Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods
Hormonal birth control has several side effects including an increased risk of anxiety and depression. Alternatives to birth control include condoms, fertility awareness method, and natural treatment for women’s health problems such as endometriosis and PCOS.
The pill is commonly prescribed to “regulate periods,” but it can’t actually do that because withdrawal bleeds from contraceptive drugs are not real menstrual cycles.
In episode one of my podcast/YouTube video, I discuss real periods versus pill bleeds and why there’s no medical reason to bleed monthly on the pill.
I also look at the difference between contraceptive drugs and real hormones.
Progestins such as drospirenone, levonorgestrel, or medroxyprogesterone are not progesterone.
That’s because progesterone is not a generic term like estrogen. Instead, progesterone refers only to the hormone made by the corpus luteum or taken as oral micronized progesterone.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is not one disease. Instead, it’s “a heterogeneous disorder with different underlying biological mechanisms.” In other words, it’s a set of symptoms (androgen excess and anovulatory cycles) caused or driven by several different underlying factors. To successfully treat PCOS, you need to identify which factor (or factors) is driving the symptoms. In other words, you need to know your functional type of PCOS.
The four functional types of PCOS include insulin-resistant PCOS, post-pill PCOS (which is temporary), inflammatory PCOS, and the far less common adrenal PCOS.
If you suffer hair loss, facial hair (hirsutism), or acne, then you know all about androgen excess or high male hormones.
You may have been given the diagnosis of PCOS but there are actually several different reasons for androgen excess in women including androgen hypersensitivity, adrenal androgen excess, high prolactin, menopause, and hormonal birth control with a high androgen index.