Sweetening the Pill

"63.7% of women go off the pill within the first year due to unwanted side effects"

The pill. A combination of two synthetic hormones designed to prevent fertility. There is no denying that the feminist movement that it provoked in the 60's was a revolution. But where do we, as a society, striving for equality, honesty and freedom stand with the current mainstream attitude towards fertility and contraception?

"Is it fair to have to compromise your health in order to be responsible?"

"How can something that severs you from your most primal and natural identity be empowering?"

These are the questions Abby Epstein and Ricky Lake are asking in their upcoming documentary, "Sweetening the Pill".

Many don't realise that the pill was the first medical drug designed and approved, that is made specifically for healthy people to take. That is, people who aren't sick take this drug and it makes them less healthy. 

Paradoxical, and yet so widely accepted! Possibly because it was not fully explained to us when we were advised to take it by our doctors - who we trust!

I was not one of those people. I knew what I was signing myself up for the day I went to the doctors and asked for a prescription for the pill.

But I also felt like I had no other option. We didn't want to use condoms. We didn't want to have children.

"It is not in anyway that you are regulating your cycle with birth control, you have no cycle anymore..."

All women are altered by these drugs, some more profoundly than others. I was one of those women. I'm very sensitive, to the point where I cant even drink a cup of tea at breakfast without it sending me on a high that will prevent me from sleeping that night!

What was I thinking!

Thats how I discovered fertility awareness based contraception. Thats how I came to teach it to any women who wants to learn. That is how I embraced freedom, and that, is why I love what I do.

"Knowing how your body works, that sounds to me like true independence"

(All quotes are taken from, Sweetening the Pill - A Documentary - Watch it! Its amazing!)