Birth Control (BC) Pills Increase Suicide Risk By More Than 300%

haidut

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Most of the current BC pills on the market are either estrogen-only or contain a combination of estrogen and a synthetic progestin. The role of estrogen in strokes in young BC users is now well known, but public health officials continue to deny it. The fact that estrogen raises suicide risk so much is not only not deterring the estrogen pushers. In addition, pharma industry is now using this study to wrap progesterone into the blame game too despite the fact that the synthetic progestins resemble more androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS) in their activity than bio-identical progesterone.
Oh, and if that was not enough the main topic of the popular press article below is that BC pills raise risk of breast cancer by 38%. There is literally only one paragraph that states that fact. The rest of the article is dedicated to explaining away why that increase in breast cancer risk is not significant and probably a fluke. Of course, none of the geniuses that did the study thought of the well-known connection between depression suicide) and breast cancer. So, if BC pills raise risk of suicide (and thus depression) by 300%+ then the increase in risk of breast cancer is quite expected and probably well over 38%. I wonder what statistical games were played to bring the numbers down to 38%...
Mark Twain once said "facts are stubborn, but statistics are pliable". As true 150 years ago as it is true today.

MMS: Error
Don't panic, but birth control may be increasing your risk for breast cancer

"...Overall, the study found that women who used birth control had a 20 percent increase in their relative risk for developing breast cancer. However, that number varied depending on how long women had used their particular method. Women who had used hormonal birth control for less than a year had only a 9 percent increase in their relative risk, while women who had used birth control for more than 10 years had a 38 percent increase."

"...Compared with what the group of researchers found in one of their other papers—that using hormonal contraception was associated with a 300 percent increase in suicide risk—"it is a modest increase,” said Dr. Øjvind Lidegaard, one of the authors of the paper and a gynecologist at the University of Copenhagen."
 

aguilaroja

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It is concerning that contraceptive users were found to have completed suicide risks even higher than attempted suicide risks.

Association of Hormonal Contraception With Suicide Attempts and Suicides. - PubMed - NCBI
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17060616
“Compared with women who never used hormonal contraceptives, the relative risk among current and recent users was 1.97 (95% CI=1.85–2.10) for suicide attempt and 3.08 (95% CI=1.34–7.08) for suicide.”

Medscape: Medscape Access
"'Doctors should be a little more careful when they prescribe hormonal contraception to ensure that the woman doesn't have an actual depression or have been treated for depression and/or suicide attempts previously,' added Dr Lidegaard."

Association of Hormonal Contraception With Depression. - PubMed - NCBI
“Use of hormonal contraception, especially among adolescents, was associated with subsequent use of antidepressants and a first diagnosis of depression, suggesting depression as a potential adverse effect of hormonal contraceptive use.”
 
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lollipop

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It is concerning that contraceptive users were found to have completed suicide risks even higher than attempted suicide risks.

Association of Hormonal Contraception With Suicide Attempts and Suicides. - PubMed - NCBI
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17060616
“Compared with women who never used hormonal contraceptives, the relative risk among current and recent users was 1.97 (95% CI=1.85–2.10) for suicide attempt and 3.08 (95% CI=1.34–7.08) for suicide.”

Medscape: Medscape Access
"'Doctors should be a little more careful when they prescribe hormonal contraception to ensure that the woman doesn't have an actual depression or have been treated for depression and/or suicide attempts previously,' added Dr Lidegaard."

Association of Hormonal Contraception With Depression. - PubMed - NCBI
“Use of hormonal contraception, especially among adolescents, was associated with subsequent use of antidepressants and a first diagnosis of depression, suggesting depression as a potential adverse effect of hormonal contraceptive use.”
Sad really.
 

charlie

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Oh man. :(
 

Kyle M

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Women (and today's society in general) seem perfectly comfortable shrugging off serious health risks that they would not tolerate in other circumstances if it means they get to f*%# raw without getting pregnant. "The science is settled" on hormonal BC imo, it's the sociology that is interesting now.

Think about it, there's women paying tons of money for organic food and taking expensive supplements and all kinds of other stuff for the chance of slight health benefits, simultaneously avoiding lots of things that they think might have negative health effects. What would the negative effects of the pill have to be to get women to think about giving it up? Acne? Lol, sad state of affairs, amazing really, that women will make an immediate appointment with the doctor if they get acne or gain weight from their pill, but will hear about mental health problems and cancer risk and...keep taking the pill without further consideration.

Funny anecdote: A woman I worked with in my first post-college job as a water quality microbiologist went off the pill and was trying to f%#^ me like you wouldn't believe. She was married and everything. She was kind of my boss too, if the genders were reversed it would be a scandal. Kissed me at work, tried to lock us in my bedroom after a group of friends came back to my place from a bar on my 25th birthday, used to whisper all kinds of stuff in my ear walking by during work. Then she went back on the pill...and she went back to feeling nothing, no libido. Actually that's not really a funny story, pretty sad really.
 
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haidut

haidut

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It is concerning that contraceptive users were found to have completed suicide risks even higher than attempted suicide risks.

Association of Hormonal Contraception With Suicide Attempts and Suicides. - PubMed - NCBI
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17060616
“Compared with women who never used hormonal contraceptives, the relative risk among current and recent users was 1.97 (95% CI=1.85–2.10) for suicide attempt and 3.08 (95% CI=1.34–7.08) for suicide.”

Medscape: Medscape Access
"'Doctors should be a little more careful when they prescribe hormonal contraception to ensure that the woman doesn't have an actual depression or have been treated for depression and/or suicide attempts previously,' added Dr Lidegaard."

Association of Hormonal Contraception With Depression. - PubMed - NCBI
“Use of hormonal contraception, especially among adolescents, was associated with subsequent use of antidepressants and a first diagnosis of depression, suggesting depression as a potential adverse effect of hormonal contraceptive use.”

Wow, abysmal. Do those studies also examine interaction with SSRI and if that raised the risk even more?
 
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haidut

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if it means they get to f*%# raw without getting pregnant

Have you heard of "Semengate"? There is physiological reason females may prefer natural sex.
Lazar Greenfield's 'Semengate' Stuns Scientific Community | HuffPost

"...Dr. Greenfield noted the therapeutic effects of semen, citing research from the Archives of Sexual Behavior which found that female college students practicing unprotected sex were less likely to suffer from depression than those whose partners used condoms (as well as those who remained abstinent). Presumably it was the closing line that caused the controversy: “So there’s a deeper bond between men and women than St. Valentine would have suspected, and now we know there’s a better gift for that day than chocolates.” The attempt at Jackie Mason-humor apparently didn’t sit well in certain quarters. Dr. Greenfield resigned as editor of the Surgery News and gave up his stewardship of ACS after learning that his article had spurred threats of protests from outside women’s groups."
 

Kyle M

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Have you heard of "Semengate"? There is physiological reason females may prefer natural sex.
Lazar Greenfield's 'Semengate' Stuns Scientific Community | HuffPost

I hadn't, interesting. I wonder how this lines up with the recent findings of nucleic acids from male sperm being found in women. I'm not really sure where/how they were found, but that sparked a lot of discussion as well.

To me it's just more evidence that that "one thing = one effect" thinking of the biomedical establishment is wrong on everything.
 

schultz

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Think about it, there's women paying tons of money for organic food and taking expensive supplements and all kinds of other stuff for the chance of slight health benefits, simultaneously avoiding lots of things that they think might have negative health effects.

I've noticed that people will focus heavily and/or obsessively on very small changes in their lifestyle, things that don't really amount to much, instead of very big things. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's psychological? The birth control pill should make the top of most peoples lists of things to change first. Just getting off that would probably be more beneficial than all other changes one could make combined. Maybe that's hyperbole, but it would definitely be better than some minor change like switching from regular apples to organic and pretending it's revolutionary.
 

dfspcc20

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Women (and today's society in general) seem perfectly comfortable shrugging off serious health risks that they would not tolerate in other circumstances if it means they get to f*%# raw without getting pregnant. "The science is settled" on hormonal BC imo, it's the sociology that is interesting now.

I think doctors are still a noteworthy vector. There still seems to be an almost knee-jerk reaction to prescribe BC to teenage girls if they have difficult or painful periods. Doesn't help that parents are clueless about it too, despite the mountain of evidence against BC.
 

Prosper

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I've noticed that people will focus heavily and/or obsessively on very small changes in their lifestyle, things that don't really amount to much, instead of very big things. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's psychological? The birth control pill should make the top of most peoples lists of things to change first. Just getting off that would probably be more beneficial than all other changes one could make combined. Maybe that's hyperbole, but it would definitely be better than some minor change like switching from regular apples to organic and pretending it's revolutionary.
Everyone wants to feel like they are in control of their health. It's less intimidating to exercise control over the small things than the larger ones. Similar to what Ray refers to as learned helplessness.
 

alywest

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I don't think men realize this but doctors don't explain anything about the effect that birth control hormones will have on you. If they do it's totally downplayed in favor of just getting the girl/woman to get on the pill so she won't get pregnant. Then there are the super cool new naturopathic doctors who will prescribe you estrogens because they are what keep your skin young, and your vagina lubricated, and your life will be better for it. The other new thing is testosterone supplementation for women!

Have you guys ever been offered a sex hormone from your family practice physician? I know that testosterone is popular but I think that it's mainly sold over the counter or by the naturopaths which means you are probably seeking it out. I've never heard of a teenage boy being put on estrogen so that he doesn't get a girl pregnant before. If you had been offered one and believed that it would prevent any girl you slept with from getting pregnant, wouldn't you have just done it? Of course in our society it's the girl's responsibility to care for the baby if she gets pregnant so she's the one who will ingest toxic hormones.
 

Evgenius

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I don't think men realize this but doctors don't explain anything about the effect that birth control hormones will have on you. If they do it's totally downplayed in favor of just getting the girl/woman to get on the pill so she won't get pregnant. Then there are the super cool new naturopathic doctors who will prescribe you estrogens because they are what keep your skin young, and your vagina lubricated, and your life will be better for it. The other new thing is testosterone supplementation for women!

Have you guys ever been offered a sex hormone from your family practice physician? I know that testosterone is popular but I think that it's mainly sold over the counter or by the naturopaths which means you are probably seeking it out. I've never heard of a teenage boy being put on estrogen so that he doesn't get a girl pregnant before. If you had been offered one and believed that it would prevent any girl you slept with from getting pregnant, wouldn't you have just done it? Of course in our society it's the girl's responsibility to care for the baby if she gets pregnant so she's the one who will ingest toxic hormones.

Is BC the only contraceptive a woman can use ?
 
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haidut

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I don't think men realize this but doctors don't explain anything about the effect that birth control hormones will have on you

I don't think anybody in this thread is blaming women. At least I am not. To your point about doctors - yes, not only do they not explain much any more, but I know quite a few who directly lie in your face just to avoid answering questions. There are no more doctors, only providers. In fact, FDA has published guidelines to avoid using the word doctor in official settings, and focus solely on their role as providers of service or product (drug). While the impetus for this name change may have been good originally, it also underscores the complete lack of trust and death of the medical profession. Your doctor is now no different than a car dealer, and just like a car dealer he/she has to be watched and question and second-guessed to avoid selling you a lemon (which in this case could be deadly).
 

alywest

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Is BC the only contraceptive a woman can use ?
Absolutely not. I have been learning about tracking your cycle through basal body temp and cervical mucous quality with an app. I started using an app called "Natural Cycles," but there are plenty of others (the Justisse method, FAM.) It makes everything pretty easy, but you do need a basal thermometer that reads to the hundredth (0.00) for true accuracy. There is supposedly one week that you're actually fertile and that is based on the mucous quality, and it is around ovulation but not just after as I always used to believe. Then on the week you are fertile you can use a combo of a non-hormone based barrier method (ie. a diaphragm plus withdrawal to be safe IMO.) There are also ways to use progesterone as birth control but I've never done that, but there are threads detailing how to do it.
 

Lecarpetron

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Women (and today's society in general) seem perfectly comfortable shrugging off serious health risks that they would not tolerate in other circumstances if it means they get to f*%# raw without getting pregnant. "The science is settled" on hormonal BC imo, it's the sociology that is interesting now.

Many women don't know. The Pill is often presented by GPs as benign or even beneficial when prescribed for pre-menstrual nausea, cramps, or acne.

People don't have reason to question their doctors until they are already sick and have already been failed by them. I was 30 years old when this happened. At this point, I had been on full strength Ortho Tri Cyclen for well over a decade. I was put on it to stop cramps so bad I threw up for 48 hours straight each period. Of course I regret it now, but must admit it worked. I was in high school, with insufficient societal clout to second guess a medical professional. Plus...no internet back then.

I find it interesting that most of my friends who were also put on the Pill as minors for pre-menstrual issues also got their periods relatively early in life. Getting your period at 10 is in and of itself indicative of hormonal problems. So early, long term Pill use probably hurts women who are already out of whack the most.
 

Kyle M

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I've noticed that people will focus heavily and/or obsessively on very small changes in their lifestyle, things that don't really amount to much, instead of very big things. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's psychological? The birth control pill should make the top of most peoples lists of things to change first. Just getting off that would probably be more beneficial than all other changes one could make combined. Maybe that's hyperbole, but it would definitely be better than some minor change like switching from regular apples to organic and pretending it's revolutionary.

^^^Yes, I think the human mind is evolved to understand some things better than others, many of the latter being things that we encounter in modern times. I have an inside joke with myself, that I've never written or verbalized before, but when I see that some businessman is worth $558 million it always seems like that's more than $3 billion, because 558 is so much larger and more imposing of a number than 3. Human minds don't grasp the relative sizes of billions and millions well, and it takes conscious effort to account for that, whereas smaller numbers take no effort to compare in our heads.
 

alywest

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I don't think anybody in this thread is blaming women. At least I am not. To your point about doctors - yes, not only do they not explain much any more, but I know quite a few who directly lie in your face just to avoid answering questions. There are no more doctors, only providers. In fact, FDA has published guidelines to avoid using the word doctor in official settings, and focus solely on their role as providers of service or product (drug). While the impetus for this name change may have been good originally, it also underscores the complete lack of trust and death of the medical profession. Your doctor is now no different than a car dealer, and just like a car dealer he/she has to be watched and question and second-guessed to avoid selling you a lemon (which in this case could be deadly).

Totally agree and I wasn't directing my post at you. Thanks for the follow-up, though, and for posting the dangers of BC pills for everyone to see. It is scary that providers are trusted so highly, especially by the young. We are taught even in tv shows for children that "doctors are your friend and they will make you all better!" In the case of estrogen and progestin-based birth control, they are actually making us WORSE!

My boyfriend at the time (and current husband) actually almost broke up with me when I started taking BC pills shortly after we began dating. He knew I had changed overnight and told me I needed to get off of them ASAP. Fortunately I wasn't on the pill before we met, but I can imagine how many women have altered personalities due to BC, and how that would interfere with living normal lives with healthy relationships.
 

Kyle M

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I think doctors are still a noteworthy vector. There still seems to be an almost knee-jerk reaction to prescribe BC to teenage girls if they have difficult or painful periods. Doesn't help that parents are clueless about it too, despite the mountain of evidence against BC.

Everyone along the chain of decision making has an incentive to ignore the risks. Doctor wants to do what patients and parents want, and what is socially acceptable, which today is to give girls the pill. Parents don't want their girls to be "that girl" that gets pregnant as a teen, but also doesn't want to talk about sex. The pill is the easiest way to ensure their daughter doesn't get pregnant with the least effort and engagement. The girl wants to do what her friends are doing, doesn't want to be weird, and wants to be able to have sex without worrying about condoms if their boyfriends want to. To them, the embarrassment of not knowing about sex or not being ready looms much larger in their fears than breast cancer when they're 37 or something like that.
 

Kyle M

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I find it interesting that most of my friends who were also put on the Pill as minors for pre-menstrual issues also got their periods relatively early in life. Getting your period at 10 is in and of itself indicative of hormonal problems. So early, long term Pill use probably hurts women who are already out of whack the most.

Did you have any other health problems in childhood? What was your childhood like?
 

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