Conspiracy theories and science: The case of hormonal contraceptives
Conspiracy theory or science? Natural contraceptives are not anti-scientific and can offer women a new perspective about their bodies.
I once read a “doctor” (I have no clue if he actually was) on Twitter complaining about how every day more and more people tend to use their personal experiences as scientific proof to make important decisions. One of the examples he used was vaccines. He talked about how, as some people may have had bad experiences with vaccines, or have read about their risks and side effects (like on any medical procedure), they come to the conclusion that vaccines must be bad. This conclusion then leads them to a dangerous decision: they don’t vaccinate their kids or get a vaccine themselves (we have painfully recent examples in all the people who have avoided getting the vaccines against Covid-19).
This has caused many diseases considered extinct, like the measles [1], to reappear, but anti-vaxxers insist on their bad science: despite there being no good evidence, they say that vaccines can cause autism[2] and epilepsy [3], and that doctors are not trustworthy [4]. Their proposed solution? To use natural methods of healing and to avoid “big pharma”.
Another big conspiracy group with a growing number of followers (sigh), are the flat earthers. They believe that scientists, governments and NASA are lying to us and that the earth is not a globe. They insist that from what we can see and perceive the earth is flat, and therefore it must be flat.
Anyway, I don’t want to get in too deep with these theories, but are you starting to see a pattern? I think that one of the topics that unites them is a general distrust of science and scientists.
I’m not interested in the specific details of these conspiracies, but I am very curious about the thought mechanism behind them. Let me explain. Even though I am sure that the earth is a globe and that vaccines don’t cause autism, I also know that science is not always right. In the end, it is also done by humans and in that sense it is not infallible or prejudice free. It is also true that the pharmaceutical industry is a business (like almost everything under capitalism) that sells us drugs that we sometimes don’t need, or that have horrible side effects, for prices we can’t afford. It is also true that many times home remedies can be jsut as effective or even better to treat common conditions like dandruff or a minor cold. So in principle, these conspiracy theories are based on the idea of critical thinking. It makes sense to look at science with a critical eye and question some of the truths it sells us.
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Another of the examples that the “doctor” on Twitter used was hormonal contraceptives and how many women who have had bad experiences with them recommend not to use them without any medical background or basis. Women who decide to not take hormonal contraceptives are, in his opinion, on the same level as anti-vaxxers because they take away general conclusions based on their own experiences. And something about this idea bothered me. I took hormonal contraceptives for many years and I believe that they are one of the best alternatives we have today to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and I also know that they contributed in a large measure to the sexual revolution of the 70’s. I won’t deny, either, that some women report feeling better emotionally when taking them and that sometimes they are a treatment for conditions like endometriosis, and I am definitely not saying that anecdotes should count as scientific proof. But, what if in this case there actually is a conspiracy?
Just kidding, just kidding.
I don’t think there is a conspiracy of all scientists to make women take hormonal contraceptives or something like that, but science, as well as the rest of our culture, is patriarchal. This has the effect that the feminine body is not as studied as the male one, or that the male one is taken as the standard for all humans. We as women also often know little about our own bodies and our cycles because we are not taught or encouraged to know them. In fact, in most societies women’s bodies are a taboo at best and sinful at worst. And we take hormonal contraceptives, knowing about their effects, but without knowing how they work or what they actually do to our bodies.
I’ve only recently understood it, and I am going to try to explain it. Our cycle is made of many hormones that play an important role, but there are four that are fundamental. First, the FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone), that is produced in the pituitary gland in the brain. This hormone stimulates the follicle, that is a collection of cells in the ovaries that cover the eggs and help them grow and mature. When the follicle starts to grow, it produces estrogen. The estrogen has two main tasks: it is in charge of stimulating the cervix so that it produces cervical fluid (so that the sperm can access the uterus), and it also gives a signal to our brain to start producing LH (Luteinizing Hormone), the hormone that will cause the mature egg to be expelled from the follicle during ovulation.
This egg will then be fertilized by sperm or will be reabsorbed in the fallopian tube. Finally, the follicle, that after releasing the egg has become the luteal body, will be in charge of producing progesterone, a hormone that increases after ovulation to prepare the body in case of a pregnancy. In case of no pregnancy, the levels of this hormone will decrease and menstruation will happen. The period after the ovulation and until menstruation is known as the luteal phase and it normally lasts from 9 to 15 days without too much variation from woman to woman and from month to month.
If you looked at a graph, the hormone levels would be wavy lines going up or down depending on the moment in the cycle. However, when using hormonal contraceptives this doesn’t happen, and you would only see straight lines on the graph, because the pill has a small amount of estrogen, which causes the body to never ovulate[5]. Thus, the bleeding that we get when we are taking hormonal contraceptives is not a real menstruation in the sense that the process that I just described didn’t take place. Doctors like Lara Briden, an expert on women’s health, state that the bleeding that we have while using hormonal contraceptives happens because we stop taking the pill for a few days. The contraceptive pills stimulate the lining of the uterus but paralyze the ovaries.
Why is this a problem? Because producing hormones is natural, and ovulation is the most important part of the women’s cycle. And here I’m not talking about fertility only. A regular cycle is a health indicator and it is during the cycle that we produce the hormones that are necessary for our general health. Without ovulation, and thus without progesterone, we could have different health problems, because that hormone is beneficial for our brain, our bones, and our immune system. There are studies that have found that progesterone could even help prevent certain types of cancer.
Moreover, I think it is also problematic that we, as women, are largly completely ignorant about our bodies and how they work and that we have no clue of what goes on in them every month. It is problematic that we make decisions such as taking hormonal contraceptives without really understanding their deeper effects (besides the side effects that we already know about like depression, hair loss or loss of sexual desire) and without understanding that there could be other, more natural, although maybe a bit more time-consuming, alternatives.
It is a problem, for example, that still today, whenever a woman’s period is late, her friends tell her to relax and not stress about it because that is going to cause it to be even later, something that is completely impossible. The time after ovulation (when the egg could have been fertilized) is usually stable and doesn’t vary too much (as I said before, it’s usually between 9 and 15 days), which means that its length is not affected by stress. What could have happened would be that the ovulation was late, which would mean that the whole process would take longer.
As I mentioned earlier, there are non-hormonal and natural alternatives for contraception. No, I am not talking about the copper IUD or the rhythm method. I am talking about a method called the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). Please, keep reading.
This method is completely scientific and it’s based on the observation of two specific signs that tell a woman on what moment of her cycle she is: the basal temperature (that is, her body temperature as soon as she wakes up) and the cervical fluid. According to scientists, if you observe these two signs daily and keep track of them, you can know on what part of your cycle you are and if you already ovulated or not [6]. And no, these are not predictions or guesses based on the false idea that ovulation happens on the day 14 of the cycle, because each cycle can vary and they are not necessarily 28 days long; it is about daily and careful observation of what happens in our bodies.
I don’t want to make this too long and I invite those of you who are interested in the method to research it and look for a qualified coach who can teach you how to use it. I would also like to clarify that I don’t think that this method is necessarily ideal for every woman and that it is a very personal decision. But I do think that we would all benefit from knowing about it and learning to understand the signals that our bodies give us. We would all benefit from having that knowledge and tools that the method provides and of being able to make better decisions for ourselves. Even the decision of continuing to take the pill.
The best thing about it? It is a natural method that doesn’t put more hormones in our bodies and that has no side effects. It also doesn’t fill the pockets of big corporations or industries and once learned that knowledge stays with you.
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I would have loved to answer that to the “doctor” on Twitter, but I can’t do that in 240 characters and I know that it isn’t worth it to have fights there.
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[1] I recommend to look at this map, made by the Council on Foreign Relations Think Tank, where they show some preventable diseases that have come back due to the anti-vaxx movement: http://www.vaccineswork.org/vaccine-preventable-disease-outbreaks/
[2] The blaming of vaccines for autism was largely due to the studies of one British gastroenterologist called Andrew Wakefield. In the 90’s Wakefield studied 12 children whose parents claimed had become autistic shortly after being vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. Wakefield and his colleagues decided to explore the children’s bowels and found that they were a bit inflamed, so they decided that this was caused by the vaccines and that, thus, vaccines caused autism. Later, Wakefield managed to get some attention from the press and started to say that he had a lot of evidence, which generated a panic wave among parents at the time.
[3] For more information on this topic I recommend the podcast Science Vs. from Gimlet Media, in particular the episode “Vaccines: Are they Safe?”. In this episode, the hostess Wendy Zukerman, a scientific journalist, tells the history of vaccines and the scientific studies behind them.
[4] For more information on this phenomenon in the United States I recommend this column from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/opinion/sunday/the-real-horror-of-the-anti-vaxxers.html
[5] Do you want to see what the menstrual cycle looks like on a graph? Here you can check it out: https://www.msdmanuals.com/home/women-s-health-issues/biology-of-the-female-reproductive-system/menstrual-cycle
[6] I recommend Toni Weschler’s Taking Charge of Your Fertility for more in-depth information about the menstrual cycle and to learn more about the Fertility Awareness Method.
