Why you should pay attention to your Menstrual Cycle as a woman - A breakdown of "The Women's Book Vol 1" by Lyle Mcdonald /w Eric Helms
- Thread starter great_depression
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@great_depression I don't know who you are, but you are the hero we all didn't know we needed.
@great_depression This is an awesome summary. Thanks so much for posting.
Does the book say anything about how your cycle is impacted by being on hormonal birth control? Do the changes between the follicular and luteal phases still occur in the same way?
Does the book say anything about how your cycle is impacted by being on hormonal birth control? Do the changes between the follicular and luteal phases still occur in the same way?
clarityaim
New member
@luanvan24 Two weeks ago I switched from a combination birth control pill to a progesterone only IUD. I have been taking BC for 11 years and wanted to know how no longer consuming estrogen would affect my body/training. Besides personal stories online I can't find anything on how switching BC can affect the body. When I started taking the pill I gained 15 lbs, went up two cup sizes, and had far less body hair. I wonder if the opposite will happen now that I'm now taking estrogen? Time will tell I guess lol.
@luanvan24 The author has written another book to address birth control entirely:
"Rather than wait to finish the eventually coming Women's Book Volume 2, I opted to write a shorter booklet addressing the issue. Hormonal birth control has an enormous impact on every aspect of a woman's physiology, some of which are well established and some of which continue to be discovered."
Lyle McDonald
The Women's Book on Hormonal Birth Control & Athletic Performance: A Guide to Hormonal Birth Control for Active Women
"Rather than wait to finish the eventually coming Women's Book Volume 2, I opted to write a shorter booklet addressing the issue. Hormonal birth control has an enormous impact on every aspect of a woman's physiology, some of which are well established and some of which continue to be discovered."
Lyle McDonald
The Women's Book on Hormonal Birth Control & Athletic Performance: A Guide to Hormonal Birth Control for Active Women
buddymiller
New member
@luanvan24 Oral contraceptives provide your body with a consistent level of both hormones (if you're taking a combination pill). You can request a tricyclic pill which attempts to mimic these phases, but doesn't necessarily match it entirely. Most prescriptions are for the monophasic, steady-dose of hormones. To note, oral contraceptives replace your body's natural hormone production, so you actually aren't really producing your own estrogen and progesterone as you would off of the pill.
great_depression
New member
@luanvan24
It does a little bit in vol 1. In vol 1 He goes into detail on the types of birth control, how they affect hormones, which ones do what for you, but he intends to go into greater detail on the effects it has on the menstrual cycle in vol 2.
One fun fact about birth control in his book is that he mentions that it's often associated with fat gain amongst women, however, no research supports the claim. Aside from a tiny amount across three months with one type of birth control.
He mentions in it that it depends on the type that you use and that one type actually has shown weight loss and can be androgenic.
In Vol 1 he says it can be used to regulate the timing of your cycle.
It does a little bit in vol 1. In vol 1 He goes into detail on the types of birth control, how they affect hormones, which ones do what for you, but he intends to go into greater detail on the effects it has on the menstrual cycle in vol 2.
One fun fact about birth control in his book is that he mentions that it's often associated with fat gain amongst women, however, no research supports the claim. Aside from a tiny amount across three months with one type of birth control.
He mentions in it that it depends on the type that you use and that one type actually has shown weight loss and can be androgenic.
In Vol 1 he says it can be used to regulate the timing of your cycle.
sweetsadie
New member
@great_depression I often wonder if the association of birth control with weight gain can be attributed to the correlation between age and when most women start taking BC. Many, many women start it in their late teens/early twenties, which is typically also a period of time when a lot of life changes occur and energy output drops or partying and eating crap increases etc, and a lot of people gain weight at that age. It would be easier to attribute it to BC, but there are so many other stereotypes for weight gain at this time (the fresher five, the Heathrow 10(?), the change of starting a desk job, the change of moving out and eating worse and trying to learn to be an adult). It wouldn't surprise me at all if the weight gain point was mostly correlation. We may also focus more on examples where women DID gain weight rather than those who didn't (e.g. anecdotal but neither my best friend or I gained weight, in fact she started exercising more in adulthood and lost weight - this evidence means nothing at this scale, but we probably don't pay attention to a lot of examples where nothing changed).
@great_depression That’s really fascinating. I appreciate you sharing this discovery with us. I’m personally interested in learning even more about hormonal birth control and its effects on our bodies in regards to the information you shared. I actually can’t take HBC due to blood abnormalities, which I believe are hormonal related. I’m currently taking Spirolactone to balance my hormones to mitigate hormonal acne, which has improved not just my skin, but the quality of my life.
@great_depression Which type of birth control showed weight loss?
great_depression
New member
@great_depression Ok but 14kg +/- 1 to 13.5kg +/- 1 doesn’t seem statistically significant. I did not go past the abstract, but that sticks out to me as bad science
visionionary62
New member
@dawn16 Can you clarify why you don't think that it's statistically significant? The p value reported in the abstract is a little high for my tastes, but I'm coming from a micro bio perspective. As far as I know, you can't really achieve much better significance for a secondary side effect without doing in-patient studies or a vastly larger sample population (like phase III clinical trial kind of huge sample size) than this study used. I also understand why you might dislike p values in general, but I don't want to go past the abstract either to evaluate whether it was appropriate.
@visionionary62 Ok so you need to purchase a subscription to see the article which I’m not invested enough to do either. So we will try to figure this out from the abstract only.... I was strictly looking at the error bars on their reported weights. I’m a third year biochem major and haven’t encountered p values enough. Their weight changed to 14.2kg +/-1 to 13.5kg +/-1.
13.5+1 is over 14.2! How can error bars that large indicate statistical significance?
13.5+1 is over 14.2! How can error bars that large indicate statistical significance?
