The birth control pill was created in the 1950s by American endocrinologist Gregory Goodwin Pincus and approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for millions of American women in 1960.
The birth control pill was actually the result of a medical accident, believe it or not. Pincus and Boston gynecologist John Rock had been researching infertility and the two began experimenting with chemical drugs to produce an oral contraceptive for women. In the midst of their experiments, a batch of synthetic progesterone was inadvertently contaminated with the pharmaceutical drug mestranol, an estrogen-like substance. The scientist discovered that the two hormones worked in tandem to block conception.
Pincus first found fame in the 1930s when he achieved in-vitro fertilization of rabbit eggs. He later worked with endocrinologist Hudson Hoagland. Together they founded their own research facility, the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology. In 1951, aided by biologist Min Cheuh Chang, Pincus started testing the contraceptive value of the hormone progesterone, which was derived from the root of the wild yam.
The Worcester experiments attracted the attention of Margaret Sanger, America’s leading birth control advocate since the 1920s; Sanger notified her friend McCormick of the project. McCormick and G.D. Searle, the Chicago pharmaceutical firm, became Pincus’s most generous benefactors. After the accidental occurrence of the progesterone contamination with the drug mestranol, Searle began manufacturing the progesterone-estrogen compound for extensive testing and this became the drug approved by the FDA in 1960.
Adverse Effects
Oral contraceptives are unsafe drugs with numerous side effects:
- permanent infertility
- high blood pressure
- blood clots
- stroke
- heart disease
- kidney failure
- varicose veins
- breast cancer
- uterine cancer, and
- liver cancer
Oral contraceptives also deplete a female’s body of:
- iron (anemia)
- zinc
- iodine (weight fluctuation)
- selenium (sex and hormonal nutrient)
- all B vitamins
Other Problems from Oral Contraceptives
Birth control pills or oral contraceptives also greatly reduce the flow and time of female’s menstrual cycle. But this is not healthy. The pill or oral contraceptives greatly throw off a female’s rhythmic and moon cycle, to her detriment. This is why a woman’s cycle after discontinuing the pill is very irregular, making it hard for her to know when it is coming or going.
Birth control pills and contraceptives throw off the female glandular system by essentially deceiving the body. In fact, birth control pills work inside a female’s body by deceiving the brain and making the body think the female is pregnant when in reality she is not.
The inundation of an exogenous synthetic progesterone-like hormone (with synthetic estrogen) suppresses ovulation (the release of fertile eggs). But as was stated earlier, you can’t fool Mother Nature. When a woman is pregnant, her natural endogenous levels of estrogen and progesterone rise and further egg production is stopped. The hormone levels continue to rise during pregnancy, signaling the brain to stop secreting its egg-stimulating hormones. The contraceptive pill hormones mimic this effect and continually make the brain think that pregnancy has occurred, thus suppressing ovulation.
Natural Alternatives
A female can take the herb known as wild yam root. Mexican wild yam root is the best, safest, and most effective natural oral, or internally taken, form of birth control. It contains the highest amount of natural bio-progesterone. Too much progesterone suppresses ovulation, even though progesterone is the hormone conducive to conception. In fact, pharmaceutical-grade oral contraceptive was first derived from wild yam root by extracting the chief alkaloid (or constituent) called dioscegeni.
It is vitally important that a woman know that it takes approximately seven weeks for wild yam roots contraceptive properties to take effect, so intimacy or sex must be abstained from during this time or the male should use a condom if abstinence is out of the question. A female should take seven capsules of wild yam root daily to reap the effects of this herb. If taken in extract form, 2-3 tablespoons should be taken daily. The great thing about wild yam root is, should a female decide to become pregnant, she can start the conception process the day after discontinuation of wild yam root without having to detoxify her body.
Beneficial female specific herbs that are ideal to take after coming off harmful birth control pills include:
- Motherwort (for hormone balancing)
- Bayberry (to reduce toxic waste accumulations in the uro-genito tract)
- Black Cohosh (regulates hormonal production)
- Chaste Tree berries (hormonal balancing)
- Yarrow
- Burdock
- Dandelion
- Goldenseal
- Chaparral, and
- Red Clover tops
The Rhythm Method
Natural birth control has become known as the rhythm method.
A calendar based on the moon’s cycle has 28 days, not 30 days. Twenty-eight is a both a lunar and feminine number. Generally, females have a 28-day moon cycle. The female body’s two major hormones (estrogen and progesterone) are divided into phases, which last approximately two weeks each. If a woman knows her cycle, she can successfully perform the rhythm method. Every woman has a two-week estrogen period where she is not prone to conception or fertilization, and a two-week progesterone period where she is very fertile and prone to conception.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
