Most medicines have a proper time and place to be used. I think we can agree on that. Deciding when to actually use certain medicines, like the birth control pill and hormone replacement therapy, is the tricky part. In my experience these medicines are used way too easily, loosely and quickly, as they are not free of potential negative consequences.
Actually the birth control pill is hormone replacement therapy, just for a different purpose. They are both reliant on taking different hormones, like estrogen and progesterone, that are produced outside of the body. Whether these exogenous hormones are synthetic or of the “bio-identical” variety, they still represent the utilization of taking a hormone as a supplement, so to speak. The bio-identical hormones may be better absorbed and utilized in the body, but it is still something that comes from outside and not produced within.
The idea behind the ingestion of these hormones is that they will either help balance a condition that is off kilter, with symptoms such as acne, heavy and painful menses and hot flashes, or they will stop the ovary from ovulating an egg as a means of preventing pregnancy. Many times these hormones are able to do the job they were intended to do, which feels great in the moment, but later on the dependency on these hormones may not be so good.
Basically the body gets lazy. Not having to produce and regulate its own stores of natural hormones, and by not having to adapt and balance the problem that may be manifesting, the body becomes quite dependant on these drugs. The ovaries, and other organs, forget how to work properly. This is one of the possible reasons that early menopause may be more common in regular birth control users, an upsetting fact one learns when they come off 20 years of regular birth control pill usage in order to conceive a child, only to learn that they cannot. They are told by their fertility doctor that their 35 year old ovaries look like those of a 45 year old! Sounds crazy I know, but I have seen many women who have been told this over and over again.
Let alone infertility and declined ovarian health, breast and cervical cancer has been associated with early birth control pill use. Clinicians are still debating the truth of these findings, but do you really want to be their test dummy? Really, how good can it be that a woman, who hides her acne through the use of the pill, finds out later in life that she has breast cancer! Is that good medicine? Can we call that responsible medicine? Is it right to put so may women through this test?
What about the symptoms they were trying to avoid? Acne, painful menses, hot flashes, etc, often come back with a vengeance, and may even be worse than when they first started out. How could this be good? It is obvious that the hormones are not actually correcting anything on the inside. They are not actually correcting an imbalance at all, and may in fact be creating more of one. Life may feel great while on them, but once off watch out!
Think about the symptom of fatigue. One way to counteract this would be to drink lots of coffee, thus constantly stimulating the body to work harder. While on the drug, you feel alert and alive. When you stop you feel sleepy, lethargic, and depressed. Unless the actual problem that is creating the fatigue in the first place is corrected, one will still always feel tired. Perhaps it is a nutritional deficiency, or some inflammatory process, or too much stress, or not enough sleep. The list is endless as to what could be contributing to the fatigue, but it is essential that these factors be figured out so as to correct the problem. The coffee merely creates a “fake” sense of health, surely hormone replacement can do this as well.
Why is one getting hot flashes, acne, and heavy and painful menses? Supplementing with a hormone will not tell us the answer to these problems, they will merely mask them. Chinese medicine’s goal is to find the root of every problem, of every disease, so that the issue may stay away – hopefully for good. Sometimes the fix lies in a week or two of herbs or acupuncture. Sometimes the fix will take longer, like a year or more of treatments, but the goal is always the same. One should be able to function without the added supplementation of other hormones or drugs, that they should be able to function healthily on their own. This means the herbs are eventually stopped, which is contrary to most women’s’ experience of hormone replacement therapy – whereby increased use leads to more dependency. Just ask the average woman how long it took her to jump back on the pill, freaked out by the aggressive appearance of increased acne while not on it!
In terms of the avoidance of pregnancy, there are other contraceptive options out there. Barrier methods can be very good. As can the learning of how to identify when one is ovulating, so as to abstain during that time. Options are available that work and, most importantly, do not mess around with one’s internal hormone balance.
Basically, I am suggesting that one should investigate other options to their health problem, before jumping so quickly to hormone replacement. The verdict on these powerful medicines is not clear yet, and as such one needs to be very critical about them.
Wishing you health,
Dr. Trevor Erikson
Copyright © 2019 Dr. Trevor Erikson