hormone goes back to the bloodstream in a toxic form and raises the risk of complications, like menopause, hyperplasia and prostate carcinoma, endometrial cancer, cervical dysplasia, ovarian cysts, fibrocystic breasts, premenstrual syndrome, endometriosis, and breast cancer.
Final thoughts
Most women intuitively feel that a birth control pill will make hormonal symptoms disappear and make their periods easier; but, they don’t actually address as to why these symptoms take place in the first place, apart from natural reasons. The pill may make some of these symptoms disappear, but the side effects can cause a lot of problems to the body.
Birth control pills have far-reaching effects on the body of a woman. These symptoms are so far-reaching that they may show up in confusing ways to you.
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