Coming off birth control doesn’t have to be a nightmare for skin. Your skin might have been bad the last time you tried to stop the pill but this time will be different. This time, you’ll know about post-pill acne and how to treat it.
insulin resistance
The role of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome in common menstrual problems such as PCOS, heavy periods, and perimenopause. Hyperinsulinemia or high insulin can impair ovulation and increase androgens in polycystic ovary syndrome. It can also cause progesterone deficiency, anovulatory cycles, and increase the thickness of the uterine lining contributing to heavy periods.
Have You Lost Your Period to a Low Carb or Keto Diet?
Every time I tweet my concern about women losing their periods to a low-carb or keto diet, I get a lot of angry responses.
“It’s purely anecdotal,” men explain to me. “There is no known mechanism, so it can’t really be happening.”
Except it is really happening. Ask anyone who works with young menstruating women. Or not menstruating, as the case may be.
Your Hormones Need Dinner
Sometimes a patient tells me she had only a salad for dinner. Or, even more puzzling: A green smoothie.
I could never do that. I’m tired at the end of the day. I’m hungry. I need a substantial dinner such as roast chicken with potatoes, vegetables, and butter. I honestly cannot imagine sitting down with just a cold green salad.
I don’t think I’m different from other women. Women get hungry. Women need food.
How Birth Control Switches Off Hormones and Why That Matters
The pill was an important step in our struggle to legalize contraception. I celebrate that, of course. Hormonal birth control can also be medicine for debilitating conditions such as severe endometriosis and very heavy periods. I celebrate that.
What I don’t celebrate is the distorted message that hormonal birth control is the only birth control. And I don’t celebrate its widespread prescription as “hormone balance” for any hormonal symptom that might arise in women and teenage girls.