I’ve never been a big fan of the birth control pill. I took it for a short time when I was younger, and hated the way it made me feel. I remember telling my doctor I couldn’t deal with it because I felt like the pill disconnected me from myself. I couldn’t write. I felt lobotomized. He changed my pill a few times but it was always the same. When I finally quit altogether, I told him it was because the pill had somehow managed to cut me off from my “natural spirit.”
Boy, how right I was.
This article in Science Daily shows that a growing body of evidence is proving that birth control pills do much more than just prevent pregnancy. One of the most disturbing side effects is the way the pill influences and changes the type of male partner women attract and choose. In short, if you’re on the pill you might be picking dudes you’d never have picked if you weren’t.
Basically, it’s like this. When women are fertile we are instinctively and intuitively drawn to more masculine men than we are at any other time in our cycle, and we are able (astoundingly) to choose men who are the least like us genetically. Both of these preferences optimize fertility and, if you believe evolutionary biology, better the species.
When you take the pill, however, your natural (and I’d argue magical) hormones are all out of whack and you no longer pick the most viable partners. What’s worse? They no longer pick you, either. Men who are in the company of ovulating women who are not on the pill actually experience a spike in their own testosterone levels. When you’re on the pill, this doesn’t happen. Result? You’re not as hot when you’re on the pill as you are when you’re off it.
Interesting.
Tagged: birth control, evolution, hormones, natural selection
I can add a thought to it as well…….as we know, when you take the “pill” or any other medication, it is naturally processed through your system and comes out in the “end” and winds up in the water supply, one way or the other. Some might say that it is no big deal, BUT when you consider the millions and millions of women who take the pill, day after day, week after week, then month after month and longer, and then combine them together, pretty massive doses of hormones are being poured into our water supply on a daily basis. Then we drink the water!
There is factual evidence that our young girls are going through puberty at a much younger age; breast and other cancers are on the rise, including prostrate cancer in men. Some would argue the later is just earlier detection but I fear it is more than that and that this is just the tip of the iceburg……Let’s hope I am wrong…..
JustNanny – You know what? I absolutely agree with you. I was even considering mentioning some of these same issues. How much of the emasculation of our men at the moment is due in part to their ingesting female hormones in the drinking water?!?! Great point.