A Review of Podcast “Science vs. The Pill: Is it Messing Up Our Brain and Body?”

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A MEDICAL DOCTOR. THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE.

When my husband and I travel to visit our families, we often listen to podcasts. Our go-to is Park Predators, but I can only take so much true crime.

We’ve added Science vs. into our podcast rotation. I’ve only listened to a few episodes thus far. Their episode “Dreams: What could they mean?” was rather fascinating. I also started to listen to the episode about the abortion pill, but I couldn’t bear to finish it.

They have some other episodes about women’s health and hormones that I’m interested in listening to in the future.

The most recent episode my husband and I listened to was “The Pill” Is it Messing Up Our Brain and Body?” See transcript here.

During the episode, I said to my husband, “We are going to debrief after this.”

He likely rolled is eyes, as he knows I’m biased about birth control. It’s not that I am 100% against birth control; it’s just that I don’t like it when doctors say that’s the only option to help with cycle issues. It’s usually just masking the symptoms. And, I think women deserve to know how their bodies work and why cycling benefits women. Then they can decide if hormonal birth control is right for them, with more information.

Part 1: Effects of the Pill

The podcast hosts discussed how the pill can affect women. They focused on the belief that being on the pill will change how women find men attractive. That’s something I’ve heard—that when you’re on the pill, you are attracted to different qualities of men than if you weren’t on the pill. They debunked this belief, which was kind of fun to listen to.

The hosts also discussed potential mental health effects, if you gain weight on the pill, and other risks:

RR One is blood clots – your risk will go from maybe 3 in 10,000 to maybe 6 in 10,000 once you’re on the pill[61]. The other is breast cancer[62]. That risk of that goes up from like 5 or 6 in 10,000 to 7 in 10,000[63].

WZ Mmhmm so small increases.

RR Yeah And it actually reduces your risk of some other cancers– namely endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer[64].

It was important for them to bring up potential risks like blood clots. Even though it seems like a small increase in risk, if there is family history of blood clots, I would talk with a doctor to see what option is best.

My take:

It sounded like they downplayed some of the potential risks, but I am glad that they brought up mental health effects. Their main focus was on if birth control affects the brain (and how women find men attractive). However, I wish they would have talked more about cycling itself and how not cycling affects women. There is a lot more to this, and honestly the podcast could have been a couple of hours long, so I understand why they only chose certain topics.

My husband’s take: “It’s obvious that they support hormonal birth control. But in the podcast episode, they are only going to focus on a few topics. It’s not going to be all-encompassing.”

Part 2: “Fertility Awareness Methods– Too good to be true??”

I think the only way I can review this section of the podcast is to go line-by-line.

This is called the fertility awareness method, and all it requires of you is to take time to listen to your body. zero hormones, Also over 99% effective when used perfectly.

WZ Fertility awareness? Listen to your body? This isn’t new

RR It’s kind of the oldest game in town actually

WZ For those unfamiliar, break it down for us.

RR In a nutshell, this idea is that if you have a 28 day cycle ... day 1 is your period, day 14 is roughly when you ovulate[67] ... so you avoid unprotected sex in the days around that time. And if you're just looking at a calendar to do this studies have shown that the failure rate here can be as high as 25%[68].

WZ Ooooh if you don’t want to get pregnant, that’s not good at all.

In this excerpt, the hosts are essentially talking about the “rhythm method.” Honestly, I think this part about the 28-day cycle and ovulating around day 14 shouldn’t even be mentioned as an option. There are so many well-researched options besides the calendar rhythm. To be fair, the hosts talked more about adding other biomarkers to make it more accurate:

RR not great. Could be because this is just not a great way to pick up ovulation– like we talked about with the study of masculine and feminine faces. There’s too much variation in the average person’s cycle

WZ: That's why those studies were so bad right?

RR: Exactly! But to be fair to the TikTokers, they’re often talking about adding other observations to make this method more successful. Things like looking at your cervical mucus, or as I like to call it, the gunk in your underwear

WZ: hahahahaha

When I heard this part, I thought, OK, making some progress here. I want to point out that we should NOT rely on “the gunk in your underwear” to determine cervical mucus quality. In the SymptoPro program, we have a proper process to observe cervical mucus. Many times, we can’t accurately observe mucus that is in underwear because it could be urine or sweat, or it’s often dried.

I talked about this with Jasmine Patel, she’s an obgyn at the University of California, Irvine[69].

JP The day before, day of ovulation, your cervical mucus becomes v slippery Kind of acting as additional lubricant, your body trying to have you have sex so that you get pregnant

RR so if you're looking down and producing your own lube, that's an indication you might be ovulating?

JP Exactly

RR It’s a little more involved than looking at your dirty panties–

WZ: hmm ha

a lot of experts recommend putting a couple fingers in your vagina and then checking the texture of what comes out. When you’re ovulating it’s kinda like egg whites[70].  

WZ OK

RR You could also use those pee strips we mentioned earlier– to check your hormones to see if you’re ovulating[71]. Another method is tracking your temperature by taking it first thing in the morning with a very sensitive thermometer[72].

JP and so when you ovulate it goes about 4 tenths of a degree up compared to baseline, very specific[73]

RR So there are all these different formulas and apps for putting this data together in order to guess when you’re about to ovulate, meaning you could get pregnant. So If you do it perfectly, these methods can be up to 99.6% effective[74]

WZ Wow! 99.6? That puts it up with the pill.

RR That’s about the same as perfect use of the pill.[75] Yeah.

I loved how they went into more detail here about what fertility awareness entails. I would have loved for the hosts to have spent more time on this topic, because, again, there is so much more to it. However, women may not experience egg-white mucus the day before/day of ovulation. Some women don’t experience egg-white, or some women experience it for a longer amount of time. And, just because you experience it, doesn’t mean you ovulate (that can only be confirmed by temperature). Also, women are fertile for more than just those 1-2 days of egg-white mucus. We must take into account the lifespan of sperm in fertile mucus, as well as the fact that we can’t pinpoint ovulation on the exact day unless you have an ultrasound. This information may seem daunting, but with SymptoPro, we have clear guidelines to determine if you are in your fertile or infertile window—it’s not a guessing game.

WZ Huh. So would you use this?

RR Ahhh you know … I was really surprised that this could be so effective! And the TikTokers are kinda right– there is a fertility awareness method that can be 99% effective. Which is really cool. But…I’m still uncomfortable with how this gets tossed around on TikTok. Because we only have a few studies really on these methods. While for the pill, we have tonnes of studies in many thousands of people in all these different circumstances. So we can just be a lot more confident about the effectiveness there. And also– These methods take a lot of work and a lot of careful planning. You gotta think about this and track every day. And Jasmine said it’s not always smooth sailing.

JP It also entails knowing your body really well and having your body not change because of stress, or because of a fever, or because of a vaginal infection 

WZ So fertility awareness methods – they are an option, and they're not a bad option –but be aware, just like condoms they can have holes in them…

RR yes

Yes, fertility awareness methods can be 99% effective! These have been well-researched; SymptoPro uses Dr. Josef Roetzer’s research. While it can be 99% effective, we must also consider typical use, which can include risk-taking, not understand the method, etc. It’s important to not just go on what a “TikToker” says about the method. The best way to learn the method is by hiring a certified instructor, where you can ask them questions about your cycle and have them review your charts. We also have protocols if there is stress, illness, or vaginal infections. There is a learning curve and diligent charting can be required, but it can be worth it! Women are capable of learning about their bodies!

So, I don’t think the podcast hosts painted a full picture of fertility awareness methods. But, I don’t blame them. This is something that there is such a lack of education around. I suggest that they have another podcast on fertility awareness methods and bring some certified instructors on as guests (or even NaPro doctors!).

Part 3: Can Precum Get You Pregnant?

This was my favorite part of the episode and what I found most interesting. The verdict was that precum can have sperm, and thus “pulling out” may not always be an effective form of birth control:

JP What we found was that there were very very few samples that had motile sperm greater than 1 million sperm per mL. The majority of people had no sperm in their pre ejaculate whatsoever

JP It wasn't consistent! So the same person could sometimes have sperm of high quantities in their pre-ejaculate and sometimes not have it. Meaning that sometimes they're at higher risk of pregnancy and sometimes they’re not. 

As with anything, there are pros and cons when it comes to using birth control. If you’re wondering about more natural options, feel free to contact me or look into upcoming classes!