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The Link Between Birth Control Pills and Sex Drive

56 points by yeknoda 3y ago

rr808 3y ago
Its fascinating that the pill can also change the type of male women are attracted to. Given it is so ubiquitous it can completely change society and evolution. (Of course the falling birthrate is hugely changing society as well)
- theGnuMe 3y ago
  Also all of the plastic
  - Red_Leaves_Flyy 3y ago
    And exogenous hormones.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- gmerc 3y ago
  I mean, it’s a “birth control” pill, so the birth rate falling is probably not an unintended consequence
  - hypertele-Xii 3y ago
    It seems to me the intention was to allow women to choose when to have children, not to forgo the process of reproduction entirely and plunge our species into extinction-level birth rate falling off a cliff!
    - PawgerZ 3y ago
      But, by giving the choice of when, many will choose never.
- b800h 3y ago
  It's likely to have increased divorce rates - theoretically, women will be on the pill whilst single, get married and want to have children and then when they come off the pill, they'll find different people attractive. Unfortunately it's difficult to distinguish this hypothetical effect from social factors which lead to people taking in the pill in the first place, so correlation studies must be almost impossible to do correctly. EDIT: Looks like I might be completely wrong (although the caveat about hidden variables stands): "But an even bigger positive is what comes when we look at the divorce rate. Despite the whole my-sex-life-is-meh-and-I-am-not-that-attracted-to-my-partner thing, women who chose their partners when they were on the pill were significantly less likely to divorce than women who chose their partners when they were off it." https://behavioralscientist.org/quality-sex-relationships-birth-control-pill-research-effects/ https://behavioralscientist.org/quality-sex-relationships-bi... There's a lot more detail in the link.
- fuzzfactor 3y ago
  You should have been there when teenage girls were first allowed to become ambitious to consume the early formulas, saturating them with much higher levels of female hormones than pills ever since. https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/852807455/how-the-approval-of-the-birth-control-pill-60-years-ago-helped-change-lives https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/852807455/how-the-approval-of...
  - edmundsauto 3y ago
    Is this the link you meant to include? The article doesn’t mention the changes in dosage in young women at all…
doix 3y ago
In the powerlifting community, it was a pretty well known fact. None of my women friends that competed (that weren't on anabolic steroids) would be on hormonal birth control because it would affect their training. I'm surprised the article mentions it's not known by doctors. I'm also surprised that male birth control pills don't exist yet. In my mind it is the easiest thing ever, exogenous testosterone basically solves the problem. We know it's fairly reversible because lifters go on that stuff for years and then still manage to have kids. It's "just" a matter of figuring out the correct dosages and figuring out how long before it becomes effective. I suspect significantly more men would be willing to take birth control pills if it was making them "jacked".
- marcell 3y ago
  Is there data that suggests testosterone would work as a male birth control?
  - doix 3y ago
    Yes, exogenous testosterone will shut down the testicles and thus lower sperm production. Here's a random paper [0] but there's a lot of material out there. The hard part is balancing the sterilisation effect with other side effects whilst having good efficacy. And then there's also the problem of reversing the effects. I'm not on the pharmaceutical business, there's probably a good reason it doesn't exist yet. I just don't know if it's a legal/public perception thing regarding anabolic steroids, it's too hard to manage the side effects or if it's something else. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6305868/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6305868/
    - michaelmrose 3y ago
      It shows 65% being infertile within 4 months and some hadn't become fertile again thereafter. Totally aside from side effects that seems to me to be useless.
      - anon291 3y ago
marcell 3y ago
Hormonal birth control was introduced in 1970’s, and were hearing about this decades later. If Wegovy/etc are on a similar scale, how long until we find out those unintended side effects?
- awongh 3y ago
  Yes, I also agree there’s a parallel here. Something that affects a major bodily function can’t possibly be free of serious side effects. Reproduction or metabolism- how would it be possible to chemically alter this and not have it affect you in other ways?
- Llamamoe 3y ago
  I hate to be cynical, but all of healthcare is like this. The focus is on a quick fix for whatever symptom is present and anything that affects people's state and wellbeing is dismissed as in their head for decades until(if ever) the evidence to the contrary becomes undeniable.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  Wegovy is not a new drug though. It’s something we’ve used for a while but now it’s being considered for a new purpose.
AliceWong 3y ago
https://archive.is/xcqxw https://archive.is/xcqxw
rcbdev 3y ago
Another very underrated consequence of mass birth control is the amount of estrogens flooded into our drinking water. It's hypothesized that the amount of breast tissue men develop these days might be heightened because of this - among other things. For anyone looking at solutions to this, I recommend activated charcoal water filters for the home.
- Llamamoe 3y ago
  Lack of androgens is more important to breast development than presence of estrogens is- men already naturally have enough that without the testosterone, they'd develop breasts. It takes a lot more to cause gynaecomastia despite it, and the amounts that get into drinking water are extremely trace. It's much more likely to be all the endocrine disrupting forever chemicals, particularly micro- and nano-plastics, and metabolic disorders secondary to all the stuff wrong with people's health nowadays(air pollution, sleep disorders, sedentary lifestyles, gut dysbiosis, etc)
  - elv0 3y ago
    however, these small amounts are sufficient for fish in rivers to have fewer offspring. most of the residues of the pill from the urine enter the rivers unfiltered from the sewage treatment plants. this cannot be good, especially since we also eat the fish. we have been observing this here in bavaria for a long time. since a large proportion of our municipal drinking water comes from river filtration, this is a serious problem.

56 points by yeknoda 3y ago

Its fascinating that the pill can also change the type of male women are attracted to. Given it is so ubiquitous it can completely change society and evolution. (Of course the falling birthrate is hugely changing society as well)

theGnuMe 3y ago
Also all of the plastic
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 3y ago
  And exogenous hormones.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
gmerc 3y ago
I mean, it’s a “birth control” pill, so the birth rate falling is probably not an unintended consequence
- hypertele-Xii 3y ago
  It seems to me the intention was to allow women to choose when to have children, not to forgo the process of reproduction entirely and plunge our species into extinction-level birth rate falling off a cliff!
  - PawgerZ 3y ago
    But, by giving the choice of when, many will choose never.
b800h 3y ago
It's likely to have increased divorce rates - theoretically, women will be on the pill whilst single, get married and want to have children and then when they come off the pill, they'll find different people attractive. Unfortunately it's difficult to distinguish this hypothetical effect from social factors which lead to people taking in the pill in the first place, so correlation studies must be almost impossible to do correctly. EDIT: Looks like I might be completely wrong (although the caveat about hidden variables stands): "But an even bigger positive is what comes when we look at the divorce rate. Despite the whole my-sex-life-is-meh-and-I-am-not-that-attracted-to-my-partner thing, women who chose their partners when they were on the pill were significantly less likely to divorce than women who chose their partners when they were off it." https://behavioralscientist.org/quality-sex-relationships-birth-control-pill-research-effects/ https://behavioralscientist.org/quality-sex-relationships-bi... There's a lot more detail in the link.
fuzzfactor 3y ago
You should have been there when teenage girls were first allowed to become ambitious to consume the early formulas, saturating them with much higher levels of female hormones than pills ever since. https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/852807455/how-the-approval-of-the-birth-control-pill-60-years-ago-helped-change-lives https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/852807455/how-the-approval-of...
- edmundsauto 3y ago
  Is this the link you meant to include? The article doesn’t mention the changes in dosage in young women at all…

doix 3y ago

In the powerlifting community, it was a pretty well known fact. None of my women friends that competed (that weren't on anabolic steroids) would be on hormonal birth control because it would affect their training. I'm surprised the article mentions it's not known by doctors. I'm also surprised that male birth control pills don't exist yet. In my mind it is the easiest thing ever, exogenous testosterone basically solves the problem. We know it's fairly reversible because lifters go on that stuff for years and then still manage to have kids. It's "just" a matter of figuring out the correct dosages and figuring out how long before it becomes effective. I suspect significantly more men would be willing to take birth control pills if it was making them "jacked".

marcell 3y ago
Is there data that suggests testosterone would work as a male birth control?
- doix 3y ago
  Yes, exogenous testosterone will shut down the testicles and thus lower sperm production. Here's a random paper [0] but there's a lot of material out there. The hard part is balancing the sterilisation effect with other side effects whilst having good efficacy. And then there's also the problem of reversing the effects. I'm not on the pharmaceutical business, there's probably a good reason it doesn't exist yet. I just don't know if it's a legal/public perception thing regarding anabolic steroids, it's too hard to manage the side effects or if it's something else. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6305868/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6305868/
  - michaelmrose 3y ago
    It shows 65% being infertile within 4 months and some hadn't become fertile again thereafter. Totally aside from side effects that seems to me to be useless.
    - anon291 3y ago

marcell 3y ago

Hormonal birth control was introduced in 1970’s, and were hearing about this decades later. If Wegovy/etc are on a similar scale, how long until we find out those unintended side effects?

awongh 3y ago
Yes, I also agree there’s a parallel here. Something that affects a major bodily function can’t possibly be free of serious side effects. Reproduction or metabolism- how would it be possible to chemically alter this and not have it affect you in other ways?
Llamamoe 3y ago
I hate to be cynical, but all of healthcare is like this. The focus is on a quick fix for whatever symptom is present and anything that affects people's state and wellbeing is dismissed as in their head for decades until(if ever) the evidence to the contrary becomes undeniable.
aaomidi 3y ago
Wegovy is not a new drug though. It’s something we’ve used for a while but now it’s being considered for a new purpose.

AliceWong 3y ago

https://archive.is/xcqxw https://archive.is/xcqxw

rcbdev 3y ago

Another very underrated consequence of mass birth control is the amount of estrogens flooded into our drinking water. It's hypothesized that the amount of breast tissue men develop these days might be heightened because of this - among other things. For anyone looking at solutions to this, I recommend activated charcoal water filters for the home.

Llamamoe 3y ago
Lack of androgens is more important to breast development than presence of estrogens is- men already naturally have enough that without the testosterone, they'd develop breasts. It takes a lot more to cause gynaecomastia despite it, and the amounts that get into drinking water are extremely trace. It's much more likely to be all the endocrine disrupting forever chemicals, particularly micro- and nano-plastics, and metabolic disorders secondary to all the stuff wrong with people's health nowadays(air pollution, sleep disorders, sedentary lifestyles, gut dysbiosis, etc)
- elv0 3y ago
  however, these small amounts are sufficient for fish in rivers to have fewer offspring. most of the residues of the pill from the urine enter the rivers unfiltered from the sewage treatment plants. this cannot be good, especially since we also eat the fish. we have been observing this here in bavaria for a long time. since a large proportion of our municipal drinking water comes from river filtration, this is a serious problem.