Joanna Macmeikan

VITAMIN D - What you need to know.

In spite of its name, vitamin D is not actually a vitamin but a hormone.

That means low vitamin D can cause problems in lots of different body systems.

Low vitamin D can lead to a heap of symptoms, that don’t seem related to each other.

Some Symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency
(That you probably wouldn’t think of as being due to Vitamin D deficiency!)

🥱 Feeling tired all the time

🤧 Getting sick often

🦴 Aching joints and bone pain

💪🏻 Muscles aches and spasms

👣 Pins and needles in hands and feet

🦷 Tooth and gum problems (think cavities, chipping, gum disease*)

🧖‍♀️ Acne and skin problems

😵‍💫 Insomnia and sleep problems

😞 Low mood and depression

🩸 Painful and irregular periods

💉 Some types of cancer

Vitamin D deficiency is SUPER COMMON.
*Gum disease increases risk of heart disease

VITAMIN D (25(OH)D) LEVELS

❌ Less than 50 nmol/L = Very Low

❌ 50-99 nmol/L = Low

✅ 100-200 nmol/L = Ideal

❌ More than 200 nmol/L = High / Very High

Most regular GPs have been trained that 50 nmol/L is a healthy level of vitamin D.

But if your vitamin D is less than 70 nmol/L then there’s a good chance it could be affecting your health.

How can you increase your vitamin D levels?

🌞 Sun exposure can help, but here’s the problem relying on it:

I live in Mexico, 16 degrees north of the equator, and I spend a minimum of an hour a day outside in shorts and a sports bra walking my dogs. I don’t take a vitamin D supplement daily.

I recently had my vitamin D tested and it was 71 nmol/L.

When I lived in Melbourne, Australia, the best I ever saw my vitamin D was 50 nmol/L and I was taking a supplement daily.

🏝️ Unless you live in an area close to the equator AND spend a lot of time outdoors, you’re probably going to need a supplement.

BUT! Sun exposure is still a good idea. Download the D-Minder app to help you figure out how long each day you need to get outside.

What type of vitamin D supplement should I take?

I like to prescribe a vitamin D supplement that has D3 with K2.

It’s not strictly necessary… but D3 increases the levels of calcium in the body, and K2 activates the protein needed to help get the calcium out of the bloodstream and into the bones.

This helps strengthen bones and also prevents the blood levels of calcium from going too high.

How much should I take?

In terms of dose… it depends. Standard dose is 1000IU per day but some people might need higher doses initially.

If levels are really low and you have a lot of symptoms, you can look into getting a vitamin D injection.

I really believe that so many issues, ESPECIALLY hormonal and mental health issues, could be helped by improving Vitamin D levels.

Need help with your health? You can book an appointment with me via my website (link in comments).

Interested in working together but not sure how I can help? You can book a free 30 minute discovery call where we can talk it through ♥️

I just burst into floods of frustrated tears in the car on my way to do an errand this morning… 😭

There I was, driving through the Mexican coastal paradise where I live, brightly coloured bougainvillea everywhere, birds twittering, the warm sunshine streaming onto my face through the window… and I just lost it.

Since moving OS I have been feeling really frustrated with trying to get my head around running an online clinic instead of a physical one 😣

Don’t get me wrong, being able to work online is so cool. Meeting and helping women from all over the world - I’m super grateful for this opportunity 🌍

😔 But I miss my old clinic space.
😔 I miss giving acupuncture.
😔 I miss hugging my patients.

Plus, running an online business also requires a lot of time spent online (duh). And in particular on social media.

And I think we all know by now… for most of us, too much time online makes us a little cray-cray 🤪

But I’ve been in business for myself for well over 10 years now. These challenges are not new to me…

So, why was I driving around bawling my eyes out at 11:37am on a Thursday feeling like a loser and a failure? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because for the first time in years, my hormones are out of whack. Which means I’m irrational, emotional, and self-critical.

And I had completely forgotten what that felt like 😳

I’m 43, and in our 40s in the lead up to menopause, we women go through a second puberty.

It’s called perimenopause, and it can last anywhere between 2-12 years.

Most of the women I talk to are pretty f-ing pi**ed off to learn about it to be honest.

Our bodies change. Our brains change. Nobody told us it was going to happen.

There’s definitely a sadness to it.

It can feel as though overnight we no longer recognise ourselves.

But what if we saw it more as a right of passage? An internal alchemy as we transform from woman, to wise woman.

A liberation from the hormones that bind us to family, to sacrificing our wants and needs, for the wants and needs of others?

And what if it was also a reminder to us about what our daughters are facing?

As they step from girlhood into womanhood, with all its unknowns and newfound responsibilities.

A reminder to us to be patient. To hold space for them to transform, even as we ourselves are transforming.

But in order to do that, trust me when I tell you, you’re going to need tools 🧰

If you’re a woman in your 40s and you relate to anything I’ve just said, consider joining my Facebook group - Perimenopause Powerhouses - information and support for women 35+

I started it because I’m embarking on this journey and when I went looking for information, I found a conflicting, negative, noisy minefield out there 💣

So I was called to create a space full of easy to understand, accurate information for women during this important time of their lives.

I’m taking everything I’ve learned over the last 10+ years working in women’s hormonal health, and everything I’m currently learning about the transition to menopause, and sharing it all.

I’d love to share this journey with you. Click the link above to join (and I’ll drop it in the comments too).

See you on the inside 🔥

-joanna- xx

I asked a big group of women in their 40s what they struggled the most with when it came to their health and the most common answer I got was weight gain.

When it comes to this topic, I think we need to strike a healthy balance between:

👉🏻 Accepting that our bodies change over time and that this is normal and something we shouldn’t obsess over, and;

👉🏻 Understanding that weight gain is often a symptom of metabolic disease, and that metabolic disease can lead to illnesses like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke 😖

I couldn’t tell you how much I weigh. I spent years getting on the scales every Wednesday morning and obsessing over a number that meant absolutely fck all about who I was as a person.

These days I’m more about what my body can do rather than how it looks.

I care about keeping it healthy so I can live a long and happy life and see my children grow up ♥️ which is why I keep an eye on my weight, and my insulin sensitivity.

In our 40s, women naturally become more insulin resistant. This can lead to weight gain, especially in the mid-section (belly) and around the bra strap line.

We need to be on the lookout for insulin resistance and take steps to combat it.

Way to combat insulin resistance include:

- Moving daily
- Resistance training a few times a week
- Avoiding processed foods
- Eating at regular mealtimes
- Eating 30-50g of protein for breakfast
- Eating breakfast before 10am
- Eating enough protein overall
- Circadian fasting
- Avoiding coffee before breakfast
- Maintaining adequate Vitamin D levels (75-100 ng/ml)
- Taking a magnesium supplement

You can check how your body is managing blood sugar by testing your fasting insulin, fasting glucose, and HBA1C. Or you can ask for an oral glucose tolerance test.

Or you can get out the tape measure. Your waist measurement should be less than 80cm. Anything above increases your risk for metabolic disease.

To learn more about weight gain in your 40s and combatting insulin resistance you can read the article linked in the comments below.
PS. Important notes: you can have insulin resistance without weight gain, and weight gain without insulin resistance.

What's your opinion on aging?

I see it as a privilege. I've never been one to hide my age.

I shout it loud and proud from the top of every cake.

I've known too many people that never got the chance to get old. So I'm quite happy to collect years and wrinkles.

Studies show that people who think positively about aging actually live longer.

Optimists have less heart attacks compared with pessimists.

I know that as a woman, aging can bring with it some challenges thanks to the natural cycles of our hormones.

If you're in your 40s, you've most likely already started the transition into the next phase of your reproductive life.

Your body is about to undergo a restructure similar to that of puberty.

It's called perimenopause, and it's essentially Puberty 2.0.

Your brain is restructuring.
So is your immune system.

During this time you'll be more prone to insulin resistance, thyroid issues, and autoimmune conditions

You might develop insomnia, hot flashes, and anxiety.

Weight gain and brain fog.

But I have 2 pieces of GOOD news:

1. It's temporary. This is not how it will be for the rest of your life.
2. There is a lot you can do to support your body through this transition, to minimise and manage the symptoms.

I've put together a beginners guide to dealing with some of the more common problems during this time. You can access it by clicking the link down in the comments 🙂

HBC (hormonal birth control) can help with hormonal symptoms.

But it doesn’t do it by regulating your hormones.

It does it by shutting down your menstrual cycle.

You stop cycling. That’s why you no longer experience symptoms.

But it’s like finding mould in your house and just wallpapering over it.

It looks better on the surface, but the problem is still there, and likely to get worse.

I’ll say it again.
The pill does not regulate your hormones.
It turns them off.

And there are consequences to shutting down a vital function of a woman’s body.

Immediate and future consequences.

No matter what stage of life you are in, if you are offered the pill for hormonal problems, this is how it works.

If you’re experiencing hormonal problems - like period pain, fatigue, bloating, breakouts, heavy periods, irregular periods etc. - but want to learn how to actually regulate your hormones instead of just turn them off, comment YES below and I’ll send you my 21 Steps to Pain Free Periods guide.

It’s a good place to start.

Recently I thought about the things in my life that people admire about me or take inspiration from.

Without fail, they have come about because I have a very low tolerance for average.

I can’t stay in a job I hate.
When I tried, I was sick all the time.

I’ve learned I’m what they call “unmanageable.”
I don’t like being told what to do.
I’ve been fired before.

So now I work for myself and my boss is mostly excellent.
Although she could get off my back sometimes. (She has very high standards for me).

I can’t “push through” when I physically feel like sh*t.
If I wake up too many days in a row feeling like ass then I HAVE to change it.
I become obsessed with feeling better.

It doesn’t occur to me to settle for anything less than what I want.

I want to *feel* alive. I refuse to simply exist. Let alone suffer.
I want to feel vitality through every inch of my body.
(And that’s just for starters).

I have these things.
Because I couldn’t tolerate anything less.

I’m selfish.
But in a good way.

Maybe heading into 2024 it’s time you got a little selfish too.
Stop tolerating average.

You’re better than that.

xx

PS. If you’re a woman over 35 and this resonates with you, you might want to join my Facebook Group. It’s a place for women who want to learn how to live their absolute best lives into their 40s and beyond. Link to join in comments 👇🏻

👀👀

IF I WERE MY OWN PATIENT…

If I were my own patient I would tell myself right now:

🖤 You need to go to bed earlier.

🖤 You need to start lifting weights regularly again.

🖤 You need to journal again.

🖤 You need to do breathwork again.

🖤 You need to find time for your hobbies.

🖤 You need to get out in nature.

🖤 You need to reduce your screen time (work related screen time can still f*ck you up).

🖤 You need to create moments of stillness - conscious stillness as opposed to the oblivion of spacing out in front of the TV after the kids are in bed, or passing out as soon as your head hits the pillow.

If I were my own patient I would tell myself right now:

🩷 Stop talking smack to yourself, you’d never speak to a friend like that so why would you speak to yourself in such a way.

🩷 You don’t have to be perfect.

🩷 Make the bed.

🩷 Put on some makeup.

🩷 Dance.

If I were my own patient I would tell myself right now:

☯️ This too shall pass.
It’s really hard (if not impossible) to pick yourself up when you’re feeling down, if you don’t know what to do to get yourself back in the game.

This is why I recommend to anyone that works with me that they have a health plan in place. Train habits and techniques now, before you need them.

Trying to learn how to meditate when you’re stressed is infinitely harder than practicing the skill when things are going well.

I’ve had a rough week, but now I’m like Rocky, with my metaphorical hoodie on, running stairs, chasing chickens. Montage music pumping.

Because I know what my mind and body need from me in order to regulate, and I’ve practiced those skills so I can implement them easily.

I’ll be talking more about my favourite ways to regulate my mind and body in an interview this week. Shoot me a message if you’d like me to send you the link to listen when it comes out ☀️

I have struggled with recurrent UTIs all through my life, they are a living hell I wouldn’t wish upon anyone 😔

6 years ago it got really bad.

It took me the last 6 years and a whole lot of research and additional professional training 👩🏻‍⚕️ to figure out the cause.

Initially it looked like my microbiome was to blame, but ultimately it turned out that while microbes were often pulling the trigger, something else was loading the gun 🔫

That something was oxalates.

Oxalates are found in a number of plant foods and when you look at them through a microscope, they look like shards of glass.

We can’t break them down, only excrete them. If we have a problem with any of our elimination pathways or, as in my case, we are consuming more of them than the body can excrete, the body starts to stash them in the tissues and organs.

They are well known to cause kidney stones. But their wide reaching inflammatory effect can cause so many other problems.

Problems that are slow growing and insidious.

And they’re found in foods I was told were healthy.

But for me, those healthy foods are poison ☠️

And this is why you should never get sucked into diet dogma. Just because someone is thriving on carnivore diet or vegan diet doesn’t mean you will.

I’m also a great example of discovering and treating the root cause of an illness, not just masking the symptoms, in order to experience complete resolution.

The blessing in my painful journey is that I now have the skills and knowledge to help other women.

If you’re struggling with a chronic condition of the v🖤agina or bladder, or if you’re on the roller coaster ride of perimenopause 🫠 send me a DM so I can share some tips.

If you’re interested in working with me, you can find more details on the Work With Me page of my website (link in comments).

IRREGULAR PERIODS AFTER 40 ⁉️

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you’ve gone all your life with your period coming once a month like clockwork, but after blowing out the candles on your 40th birthday cake 🎂 it seems like everything changes overnight.

Irregular periods can create a lot of stress 😖 Especially because it’s still possible to get pregnant during perimenopause (the lead up to menopause)🤰

I find that for a lot of women, understanding what’s going on during the perimenopause phase can help…

During this phase (which for most women kicks off around their 40s) your ovaries are beginning to wind down for retirement. They’ve spent their career pumping out estrogen without fail every month, but with the end of their careers on the horizon they’re spending their days surfing the internet for “best retirement destinations”, and thinking about the new hobbies they’ll take up when they finish, like crochet 🧶🙃

This is one of the reasons we see symptoms in peri / menopause ⬇️

The ovaries stop producing the same level of estrogen that they did during the height of their career 👠 The problem is, estrogen is important for use in cells all over your body 🧠 🩻 🦷 👁️

And while your cells are actually capable of making their own estrogen, and will eventually take over estrogen production in conjunction with the adrenal system (although in significantly lower quantities than before), they haven’t learned they have to do that yet 👩‍🎓 this explains the joint pain, eyesight issues, memory problems, skin issues etc.

In particular, your brain loves estrogen 🧠

Your brain loves estrogen the way most people love chocolate 🍫

Like a grumpy boss stomping down the hallway and peering over the ovaries’ shoulder at their computer screen, the brain starts demanding that they get off Facebook and start doing their job like they used to ‼️

In an effort to get its fix of estrogen, the brain will ramp up production of other hormones designed to annoy the ovaries into producing more estrogen.

Some months this tactic will work ✅ and the ovaries will stop looking on Amazon for Star Wars crochet patterns and do their job. Your ovaries will produce enough hormones and ovulation will occur ⚡️

We all tend to focus on our periods 🩸 but actually, ovulation is actually the main event of the menstrual cycle.

If you don’t ovulate, you don’t get a period*.

If you do ovulate, you will get a period 10-16 days later. (This time frame can be a little shorter for some folks, but 10-16 days is considered the standard).

This is why it’s important to still use birth control during perimenopause if you want to avoid pregnancy, as the ovaries are still at the office (even though they’re prone to getting in late and taking a longer lunch 🍷).

If you’re finding the irregularity an issue, you can try tracking your Basal Body Temperature (BBT). This will give you an indication of ovulation if/when it occurs, which will tell you roughly when to expect your next period.

You can go old school and use a thermometer 🌡️ and a hand plotted graph 📈 to track your temps, but these days there’s helpful tech options available like TempDrop and Daysy that make the process a lot easier 🤗

*Please do note, it is still possible to bleed without ovulating, this is called an “anovulatory cycle” and will occur at a random time when the uterine lining decides to shed even though ovulation has not occurred 🙈

So, while tracking your temperature can help, remember that perimenopause is a time characterised by fluctuation and uncertainty ⚖️ It is, however, a natural and normal transition that your body is more than capable of undertaking.

If you’re struggling, help is available. If you would like to learn more about how I can help you please send me a DM 📧

Please feel free to share this information with anyone you think it may interest, or help 🙏🏻

Sleeping problems in perimenopause and menopause can be suuuuuuuper debilitating. They can leave you exhausted, cranky and can exacerbate already crippling brain fog. But before you reach for sleeping tablets or decide your only option is HRT, take a look at your habits. Most people I work with are violating a lot of the golden rules of sleep hygiene.

I have a free guide all about this topic available for download on my website.

Canva and bras. Who needs ‘em? 🤣

Come follow me on threads 🧵 (👈🏻obligatory use of spool emoji).

It’s crazy that women and girls are still being so under-served in the area of hormonal and reproductive health.
Pain is common, not normal.
Heavy bleeding is common, not normal.
Migraines and nausea are common, not normal.
Depressive symptoms are common, not normal.
If you or someone you know is struggling like this, please get in touch. Please.
It starts with a proper diagnosis and then a team of people skilled in Women’s health. It won’t just be one practitioner.
You need to find people who have done extra studies in this area.
People like me,and the network of trusted colleagues I have to help women stop suffering.
Just because it’s common, doesn’t make it normal.
♥️

Dear Friends,
I battled for a long time wondering if I should share this journey with you in such a public space. It came down to the responsibility I feel to share my story for other women who need help.
For 10yrs I’ve struggled with insurmountable fatigue, pain & nausea. Trying to remain a positive person & hide the pain has been a very long road. These last 10yrs have included many tests, doctors visits, scans, etc. A doctor told me it was simply something you deal with as a woman & I gave up entirely, trying to function through the pain. I didn’t find answers until a friend Leslie Mosier helped set me on a path of regaining my life. I decided to undergo surgery for endometriosis. Going in for surgery was scary but I knew I couldn’t live like I was. Every part of my life was getting torn apart because of the pain. To cut a long story short, they found 37 lesions, some very deep & difficult to remove, & a chocolate cyst. Seckin’s first words to me when I was in recovery were, “How did you live with this much pain?” Validation for years of pain is indescribable. My family & friends who have been on this journey with me for 10+ yrs - THANK YOU, for encouraging me to find answers when I thought I’d never climb out. Thank you to the doctors & nurses who believed my pain. I’m on the road to recovery & the gratitude I feel is overwhelming. To those questioning the cancelled plans, unanswered messages & absence - I had been pouring every ounce of the energy I had left into our daughter & family.
Things may look fine on the outside looking in through the window of someone’s life, however, that is not always the case. Please be gentle & pause before asking me (or any woman) when we’ll be having more children. After all that my body has gone through, I feel tremendously grateful that we have our gorgeous daughter. She feels like our family’s miracle.
I’m aware of millions of women struggling with a similar story. There’s stigma around this awful disease. I’m sharing my story for anyone who reads this & is quietly dealing with pain & no answers. Let this be your validation that your pain is real & you deserve help. Keep searching for answers. www.endofound.org

If you think you’re too young to worry about menopause, think again.

Let me put it this way:

From the time you got your first job at 16, if you spent all your money 💰 on ci******es, booze and parties, never saved, invested, bought any assets, and didn’t contribute to a superannuation/401K/pension fund, what do you think would happen at retirement?

You’d be kinda screwed 😫

Sure you might have relatives to support you, or a government benefit that could stretch to allow you to live off a diet of tea and toast 🍞 but…

Wouldn’t you rather get your s**t sorted out earlier, so that you can spend your valuable time relaxing on a beach drinking mai-tai? 🏝️🍹

Or travelling the world? 🌎

Or living in your dream house with an entire room dedicated to whisky and books, with one of those ladders on rollers? 🥃📚🪜

All while knowing you have a fat bank account and a diversified portfolio.

Well, the research is suggesting that our hormonal health might be akin to our financial health in that respect.

The choices you make in your younger years can have a profound effect on your quality of life later on.

That means supporting your hormones NOW so you can keep kicking ass well into your golden years.

Before you even think about herbs and supplements, here are the basics:

😴 Sleep - 8+ hours a night

🍎 Eat a whole food diet that suits your body

💧 Drink the right amount of filtered water

💩 P**p daily, support your microbiome

🌞 Get morning sunlight, daily

🌳 Spend regular time in nature

🔥 Reduce inflammation

🏋️‍♀️ Move regularly and learn to lift weights

☣️ Free your environment of unnecessary chemicals and fragrances

🧘🏻‍♀️ Learn to manage your stress

♥️ Nurture your relationships

Once you have the above sorted then you can think about herbs and supplements but until you’ve got the basics under control you’re really just pi***ng your money away (and I mean that literally 🙈).

So much of our health is under our own control in the simple choices we make every day of our lives. Its the good news and the bad news folks! ☺️😫

If you need help getting on the right track with your health you can book an online appointment with me - check the comments to find out how 😘 ⬇️

TRANSITIONS

They aren’t always easy.

Sometimes, like when moving to a new country where the water wrecks your hair (I’m looking at you Mexico 👀🇲🇽) they require a new haircut 💇🏻‍♀️

It’s been 6 months since we arrived in Mexico and I’m happy to say that we’re more or less settled.

But the more settled we’ve become as a family, the more unsettled I’ve started to feel 😣

I realised that this week will be 12 months since I had surgery on my brain 🧠

Which means it’s been 12 months since I stopped work to focus on recovering from surgery and moving the family to Mexico.

I miss my clinic so much 😢

I miss the smell of the herbs, the tranquility of the space I created, giving acupuncture and helping people learn to listen to their body so they can function at their best ☯️

I felt deep sadness when I locked the door to my clinic and handed back the keys 🔑

I didn’t know what would be next for me and it wasn’t easy to leave something I’d worked so hard to build.

But that phase of my working life was over.

I’m not one to spend time looking over my shoulder at what I’m leaving. I much prefer to fix my sights on what I’m moving towards.

New beginnings require a willingness to change.

And like a little fat caterpillar 🐛 into the cocoon I went.

So, I guess now it’s butterfly time 🦋

You’ll be seeing a lot more posts here about women’s hormonal health.

If you’re in possession of female reproductive hormones I hope you stick around and ask lots of questions ✋🏻

If you’re in possession of male reproductive hormones I also hope you stick around - I think a lot of relationships could benefit from learning and understanding more about the former 👆🏻

And so, bienvenida to the new phase of my working life, and thank you for being here to support me 😘

The clinic remains open to provide “essential care” during the lockdown.

What does that mean?

If you have an appointment already booked, I will contact you to discuss whether it can go ahead.

If you need an appointment please reach out and we can determine whether you fit the criteria for essential care.

Online consultations are available.

If you need to restock herbs or skin care please send me a message and I’ll get them in the post for you.

Be kind to yourselves right now. Prioritise sleep, drink enough water, eat whole foods, exercise, meditate and journal, hug anyone you’re allowed to hug for at least 30 seconds to a minute. Long hugs release oxytocin and we need that s**t right now.

You’re stronger than you know.

That being said, if you need help you can call:

Lifeline 13 11 14

MensLine Australia 1300 789 978

Beyond Blue 1300 224 636

Su***de Call Back Service 1300 659 467

☯️❤️☯️❤️

Goes on pill in order to have lots of conception free s*x. No longer wants s*x.

Oh the irony. How the heck does that happen??

Studies show that free testosterone (called 'T') is around 60% lower in pill taking women than in women who don’t take the pill (reference if you’re interested: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK164632/)

T is involved in s*xual arousal and responsiveness and is necessary to synthesise oestrogen (which plays an important role in natural lubrication).  

Less free T means less desire for (and responsiveness to) s*x. 

The pill also increases s*x hormone binding globulin (SHBG), a protein that binds tightly to some of your hormones (including oestrogen and T) to transport them around your body.

The higher your SHBG, the less free hormones available for your body to use.

Research is now suggesting that even when users come off the pill, SHBG levels may never return to baseline, meaning this biological change is permanent.  

Meaning even if you come off the pill you may not regain your pre-pill libido level.

I think this is something people should know about before they choose whether the pill is the right choice for them.

So, what are supposed to do if you’ve gone on the pill and your s*x drive has tanked?  Won’t all your symptoms come back if you go off it?  What will you do for birth control?

Firstly, if you’re on the pill for reasons OTHER than birth control then the good news is that the pill is only masking your symptoms, not actually fixing the problem.

Here’s you: “wait a minute, is that meant to be good news?” 

Me: Yes! Because you actually CAN get to the root of the problem and fix your hormonal imbalances naturally (if you’re curious about what that might involve, you can download my 21 Steps to Pain Free Periods checklist - link up top).

If you’re on the pill to prevent pregnancy but it has quashed your inner v***n then you have non-hormonal birth control options available.

Some examples are: condoms, copper IUD, Fertility Awareness Method, diaphragm, and the new Phexxi gel.

Were you surprised to learn that is is a side effect of the pill?  Did you experience a loss of libido when taking hormonal contraceptives?