Investigating on Libido

So, recalling from my previous blog entry in regards to whether taking birth control pills will decrease sexual drive in women, if you beautiful ladies out there want some hard, cold evidence about libido and birth control pills, www.pubmed.com would be a great starting point to begin our investigation.

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 Poor lady is on her birth control pills and wondering if her pills are affecting her sexual drive. Hope she feels better soon 

So let’s take a look at pubmed.com and see what studies have been conducted on birth control pills and libido. Ooo.. 360 results by typing birth control pills and libido in the search engine and WOOHOO and 33 have full text!

For this week’s blog, I will be discussing about a study I found on hormonal contraception on mood and sexual interest among adolescents. I think we can relate more to a study of adolescents since on my part at least, the confusion I had about birth control pills and its effects started when I was an adolescent experimenting with birth control pills. 

The video you are about to see is just a brief overview of birth control pill and its POSSIBLE effects on lowering sexual drive in women. As the beginning of the video it says, "this video represents the views of individual presenters and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Psychetruth Channel." So be cautious when you ladies are taking in the information from this video :) 

Past Studies on the Birth Control Pill and its Influence on Mood and Sexual Interest

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Not surprisingly, numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of hormonal contraceptives. However, results varied amongst the studies. Some studies demonstrated a negative effect, some a positive effect, and some that demonstrated no effect (Ott & Shew & Ofner & Tu & Fortenberry, 2008, p. 606).

Separate studies have been conducted on adults, some on older adolescent participants, usually between the ages of 16 or 18, however no studies have been conducted to determine whether there are differences amongst results in adolescents and adults in terms of mood changes and changes in sexual interest with the use of hormonal contraceptives.

Adolescence is a time characterized by moodiness. Let’s just admit it, we were all moody when we were adolescents. It is important to examine whether hormonal contraceptives play a role in affecting mood changes in adolescents or whether we are just very moody and emotional creatures in general, regardless of the use of hormonal contraceptives.  

Other than mood changes, past studies have shown contradictory results regarding sexual interest or sexual desire when hormonal contraceptives were used. Little is also known about the impact of hormonal contraception on sexual interest among adolescents (Ott et al, 2008, p. 607).

Therefore, in this study, young women of the ages 14 to 17 were recruited from three primary care adolescent clinics in a medium size Midwestern U.S. city. This was a longitudinal study in which the young, beautiful women (just like you guys) were followed for up to 41 months. In a broader sense, the study was not only conducted on the associations of hormonal contraceptive use with mood and sexual interest, the study also examined the development of sexual behaviors and STI amongst these adolescence (Ott et al, 2008, p. 607).

To keep things brief, the objectives of the study included: 1) to test for differences in positive mood, negative mood and sexual interest by hormonal contraceptive method, 2) To test for differences in mood variability (or change over time) by hormonal contraceptive method and 3) to examine whether stopping or starting hormonal contraceptive was associated with mood and sexual interest changes.

In the study, participants completed face to face interviews quarterly and two 12 week periods of daily diary collection per year. Participants kept a diary throughout the study and were required to record any mood changes whether positive or negative and changes in sexual interest while being on hormonal contraceptive.

Something very exciting that I think you guys would want to know, participants received $2.00 for each completed diary as well as a bonus for completion of 80% of scheduled diaries (Oh MY!!! Why wasn’t I invited to this study?!) (Ott et al, 2008, p. 609).

The exact procedures and measures used to calculate the results I would greatly recommend you ladies to read the full article available on pubmed.com instead.

So ready for the results? :)

The study concluded that there are changes in mood amongst adolescent hormonal contraceptive users and that the changes differed from those anticipated for adult users (Ott et al, 2008, p. 605).

During diary periods characterized by stable use of hormonal contraceptives, participants reported significantly higher mean weekly positive mood compared to periods of non-use or initiating hormonal contraceptive use. Participants also reported significantly lower mean weekly negative mood compared to periods of non-use or initiating hormonal contraceptive use (Ott et al, 2008, p. 611).

However, there was no association between hormonal contraceptive use and sexual interest (Ott et al, 2008, p. 613). Mean weekly sexual interest did not change significantly across the 3 month diary period (Ott et al, 2008, p. 611). It is possible that hormonal effects were less influential on sexual interest than behavioral factors, such as relationship quality (Ott et al, 2008, p. 613).

Oh Dear…

You ladies must be mad at me right now. The results of this week’s blog totally contradicted with last week’s blog. I am confused as you guys are about whether birth control pill exerts an effect on our sexual drives. Well, isn’t this the very reason why studies are conducted upon studies. I never said my mission as the truth blogger was easy. I never promised that I could solve all the misconceptions when it comes to birth control pills. I am here, however to bring out as much as I can the possible perspectives and sides to birth control pills. Instead of blindly believing in certain misconceptions, I want you ladies to be able to assess the situation, the topic with all the information you can get.

Anyways, that’s it for this week! Don’t miss out on next week’s blog entry. I’ll give you a heads up, it’s about … how I will be enjoying my week without anymore blog assignments. Haha. Bye ladies. 

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Hey Joy! Can’t believe we are getting closer to the end of the semester. Hope you enjoyed reading my blog. Thank you so much for being my blog’s number 1 follower!  

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Reference

Ott, M.A., & Shew, M.L., & Ofner, S., & Tu, W., & Fortenberry, J.D. (2008). The

influence of hormonal contraception on mood and sexual interest among

adolescents. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37(4), 605-613.

Psychetruth (2008, November 15). Sex Drive & the Birth Control Pill, Does the Pill Ruin

Sex for Girls? Women’s Sexual Health. [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssL2RHEoJgI&feature=player_embedded

Sex Ed101- The Pill and Sexual Health- Does Consuming Birth Control Pills Decrease Sexual Drive?

WOOHOO* This week is VIDEO WEEK! Instead of reading articles and journals, what’s more fun to learn through watching videos:) 

After watching the video clip, I would like to ask my beautiful ladies who are using birth control pills right now if you are experiencing any decrease in sex drive?

I for one am not ashamed to admit that I am experiencing a loss of libido ever since I started using the pill. Initially, I was just like Marilyn in the video clip. I thought I lost interest to having sex with my boyfriend because we were having tough times. However, even after our troubles, I still have not regained my sex drive at all.

Therefore, as the truth blogger, I DEMAND THE TRUTH! I want to know whether taking birth control pills actually causes a loss of sex drive! 

 

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A picture speaks a thousand words. I can totally imagine that both ladies are frustrated about their loss of libido. More yet, one of the husbands have already even fallen asleep, most likely because the woman was just not interested in having sex tonight. (Poor guy!)
 

Take a look at Video#2: The Pill and Libido Part One

So, what do the two videos have in common?  

The mentioning of the function of progesterone and estrogen, and a woman’s making of Testosterone and Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG).

The first video explained that Estrogen causes an increase in the protein called “Sex Hormone Binding Globulin,” which is a protein that binds testosterone in the plasma. When there is increase concentration of this protein, it also absorbs testosterone from the bloodstream. Testosterone is what we believe to be a major player in sex drive, sexual function, arousal, and orgasm (DiscoveryHealth, 2008).

In the second video, Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright also mentioned that every month when ovulation occurs, the ovaries actually make excess testosterone. For women who are taking oral contraceptive, they do not have active ovaries so testosterone normally made there is not secreted. The pill does not only reduce testosterone production, it encourages the liver to produce a protein called Sex Hormone Binding Globulin which hinders the testosterone’s effects, and possibly explaining why sexual drive and arousal is affected by the pill (SexHealthGuru, 2008).

AND … How does this relate to sexual health?

Just as I learned in my Kins 140 Lecture, “Health is the complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (Bedoya, May 10^th, 2011, Lecture 1). To me, sexual health means how sex affects health and how health is related to sex. To be sexually healthy, a person must be in a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being in relation to having a healthy sexual life.  

A definition provided by Health Canada (2006) depicts sexual health as “a vital and integral part of your overall health and well-being throughout your life, integrating the emotional, physical, cognitive and social aspects of sexuality.”

When I am not having a healthy sexual life because of the effect of birth control pills have in decreasing my sex drive, I become mentally and sexually unhealthy. Having to constantly put myself in a dilemma to choose to take the pill but to also lose my sex drive simultaneously or not take the pill but cause an increase in chances of getting pregnant when I have sex is DRIVING ME CRAZY.

This is also not healthy for my social well-being. I am unable to live a purposeful and enjoyable life when I cannot satisfy my needs and my boyfriend’s needs sexually (Bedoya, May 10^th, 2011, Lecture 1).

By no means am I here to persuade you to stop using the pill because of the potentiality of losing sexual drive because not all ladies who take the pill loses their sexual drive.

So, what is the solution?

Find the right pill for your body! Talk to your physician, tell him or her your concerns about loss of libido and ask your physician to recommend the right pill for you. For example, to help Marilyn’s problem, in the first video posted, Dr. Taz Varkey suggested bringing down the estrogen levels in her pill and finding progesterone that has some testosterone-like activity. Some progesterone has more testosterone-like activity than others (DiscoveryHealth, 2008). If you are unsure whether you want to continue to taking the pill now, consult your physician anyways and discuss about alternative contraceptive methods that best suit your needs! Remember ladies, it is your sexual health which is the most important!

With love,

The Truth Blogger

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Reference

Bedoya, B. (2011). Contemporary Health Issues Lecture 1, delivered at Simon Fraser

University on May 10^th, 2011.

DiscoveryHealth (2008, November 05). Sex and Iintimacy- Sex and the Pill. [Video File].

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnwgS22SBGQ

Health Canada. (2006, February 02). Sexual health and promotion. Retrieved from

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/sex/index-eng.php

SexHealthGuru (2008, August 25). The Pill and Libido Part One. [Video File]. Retrieved

from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AI3CE0dDXg&feature=related

The Pill and Cancer

That was a mini clip i made brought to you by xtranormal.com. Welcome back to my blog. Can anyone answer the question that the lady asked in the short clip? I sure can’t. I have just recently restocked another 3 months worth of birth control pills and yet I still have no answer to this question

 

There has been so much controversy in the question of whether the consumption of birth control pills increase, decrease, or maybe even make no changes at all to the risk of cancer, in particularly breast cancer. Many research and studies have been carried out and have still been unable to confirm a precise answer to the effects of the contraceptive pill in relation to the development of breast cancers. The picture still remains far from clear for women who are currently taking the pill or for those who are considering taking the pill.

Since this is only a blog, I am not going to write you a ten page paper on the topic, it is important that you do take some extra time to look at where my sources are from. I am not here to persuade you which side to take, but for the sake of your health, you should exercise your knowledge into interpreting the information I am about to present to you. 

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In support to the argument that birth control pill increases the risk of breast cancer:

-In a case control study of 3,540 white women in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston by Mahler on breast cancer risk, results have shown that, “women aged 25-34 who have used oral contraceptives for one year or more are 70% more likely to develop breast cancer than are women of the same age who have not used the pill or who have used it for less than one year” (1996).

Mahler (1996) also concluded that “women in this age-group who have used the pill for 10 years or longer have a risk of breast cancer 2.5 times that of comparable nonusers.”

However, it is important to note that results from this study cannot be generalized to the population of the world as only Caucasian women were under examination in the study. 

- In the recent study, researchers at the Bethesda, Md.-based National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta tested the pill-cancer connection in a case-control study of more than 4,000 women aged 20 to 45. The results found that women who use the pill for longer than four years before having their first child appear to be three times more likely to develop breast cancer before age 45 than are those who do not use it before having their first child (Edwards, 1985).

Against the argument that birth control pill increases risk of breast cancer:

- Dr. Josh Vogel in the video quotes, “there is a very common misconception out there that many types of birth control can increase your risk of getting cancer. In fact if you look into package inserts, you will often find that. This is actually not correct especially commonly ascribed to birth control pill use, if anything the use of birth control pill will decrease of certain types of cancer including endometrial and ovarian cancer.”

-A study by the Mayo Clinic Health Centre (2007) found that “oral contraceptive use increases premenopausal breast cancer risk, especially among women who took birth control pills before having a first child. However, the review also noted that risk decreases over time, and by 10 years after discontinuation of "the pill" there's no elevation of breast cancer risk.”

Findings also showed “a significant percentage increase in breast cancer, but since the disease is rare at younger ages, the actual number of people in this group is small. For example, in the 25-to- 29-year age range, that translated to 4.7 cases of breast cancer for every 10,000 women who used oral contraceptives for a year.”

They also note “there's a very small absolute risk of developing breast cancer due to oral contraceptive use at younger ages. On the plus side, oral contraceptives are associated with reduced risk of ovarian and uterine cancers as well as improved bone mineral density.” (Mayo Clinic Health Centre, 2007)

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Although I call myself the truth blogger, I am not a scientist or a doctor. I am unable to answer with certainty the question to my blog this week. There are studies conducted for both sides of the story and both sides seem equally persuasive in their arguments. As I said, I am not here to persuade you to take a side, I am just offering you the information I have gathered so we can together learn more about birth control pills in general.

However, what I was able to extract from the various studies presented in this blog is that in certain ages and age groups, women are more at risk for breast cancer. For example, the risk for breast cancer is simply just low in women who are at a young age before 25 years old. Taking the pill at that age is unlikely to add on to the already low risk of getting breast cancer. On the contrary, in the age group of 25 to 34 years old and age group before 45 years old, the women in this age group is already at a higher risk of breast cancer than those women who are 25 years old or younger. Therefore, the consumption of birth control pills in this age group will add onto the already higher risk of breast cancer. 

Maybe this is not a one plus one type of question. Maybe there is just more than one answer to this question.

With care,

The Truth Blogger- Reminding my beautiful ladies, I do have a comment function in my blog, feel free to leave any concerns you have regarding the birth control pills and even suggest me some topics you would like me to talk about next time 

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Reference

Edwards, D.D. (1985). The pill and breast cancer. Science News, 128(19).

Ehowhealth. (User). (2009). Women’s health: what types of birth control are known to  

cause cancer? Retrived from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpL1LwsrYeM&playnext=1&list=PL1C19654E4611631A

Mahler, K. (1996). Long duration of pill use among young women shows possible link to

elevated breast cancer risk. Women’s Studies International, 28(5).

Mayo Clinic Health Centre. (2007, June). The pill/ breast cancer risk and your age.

Retrieved from http://HealthLetter.MayoClinic.com

Title: Truth, lies, and the Internet

To all my beautiful ladies who like to surf the net:

The internet is a very dangerous place to be in if you are not familiar with it. You should always examine the sources in which the information is derived from. Take a look at this site: http://www.ditchthepill.org/

If we take a look at the information under “Benefits” Turned Out to Be Wrong

This is definitely my favorite! They don't even give us the name of the doctor or where these doctors are from.

Next, the site provides us with a long list of illnesses that are caused by the pill, again with no referencing to any sources

What makes this site seem so believable is that you can continue on and click into each of these illnesses and read about how the pill is a “direct cause” of the illnesses.

Thirdly, Prempro (2010): the next point that this site uses to attack the pill. Prempro is a prescription medication that helps manage symptoms of menopause. http://www.prempro.com

As with all medication, there are possible side effects, which include an increase possibility of heart attacks, strokes, breast cancers, or blood clots.

This site describes the pill as being four times worse than Prempro again without any scientific evidence supporting this statement. It also describes Prempro as being poisonous at each given dose and could poison us up to three generations.

Oh another favorites from this site. If only this was true! This website says that PMS never existed before the pill. It says that premenstrual syndrome is a new condition that did not exist 50 years ago. This should be simple to find out. If your mom or grandma is more than 65 years old, assuming that they get their period when they were 14 or 15, just ask them whether they have experienced PMS when they had their period. If they did, maybe PMS did exist 50 years ago before the pill.

One last one ladies. These types of unreliable websites usually lead to what? Of course, advertisement of something you should purchased to rid the effects of what they are telling you not to take! In this case, the website recommends you to take Bio-Identical Progesterone for only $15 per month to minimize the side effects of the pill! And guess what?! Free Shipping on orders over $300 and special offers daily.

So, this goes to show that the Internet really isn’t the place where you should look for information if you are unable to assess what is true or false. Instead, what’s a better place to go for information than your family doctor or nearby clinic? Vancouver Coastal Health have a lot of pamphlets on health and within Van Coast Health, there’s also a youth clinic, which offers free and confidential drop in services.

Comparing to the list of illnesses that ditchthepill.org stated that are caused by the pill, in a study by Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, results concluded that “ovarian and endometrial cancer risk was reduced in women while taking birth control pills and for at least 10 years afterward” (Robb-Nicholson, 2004, p. 8).

The study also found a possible reduced risk for colon cancer. The risk for breast cancer was increased slightly. However, the Harvard researchers found that “these risks disappeared or diminished quickly when women stopped taking the pill. The benefits, on the other hand, lingered, even to the age when ovarian, endometrial, and colon cancer rates began to rise” (Robb-Nicholson, 2004, p. 8).

Fertility is another major concern for women in regards to taking the pill. In ditchthepill.org comparing to the list of illnesses once again, infertility was one of the side effects of taking the pill. 

In a 2009 study by Deborah Kowal, an assistant professor in the Department of Global at Emory University in Atlanta, concluded that “women may believe that use of pills will negatively impact their future fertility. However, this is not the case; return to fertility is rapid following pill discontinuation” (p. 4).Results were derived from more than 50 studies and 50 years. 

So ladies, truth, lies, and the Internet is really up to you to decide, but for me, i try to stay away from these unreliable information as much as I can. 

Kindly from your Truth Blogger

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Reference

Kowal, D. (2011). What are the top myths about pills? Contraceptive Technology Update, 3-5.

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc. (2010). Prempro. Retrieved from http://www.prempro.com/

Robb-Nicholson, C. (2004). By the way, doctor, Harvard Women’s Health Watch, p. 8.

Vancouver Coastal Health. (2008). Birth Control Pills. The Pill. Retrieved from

      Boulevard Youth Clinic 2110 West 43^rd Ave.

Women’s Health Institute (2007). Ditch the pill.org. Empowerment for women. Retrieved

      from http://www.ditchthepill.org/

“La vérité: The Truth”

Our judgments are often clouded by misconceptions. In the end, we each hold our own versions of truth. When misconceptions become the truth, reality is distorted. I am the “Truth Blogger”. My mission is to tell you the truth about your truth. I am also here to confirm whether my own truth is really the truth. I do not know what the outcome of this blog will be. Will my truth become your truth or will your truth become my truth or maybe it turns out that both our versions of the truth are not really the truth. However, I am certain about the fact that I am not ignorant. “I do not believe everything I hear, read, or see,” as quoted by Diana Bedoya. My purpose of blogging and I believe your purpose of reading my blog is to find out whether the truth that we have been holding ever so long in our lives is really the truth or merely a misconception.

So, let’s find out the truth together, shall we? I cannot do this alone.

(Brought to you by Garfield's Comic Creator. Please excuse the horrible quality of my scanner, i really need to buy a new scanner!)

For my young, beautiful ladies out there, in the above two scenarios, which is the truth for you? Have you ever thought about whether taking birth control pills is good or bad? If you are not currently taking birth control pills but planning to in the near future, do you have any concerns about the effects of birth control pills?

I do for one. I honestly have no clue as to whether they are good or bad, but I am still taking them. I heard that birth control pills increase the chances of women in getting breast cancer, but I am still taking them. But I also heard that birth control pills have a 99.9% success rate of preventing pregnancy (REALLY?), so that’s why I am not stopping.

This is probably only 2% of all the misconceptions and uncertainties about birth control pills. This is the reason why I am blogging. I want to know the truth because I am making a decision to ingest this unknown white-colored-candy-looking pill every single day for the past 5 years. Seriously, is this thing even healthy?

It is important that I know the truth about my health. Everybody should acknowledge the potential goods and harms of the things we ingest into our bodies and the possible consequences that follow from the ingestion of such substances. I want to be able to make a logical decision on whether I should continue taking birth control pills or not by the end of this semester. I hope to learn about all the positive and negative effects of birth control pills and I will determine and sort out the facts from the misconceptions. I will find out the truth… hopefully.

-The Truth Blogger