Heavy Bleeding on Birth Control: A Warning Sign (Episode 319)

Full Transcript: Episode 319

Lisa: Welcome to the Fertility Friday Podcast, your source for information about the fertility awareness method and all things fertility. I’m your host, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. I’m the author of The Fifth Vital Sign and the Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Journal. I’m a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience teaching women to connect to their fifth vital sign through menstrual cycle charting, balancing hormonal health, and optimizing the menstrual cycle without hormones. I’m outspoken about hormonal birth control and its impact on fertility and overall health, because you have the right to know how your body works and how artificial hormones disrupt that natural process. I host live coaching programs to help you achieve optimal fertility and health, because it’s important to have healthy menstrual cycles regardless of whether or not you want to have babies. I’m also a wife and mother of two beautiful boys. I know, I know, I’m a busy girl, but I managed to fit it all in. This podcast is designed to empower you to take full control of your cycles, your fertility, and your overall health, and I’m so excited that you’re here with us today.

I have a really special and powerful episode to share with you today. In today’s episode, I’m sharing a new conversation in my Fertility Awareness Reality series, and in today’s conversation with Michelle, honestly, there was a part of this conversation that brought me to tears. You have likely heard me talking on and on about how the menstrual cycle is a vital sign, and how there are times when we can gain a ton of health information just from what’s happening in our cycles and in our charts. In Michelle’s experience, she not only experienced firsthand how her menstrual cycle can be a clear indication of a problem, but it even went beyond the natural realm of the menstrual cycle. Michelle was on the pill, and her cycle was still able to give her important information about her overall health. So we talk about that, and some of the other examples where I’ve seen that apply. What a powerful vital sign — even when we try to suppress it with hormones, the knowledge and information that we can learn from our cycles can still push through. So if you’re like, “What the heck is she talking about?” definitely tune in, and you’ll hear Michelle’s story soon enough and know exactly what I mean by saying this. So without further ado, let’s jump into our conversation today. I’m excited to be here today with Michelle. Michelle is part of my current eight-week Fertility Awareness Mastery Live group program, and as we’re recording this, we’re about midway through the class, so we’ve been together for a little over a month now. So I’m excited to have you on the show. Welcome, Michelle.

Michelle: Thank you, I’m excited to be on.

Lisa: I’m glad that you’re here, and I always start these episodes by giving you an opportunity to share a little bit about your pill history, period history, birth control history — I shouldn’t say pill, because everyone hasn’t been on the pill — but what basically led you to choose fertility awareness at this stage. So maybe you can let us know when you started, when you had your first period, and kind of what happened from there.

Michelle: Sure, so I started my first period when I was 10. I was in fifth grade, and it was not a fun experience. It was actually kind of traumatic — I still remember it to this day, and I’m still very bitter about how my family welcomed it, or did not. It was basically like, I got my period, I was very confused, I didn’t know what it was, and I went to my mom, and she was like, “Okay,” and she gathered all my sisters — I have three older sisters — and we all gathered in the bedroom, and they were like, “Okay, so this is your period,” and they kind of just explained it, but it was very brief, and I was ten years old, so I was still kind of like, I have no idea what’s going on. They ended up giving me a little booklet that tried to explain what the period was, but it was just terrible guidance, and I have four women in my house. Of course I reflected on this way later and realized they could have done a better job at this, but you know, it’s a lot of it is very cultural too. I come from a family of Mexican immigrants, and all of these things are very taboo. You just don’t really talk about them, you just kind of have to figure it out on your own. So my first period, and periods in general, have always been something difficult for me, and even just birth control — all of these things have been difficult because I’ve had to figure it out very solo, and that’s amplified when you have four women in your household who could have been a resource for guidance, but you just don’t feel comfortable reaching out to them.

So I thankfully didn’t use hormonal birth control until I was about 23 years old. I got the shot, and I only got it one time, for three months, because I absolutely hated it. There were so many side effects — I just remember feeling like the main side effect was not feeling like myself, I felt very outside of myself, very different. So I only took it once and never took it again, and that was in 2016. Then in 2017 I tried getting on the pill, and I ended up having to try about three different brands, because my periods would end up being super long — I know at some point my period was on and off for like a month, and it was terrible. I was trying to stick with it because I was in a relationship and didn’t want to get pregnant, and I didn’t know any other way, so I just had to keep trying with the pill. I didn’t want to try any other type of birth control because it seemed like the least invasive. So I finally landed on a brand that was the least harmful, I guess, and my period kind of stabilized — my fake period — and I stayed with that, but I was on the pill for about two years.

That’s when a lot of things started happening. In 2018, my bleeding — every time, like the last week of the pill, obviously — started getting really, really heavy again, to the point where I was changing my pad every hour, and that was a huge red flag for me. I had gone to the doctor multiple times, and they were kind of just like, “Oh, maybe it’s stress,” and that was always the main thing they would tell me — it’s probably stress. So I would start bleeding a lot, I started getting a lot of vaginal infections, like BV and yeast infections, and I was dealing with all of that for about all of 2018. Then I finally got a physical, which is when they actually took blood, because all the other times I went to the doctor they weren’t taking any blood. So they finally took blood — that was in March 2019 — it was a whole year dealing with these things, and then in March 2019 I finally got a physical done with blood, and they saw that my levels were way off. My primary doctor sent me to a hematologist, and then the hematologist sent me to the hospital, and at the hospital they did a bone marrow biopsy and diagnosed me with leukemia. That’s where it kind of came out that all of those symptoms from 2018 may have been somehow related to the pill as well, but they were definitely related to leukemia, because one of the main side effects is bleeding a lot and getting infections a lot. So that’s when I got off the pill — kind of forced off the pill — and then they put me on a hormone that would stop my bleeding altogether, so that I wouldn’t bleed out, because that was one of the very dangerous factors that can happen when you have leukemia. Now I’m not on any hormonal birth control, and now I’m doing the fertility awareness method. I actually found out about fertility awareness while I was having all these symptoms in 2019 — I didn’t know anything about it, and I was kind of thinking, maybe it’s the pill. So that’s how I came across FAM, but I was always too scared to try it, because of the amount of information — I didn’t know how to digest it all.

Lisa: Thank you for taking us through all of that, Michelle. You’ve been through a lot in a relatively short period of time, and there’s a couple of parts of your story that I want to go back to. One thing that I think is interesting is that you were on the pill, so you weren’t experiencing a true menstrual bleed, but still — I’ve heard this in similar ways from other women — you noticed that the pill bleeding got a lot heavier. Like, when you’re on the pill, going through a whole pad every hour is completely out of the world of normal. It’s just completely insane, when I think about it from that perspective, that it’s like, “Oh, it’s actually stress,” when it turned out to be related to such a serious medical condition, leukemia. I’m always talking about how the menstrual cycle is a vital sign, and specifically the menstrual cycle, not the pill bleed, but I think for all the women listening this is yet another example — even on the pill. I’ve spoken to a number of women who were on the pill and continued to take their sugar pills, their break days, and they would stop getting their pill bleed. So it’s interesting that it applies even when you’re on the pill — if you notice a dramatic change in your bleeding patterns, what would you say about that?

Michelle: I remember telling one of my friends about how it all went down, the whole history of it, and she was like, “Do you realize that your vagina saved your life?” It was very dramatic, but it’s very true, because at the end of the day those symptoms were related to my reproductive system, and that’s what got me to the doctor again and again, insisting and demanding that we do more, because I kept getting dismissed, since I’m young. All the stereotypical things that you hear about patients getting dismissed because they’re young, because they’re women, because the pain is dismissed — I was for sure getting dismissed in the sense of, “Oh, this is probably related to stress, you’re way too young to have anything serious.” Once I reflected on it, I thought, wow, my reproductive system, my vagina, for sure gave me all the red flags and made sure that I got checked. So in a sense it did save my life, because they were able to catch the leukemia soon enough — it wasn’t too late, thankfully. So it was for sure — I owe it to her.

Lisa: Michelle, that gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes. Even when you’re trying to suppress your system with medication, it’s still trying to talk to you, right?

Michelle: Yes, absolutely.

Lisa: Okay, before I get all weepy — I wanted to touch on the first part of your story, because you got your period when you were 10. I was having a conversation with a friend a couple of days ago, and she was sharing something about how a young woman in her life — whether it’s her friend’s daughter or someone like that — had her period at 10, and she was extremely alarmed about it. She was kind of like, “What do you mean, she had a period at ten, this isn’t normal?” Because of her personal experience, she really thought it was super uncommon for girls to have their periods that young, because in her experience she probably got her period around 13 — I think I got mine at 14. In my line of work, I know that’s pretty common — I don’t think I’ve personally seen anyone as young as nine, but a lot of women get their periods around ten. So could you talk about that a little bit more? Whenever I see that on the intake form, I always think, because you’re so young — what grade were you in?

Michelle: I was in fifth grade.

Lisa: Was it the first among your friends?

Michelle: Yeah, I remember — well, first of all, it was also very tough, there was so much shame associated with it that I didn’t even tell anyone, I didn’t tell any of my friends. It was probably until middle school that girls started getting their periods, around thirteen, twelve, fourteen, and I was like, “Oh yeah, that’s odd, for me I got it at ten.” Everyone was so excited, and girls would be eager to get their period — they’d be like, “I want to get my period” — and I was like, I don’t know why y’all are so excited to get your period, it’s not fun. I have a lot of memories related to that transition, and that’s because I was a super active kid, I loved playing outside all the time, I loved playing sports, and once I got my period I didn’t know how to act, I didn’t know how to behave with something in my panties, I didn’t know how I could move. My neighbor actually noticed — she asked my mom why I wasn’t playing as much, why I wasn’t running as much as usual, and at some point she noticed I was running funny. My mom, I think, kind of just — I don’t remember if she told her what happened or just played it off — but I do remember her telling me, “Inside the house you need to act the same, you can’t stop, what are you doing,” and kind of scolding me because she was embarrassed. That was very hurtful, because I had no idea what this was, this was all new to me, and she wasn’t being very supportive. Obviously I didn’t have those words when I was 10, but that’s what I was feeling. So it was for sure hard, but it was fifth grade, which I guess is good, because at that point you’re about to transition into middle school, so it kind of came with a transition — it wasn’t like I had to deal with this for two more years of elementary school, it was just at the end of it. But it was for sure tough. I always think back, why did it start so early? I’m not super informed, but I know it has a lot to do with how quickly you develop, and just looking at the diet we had as younger kids — where I grew up it wasn’t a great diet, we ate a lot of junk food, it was pretty unhealthy. My mom cooked a lot, but the way she used to cook — not anymore — was pretty heavy. So I don’t know, those are the things I start thinking about — do these things play a role, and how much of a role do they play, in how fast you get your period?

Lisa: Yeah, I mean, on average it used to be around 12 or 13, and if you don’t start your period by the time you’re 15 or 16, that should definitely be looked at, and that’s one of the reasons why there are doctors coming forward saying the menstrual cycle, especially in teenagers, should be looked at as a vital sign. There’s also a lot of conversation about the fact that our environment is polluted — pesticides, and pretty much everything for women is estrogenic, lotions, all the cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, all of it — and what is the impact of having all this extra synthetic, fake estrogen in our lives? It’s very possible that one of the side effects is that, because of all of these exposures, some girls are getting their periods a lot sooner. Thank you for taking us through that — I really wanted to ask about it, because I know there are women listening who also had their periods really early. My first friend who had her period got it in grade four, and I remember her making some sort of comment about needing a pad, and I was so young I didn’t even understand — I got to the age where I was waiting for it, ready for it. So thank you for sharing that, because maybe I should do a compilation episode of first-period stories.

Lisa: Alright, well, let’s jump into the session part of our conversation. You sent me your chart, so I’m just going to share the screen here — let me know what’s kind of at the top of your mind, and what you’d like us to focus on today.

Michelle: Okay, so this is my first chart where I’m really putting in all the notations, my first real trial where I’m taking it seriously — I’m taking my temperature every day, I’m looking at my cervical mucus every day, and just taking note of things like sleep, vitamins, if I’m taking allergy medicine, alcohol. I guess the thing that has been standing out is I’ve kind of just been waiting to confirm ovulation, and I’m excited and anticipating it, but every time my temperature goes down I’m like, “Oh, okay, so it’s not happening yet.” I’m a little nervous — I know I’m not super far off in the cycle yet, but I’m just excited and nervous about confirming ovulation, and that’s been the biggest thing on my mind. The second thing is just how few days of cervical mucus I’ve been noticing — the sensation has been dry, and I’ve only been seeing cervical mucus once each time I check. So I’m trying to make sense of what that means, and also, when you told us that allergy medicine dries up cervical mucus, that gave me more of a hint of what may be happening.

Lisa: Yeah, there are always lots of factors, because we’re all living our lives. When I take a look — you noted on your chart when you’ve been taking the antihistamines, and it’s not every single day. The antihistamines could definitely make a difference — we talked about that — and the only way to know for sure would be to wait until you’re no longer struggling with allergies, when you have a good section of the preovulatory phase where you don’t have to take it, or only take it once or twice, and then you can compare. At this stage we can’t make it conclusive that this is why you have low mucus. For what it’s worth, you are seeing mucus, you did have mucus leading up to ovulation. There are a couple things I see here that we’ll go through — I guess we have to wait three days to see if day 15 really was the last day of the peak mucus. It could certainly be related to the antihistamines why you’re only seeing the stretchy mucus that one time, and then there’s also stress — this month has been a lot.

Michelle: Yeah, it’s been very heavy. I’m thinking about it right now and realizing that probably has something to do with it too.

Lisa: Yeah. And then your question about the wiping sensation being dry — if you have a small amount of mucus, it’s possible you wouldn’t experience that lubricated sensation, just because you’re not seeing very much. With this being your first cycle, this is helping us establish a baseline, so your next cycle will be very telling, to see if it’s the same or if you see a different pattern.

Michelle: What makes me hopeful is that I have noticed the lubricated sensation in past cycles, so I know I do experience that, but this cycle, since I’ve been so intentional about recording everything, it’s just been very emphasized how dry it’s been.

Lisa: The antihistamines — is that typically seasonal, or was there more of an uptick this month?

Michelle: It’s been this spring, there’s been an uptick because of the plants, but in the past, when it’s not spring, I don’t really take it, so that’s when I notice more of the lubricated sensation.

Lisa: Okay, well, I’m glad you’re marking it, so that’s something to keep noting — as I mentioned, it affects clients differently. I’ve worked with clients whose mucus dries up completely for that month, and we can’t rely on mucus, which means you have to consider the preovulatory phase as potentially fertile, since you don’t have your mucus marker, especially if you’re still ovulating. We just have to play that by ear. Now, you noted alcohol consumption — everyone is different in how alcohol affects their temperature, and when I take a look, it’s not necessarily consistent. Do you have a sense of whether drinking the night before affects your temperature?

Michelle: Not really, I haven’t noticed a huge shift. I’m generally trying not to drink alcohol, so I’m curious to see how next month will look, but even when I do, I personally don’t notice a huge shift — but I don’t know if you can see something I can’t.

Lisa: It’s not necessarily conclusive from one chart, it’s more about seeing patterns, but I’ll tell you what I see. On day seven you drank alcohol, and you noted that it wouldn’t affect that day’s temperature, but the day after, on day eight, we have this random high temperature. All the preovulatory temperatures after your period are hanging out under about 97.4, and then day eight is high, day nine is also the day after you drank a little alcohol, but you also got up a bit later, so it’s not necessarily as significant as I’ve seen in other charts, but it could be a factor. At this stage I think we need to wait three days before we can confirm ovulation, because basically what we have are temperatures that are mostly below the same range, other than the one high temperature on day eight — the preovulatory temperatures are all below about 97.5. I’m not sure about these two slightly higher temperatures on day nine and thirteen — it could be related to alcohol, but I don’t know. Then on day 15 we have another high temperature, day 16 is high, and then it drops back down on day 17, and the last day of your peak mucus was day 15. So at this point I’d say it’s possible ovulation took place around day 15, but we’d have to wait a couple more days to see if your temperatures remain elevated.

Michelle: Okay, that helps a lot.

Lisa: With confirming ovulation, I think sometimes the most frustrating part is the waiting, because it’s literally one day at a time.

Michelle: Yes, twenty-four hours long, so it’s like, where’s my day at, this is taking too long. But otherwise, in terms of charting, you’re noting everything — how are you finding it? It seems like you’ve filled everything in, you’ve noted all your observations, you’ve been really diligent about it.

Michelle: Yeah, it was hard to get started for sure, but once I got into the flow it’s been a lot easier. I’m still getting acquainted with how to take note of mucus, so I feel generally confident, but I still have to refer to the notebook a lot to remember what’s what. But I feel like I’m getting the reps in, and that’s the best part.

Lisa: Yeah, that’s totally normal. I’ve shared that when I first learned the Justisse Method, I had the book open to the notation page for about three months, so there was no memorizing anything, and that’s not necessary. By the time you finish this cycle and start your next one, you’ll realize you’ve learned so much without even noticing, and you’ll be a lot further along than you think. Tell me about the cervix — again, it’s an optional sign, not something everyone needs to chart. In the class I always gently encourage you to take advantage of me and the rest of the group if you want to. Have you thought about adding that in, or have you given it a shot?

Michelle: I sure want to add it in — I’m giving myself this cycle to get the other two down first, because I need a push past the weird feeling and just keep doing it. My partner even advised me, like, the first few times don’t even worry about really taking note of what’s happening, just go ahead and feel whatever you have to feel, because I told him it just feels so weird to be so aware of what I’m feeling. I don’t feel that bad about saying this, because I was talking to my friend about it and she said she wouldn’t be able to do that either — she doesn’t know why, it just feels weird. So my goal is to get through this cycle with cervical mucus and temperature, and start going past that weird feeling by the next cycle, to start taking note of cervical position.

Lisa: Well, you’re not alone — there’s a lot of women nodding their heads right now who are like, “I draw the line at cervix.” There are a lot of reasons why that makes a certain number of women uncomfortable — we live in a culture that’s not very open to begin with, so we don’t learn a lot about these things. There are cultural aspects, as you mentioned, depending on how it was addressed in your home and your circle, and a lot of women just aren’t comfortable touching themselves — even the concept of using a tampon without an applicator, or a menstrual cup, requires you to insert your fingers into your vagina, and you don’t often interact with your body that way. So there are a lot of layers there. I always stress it’s not mandatory — you can certainly chart your cycles without cervical position. In your case, it could be helpful in cycles where the mucus is basically dry or next to dry and you’re still ovulating, since pregnancy is possible in every ovulatory cycle. Even if there’s not a lot of mucus, if it’s suppressed by antihistamines, you still have to avoid unprotected sex during the days leading up to ovulation, which you might not be able to tell from mucus alone — that’s a situation where it’s really helpful to have the cervix as a backup. If it makes you feel really uncomfortable, I give you permission not to check it. If you decide you want to check it, you don’t have to check it every day for the rest of your life — you could go for one cycle and see how it goes.

Michelle: Yeah, that pushes me, because now it’s personal — now it’s like, you’re giving me a hard time, and I really want to be able to do this. I sure want to try it for at least one cycle — I feel like if I’m able to try it for one cycle, it’s going to be a lot easier to just do it all the time. It’s more about getting past the weird feeling — for me it’s not so much about cultural reasons, it’s literally the sensation.

Lisa: When you say sensation, do you mean how it feels physically, or how you feel emotionally?

Michelle: How I feel — just being so aware of what I’m touching inside, it’s like, “Wow, this is a lot.”

Lisa: I haven’t heard it described that way. I want to make sure I’m painting the picture for the listeners — is it partly because it’s an internal organ, something you almost feel like you shouldn’t even know about, or how would you describe it?

Michelle: I think it’s not that I shouldn’t be touching this, it’s more like, this is an internal organ that I’m really feeling for right now, and it feels so foreign, because it’s different from, say, masturbating — that’s a whole different mood. Here I’m being very mindful of what I’m looking for, and it’s kind of weird.

Lisa: Yeah, well, because you’re interacting with your body not in a sexual way, but for the purpose of exploration and understanding, so you’re quite literally connecting to your body on a different, more objective level. I could see how that would be a little weird, especially if the only interactions you’ve had have been either practical — like inserting tampons and taking care of periods — or sexual. So this is a totally different thing.

Michelle: Exactly, it’s a totally different type of bonding that’s happening.

Lisa: I think, with charting and all the things that come from it, it’s so interesting how a conversation about fertility awareness leads to all these other places — conversations about period products, period positivity, sex positivity — things I’ve talked about here and there on the podcast, but I’ve obviously focused more on the charting aspect. There are so many things that come out of charting, because it connects you to that part of yourself that our society seems hell-bent on suppressing and separating you from. Did you have any other questions about the charting aspects, or any other challenges you were finding?

Michelle: I think we hit on all of them. I’m glad you asked me about cervical position, because I almost forgot to talk about that — I guess I was repressing it.

Lisa: But it was calling out, I could hear your cervix.

Lisa: In our last conversation, which was last week when you had your hot seat, we talked a lot about period pain — did you have any reflections from that conversation?

Michelle: I mentioned in my hot seat, and even just thinking again about the story of my first period — I do remember cramps and period pain always being a thing, and my sisters were kind of like, “Stop being a baby, we all get them,” but one of my older sisters was like, “No, maybe it’s tougher on her, we don’t know what she’s feeling,” because I do remember, even as an adult, times where it’s so much that I just need to be in bed. Like I mentioned in the hot seat, I noticed that if the month before, or that cycle, I ate a lot more vegetables and a lot less junk and sugar — I don’t eat a lot of junk food, but I am pretty addicted to sugar — when I shift that, I’ve noticed the period pain is a lot lighter. So that’s something I’m trying to keep in mind and get more disciplined about, along with everything else we’re learning that may help.

Lisa: Yeah, that’s huge — we underestimate sugar. Sometimes when I’m talking to my mom, in her mind sugar means white sugar, but sugar as a category encompasses essentially all simple carbohydrates, because your body doesn’t discriminate whether you’re eating rice, bread, or gummy candy — your body converts all of that into sugar. It’s huge, and I’ll link the episode I did about cutting out sugar and what happened to my cycles as a result — I lengthened my luteal phase after years, and I had no idea sugar was stealing a full day of my luteal phase, even after doing this for a long time. Did you have any other questions you wanted to go through today?

Michelle: I think for now I’m pretty good — I’m just in a very excited mode to get through this first cycle and keep going now that I have the ball rolling.

Lisa: Awesome, well, I’m excited to see how everything goes, and to see what happens with your period pain. Thank you so much — for the listener who is thinking about jumping in and taking a class, thinking about doing the program you’re doing, what, if anything, would you want her to know about it?

Michelle: For me — I’ve known about fertility awareness method since 2018, and when I started getting symptoms in 2019 that were related to the cancer diagnosed a year later, I was just so scared to try it. I have three of the main major books that people talk about with this method, but it was so overwhelming, I felt like there was so much new information I had no idea about, and I was getting angry about it, because we shouldn’t have had to learn this so late — we should have known this since we were little, so that by now it just seems natural. So from trying to do it on my own, reading, and just googling things and following social media posts, I realized this is really hard, and if I really want to get a good grasp of this, and if I’m serious about potentially using this method as birth control, which is what I’m doing, then I know I have to find an educator that I believe in and trust, and trust her work. When I found you, it was like, Lisa seems very legit — she has a whole book, this podcast with so many episodes — and just interacting with your website, your social media, everything you’ve put out, and listening to your podcast, I think what sold me was that you sounded very confident and knowledgeable about everything you were discussing, and there were so many topics being discussed that I was already learning a lot just from listening. So it seemed like, okay, this is who I’m going to go with, and I’m going to be serious about learning this method, and I don’t regret it — it’s been really good. It’s for sure been difficult, because it’s a learning curve, but it’s so much better than doing it alone, because I actually know what’s going on, and you’re there to answer any question that comes up, and no question is a dumb question with you. It’s been a very good space, not only working with you but also with the other women in the class, because you feel like we’re all doing this together — there are other women also learning this method who aren’t completely new to it, so it’s very encouraging, and it doesn’t feel isolating anymore.

Lisa: Amazing, thank you so much for sharing that. One last question for you — for the woman who is on hormonal birth control of one kind or another, who has discovered this method, is thinking about it, and is on the fence, going through the emotional shift of, “Should I come off, when should I come off, how would this work?” There’s a lot of fear around coming off birth control and trusting a non-hormonal method, because it’s obviously very different. The way I describe it is that when you’re on a hormonal method, or have an IUD inserted, you’re making your body resistant to sperm — you’re physically changing your body, and that’s a layer of protection, because if there’s sperm, for the most part, you’re not getting pregnant, aside from some method failures. But with fertility awareness, your body is not resistant to sperm, and the whole method is based on your understanding and your action, so understandably there’s some fear there. For the woman who is like, “I don’t know, this is really scary, I don’t know if I’m ready to come off birth control,” what would you want her to know?

Michelle: What got me thinking a lot was, I have no idea what this may be doing to my body, especially as someone who already went through something like cancer, which, the type of cancer I had, was an actual mutation in my DNA. For me, it was like, I don’t want to be taking something without knowing what it’s doing to my body in the long term — I don’t know, maybe it doesn’t do anything at all, but that’s very serious, it’s for sure doing something, and it doesn’t sit well with me to not know what’s happening inside my body, and to not feel fully connected to what my body is doing, because there’s this foreign thing that I’m putting in it and it’s altering it. For me, I didn’t really know who I am without it, and I needed to come off of it to really understand what my body is doing and what it wants to tell me — because, like you said, even when I was on it, my body was trying to tell me something. So just imagine how much more in touch you may feel if you’re not on hormonal birth control — that’s something I like to think about, and tell my friends about. But if you are nervous about it, it’s also about being very real with yourself, setting a timeline if it’s something you want to do — this is when I’m going to come off of it, and I’m going to be very serious and disciplined about this, because there’s a huge risk, and your body is no longer just going to be — it’s all on you at that point. So it took me a long time to dive in, but by the time I did, I was completely sure, ready, and committed to do this, so I think getting to that point is important. It took me a long time to just go ahead and start working with someone, so I would recommend that if you feel like you’re ready, or want to get to that point, working with an educator is the best thing to do, because that way you feel a lot more secure in your learning process.

Lisa: Well, thank you — you’re so wise, you’ve been through a lot, and the way you think through everything, the way you laid it out, makes a lot of sense. I appreciate you sharing that with us, because a lot of women are in that same process, and one of the things that’s come out over the last couple of groups I’ve run is that a lot of women were saying that even though we talk about this all the time in the group, most of their girlfriends are not, so they’re having these thoughts and conflicted feelings, but their best friend may not necessarily be on the same page. I love having this platform to have these conversations, so that all the women who have been part of the Fertility Awareness Reality series can share their stories — this is what it really looks like when you’re on birth control, this is what it really looks like when you’re considering coming off, navigating those decisions — and no one here is saying there’s a right or wrong way, it’s just about having those conversations and figuring out what’s going to work best for you, and when and how you’re going to do it. So thank you so much for being here.

Michelle: Yeah, this has been a great conversation, I’m really excited to share it with everybody.

Lisa: I will see you in a few minutes, because we’ve got a call coming up, but yes, thank you so much for being here.

Michelle: Thank you, I appreciate you.

Lisa: Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please share it with a friend. You’ll find the show notes page for today’s episode over at fertilityfriday.com/319. I hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Michelle. Like I touched on at the top of the episode, what a powerful episode. I just want to say a special thank you to Michelle for coming on the show and sharing her experience so openly, honestly, and candidly, and I know our conversation will be an inspiration for anyone who has gone through similar health challenges, whether it be something as serious as cancer or other challenges. It just goes to show you that our menstrual cycles are important whether or not we want to have babies, and from a young age we should be taught to pay attention to them as such, because when you notice a consistent issue, change, or shift with your cycles — whether that be overall cycle length, cycle irregularities, or bleeding, heavier or lighter, or if it goes away — that matters. What’s interesting is that this conversation takes it a step further — I have seen situations where even women on the pill, their cycles are still giving them information. I’ve spoken to a number of women who were on the pill for a long time and stopped getting their pill bleeds — they would still take their sugar pills, or take the days off in the pack, and they would stop getting their pill bleed, and then when they eventually came off birth control, their periods were nowhere to be found. It’s interesting that even when you’re on a hormonal suppressive medication, your periods and cycles can still be giving you information. Mind-blowing, right? And in Michelle’s case, what she said was so powerful — “My vagina saved my life,” that’s what her friend told her — but if it wasn’t for that heavy bleeding while on the pill alerting her that something was wrong, this issue could have gone on in the background. So for anybody who needed that additional reminder today that our cycles are really important and we really should be paying attention to them, then this was the episode to listen to.

I want to thank you all, thank the Fertility Friday community, for tuning in to the show, for supporting the show all of these years. The reason the Fertility Friday Podcast continues to grow is because of you, because of all the listeners, because you share the episodes with your friends. So if you can think of somebody who really needed to hear this message today, please share — the link to share this episode is fertilityfriday.com/319. This is such an important message, and I do hope you share it far and wide with anyone who comes to mind. So a special thank you to all of you for your support, and for sharing the message about fertility awareness in general, and of course the Fertility Friday Podcast, and for helping me get the word out, because if we’re waiting for our educational institutions to teach us this important information, we’ll be waiting a long time. It’s really up to you and me and everyone in this community to continue to spread this message and to do that grassroots, ground-floor work. So with that, I hope you have a wonderful day, evening, week, or weekend, whenever you’re listening to the show, and of course, as always — until next time, be well and happy charting.