Birth control is a helpful option for many people, but it’s good to understand how it might affect the body over time. Hormonal methods like estrogen and progesterone can change how your body produces certain hormones, which might make it harder to get pregnant later on. Some people also notice changes like weight gain or shifts in how their body handles insulin after long-term use.
Non-hormonal options like copper IUDs work differently, but they can still cause inflammation in the uterus, which might affect things like implantation or fertility for some. If you're using birth control for reasons like acne or hormone balance, there may be other ways to support your body too. Knowing how these methods work can help you make choices that fit your long-term health and goals.
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro & Disclaimer
00:41 – Hormonal Birth Control & Fertility
04:29 – Weight Gain & Hormonal Disruption
07:08 – Copper IUD Effects
12:28 – Preparing for Pregnancy & Health Tips
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] All right. So, uh, I mentioned the other day about birth control and some of the things it does, uh and so I thought I kind of go into a little bit more detail. Uh, now I want to start off by telling everybody and making sure this is said. I'm not saying not to take birth control. Definitely not what I'm saying. I'm also not saying that it doesn't work. Again, it works really well. Not what I am saying. Understanding this information might help you deal with some of the side effects or understand what might happen. Uh, I'm not telling you not to take it. Definitely not saying it doesn't work. Um, some of the things we need to kind of understand what happens with birth control, and this kind of goes into, um, my big push to get women in who are in that, you know, 20 to 30 year old range or 30, 35, you, you're the six months or year before they get pregnant so we can clean them up and get them where they're back where they need to go. Um, especially with some of these issues that birth control can contribute to. So, um. So a lot of, when I was younger, we had a lot Estrogen-based birth controls, and estrogen has had some issues being linked to cancers, and so they went to progesterone. Now the way that estrogen birth controls work in a nutshell, this is not super deep, is that they decrease FSH, or follicle-stimulating hormone, and they decrease luteinizing hormone, which causes the urine lining to kind of thicken, and that it will end up making it harder for. Uh, sperm to fertilize the egg and it makes it a lot harder for the egg to implant.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:43] So, um, without these things, plus if it does implant without the FSH and the LH, uh, we're going to inhibit a progesterone function. And so you're going have a much more difficult time creating the, the baby out of all the pieces that you need. So estrogen based birth controls do work, but they're suppressing FSH and LH the problem that we sometimes see, and again, not with everybody. Is that long-term suppression of FSH and LH, which are critical for getting and maintaining pregnancy, if you keep telling the body, whatever you do, don't make those, don't, make those don't. Make those for 10, for five, 10, 15, 20 years. And then you wonder why, why, why are we not being able to get pregnant? Well, you've told your body for a long time. Basically, since it started producing those hormones, Hey, stop doing that. Just, just don't like every single day, you're like, don'T do that. Don't do that, donT do that Your body is not going to be able to do it as well in a lot of cases. So from a fertility standpoint, this kind of goes with a lot of different birth control options, um, that are hormonally based. Forcing your body not to do these things for a long period of time, obviously can disrupt its function. And so we should be able, we should just understand that we're going to see more difficulty getting pregnant and more difficulty maintaining pregnancy. Set, which is kind of what we see in research.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:09] So, you know, it's one of those things that if you're, you know, 13, 14, 15 year old daughter is on birth control because of acne or because of, you know, hormonal dysregulation. Or I've seen it used for weight control. I've see, I've seen this stuff used for all sorts of reasons. Um, you very well might be inhibiting their fertility later in life. So keep that in mind, um, progesterone. Um, progesterone, so progesteron is one of the major hormones of pregnancy, as it's progestorone progestation, like that's the whole point. Um, when you have higher progestero and the body thinks it's already pregnant, so it doesn't release the egg. This is why people don't get doubly pregnant. They don't, you know, get pregnant with baby one and then drop an egg, get pregnant, with baby two and that sort of thing. So progesterin basically has a big inhibitory function. Of allowing the egg to come out. Now, here's the other side of progesterone. Uh, and this is where most of our birth controls have gone to because, uh, again, the estrogen issues with cancer. So the fun thing about progesteron is that again, it's progestation. Like it is, it is signaling the body. You are pregnant, get ready for pregnancy and carry this pregnancy throughout.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:29] Well, what's one of the things that we see every single time and should be related to pregnancy. We see weight gain. Why? Well, because the body goes, Hey, I'm growing something. We're going to need extra fuel. So we're going save more of this fuel as fat. And so this regulates with this, this has big verifications for insulin functionality, insulin resistance and things like that. And the, but telling the body to store more sugars and things like, that store more fat. So what we typically see with progesterone use is a, especially over time is we start to see more and more weight gain And so, and again, this isn't every single woman, every single time, everybody has different little thresholds, but this is one of the things we start to see. And so women who have been on progesterone-based birth controls for a while, will tend to see more fat accumulation. Now again, if you're on progeterone for a long time, and your body gets used to a specific level of progesteron, and then you get off that birth control, you get of that progestero, your body's ability to then produce its own progestrone is sometimes inhibited. So what ends up happening is long-term function with birth control, with progesterone based birth controls. We see a little bit of issue with progestero.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:38] Now this is again, not the worst thing in the world, because if you get with a doc who understands how these hormones work and you're like, Oh, I've been on progesteron for 10 years. All right, cool. We're probably going to have to give you a little bit of progestorone once you, once the egg drops and everything comes in. So you have to time it a little better, or like with IVF, you implant it, and then you give them by progestrone. To kickstart the cycle and build up all the progesterone function. So you're going to have to probably play with progesteron later is the big thrust of what we're going on. But if you're on a progestero based birth control, and first couple months, you don't notice anything. But after two or three years, you notice that you're gaining weight on the same diet with the same amount of exercise, then might want to look at the pro gesterone function. Because progestorone does have the effect it does tell the body, we are pregnant. You need to store things for the pregnancy. Um, so keep that in mind again, the number one thing that requires energy from the body is creation of tissue. So when we talk about the fastest way to burn fat is build muscle, right? Cause your body has a giant amount of ATP need or energy need, not calories. Again, calories are silly, uh, as a giant, amount of energy needs and nutrient needs while it's creating this baby, well, the smartest thing for the body to do is as soon as it goes, Oh, we're pregnant. When the baby's little itty tiny bitty, is to start storing fat so it has energy to then develop this baby forward. So it just makes sense.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:07] So if you've noticed that you're on a progesterone-based birth control and you're starting to gain weight, take a look at that. Again, it has to do with functionality with the body and hormonal control and long-term, it has a big play with insulin as well. So keep that one in mind. You're like, Oh man, well, I don't want to do any hormonally based birth controls because those are apparently are going to mess me up long-term and they're going to do all sorts of things. And theoretically they can, so be careful with them. So you're like all I'm going to go look at the copper IUDs. All right, great. Copper IUD is another option. Definitely works, works really well. The way it works is it creates a cytotoxic, toxic inflammatory response, which kills sperm kind of on contact. And so as the sperm starts coming up the pipe, it, they just die. It's kind of like, think of it this way. Not exactly, but think of this way, it's like the bug zapper out on the patio as, as the spectrum starts coming out and just kills it. And so it can't function. So it decreases motility, which is its movement decreases its functionality. So it just basically wipes out the sperm. It also creates a cytotoxic inflammatory response in the uterus itself.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:22] So it disrupts the normal metabolic chemistry. Of the area and it creates this like, uh, this like foam, this like, this gooey foam, um, of inflammation that radically inhibits, uh the egg to actually implant. Uh, you can actually, there's, there is actually research on this where if you have unprotected sex and you have conception and within the first like week, you stick a copper ID up in there, it'll kill the, the egg that's been fertilized, even if it started to implant, it will wipe it out. Um, so this copper thing is really, really bad for the area. So this is one of those things that you kind of have to take into account. It'd be like, okay, well, so if you have a copper IUD causing systemic, we're not sorry, not systemic, causing cytotoxic inflammation inside the uterus for years, you can understand how that might have a scarring effect for some women, not all, uh, and that scarring effect could radically inhibit the ability to get pregnant later. It does, the copper IDs have no hormones. And so you don't have to worry about the hormonal, the systemic hormonal effect. However, I can tell you the vast, like as a woman, a lot of your blood flow goes through your uterus, especially every month. And so here's the thing. If you have a cytotoxic event happening in a place that has a lot of blood flow to it, the idea that you're not gonna pick up any of that inflammation and carry it throughout the body in any way, I think is silly. So. You're gonna see a little bit of inflammatory processes to go throughout the body with these copper IUDs.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:00] Again, I'm not saying they don't work, they do work. I'm just saying the way that they work, it can be problematic to the body. At the end of the day, which you kind of have to understand with birth control is that a woman's body was designed to give life, to give birth, to create life. And it's not a small thing. It's an amazing, ridiculous amount of miraculous chemistry. Like it's just unbelievable what is all involved. Which is why, again, I'm so such a passionate about getting these women in and cleaning their bodies up, giving them the nutrients they require. And giving them all the exercise and function they require so that they can produce healthy babies. This is where the whole thrust of this comes from. That issue is a really, really, really, real, really big deal. So when we start looking at the inflammatory processes and the damage that we're doing to the organs, this is one of those things that we kind of have to take into account. Again, if you're using birth control for acne issues, you need to clean up your gut and your diet. 99% of the time, that's going to help substantially more than antibiotics or birth control will. If you're looking to.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:15] There's also some things with BPAs and the PUFAs and all sorts of different chemicals. And we usually go through that when we're talking about fertility function. Which, and people, women hate to hear this, but there's research showing that your yoga pants are also causing significant issues with fertility. I know, it's terrible. So a lot of these things as we start to kind of craft them and kind of get better, these are the things we start learn. So if you're like, well, I'm only on birth control, not for the sex, but for the acne, there's better ways of treating the acne. You're like well, I'm trying to regulate my hormones because I have PCOS. There's substantially better ways of treating that than. Than doing birth control. If you're like, look, I don't want to get pregnant, something on birth control, fantastic. Like that's what it's used for, great. And a lot of times what I tell you is that if you're on birth control because you don't wanna have a baby, that's fantastic. I would recommend that you do support the body in a way that's going to deal with the inflammation issues, it's gonna deal with the increased oxidative stress issues from the inflammation, and it's going to prepare your body long term. So that when you do want to come off the birth control and you do want to have a baby, your body's more ready to deal with it.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:27] Um, the other thing is if you have been on birth control for a long period of time and you decide, Hey, it is something I want to do. I do want it to get pregnant. You've got to clean the body up and restore nutrient function and repair the damage from the birth. Again, I'm not telling you not to use birth control because I recognize how horribly damaging it is to what your life could become if you have a, baby, when you're not ready for one. There's other ways of printing that as well, but we'll let that lie. Um, so if you guys are having issues with this, if you guys are worried about this type of thing, um, or if you've decided that it's time to start getting ready for pregnancy, give the office a call. We'll help walk you through how to not only get off safely, how to repair any possible damage that's been there and how to clean the body up so it's ready for and able to produce healthy children. Um, the vast majority of people are consuming way too many seed oils, um and they're hidden. Like soybean oil is one of the number one things we have in a lot of our food. Uh, there's a lot things that don't say seed oil on them that are, that are chemically functionally problematic. A lot of the processing is also highly problematic. Basically the entire diet of the average teenager or 20 year old is highly toxic. So, you know, especially to long-term functionality and creation of new life.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:43] So if we're going to wonder, why is everybody so sick? And we're gonna point at vaccines, which is fine. I don't have a problem pointing at vaccines there. There's problematic issues there, obviously. But we're not gonna talk about the diet, the emotional stress and the chemical soup that is the mom who gets pregnant. So we're now gonna talk about the creation of the environment that the baby was created and built in. I think we're missing a giant section of why we're sick. So a little soap box at the end of that. But this is kind of more or less how the birth controls are working. So if you didn't know some of that information, you didn' understand the long-term ramifications, I would look into it again. I'm not telling you to get off. Uh, I'm just telling you that it's best if you're going to stay on it to buffer those issues. And then when you do choose to get off to have a baby, you need to replenish and recycle and clean the body up. So if guys have questions about that, give us a call. We'll help you out. Um, or just his questions at chalmerswellness.com. Uh, we'll get everything going. Uh, thanks for your time. You guys have a great day.
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