How Our Menstrual Cycle and Birth Control Impacts Our Gains - part 2

In part 2 of this episode, I wanted to elaborate on my decision to stop taking birth control and discuss some of my considerations that you may find helpful if you too are toying with the decision to stop taking birth control.

This is something I have been considering for the past few years now and I finally made the jump to quit taking birth control in the spring of 2022. This was a decision that I didn’t take lightly and ensuring I weighed out all the pros and cons for myself was imperative.

Some of the key considerations that I had was to understand why I originally went on birth control in the first place and assess whether that reasoning was still valid as to why I am currently still on birth control. I also wanted to understand how birth control was impacting my hormones, my ability to build muscle and whether the pros outweighed the cons or vice versa.

I think answering these questions for yourself need to be considered before making your own decision as to what’s best for you.

So, let’s start off today’s discussion going over what birth control is. Now, there are several different forms of birth control such as the pill, IUD’s, diaphragms, condoms, patches, depo-shot and vaginal rings. We of course can’t discuss every single method, otherwise this would be an all-day episode. So, when I discuss birth control moving forward, we are just going to stick to the most common and convenient method for women, which is the pill. Please be sure to discuss matters with your doctor and do your own research if you are curious of any of the other forms of birth control.  But just so we aren’t here all day, we are going to limit our discussion to the pill. 

Birth control is synthetic estrogen and synthetic progesterone called progestin, which can act like progesterone depending on the type. There are 4 different generations developed over the years. They all vary in how they impact a women’s body.

1st generation birth control typical cause oily skin and increase acne due to it being more androgenic.

Androgenic pertains to the development of male characteristics, including body hair, and muscle mass. "Androgenic" is the adjective form of the noun "androgen," a word referring to any of the male hormones, including testosterone and androsterone

2nd generation birth control was a little bit less androgenic

3rd generation birth control is the least androgenic

4th generation birth control is anti-androgenic – meaning it binds the receptor and blocks it. Therefore, women will expiration less oily skin and less acne. Basically, the opposite of the 1st generation birth control. It prevents the testosterone in their body from having any impact. Which may be good when it comes to preventing acne, but logically, it’s safe to assume that this may impact one’s ability to maximize muscle growth.

When I was on birth control, it was a 3rd generation pill. So, I am grateful for me and my goals that it was not a 4th generation birth. Although, it was considered the least androgenic, therefore, it likely did impact my full muscle building potential to some degree. Overall, I am still very happy with the amount of muscle that I have built over the years that I’m sure the extent of my limited potential was likely very trivial and not worth losing sleep over. I imagine I may feel different if I was taking a 4th generation birth control.

There have been studies done showing that birth control can negatively impact muscle growth. However, not to the extent that would be needed to really draw an objective opinion on the matter. Nevertheless, the findings of the studies are in line with our logical assumption above and that is the 4thgeneration birth controls, which are anti-androgenic, have been shown to impair muscle growth compared to women who are on no birth control and the best contraception if you want to maximize muscle growth potential is an oral contraception that’s a 3rd generation.

Is the risk of possibly not gaining as much muscle as you could without being on birth control worth it? Does that tiny little of bit of extra muscle matter to you? Because I never said that birth control completely halts muscle growth. It just may hinder your potential. But to what extend? We don’t really know. It may be noticeable. It may not be noticeable at all. This is a trade you must be willing to analyze for yourself based on your needs and your goals.

Now while you are weighing out the pros and cons for yourself, I think it’s important to look beyond just muscle growth. What are some additional implications we want to consider when it comes to taking birth control. Of course, there are so many types of contraceptives out there and the effects of those are going to be completely different for each woman. But let’s approach these implications from a general standpoint.

Like I previously mentioned, my ability to build muscle was not my only concern when deciding whether it was time to go off birth control.

When making this decision for yourself, you must ask yourself what the benefits of taking birth control are for you are before making the decision whether or not it’s best for you to come off it or not.

For me, my next concern was menstrual regulation. I used to get the worst periods ever, where the pill not only helped regulate when it would show up, I also had the ability to skip a period if for whatever reason I couldn’t deal with the quote unquote inconvenience of my period for that given month.

Menstrual cycle regulation can be extremely important to a lot of athletes, where going off the pill might disrupt that regulation. That may not be practical for you right now. It certainly wasn’t for me. But for myself, I knew that my system had been shut off for long enough that getting things regulated again naturally was more important to my long-term health and I was willing to sacrifice the convenience of not having a period.

I think it’s important to note that birth control itself is neither good nor bad. So always understand for yourself why you went on it in the first place. So, for example, if you originally went on birth control because of how shitty your period was (that was my original reason) or perhaps you have PCOS, that’s one thing. Or perhaps on the opposite end of the spectrum, you went on it to be responsible and avoid pregnancy that’s another thing.

So overall, being on birth control has its purpose.

I do think it’s important to do your research and understand that there are so many options out there. Options that may not have as negative of side effects that one may realize.

When we take oral contraceptives, we are manipulating our estrogen and essentially shutting down our estrogen production. And remember what we discussed in part 1 of this episode, and that is that estrogen is not bad nor is it evil. It is actually responsible for a lot of important function in our body, where the manipulation of this specific hormone is not good nor what we want. This manipulation will actually start the shutdown of our HPO-access, which shuts down the natural production of sex hormones. In conclusion, this starts to impact our mental health, our bone health, and our gut health.

What’s really interesting is just because you bleed while you are on the pill that doesn’t mean it is actually menstruation. The blood being secreted is not the same as when you have an actual period and that’s because you are not ovulating when you are on the pill. That’s the point of the pill.

Now if you have no desire to get pregnant and you are fine with not actually ovulating, it’s important to note that actually getting our period as women is so much more than just making babies. Menstruating and ovulating are one of the key indicators of our health and well-being.

For example, if you want to avoid osteoporosis when you get older, having a proper period is essential. Same goes for the preservation of muscle as we get older. Another important consideration is perimenopausal symptoms. Having a healthy menstrual cycle now helps mitigate some of these symptoms of hot flashes, mood swings etc.

Developing this understanding as to what was happening to my body for me just solidified my decision that it was time to stop relying on birth control.

So, if you do decide to go off the pill. What can you expect? What’s going to happen?

Well, this depends.

I think it’s important to understand that the longer you’ve been on the pill, the longer your body may need to sort things out. For a lot of women, it’s very much like going through puberty again because of how long your system has been shut down. So, be sure to consult with your doctor so you know what to expect as best as you can.

I’ll spend some time going over my experience. However, please note that even if you had a similar timeline as me, that doesn’t mean your experience is going to be the same as mine. Everyone is extremely different, and everyone’s bodies are going to react differently. But I was on a 3rd generation pill for over 15 years. For the last 7 years, I was taking the pill back-to-back for 3 consecutive months because of how horrible my periods were and getting what I thought was my period each month was out of the question. Prior to me stopping taking the pill, I spent three months trying to prepare my body for what was to come. I had some blood work done to get an idea of where things were at, and I started supplementing magnesium and zinc again to prepare my body for coming off the pill. I also spent a significant amount of time prioritizing the quality of sleep, managing my stress, getting my calories high enough where I wasn’t in a calorie deficit and ensured my body wasn’t doing excessive cardio.

My first month of the pill I didn’t get my period, which I kind of expected. This was three months after I just finished competing, where the restricted dieting and stress my body was under likely would have caused me to lose my period even if I wasn’t on the pill. In addition, I experienced some pretty noticeable mood swings during this first month, as well as increased acne on my back and increased hair growth, likely due to my testosterone increasing.

During my second month off the pill, my period showed up, which is something I never thought I would be excited about, but I was. This was a good indication that my body was recovering and starting to normalize. I have read that a lot of women have their period come back in such a brutal matter that I was honestly scared for what was to come. But I was pleasantly surprised that the symptoms were completely manageable. The cramps and fatigue didn’t really phase me like they have in the past and 5 months later, I can say that this has been my experience each month since then.

My mood didn’t start to normalize until about 3 or 4 months after going off the pill and even now I am still dealing with some acne on my back and increased hair growth, which is nice for my hair on my head but not so much when I go to shave my legs and armpits.

It was scary to go off the pill at first but based on how my body is feeling several months later, it was the best decision I have ever made. I wish I didn’t wait so long to make this decision for myself.

Before we wrap up this episode, please note that this was my experience, and everyone is different. I am not saying anything bad about birth control. But for me, my original reasoning for taking birth control has changed drastically. I have put in the work to figure out what my body needed to ensure that my monthly visits from Aunt Flow weren’t completely crippling. Don’t get me wrong, they still aren’t fun. But they are manageable enough to the point that I don’t need to rely on birth control. I also understand how to track when I am ovulating so I can implement the fertility awareness method and avoid pregnancy during those 6 days during the month where pregnancy is possible. Even taking the time to pay attention to my body and understand when I am ovulating has given me such a better connection with my body.

Again, this is not for everyone. So please be sure to do your own research and ensure you weigh out the pros and cons for yourself. If the reason you started birth control in the first place hasn’t changed, then of course, it still has a purpose for you and your individual needs. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Hope this was helpful!

Coach Krys