EP51: Holly Griggs-Spall on Birth Control, Feminism, and Moving Forward

What Holly Shares:      Untangling hormonal birth control from feminism      Why she was on the pill as a teen even before she was sexually active      The positive effects the pill had for her      The mental health affects the pill had on her      Her journey discovering who she was without hormonal birth control What You'll Hear:      The cultural marriage between feminism and the pill       The pushback she received against her writing criticizing synthetic hormones       How feminism has changed in the last 10 years       Various forms of feminism and what they mean for women       How the pill has become our cultural right of passage       How hormonal birth control helped manage her painful periods       Letting go of fear and embracing your teen's sexuality      Teen pregnancy vs. side effects of hormonal birth control       The paranoia, depression, and obsessive compulsive behavior she developed while on the pill      Rediscovering her emotional landscape post synthetic hormones      The dearth of critical examination of the pill's side effects       Side effects of the pill including reduced senses, lactation, and suicidal thoughts       Why so many women are suffering from anhedonia and are unable to experience inherent pleasure in life       Questioning how synthetic hormones affect our birthing, our parenting, and attachment       Reclaiming the power of your own emotions, sense of self, and libido       How synthetic hormones affect your attraction to other people       Getting support for your own journey leaving hormonal birth control       Learning about fertility awareness within the context of feminism      Imagining a future of feminist fertility awareness plus somatic consent practice       Embracing men and boys in the feminist fertility movement       How coming off of the pill can be part of a social movement