Heart to Heart with Hads

Your hormones on “airplane mode”: why the strip club study made us spit out our coffee

• Hadlea Shaw

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We explore how hormonal birth control reshapes the brain–body conversation, from ovulation suppression to stress response blunting, and weigh real-world benefits against physiological trade-offs. We share research on attraction and scent, map common side effects, and outline practical steps to protect mood, libido, and long-term health.

• social and economic gains linked to contraception
• how the pill suppresses FSH/LH and ovulation
• withdrawal bleed versus true menstruation
• estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone blunting
• libido, muscle gain, and energy changes
• cortisol response, learning, and stress tolerance
• side effects, risks, and nutrient depletion
• attraction, scent studies, and partner preference
• gut-first strategy and lifestyle foundations
• research gaps, tracking, and self-advocacy


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SPEAKER_00:

Right. Let's get into it. Alright, we're gonna talk about birth control and how it affects your brain and body. Right, well, and this is me. Had to put that in there because that's my baby, that's my coaching. You already know that. Alright, pill history. Let's get into it. Because the pill hasn't been around forever, but it's been around long enough to know, like, hey, it's actually affecting women in ways that we didn't even know were possible. Now, there whenever the pill became a thing, it was like groundbreaking, right? They saw a lot of, you know, social and economical improvements because women were not having kids at young ages, which is great because we don't need to have kids whenever we're not financially ready for them, and then they grow up and they get into society and they have had a very poor upbringing. Like that's not at all what we want. We we want to be able to bring them in when we are financially stable, right? And there was also a 30% increase in female wages in the 90s as a result of birth control, which is amazing because you know, women could pursue their sexual lives without having to worry about getting pregnant because of the birth control pill. Another thing, too, higher college enrollment and completion in the 70s and 80s because birth control was very common and very helpful for women who wanted to advance in their, you know, secondary education and their careers, because I think we've kind of had an evolution shift of women not just wanting to be homemakers, but women wanting to actually work and get a degree and make their own money and kind of this individualism that we that we see, which is amazing. And so birth control has really magnified that and been able to make that kind of happen for us females. So one before we get into kind of the effects and things, I want to explain what your period on birth control is like. So essentially, you're getting a synthetic dose of estrogen and progesterone, which is called progesterone, throughout the whole month. And so it's making, it's mimicking essentially the luteal phase and it's downregulating your natural production of estrogen and progesterone. So these hormones are really, really low actually when you're on birth control. So is free testosterone. So if you're dealing with the, you know, some of the symptoms because of this, which I'll explain, that's that's why. Um, but what's happening is that heightened daily dose of the synthetic hormone, progestin, is suppressing the pituitary from releasing FSH and LH, which is preventing ovulation. And without ovulation, right, no pregnancy happens. But the brain and the ovaries communicate. And so basically the pill is stopping the brain from communicating to the ovaries. And what happens is your the thickening of your uterine wall gets so thick that it the sperm actually can't go in, and that's happening as well. It depends on the type of birth control, but those are the two mechanisms that are happening why it's preventing birth control essentially. So, and then also to mention too, the placebo pill is not a period, it's a withdrawal bleed. Just that needs to be known because you're not actually bleeding, menstruating. So, this is what's going on in your body. Your body and your hormones are straight up confused, right? When you don't have estrogen, when estrogen is low, you don't have the skin plump, you don't have the lips full, the clear brain, the healthy heart, the skin that's just glowing. That's not there. And when you don't have progesterone, you're not getting that calming effect, right? You know, that's very important. You know, when you have progesterone, you use fat for energy. This helps build your bones and protects your uterus from cancer. And progesterone is low. So it's like, wow, this could actually increase my risk of cancer. Crazy. Now, another thing too is cortisol. Cortisol is confused too. And what happens is your HPA access basically is kind of blunted, your cortisol level is blunted when you're when you're on birth control pill. And so it's you don't you don't respond to stressors in life as you would had you been naturally cycling. And we'll get into that a little bit, but this is kind of why your hormones are confused. And I'll add in testosterone testosterone too at the bottom of this, that testosterone-free testosterone actually decreases as well. So, you know, that could explain low libido, you know, why you can't put on muscle as good. That's just the facts. So, why do a woman even take the pill? 31% for menstrual cramps or pain, 28% for regular periods or sporadic periods, 11% for unspecified hormone symptoms, headaches, PMDD. Um, PMDD is kind of just like that depressive feelings and thoughts you get in that luteal phase or the last couple days leading up to your cycle, and that really affects people, and so they think, yeah, birth control is gonna help with that. Acne and skin conditions, and then I don't know if I already said endometriosis, but I'll say it again. Anyways, let's get into the risks and side effects because maybe you were never even taught these things. Missing or regular periods, short cycles, infertility. I mean, like the the birth control pill can cause all of these things: short cycles, infertility, headaches, sleaky gut, gut dysbiosis, irritable bowel disease, fatigue, adrenal and thyroid dysfunction. So thyroid dysfunction goes, is bad, your thyroid slows down, you put on weight, energy reduction, low libido, vaginal dryness, chronic infection, painless sex, depression, anxiety, vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant depletion, which, if those are depleted, then other other things, other functions throughout your body are going to suffer because these nutrients are depleted. Increased risk of blood clots, breast, cervical, and liver cancer, diabetes, heart attacks can trigger autoimmune, and you're more prone to thyroid disease. Hello. So before we get into this, I want to show you what your hormones look like when you're on. I should have put this in the slide, but I want to show you this is what your hormones are looking like whenever you're on birth control versus when you're not. So when you're not, your hormones actually look like this, right? We have estrogen peaking where it should be where we're ovulating, right? And then we have progesterone peaking in that lodeal phase to kind of help promote pregnancy before the start of your period. And so this is what the fluctuations of the hormones should look like. Now, when we go over to what you're hormones look like on birth control, this is what it looks like. And the hormones that are being shown is the synthetic hormones. So ethanol ester bile and left estrogen. And so you're seeing that you're kind of in like a hormone that's deja vu. Women on the pill have the same level of hormones throughout the whole entire time, besides whenever you take the the placebo sugar pills when you have your period. So I mean it's it's in the the proof here is showing that we have obviously, you know, our hormones are completely blunted, and that's why we maybe feel like, cool, I'm fine, because I don't have the fluctuations of you know hormones making me feel some type of way. And so the point is to not, you know, try and mask our hormones and shut them down. It's to understand, okay, what's causing them to be like this in the first place. And obviously, that's probably why, you know, you get coached by me, if not, because I don't know who I'll end up sharing this too, but that's how you come to me because you want to balance these things and these hormones. And to balance these hormones, it comes with a lot of you know work when it comes to discipline with your, you know, your nutrition and your sleep and all of your lifestyle habits that you are too afraid to, you know, maybe let go of. But it's not your fault that you never learned these things. It's just comes down to we have to actually learn what's going on in our body and how we can fix it, right? So going into this, it's not just about you. This is there was a study done on strip club dancers. And I Kathy, what the heck? Just just hear me out. Whenever you're whenever you're ovulating, you become hotter and more attractive to men because your estrogen is high, right? Men are attracted to that. Our hormones actually make us look sexier. So they did a study on strip club dancers, and these first two, the ones that made 70 hours and 35 an hour and 50 an hour, were ones who were not on birth control, who are naturally cycling. So you can see during ovulation, there's a correlation and men being more attracted and wanting to throw dollar bills. But the birth control dancers, their average, because their their hormones stay the same throughout the whole time, their average is$37 an hour. They weren't deemed as more attractive, right? So men noticed that. That's a real thing. I'll get into more studies, but not only that, you smell sexier, they did um women's natural bodies since were collected at fertility or at time of ovulation, and men found it more desirable. Women who are on birth control were found less desirable. So they did a study on smelling women's vulva, and you're like, Hadley, what the heck? That's it. But basically, they did a panty liner, and then they gave it to the women on birth control and not on birth control, and the women who were on birth control, men were more attracted to that that's that that smell. And so that's because probably because they have, you know, more cervical mucus where you're on birth control, you probably don't have as much your brain. So you are actually attracted to more feminine-looking men. This is not true for everybody, but women, when they're on hormonal birth control, they did studies that they are more attracted to more feminine-looking men. So they manipulated the faces in males that they would be attract that they would be attracted to. First one, all women with no birth control, then came back after being on birth control, and their preference for men changed to have more feminine characteristics. So less of the clear cut, you know, jawline, maybe facial hair, maybe buff. Um, and so what what the question was was okay, so then what are what are these women looking for? Because the reason that they're feeling this way is because, you know, their hormones are are blunted and they they're staying the same. They're not having these like peaks of you know highs and lows, but they want to feel more safety. So they're looking for financial men, um, you know, intelligence. And then also, too, the sexual attraction piece is like in contrast to that, the sexual attraction piece is more prominent and important to those not on the pill. So like their lust for like wanting to have sex and engage in sexual partners is way more heightened for women who are not on the pill. Sense, right? So women that were naturally cycling cycling were like far more sensitive in the sense that like they could sense like musk smell. Whereas the women were who were not or who were on the pill were not able to sense it as quickly. So I don't know if you've noticed this, but I noticed this when I'm in certain parts of my period, specifically ovulation, like I'm like, I am very more like my senses are really, really heightened. And this also happens too whenever you're like at the beginning of your pregnancy, because estrogen, estrogen is really high and progesterone is also high. Um, but yeah, you're if your hormones are like heightened in a good spot, then you will get those those feelings of like oh you can smell things like almost like deeper. Um, but it's it's because of our estrogen and ovulation. So have you, my question to you is like, have you noticed different parts of your cycle smells are more apparent? Because I noticed that. Now let's talk about your sex life. Since you're since you're not getting an estrogen spike whenever you're on birth control, your sex drive decreases, right? When estrogen spikes in that ovulation, our libido is high, right? I don't know who if you're sexually active, most of you probably are, then you probably know. You probably get that feeling of like, oh my gosh, like during this time, yes. And if you're on birth control, you're like, okay, I don't feel that actually. I just, I just do whatever, you know, whenever you want. Um, but also, too, the a cause of you know not having that higher libido is because your free testosterone levels decline significantly on the pill. And the pill causes you to produce less testosterone. So, you know, muscle gains in the gym are harder. Having, you know, higher sex drive is out the window. Now, let's talk about the missing cortisol because this one, this one's a little crazy to me, but to measure, to measure our stress release, stress release, stress response, I think is what that's supposed to say. We measure our cortisol release. So the HP access, the primary role is the surge in cortisol, which is detected within three to five minutes of encountering a stressor. And it a stressor can be as simple as you go to like a gym, like a gym, you just finish up your gym session. It can be a little stressor throughout your day, right? Those are important, those are good to have throughout the day. However, whenever you're on birth control, your body is like blunted. No response to those at all, which we need those in order to get the the cortisol response. That's that's important to have. And so one thing that they they measured was they measured pill-taking women and they didn't get a stress response to strenuous exercise. Like their cortisol did not go up at all, which is important. We need that to happen. But basically, total cortisol is high because it's kind of like hyperactivates the HPA axis, and whenever that's activated all the time, that can actually blunt, blunt your cortisol rhythms. So basically, you're going into overdrive and then it blunts itself, meaning you you're not getting those spikes at all. To be continued, the the pill can decrease your capacity to regulate learning. So you can experience, you know, brain fog, headaches, and 70% of 70% of people suffering autoimmune are women. Now, can that be related to the pill? We don't know. But women on the pill are have a higher level of the inflammatory cytokone in the body, which I don't remember exactly what the like lettering, the Greek lettering is, but obviously this increases inflammation and autoimmunity in the body. Can magnify depression and anxiety, but can also help in others. So this one's kind of more of like a black and white. Women were 50% more likely to be diagnosed with depression, starting hormonal birth control, and 40% prescribed antidepressant. Um, the broken stress response may be to blame for for the mood disorders and issues. So the bottom line here is the birth can your menstrual cycle is your fifth vital sign. And whenever you're not having that, you're not in tune with your body, right? You know, you're not getting the stress responses that you should, you're blunting whatever may be going on inside of your body with, you know, hormone issues, hormone imbalances, instead of fixing them, getting to the root cause, making a lot of the lifestyle changes, which is simply probably one of the most, the best things that you can do. Now, if you're having some sort of like gut issues going on, unlike underlying gut issues, those have to be addressed. But a little rundown, gut always comes first, then hormones second. So if something is you're feeling you're having hormonal symptoms or you're having acne, irregular misperiods, all these things, it's usually going to draw back to the gut. So we need to figure out what's going on with digestion. It's going to be gut and stress for sure. And overall, just lifestyle habits, like I mentioned. But one thing that I wanted to add is, you know, we're not taught any of these things, right? It's it's not something that we learn. We just kind of like are they throw a pillow chair and they're like, here you go, good luck. And are you know, say this is gonna help everything, and maybe you've experienced, yeah, it's helped me, or maybe experience. I've had to, you know, try eight different pills. Like for me, I didn't, but maybe your experience was different. Another thing that's quite frustrating, and that the reason there's not a ton of studies and research on women is that it's it's minimal in comparison to men because women's cycles, right? Because we are cycling throughout the day, whereas men they're not. They have their testosterone spike, and then they're like every single day they have that spike, and so they're pretty much the same every single day. Whereas women, we are not, and so we are so much harder to study, we are harder and more expensive, and they do not want to spend the time and resources to research, and so that's literally why. And so you could be frustrated about that, or you could just go ahead and make a make lifestyle changes to your body. But at the end of the day, it's your responsibility to advocate for yourself, right? You're you're in your own body, you're in your shoes. If something's going on internally, do not blunt it, do not mask it, and really do your due diligence and research of like, okay, understanding the why behind these things, the mechanisms, you know, how it's gonna affect my biology, like all these things are really, really important. So hope you guys enjoyed this, and I'll see you in one of the next learning teachings.