Dr. Louise Newson

Because they realized if they could stop bleeding, women would be happy.

And actually, they could use these drugs as a contraceptive and have a far bigger market than just those women who are menopausal.

So all the main research was done on the womb rather than on our brains, which would have been very useful, wouldn't it?

Or on our inflammation or on our other organs.

And that's the real problem.

And sometimes, you know, if I'm trying to describe to people and even doctors who don't really get it, the difference between natural and synthetic hormones, you know, if you needed to have some protein and I said, eat some meat and you chose roast chicken or you had chicken flavor crisps, you would know very quickly that one contains chicken and one doesn't.

And it's like having, I don't know, if you had an apple and made an apple juice, or you had, I don't know, like an apple flavor fizzy drink in a can, like one doesn't contain any apple.

And it's the same with hormones.

So what they do is when they're in the body, because this key is cut differently, they don't go into the receptor in the same way, but sometimes they jam and block the receptor.

So then the own natural hormones don't get a look in.

They can't work.

So they increase inflammation in the body because you have got low hormones basically of your own.

And for many women who are on contraception, it's like them having a chemical menopause.

So a lot of women who take contraception feel that they have a low mood.

They put on weight.

They don't feel as well.

They might get muscle and joint pains.

They have reduced libido paradoxically.

And all of this is because of the way the hormones are being blocked in their body.

And that's why osteoporosis, for example, increases with the long-acting depots because you're stopping the hormones working.