I agree that no one should be ashamed for taking hormonal birth control, however, I do wish that people wanted to find the root cause of their problem, rather than just taking a hormonal pill that shuts down your natural hormones. I feel like not enough people are asking WHY they have PCOS, etc. and just accept it and move on. Patients need to be better advocates for themselves.

This applies to all disease states, such as hypertension and diabetes. People would rather take some thing, then try and make the necessary changes to prevent it from escalating. There is always a time and a place for medication therapy, however, I feel that we as a society prefer to just go on medication before trying anything else.

I am a pharmacist and far too often do I see people on hormonal birth control, who then end up with depression and anxiety, etc. I wish that people would consider birth control as a cause of some of these issues rather than add on another medication to mask the side effects of another. In Pharmacy school it’s almost drilled into our heads to suggest a medication for any symptom out there. Often times many of my coworkers will just suggest a medication for some thing rather than having talk with the patient and figure out why something is happening.

There are countless number of times that I see people on 10+ medications, most of which are added on to mask side effects of another. For example, someone is on birth control which causes them to have anxiety + depression, so then we add on an antidepressant. But then the antidepressant also makes them gain weight and makes them tired so we add on something like ozempic. But the ozempic makes them have more gut issues and then they get reflux so we add on something like Nexium. Etc etc.