Post-birth control acne. It’s definitely a thing. And never once did I think about what might happen when I stopped birth control during the 7 years I was on it!
I had never had more than an occasional pimple until about 2-3 months after stopping the birth control pill, then WHAM! A face full of red, painful, cystic acne. Ouch.
It was a major shock, for sure—no one ever told me this could happen! Yet throughout my years as a naturopathic doctor, I’ve seen countless cases of acne that started after discontinuing hormonal birth control. Acne is one of many common post-pill symptoms, and in my experience, it seems to be more likely to occur than not, especially the longer you are on it.
What Happens When You Stop Birth Control
Hormonal birth control is designed to suppress your hormone production, effectively shutting down ovulation and your reproductive capacity. The synthetic hormones in birth control get in the way of your brain’s (super essential) communication to your ovaries, adrenals, and every other endocrine gland in your body, disrupting all of your hormonal processes. Yikes!
Let’s be clear: The ‘hormones’ in birth control are NOT REAL HORMONES. They are endocrine disruptors, like those found in plastic and environmental pollutants.
When you stop birth control, your body takes awhile to return back to hormonal balance. Depending on how long the communication between your brain (specifically your hypothalamus and pituitary glands) and your ovaries has been shut off, it can take anywhere from weeks to a couple years for effective communication to be restored.
During this time, your body is also still dealing with all the synthetic estrogens and progestins from the birth control that have been stored in your fat cells, working overtime to metabolize them and get them cleared out of your body. That can also take months.
Why Does Stopping the Pill Cause Acne?
Birth control wreaks havoc on our hormones, our liver, our gut, and our metabolism. Disruption of these organ systems leads to a number of different situations that are ripe for post-pill acne formation.
Causes of post-birth control acne:
- Hormonal dysregulation (this one’s a gimme!)
- Estrogen dominance due to all the xenoestrogenic compounds in birth control
- Androgen (testosterone, DHT) excess: Birth control suppresses androgen production, so you get a rebound of these hormones once you stop taking it. Androgens upregulate sebum production, creating oily skin and acne.
- Rebound sebum production after years of sebum suppression
- Mineral and nutrient deficiencies: Birth control depletes your body of a number of essential minerals and nutrients that are necessary for hormone production and metabolism, as well as skin and immune system health
- Birth control causes gut disturbances like hyperpermeability (leaky gut = leaky skin!) and dysmotility, contributing to chronic inflammation and an inability to properly excrete hormones and toxic metabolites
- Birth control causes gallbladder dysfunction, leading to gut dysmotility, poor absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and fatty acids (necessary for skin and hormonal health), and reduced biliary excretion of metabolized hormones via the gut
- Poor detoxification and elimination due to an overloaded system, especially the liver (detoxifying artificial hormones is a major liver stressor) and the colon (dysmotility = not pooping regularly and getting those toxins out)
- Birth control directly causes insulin resistance and blood sugar dysregulation, which further throws off hormonal balance
- Birth control puts the body in an inflammatory state, promoting chronic inflammation which triggers conditions like acne and further contributes to insulin resistance, intestinal inflammation, and hormonal dysregulation
If you’re going to get acne, it will usually appear sometime between 2-6 months after stopping birth control, as your body attempts to restore its natural hormonal rhythms and the synthetic hormones stored in your fat cells finally get mobilized, metabolized, and cleared out of your body.
5 Ways to Prevent Post-Birth Control Acne, Naturally
Optimally, start supporting your body 2-3 months before you stop birth control so that the withdrawal and rebalancing process is smoother. This can help prevent many of the symptoms associated with birth control discontinuation.
Don’t fear though! Even if you are already experiencing post-pill acne, these steps will still help your body heal naturally.
1. Eat a Clean, Whole Foods Diet
Yeah, yeah, you’ve probably heard this one before! But let me say it again, because what you eat directly makes up the cells of your body and affects every aspect of your health. If you eat unhealthy foods, your hormones will be imbalanced, your metabolism will be thrown off, and your body won’t be in an ideal state of health.
Focus on eating a clean diet free of processed foods and refined sugars. Junk food throws off your blood sugar balance, messes up your gut microbiome, and makes your hormones go crazy.
Avoid xenoestrogens (discussed in this post about the not-to-be-feared phytoestrogens), which are found in conventional meat and dairy products and conventional produce, thanks to the abundance of toxic pesticides and herbicides out there. Eat organic as much as possible, or at least focus on eating fruits and veggies on the EWG’s clean 15 list and avoiding the dirty dozen.
Focus on eating as many vegetables as you can, as they contain much-needed nutrients and fiber to help with hormonal balance.
2. Optimize Your Circadian Rhythm
Your circadian rhythm is your body clock, determining your sleep/wake cycle. Disruption of this incredibly important rhythm eventually leads to the dysfunction of EVERY SINGLE ONE of your hormones and throws off your metabolism!
Birth control can throw a wrench in this diurnal rhythm, altering the timing of hormonal release from the brain. By sticking to a regular sleep/wake schedule, you support your endocrine system and the delicate balance of your hormones.
3. Focus on Hormone Detoxification
This is such an important step! Oral contraceptives put a big strain on your liver and its ability to properly detoxify. Not only does your liver oversee glucose and cholesterol metabolism, regulate blood clotting, and produce bile, it has to metabolize and detoxify everything that makes its way into your blood so that it can be properly excreted. This includes all of your medications, including birth control, as well as environmental toxins.
What can you do to help your liver? The most important thing is to avoid substances that further compromise liver health, such as alcohol, acetaminophen (Tylenol), and environmental toxins and pollutants (like plastics and pesticides).
You can also support your liver by eating foods that stimulate healthy liver function, like beets, bitters foods like dandelion greens and arugula, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli.
4. Replete Nutrient Deficiencies
The birth control pill depletes important minerals and nutrients, including B vitamins, magnesium, selenium, and zinc. These nutrients are essential for the health of our hormones, nervous system, and immune system, as well as our metabolism, our liver’s ability to detoxify, and our skin health.
Taking nutritional supplements for awhile is fine and can be needed in the short-term, but ultimately in the long-term, you’ll need to optimize your digestion and bile production so that you can adequately digest, metabolize, absorb, and assimilate the nutrients from your diet.
5. Holistically Address Your Leaky Gut (and don’t just put a band-aid on it!)
Not only do oral contraceptives negatively impact your gut flora, but they damage your gut lining by altering the tight junctions between your intestinal epithelial cells. Normally only water and nutrients from your digested food would make it past the intestinal barrier, but a “hyperpermeable” gut (aka “leaky gut”) allows all sorts of substances through into systemic circulation, where your immune system encounters them and rightfully freaks out. This creates a chronic inflammatory response that triggers a number of symptoms, including acne.
Many natural medicine practitioners will address leaky gut by recommending specific nutrients (like glutamine) and demulcent herbs (like marshmallow root) to soothe and repair the gut lining. They might also recommend probiotics to address birth control’s affect on the microbiome. These are great first steps and sometimes can address the root cause, depending on the person.
Yet this approach is often a band-aid—a temporary fix—for a deeper dysfunction, as your gut is essentially your inner skin and reflects any dysregulation of your internal organs. Usually gut hyperpermeability can be resolved by addressing either the nervous system, certain endocrine glands, detoxification and elimination, or supporting immune system regulation via T-reg cell production.
The Big Takeaway
While everyone experiencing post-birth control acne has some sort of hormonal and immune system dysregulation, addressing it holistically is never a one-size-fits-all approach. Just as every person is unique, every holistic approach should be unique and tailored to the individual.
Have you ever experienced post-pill acne? If so, what has helped you the most? Comment below—I’d love to hear your story!
Do you have acne? Would you like to learn some actionable steps you can take now to help heal your skin? Download my free ebook “7 Steps to Healing Acne Naturally” here!
