New York Magazine recently featured a really interesting cover article entitled  Waking Up From the Pill… although it wasn’t the balls out expose on the very serious risks involved in the choice to take oral contraceptives, it did bring another issue to light, one that is even less prevalent in the public consciousness.

Many women in America have similar experiences with birth control.  You hit a certain age, 17 or 18 in many cases, you want to start being sexually active, you talk to your mom (if you have that kind of relationship), or doctor, or secretly go to Planned Parenthood with your best friend… one way or another, you get yourself on birth control.  And odds are, you stay on it for a good 5, 7, 10 years.  You go about your life and don’t really need to even think about pesky issues like pregnancy or fertility until that fateful day when all your ducks are in a row and you’re ready to start a family.

In NYmag, Vanessa Grigoriadis makes the case that women who take BC for long periods of time grow out of touch with their rapidly ticking biological clocks, and find themselves getting off BC at an age when getting pregnant is not nearly as easy as it would have been in the prime child-rearing years (namely, in one’s 20s). But this has less to do with birth control per se, and more to do with women simply waiting longer and longer to get married and have children. I was very disappointed that the article did not cover health crises that are directly the cause of staying on birth control for so long: namely, the rapidly increasing incidence of cervical cancer.

New research over the past 5 years or so has overwhelmingly supported the conclusion that there is a direct relationship between the length of time a woman remains on birth control and her risk of developing cervical cancer. More and more women are seeing results of “abnormal cervical cells” or cervical dysplasia from routine pap smears, which in most cases means potentially pre-cancerous cells. The connection to birth control is undeniable. High levels of the synthetic form of estrogen, known as xenoestrogen, found in birth control pills cause an unnatural state of estrogen dominance in women who are exposed to it for long periods of time. This estrogen dominance can lead to a whole slew of symptoms including hypothyroidism, severe PMS and PMDD symptoms, low energy, and most notably, cervical dysplasia and increased risk of cervical cancer. According to a study done by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the risk of developing these symptoms (specifically cervical dysplasia and cervical cancer) nearly doubles if a woman takes birth control for 5 or more years.

So what is the solution? I am not necessarily advocating a complete ban on birth control. Taken for a few years, it can be the most effective form of birth control available to women. However, all prescribing physicians should discourage taking BC for more than 5 years. Lucky for women who have been on BC for a long time, the effects are typically reversible. The cervical cancer risk diminishes significantly after discontinuation of BC, and cervical dysplasia can often times clear up with proper supplementation and dietary changes that stabilize estrogen levels in the body.

As with all the choices we make about what we put in our bodies, we must weigh immediate benefits with long-term harm.  In the face of rapidly rising cancer rates, we cannot afford to pick the most convenient options for our bodies anymore.  Birth control has been such a default choice for women in the last 20 years that it will be difficult to start considering other options.  But consider them we must…

For more information about dietary treatnents and supplementation for reversing cervical dysplasia and the hormonal imbalance caused by long-term birth control use, please contact me at  http://www.nuhealthandwellness.com/