Can The Pill Give You Depression? My Experience Says Absolutely.

By Emily McGuigan I 6th Feb, 2023

Oh the things I wish I knew when I was younger, one of them being, the pill is not your friend.

When I was 17, I took myself to the doctor to get on the pill. All of my friends were on the pill, everyone was taking it, I didn’t even think twice about it, I didn't even consider there could or would be side effects, and unfortunately the doctor never brought it to my attention either.

I never spoke to my parents about it, at the time we didn't have a relationship where I felt comfortable to discuss such things, even if I had, I don't think they were informed enough themselves to know the risks associated with birth control, aside from the obvious one, and so as a consenting adult who no longer needed her parent's permission a script was written out for me, and so started my journey of life on the pill.

I was an active and happy teenager, with only the typical and normal emotions of going through puberty. I’d just started my hairdressing apprenticeship and I had also found my first serious boyfriend. It was an exciting time of my life and the last thing I wanted was to get pregnant, plus the thought of being able to skip my periods sounded great!

That was literally all I knew about the pill, you didn’t get pregnant, and you could skip your periods.

I look back now and realise how naïve I was, I was so un-educated on not only the topic of birth control but how the entire female body worked. I had zero idea how taking this one small pill would change my life, for the worse. Over the next four years I suffered from extreme emotions, mood swings, crying over just about anything, all the time, and I stopped laughing, it was like the joy had been sucked out of me. If something was funny, I would politely laugh but it was never real laughter. And it wasn’t that I unhappy with my life, I had a good job, a great relationship with my boyfriend and family, but it was like I was on one big emotional rollercoaster, I felt sad and depressed all the time, like I was pulling around a big dark cloud over me and my poor boyfriend, he copped the brunt of it, nearly breaking up with me at one stage. (Thankfully we made it through that rough patch, and we ended up married with three kids).

I initially went to my doctor perhaps about 6 months after I started it, because I knew something was wrong with me, but I didn't know what. I told her I thought I had depression, but I was dismissed, I almost felt like she was laughing at my ridiculous statement. She said maybe I was a little depressed, but basically gave me no answers, she never once asked or checked if I was taking anything. I had full trust in my doctors at the time so I left feeling like it was just all in my head and there was nothing wrong with me.

A couple more years went by, as I stayed on this exhausting emotional rollercoaster. My boyfriend and I got engaged in that time and in the lead up to my wedding I went back to a different doctor, and I just remember saying "I'm getting married, and I feel nothing".

I was very happy to be getting married, it's what I had dreamt about my whole life, but I almost felt numb inside, I simply couldn't be bothered with it all, which makes me a little sad when I think back to what should have been one of the happiest times of my life, and I felt nothing. So, what was the answer? Anti-depressants of course.

Lots of people around me were on these drugs and my mother had a history with depression so I just figured that was how my life was going to be, yet still, there was no questioning what else I might be taking that could be causing it.

Shortly after we were married, we decided to start having a family and I took myself off the pill, I was still totally unaware of what it had been doing to me. I also took myself off the anti-depressants as I didn’t want to be on them if I fell pregnant. And that was when I noticed something changed, one day I laughed. Like really laughed, I can still remember the moment where I thought to myself oh my god I just laughed, I didn’t force it and it felt so good.

Suddenly, after four years I was back to being me again. The emotional rollercoaster had finally stopped, and I could get off. Obviously, I am a woman, we are very hormonal beings, and that’s normal, so I’m not going to say I never have my moments, but the dark cloud I had over me disappeared, the endless tears over basically anything had dried up and I felt happy again. It all just stopped and that was when I clicked, I finally realised what had been causing all my sadness, and so my journey for answers began, what had this pill been doing to me?

Funnily enough, my younger sister had gone on the pill, about 12 months after I’d had my epiphany, so when she told me she was going crazy and she didn't know what was wrong with her, I immediately knew what was wrong. The pill clearly affected us both the same way, it turned us into crazy people, she couldn’t believe how much it changed her personality too. Luckily for her, she was able to stop it shortly after and I'm so grateful she didn’t go through the years of suffering as I did.

Since that moment that I laughed again, my in depth reading and research on the negative side effects of the pill has grown and grown, and I now regret ever taking it. What started with my awful experience on the pill has snowballed into years of researching all kinds of things to do with health and wellness, and I just wish I’d had someone tell me all these things long ago.

So, what is the pill and who is taking it?

Birth control is prescribed for many reasons other than simply birth control. It's used as a tool to regulate periods and to clear skin issues such as acne, though in my opinion it's used to mask the symptoms while never really getting to the root cause of these problems. (Another story for another blog)

What is the mechanism of the pill?

The pill works by flooding your body with synthetic hormones, usually an estrogen and progesterone, and they essentially block communications between your own hormones and your brain, so that you stop ovulating and your uterus lining is thinned, preventing pregnancy.

This is one reason why I view taking the pill at a young age in particular, being potentially so harmful. If you think about our young bodies developing, and going through puberty, busy trying to make all these connections for successful reproduction, and to simply be happy healthy women, if we start interfering in that, with synthetic substances, I don’t know about you, but I do not see good outcomes from that.

One has to wonder with girls on the pill as such young ages these days, are we preventing these important connections ever being formed? Is it partly to blame for the rising epidemic of infertility?

This seemingly harmless little pill come packed with many potential side effects.

I will list a simple few for you here, but I advise to do your own research into the topic as there are many more side effects and risks than I can cover in one article.

1. Depression. A large Danish study of over 1 million women concluded that the use of the hormonal contraception was associated with depression requiring anti-depressant treatment. (From my personal experience I am convinced that this is true.)

2. A risk of increased blood pressure and blood clots, leading to strokes and heart attacks. (The risk increasing for women over 35).

3. Mineral depletion. In particular folate, B12, B6, Zinc, Selenium, and the amino acid tyrosine (important for thyroid function) just to name a few. A depletion in these minerals could also play a factor in the risk of depression.

4. Increased risk of estrogen dominance (a hormonal imbalance with many linked health issues)

5. The Pill can change our normal flora, allowing yeast, such as candida, and other pathogens to thrive. (Also linked to many health issues).

6. Increased risk in some cancers, such as breast cancer, which is linked to the estrogen dominance I referred to earlier.

These are just a sample of the risks you may find while doing your own research into the topic of birth control. Has it prevented unwanted pregnancies, sure, but are we potentially seeing long term chronic conditions presenting from it, I believe so, and is that going to get worse over time, probably, and I encourage anyone considering taking it to please do your research first.

There are so many aspects about this little pill that we are taught so little about, from where it originated and the original intent behind the pill (a blog for another day) and the detrimental effects it can have on our health. Aside from the hours of research I have done online, some books I found really insightful when beginning my journey to uncover the truth of it all were Womens Wellness Wisdom and The Invisible Load both by Libby Weaver. Both were really eye opening into how little I knew about my body. Another really informative book I found, which is a little off topic, more to do with the gut and how it's very much related to many problems including depression, is called Gut by Guilia Enders.

I also find podcasts are a really great tool for information these days, one of my favourites being "Red Pill Your HealthCast" by Charlie Fagenholz and Lauren Johnson, who together have a wealth of knowledge, they have recently done a podcast about this topic in particular which I recommend listening to.

It's up to us as individuals to decide what we are willing and not willing to put in our bodies, I personally do not view the pill as a good thing with all the information and personal experiences I have had with it. I wish someone would have warned me years ago about the potential risks and explained the actual mechanisms on the body, so I was fully aware on what I was taking. But as one of my favourite doctors says, “you don’t know what you don’t know, until you do”.

Final Words. If you are suffering with depression in particular and you are on the contraceptive pill, I hope sharing my experience has helped you recognise a potential cause. When taking any medication, we should be fully aware of the risks and benefits of that product. And I wish that as young women we were educated better about how the female body works and develops and how to better take care of ourselves. I know my life could have been different had I been better informed, but I see it as my mission in life to educate others, or at least try and open door to discussions so we can make better choices for our health.

The most important lesson I believe is, listen to your body. You know your body best and if you sense something isn’t right, then it probably isn’t. Keep looking for answers and for the right people to help you until you are satisfied.

Take Care and Stay Well.

Emily

*Disclaimer. This is not medical advice; it is purely for educational purposes and is a shared personal story based on my own experience.

Please consult your medical practitioner before making any changes to your health.