Your Guide to Coming Off Birth Control

If you’ve ever quit hormonal birth control, you know that it can set off a whole range of physical and emotional challenges – from mood complications to cystic acne. This phenomenon is SO common among young women that it is now referred to as Post Birth Control Syndrome and there are hundreds of thousands of TikTokkers talking about their personal experiences with it. 

Whether you’re currently struggling with the transition (which can last several years) or are planning on getting off BC in the future, your body could definitely use some holistic support throughout the process. So let’s walk through supportive lifestyle changes, a list of nourishing foods to incorporate into your diet, and some targeted supplements (including our Happy Hormones Kit) that are proven to help with Post Birth Control Syndrome.

What Post Birth Control Syndrome Is

While not yet an official medical diagnosis, Post Birth Control Syndrome is a term that describes the set of symptoms that many women experience after coming off of hormonal birth control (including pills, IUDs, patches, rings, injections, and implants). Generally speaking, these changes show up around 4-6 months after stopping your contraceptive use and last anywhere from 3 months to several years. 

Some common signs and symptoms are:

• Loss of your period (amenorrhea) 
• Irregular periods 
• Hair shedding
• Acne
• Digestive issues
• Migraines and headaches
• Depression or anxiety
• Blood sugar imbalances
• Low libido 

Why Post Birth Control Syndrome Occurs

Simply put, hormonal birth control works by preventing ovulation each month. In other words, it quite literally shuts down your normal reproductive system functioning so that you are unable to get pregnant while on it. It’s truly life changing and life saving for so many women around the world for this reason. However, when you transition off birth control, your body experiences a bit of a shock as the synthetic hormones it once received come to a screeching halt and it needs to re-learn how to ovulate every month. It’s a lot to handle at once!

Here’s what shifts after stopping hormonal birth control:

• Your body must rely entirely on its own hormone production again
• Ovulation resumes
• Estrogen and progesterone levels adjust 
• Your natural menstrual cycle re-establishes itself (since your “period” on hormonal birth control is actually a withdrawal bleed, not a real period)

How Hormonal Birth Control Takes a Toll on Your Body

While effective at preventing pregnancy, a steady influx of synthetic hormones can cause imbalances in nearly all of your body systems (hence the wide-reaching symptoms of Post Birth Control Syndrome!), especially if you’re on hormonal birth control for a long period of time. Here are a few of the more noteworthy impacts of hormonal birth control methods to be aware of:

• Alters your gut microbiome and sometimes causes leaky gut 
• Depletes key nutrients like B vitamins, selenium, magnesium, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and other antioxidants
• Impacts estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, insulin, cortisol, and thyroid hormone levels
• Strains your liver detox pathways, often leading to sluggish liver function
• Increases inflammation, insulin resistance and triglycerides 
• Puts stress on your adrenal glands 

Diet and Lifestyle Tips to Support Yourself Post-BC

Maybe you’re considering making the switch from hormonal birth control to an alternative method, you’re planning to quit all birth control with the intention of getting pregnant, you already came off birth control and need some support, or you’re currently using hormonal birth control and just want to nourish your body while on it. Regardless of where you’re coming from, there are LOTS of holistic ways to help with some of those not-so-great side effects of hormonal birth control on your body that we touched on earlier.  

Diet:

• Prioritize getting cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc) onto your plate to support liver detox and proper hormone clearance
• Eat lots of healthy fats from avocados, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines), nuts, seeds and olive oil to reduce inflammation and nourish healthy hormones
• Emphasize colorful foods rich in vitamins and minerals to help replenish any nutrients depleted by hormonal birth control. Think: leafy greens, berries, bell peppers, citrus
• Consider adding in organ meats or an organ supplement for Vitamin A, zinc, selenium, iron and B vitamins.
• Ensure you’re consuming enough protein in the form of grass fed meats, wild caught fish and shellfish for hormone production, blood sugar balance, and cellular repair.
• Sip on liver-loving teas like dandelion, ginger, turmeric, burdock and milk thistle to support hormone detox (especially estrogen). 

Lifestyle:

• Track your menstrual cycle to get an idea of when/if you might be ovulating and notice any positive or negative shifts in symptoms as your hormone levels rebalance
• Manage your stress levels with relaxing practices like yoga, breathing exercises, meditation and journaling
• Incorporate daily movement which will also help get your metabolic health back on track after birth control

Supplementation:

• Multivitamin to restore depleted vitamins and minerals without taking a bunch of different capsules a day 
• Omega 3 fatty acids like a high quality EPA/DHA fish oil supplement 
• Probiotic 
• Gut healing herbs like chamomile, licorice root, slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, aloe vera to heal your intestinal lining and reduce inflammation
• L-glutamine to help heal your gut – especially if you suspect you have leaky gut/intestinal permeability
• Probiotic to support a balanced gut microbiome, nutrient absorption and healthy hormones
• Adaptogens to help manage stress and strengthen your HPA axis. 
• Vitex (aka chaste berry) to help regulate your menstrual cycles 

One tool that can be extremely supportive for women post-BC is our Happy Hormones Kit. This comprehensive protocol takes a root-cause approach to hormonal balance by: encouraging healthy liver detoxification with Liver Juice, establishing regular monthly cycles with Flow Balance, rebalancing your gut microbiome with Not Your Average Probiotic, and reducing inflammation with The Guardian Tea.