Over 150 million women around the world are on the birth control pill. And while “the pill” has given women the ability to control their fertility, there are things that every woman should know about its effects, short-term and long-term. 

 

Our guest today - professor, research psychologist, and author Dr. Sarah Hill -  is here to discuss her must-read book This Is Your Brain on Birth Control: How the Pill Changes Everything, where she sheds light on all the ways hormonal birth control affects women – the good, the bad, and the unsettling. 

 

So if you’re interested in learning the truth about how the pill could impact your - or someone you love - brain,  sex life,  choice of partners, or even how it’s shaping our society and culture, tune in to be blown away by the information we discuss in this episode!

 

“I was at a research talk, and one of my colleagues was giving a research presentation on the effects of early life trauma on the stress response, and he’d mentioned in the presentation that they only looked at the men and their sample from all these people that they collected because most of the women in their study were on hormonal birth control. And everybody knows that women who are on hormonal birth control don’t have a cortisol response to stress. Then, I went up to him after his presentation. I was like, ‘What is it that you said about women on birth control not having a cortisol response to stress?’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah, you know, surprised me too, but they’ve been publishing on this for a really long time and nobody really understands why.’ I felt different when I went off of hormonal birth control. Women have a different stress response when they’re on hormonal birth control compared to when they’re not. Because when you take the pill, it’s gonna change your hormones, and when you change your hormones, that changes everything.” - Dr. Sarah Hill

 

What we discuss in this episode:

- How Dr. Hill’s life changed after she stopped taking hormonal birth control.

- The birth control pill and cortisol response. 

- The birth control pill’s effect on body weight.

- The neurobiological effects of the pill. 

- How attraction to your mate is altered by the birth control pill. 

- How the pill affects libido and sexual function.

- Why testosterone levels are lower in men than at any time in recent history.

- Adolescents and the pill.

 

Resources:

- Dr. Hill’s website: Sarah E. Hill, PhD - https://www.sarahehill.com/

- Instagram: Sarah E Hill (@sarahehillphd) • Instagram photos and videos - https://www.instagram.com/sarahehillphd/?hl=en

- Twitter/X: Sarah E. Hill (@sarahehillphd) / X - https://twitter.com/sarahehillphd?lang=en

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahehillphd2/

- TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdwLAyWHBVs

- Her book: This Is Your Brain on Birth Control: How the Pill Changes Everything: 9780593713914: Hill, Sarah: Books - https://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Birth-Control/dp/0593713915/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1707092772&sr=1-1

 

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