CNN Melts Down Over Women Getting Happier By Ditching Feminism For Femininity
Legacy publications creatively blame 'hatred' and 'misogyny' for younger women seeking life patterns outside feminism.Legacy publications creatively blame 'hatred' and 'misogyny' for younger women seeking life patterns outside feminism.Soothe menstrual inflammation with this little-known holistic secret
Every woman gets their period, but very few understand it.
And while many choose to use artificial fixes like hormonal birth control to relieve period symptoms, this doesn’t actually regulate or fix the menstrual cycle — it simply shuts the menstrual cycle down.
“A natural menstrual cycle is beneficial for women, because it’s how we make hormones,” naturopathic doctor Lara Briden tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable,” explaining that to give women birth control to solve all their problems is a “reckless approach.”
And there are other solutions to issues like painful periods that aren’t birth control.
“I definitely have friends who say, ‘I just have horrible periods, they’re really heavy, I have horrible, debilitating cramps,’” Stuckey says. “A lot of doctors will say the only remedy is birth control, but you have a natural approach to that, so where should women start if they’re in any of those boats?”
“I’ll give you two examples, which are kind of my favorite ones because they can really move the needle on symptoms,” Briden says. “If young women or teenagers are having very heavy periods, painful periods, one of the things I have learned early on, and then I’ve just seen in practice again and again, is that it can improve by switching the kind of dairy cow’s dairy they’re eating.”
According to Briden, unlike “A2 milk,” certain dairy proteins can be “quite inflammatory for some people” and that inflammation “can manifest as heavier flow, or more painful flow, or premenstrual mood symptoms.”
“Another example is the nutrient zinc. A zinc supplement can relieve period pain,” she explains. “There’s been at least one clinical trial where they tested zinc in direct comparison to the pill for period pain, and they found that zinc worked as well as the pill.”
Zinc is not only cheaper than the pill, but Briden notes that it also “doesn’t shut down the menstrual cycle.”
“So it sounds like there are a lot of potential natural remedies for the menstrual issues that people have that aren’t suppressing someone’s very necessary ovulatory cycle,” Stuckey comments.
“It’s 2025, we don’t have to shut down women’s entire hormonal systems just to avoid pregnancy,” Briden agrees.
Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?
To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Depo-Provera’s Alleged Link To Brain Tumors Should Make You Wonder What’s In Your Birth Control
The Depo-Provera fallout proves women should be privy to more information about birth control side effects, not less.Hormonal birth control: As bad for you as smoking
Filmmaker and mother Jessica Solce was frustrated by the difficulty of finding healthy, all-natural products for herself and her family. To make it easier, she created the Solarium, which curates trusted, third-party-tested foods, clothing, beauty products, and more — all free of seed oils, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, and other harmful additives.
In this occasional column she shares recommendations and research she's picked up during her ongoing education in health and wellness.
“Changes in gray and white matter in brains of women taking [oral contraceptives] suggest that OCs have an effect on brain architecture.” —Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, volume 67, October 2022.
I tried birth control in college. It lasted less than three months, and then I ran for the hills.
Birth control distorts sexual attraction. Women are literally put off the scent of the hunt for the right partner.
I hated how my body was feeling. It was swelling, and my mind was unsettled and lethargic. Luckily I had an old-world mother who always warned me never to take birth control, so I tiptoed into my college experiment with awareness and wariness, hypervigilant for any side effects.
Before we get into exactly why hormonal birth control is systemically wrecking your body and mind — both on a micro (you) and a macro (societal, generational) level — I'm going to skip ahead to the takeaway. This is easily one of the most important things you'll read all week, and I can't risk you clicking off before you finish reading.
Here it is: Ladies, don't use the pill, the patch, or the ring. Or any method of contraception interfering with your body's delicate balance of hormones.
It doesn’t matter if it has some “positive” side effects. Any pharmaceutical intervention will upend your body's natural balance, and whatever the “positive” side effects, they are absolutely overshadowed by the multitude of negative side effects: migraines, anxiety attacks, loss of libido, brain alterations, thrombosis, personality disorders, depression, and cancer.
Your best option, to quote Nancy Reagan, is to just say no.
Of course, the former first lady was talking about illegal drugs. But if we've learned anything in the past couple of decades, it's that the stuff the pharmaceutical companies peddle can be just as bad.
Maybe you've heard this kind of talk linked to the slogan Make America Healthy Again. Even if MAHA is a little too similar to MAGA for your taste, don't buy into the propaganda that ditching birth control is somehow a partisan issue.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, 29-year-old pop singer Lorde spoke positively about her decision to stop using birth control for the first time since she was fifteen. Still, she felt the need to issue a disclaimer: “I’ve now come to see my decision was maybe some quasi right-wing programming."
RELATED: Lorde and 5 other celebs who broke up with birth control
Well, if a woman living in tune with her body and not dependent on Big Pharma is right-wing, welcome to the right wing, Lorde. Welcome, all.
Here's what hormonal birth control does in addition to preventing pregnancy.
It changes who you're attracted to
In 2008, 100 women were asked to sniff the shirts of men and rate them by odor, most to least attractive. The results suggested that women on the pill preferred the scent of men with similar MHC genes. MHC genes are crucial to the development of the immune system; offspring of parents with a well-balanced diversity of these genes tend to be more resistant to disease.
By contrast, women not on birth control were drawn to men with dissimilar MHC genes — selecting for offspring with strong immune systems. You're instinctively drawn to a man whose genes fill in what you’re missing — a match that benefits your future children. Incredible, really.
Birth control distorts sexual attraction. Women are literally put off the scent of the hunt for the right partner.
Also, when a woman goes off birth control, she can find herself no longer attracted to her partner’s pheromones.
It messes with our water supply
We in the West love to point out the detrimental environmental effects of automobiles while ignoring the toxic emissions from our own bodies. All of the drugs we consume end up passing through us and right back into the water system.
This pollutes our drinking water as well as the habitats of aquatic animals. Like the herbicide atrazine, estrogen from birth control can wreak havoc on mating cycles, causing intersex conditions, low sperm count, and population collapse.
It increases the risk of cancer
Users of hormonal contraceptives face a 20% to 30% higher risk of breast cancer. And yet most reports tend to dismiss any alarm this figure might raise. This reassuring passage is typical: "Experts say the increased risk is small and the benefits of hormonal contraceptives still outweigh the risks for many people."
Contrast that with the general attitude toward another known cancer risk: smoking cigarettes. Even just five cigarettes a day increases your risk of lung cancer by almost 8%. Once you get up to pack or two a day, that risk rises to something like 25%.
In other words, about the same increased risk as birth control.
When it comes to cigarettes, however, the "experts" sing a different tune: "There’s no 'safe' number of cigarettes you can smoke per day. Any number of cigarettes can increase your risk of developing cancer."
It messes with your brain
A 2019 study found that women who take oral contraception had a significantly smaller hypothalamus than those who don't. The hypothalamus is the region of the brain regulating any number of bodily functions, from sex drive and sleep cycles to appetite and heart rate.
A smaller hypothalamus correlates with depression and decreased emotional regulation.
Vice soon responded with an article "debunking" the study: Yes, birth control alters the structure of the brain, but who's to say that's a bad thing?
Yeah, no thanks.
A 2023 study revealed that women on oral contraceptives did not experience the typical reduction in the stress hormone ACTH after social activities. This suggests that hormonal contraceptives may alter how the body regulates stress and directly causes elevated cortisol levels.
It makes being a teenager exponentially worse
A 2016 Danish study found that females 15 to 19 using oral contraception were likely to be diagnosed with depression at a 70% higher rate than non-users. The patch and vaginal rings had even higher correlation with depression.
Many of those diagnosed go on to take antidepressants, another lifetime prescription keeping them dependent on the pharmaceutical companies.
Still, birth control defenders say there's nothing to see here. In the words of Dr. Cora Breuner, a Seattle pediatrician who chairs the committee on adolescents for the American Academy of Pediatrics, “An unintended and unwanted pregnancy far outweighs all the other side effects that could occur from a contraceptive."
Oh, and taking birth control during adolescence can also disrupt brain development, especially processes related to the fear response.
Could rampant birth control use have anything to do with women's higher rates of anxiety disorders? Seems like a question worth asking.
It gets into breast milk
What we eat goes directly into our breast milk and into our babies. Do we really need a science experiment for this logic? We're advised not to eat too much broccoli because it may give our babies uncomfortable gas.
RELATED: MAHA study unveiled: The truth behind autism
But don’t worry about those drugs you're taking, and have you considered updating your vaccines?
Do you want to fill your babies' bodies with synthetic estrogen or progestin? Logically these synthetic hormones go downstream and directly into our breast milk. If there is a negative risk to my infant’s growth, that is enough warning for me.
We are already aware that oral contraceptives increase chances of cancer and may cause behavioral and personality disorders.
So why is cancer increasing so drastically in children? We actually know. Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children, and a Scandinavian study found a direct link to birth control.
It messes with your metabolism
Some birth control pills, especially those with certain hormones like androgenic progestins, can negatively affect glucose metabolism, i.e., make it harder for the body to handle sugar. This means blood sugar and insulin levels may spike after eating, which can lead to problems like insulin resistance, a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
It can cause other life-altering side effects
“I would get these migraines that would shock my body into so much pain that I would then have seizures,” said one woman in a 2018 BBC documentary. Also on the menu are anxiety attacks, weight gain, pulmonary embolisms, and blood clots.
Good luck addressing any of these problems. Most doctors aren't trained to recognize birth control side effects, often leading women to seek additional pharmaceutical solutions.
It's coming for men, too
That's right, guys. Thank to the wonders of science, soon all of this can be yours too. Who knows what interesting new effects we'll see when we start tampering with male hormones?
Health begins with the awareness that our bodies are incredibly complex, elegantly constructed systems. My mission with the Solarium is to help us be better stewards of this natural gift.
The Senate Can Finally End Medicaid Funding Of The Abortion Giant That Ended My Baby’s Life
With the help of Republicans in the Senate, this will be the year we finally defund Planned Parenthood.Why Paying Women To Have Babies Is A Terrible Idea — And What To Do Instead
Paying for babies doesn't work. But government could certainly stop making raising kids so expensive and undesirable.Why Is Fertility-Tracking App Natural Cycles Promoting Abortion To Pregnant Women?
My friend told Natural Cycles she was expecting a baby. The app responded with a plug for abortion.‘I will never see again’: How just two weeks on birth control left a young woman blind
Chelsea Painter Davis became blind when she was only 19 years old, but it wasn’t the result of an accident. Rather, it happened after she was prescribed birth control pills.
“I started taking birth control pills because that’s what all the little good Protestant girls do, or so I thought, when you’re about to get married,” Davis tells Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable.”
“I wanted to have a real conversation with my primary care physician. When I came in, I was like, ‘I want to choose something that’s safe, something that’s effective, and something that’s ethical, and she was not interested in having that conversation with me,” Davis explains, noting that she got the impression her doctor just wanted her to “take the prescription and leave.”
Davis felt so uncomfortable, that despite her unanswered questions, she decided to just get the prescription and leave.
“I just started taking the medication, and I did not really feel OK with that, but I was a virgin at the time, I wasn’t having sex, I was like, ‘OK, well, it’s not that big of a deal, it’s not like I’m causing any problems with the baby right now, it’s not even possible for me to be pregnant right now,’” she tells Stuckey.
After taking the medication for only two weeks, Davis ended up in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism.
“I almost died,” she says, adding that her friend had also died from a blood clot that was due to taking hormonal birth control.
“But for some reason, you still think, ‘Oh, that’s a fluke, that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with birth control,’ that just means, ‘Oh, there’s something wrong in her body, that would never happen to me,’” she says.
After suffering the pulmonary embolism, Davis began getting headaches.
“I recovered from my pulmonary embolism. They realized that I had blood clotting disorders, and combined with the birth control, that’s what threw the clot. But I started getting headaches after, and I went to see that same PCP, and I said, ‘Hey, my head hurts really bad, I’m trying to take my college classes, I just had my wedding, and Tylenol won’t cut it,’” she explains.
While Davis had stopped taking the birth control at that point, her primary care physician told her to “calm down” and that she was “just really stressed out.”
The headaches continued, and finally she was forced to realize that her vision was also failing.
“It wasn’t until my mom came to visit for Thanksgiving, and we were setting up the Christmas tree,” Davis says. “She asked me to hand her the purple Christmas ornament, and I was holding two of them, and I couldn’t tell which one it was.”
“I ended up having a pseudotumor cerebri, which is a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid that squished my optic nerves to death. And because I was so delayed in coming to get a proper diagnosis, there was nothing they could do,” she explains, adding, “I will never see again. There’s nothing they can do for me.”
Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?
To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Today's top stories
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com