Dr. Jolene Brighten, NMD

Your Body On Birth Control—What Prescribers Need to Know About the Pill

While the pill was designed primarily to prevent pregnancy and illicit its effect on the HPO axis, it has a far reaching systemic effect. The impact on mood, gut health, and cardiometabolic health is a topic in which all prescribers should be informed. We’ll discuss the key systems the pill can affect, how to evaluate and screen for who is at risk, considerations for postpartum and how to safely support your patient in their choice to use this form of birth control.

ABOUT DR. BRIGHTEN

Dr. Jolene Brighten is a pioneer in women’s medicine and award winning naturopathic physician. She is the author of Beyond the Pill and Healing Your Body Naturally After Childbirth. A fierce patient advocate and completely dedicated to uncovering the root cause of hormonal imbalances, Dr. Brighten empowers women worldwide to take control of their health and their hormones. She is an international speaker, clinical educator, medical advisor within the tech community, and considered a leading authority on women’s health. Her work has been featured in the New York Post, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Huffington Post, Elle, Bustle, The Guardian, and ABC News. Dr. Brighten is also part of the MindBodyGreen Collective and a faculty member for the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.

WHERE TO FIND DR. BRIGHTEN

Q&A

Statement/paragraph of why you are passionate about studying the microbiome and/or what motivated you to begin studying microbiome therapeutics:

As a child I struggled with chronic GI conditions that inspired me to study nutrition and the connection between what we eat and how it affects our gut. When I embarked on my journey in naturopathic medical school I had initially thought I’d solely focus on gut health. It was there I had the realization that so much of women’s medicine is done to them, not with them that I decided to focus on women’s endocrine health. The microbiome cannot be ignored in its relationship to hormone health and I am fortunate to have built that as a foundation before focusing on women’s hormones.

Please provide 3 tips you would share with fellow healthcare professionals if asked how to support a consistent healthcare journey for the patients who struggle with staying on the road to success through a tough healing process:

1. Enlist a team that can help support the patient through their journey. Partner with clinicians who possess strengths that complement your own.

2. Revisit the patient’s initial concerns at each visit and reflect to them how far they have come, even when the milestone seems so small to them.

3. Ask your patients to write down what their life will look like when they have healed on their intake forms. Tap into their “why” and remind them of it each time they express feeling discouraged.