660c50eaa6ed70ade09374f9 - Birth Control Rehab

Birth Control Rehab:
How to quit the pill without breaking
out, freaking out, & going through
hormonal hell
Created by Alisa Vitti,
Founder & CEO of FLO Living
©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Birth Control Rehab
Table of contents
Section 1: Why Go Off The Pill At All Page 4
Section 2: Understanding What the Pill Page 6

is Actually Doing to You
Section 3: What the Pill Is Doing to You That Page 9

You Don’t Know About
Section 4: Why You Need Birth Control Page 13

Rehab
Bonus Section Page 19

If you’re like so many women today, you’ve probably been bombarded with
one clear message since you started menstruating: the Pill can fix that. Got
a problematic period that’s accompanied by painful cramps and heavy
bleeding? The Pill can help. Not getting a period at all? No problem, just
get on the Pill. Want to clear your skin/feel less emotional/cover up all
those bothersome symptoms of womanhood? Yup, you guessed it—the
Pill is there for you.
But you’ve had enough. Something in your life led you to this moment &
you’re ready to give up the notion that birth control pills (or other forms of
hormonal contraceptive) are your magic cure.
Maybe they helped you for a short time but you’re now realizing that
the root of your hormonal problems can’t be fixed with synthetic
medication.
Maybe you want to cut ties with this pharmaceutical crutch and
actually figure out why you started having period problems in the first
place.
Maybe you’re not yet ready to have a baby but you think you might be
down the line & you want to ensure your body knows what to do.
Maybe you just hate the way this medication makes you feel, behave,
and think.
Whatever the reason, you’re ready to break

up with your birth control pills & you need
some guidance on how to do it the right way.
Consider this birth control rehab — here’s
where recovery starts.
-Alisa Vitti

SECTION 1: Why Go Off the Pill at All
I recently had a session with

a client who summed up my
thoughts on traditional
Western medicine hormonal
therapy so beautifully: after
years of taking the birth
control pill to silence her
symptoms of hormonal
imbalance, she said she felt
like she was “using a Band
Aid to cover a deep wound
that needed proper
stitching.”
Her profound statement really resonated with me and eloquently

described what I’ve come to call the “masking tape approach.”
Rather than really addressing the issues underlying all kinds of
conditions from PMS to PCOS, women are told to simply start
taking birth control, and that magic pill will “regulate” their cycle.

The Chemicals in Your Pill Could Be Causing More
Problems Than They’re Solving
Most of the women I see in my Although your doctor likely

practice start to consider going off won’t tell you about these
the pill in their late 20s or early 30s risks, birth control pills can
because they’re thinking of
disturb the highly-sensitive
starting a family.
microbiome, throw the
But others are prompted by the
growing body of evidence body’s vitamin levels out of
demonstrating how the synthetic whack, increase the body’s
chemicals hormones testosterone sensitivity,
in birth control may be thereby exacerbating
problematic. PCOS symptoms, & much,
much more.
Because these chemicals are not
an exact match to the body’s own
unique and complex hormones,
they can stimulate things that you
don’t necessarily want or intend to
stimulate, setting off a disruptive
chain reaction.

SECTION 2: Understanding What the Pill
is Actually Doing to You
If you weren’t prescribed birth control pills in order to prevent

pregnancy (although that’s often a nice bonus), then you may
not even be clear what the Pill is doing to “treat” or manage your
condition. Many women blindly begin the Pill because their
doctor recommended it, and because their troublesome
symptoms subside and their period seems to come like
clockwork, they’re happy to stay on it.

The Bleeding You Get on
All Your Symptoms Are On
the Pill is NOT a Real Period
Their Way Back if You Quit
Without Implementing
This fact often blows women’s minds. Lifestyle Changes
But it’s true: the bleeding you’re

getting on the Pill is not a period. I
If you originally went on the Pill
know it looks like a period, feels like a
to “treat” or manage some sort
period, and arrives at the same time
of hormonal condition (whether
every month, but it’s not a period.
it was insane acne, crushing
cramps, unbearable PMS, or
The way birth control pills work is to
something else), & you haven’t
stop the conversation between the
changed a thing about your
pituitary gland and the ovaries,
diet and lifestyle, guess what?
shutting down the body’s natural
All those annoying, maybe even
production of hormones. The
painful symptoms that
synthetic hormones in the Pill mimic
magically vanished while you
pregnancy, but the hormonal rations
were popping the Pill will--
are not at all what they should be in a
surprise!--crop right back up. In
healthy woman who is menstruating
fact, they may come back with
regularly.
a vengeance and seem much
more intense because after
The bleeding you experience on the
years of birth control, your
Pill is breakthrough bleeding in
hormones are now operating in
reaction to the placebo week most pill
an internal ecosystem that’s
packs contain. This drop-off in
less hospitable due to depleted
synthetic hormones allows the uterine
B vitamins, magnesium, D3, &
lining to shed a little, so that it doesn’t
more, and your microbiome is
build up to a dangerous point and
completely imbalanced.
increase the risk of uterine cancer.
But that shedding is not a period; it
has nothing to do with ovulation, and
nothing to do with the menstrual cycle.
Bummer, right?

Even You Never Had But the Pill Isn’t All
Problems, Quitting the Bad, Is it?
Pill Can Cause Them

Don’t get me wrong; the
introduction of Pill into
Even if you were completely
mainstream culture was an
symptom-free before the Pill & you
important milestone in the
started it for contraceptive purposes,
history of women’s liberation &
you may experience a sudden
sexual freedom. So often,
onslaught of hormonal issues once
women aren’t given the full
you come off. Unfair, I know, but the
story about the risks &
reasoning is the same; the Pill has
drawbacks associated with
destroyed your micronutrient stores,
birth control pills. Not to
thrown your microbiome out of whack,
mention the fact that there are
& compromised your ability to
other options. Not every
efficiently metabolize estrogen. None
woman is destined to be on
of these things contribute to a healthy,
birth control, & they are not the
symptom-free flow.
right choice for every hormonal
scenario.
You Cleanse, Spin, and do Sun Salutations – Why Are
You Ingesting Chemicals?
So many of my clients tell me they religiously consume organic kale juice,

meditate, and practice downward dogs, all in an effort to lead the most
natural, healthy, stress-free lifestyles possible. Why then, are these same
women consuming daily synthetic hormones? Most likely because they
haven’t been presented with all the options, and their doctors have urged
them to take a medication that simply doesn’t line up with their values or fit
into their otherwise natural lifestyle they’re living. Instead, I want women to
understand the reality of their options and use that information to leverage
their hormones for success.

SECTION 3: What the Pill Is Doing to You That You
Don’t Know About
Now you know how the Pill is meant to work & why so many of us
turn to it as a problem-solver. There are plenty of things we’re not
told about the Pill too. Here are some of the very real effects the Pill
can have on your health that you won’t hear about from your doctor.

It Depletes Key Micronutrients.
Hormonal birth control prevents the absorption of micronutrients, vitamins

and minerals. It robs your body of B vitamins, magnesium, and vitamin C in
particular, which has short and long term impacts on your health. These are
essential for hormonal health and can lead to infertility issues post-pill.
Once you’re micronutrient deficient, and prevented from absorbing what
you need even from additional supplementation, you are set up for poor
physical and mental health. It takes a nutrient dense, targeted diet after
stopping using hormonal birth control to replenish your body’s reserves and
repair the avenues of absorption. There’s a proven connection between
birth control pills and the depletion of vitamin B6, which helps your body
produce energy. Long term, this B6 deficiency can cause everything from
depression to decreased brain function.
It Disrupts Your Microbiota.
Studies show that the use of hormonal contraceptives alters the normal
microbiota of the vagina, which can lead to increased urinary tract
infections, and chronic yeast infections. Hormonal birth control acts just like
an antibiotic in your gut, destroying the essential microbiome balance. If
your doctor prescribes the pill for PCOS specifically, you will find it will only
worsen the problems of weight gain and insulin sensitivity, because of the
impact on gut flora. Just recently research revealed the pill can trigger
Crohn’s, a symptomatic disease of imbalance in the microbiome. The
microbiome is a new frontier for medicine, and more and more research is
getting published that shows a healthy microbiome is necessary for good
physical and psychological health. Repairing a damaged microbiome, while
not impossible, takes time. The impact of the pill on the microbiome will last
long after you stop taking it without concentrated, focused actions to
replenish good gut bacteria.

Exposure to synthetic hormones
It Permanently Suppresses
plus a lack of exposure to the
Your Testosterone Response.
body’s own hormone cycles is the
root cause. Ovulation is important,
Naturally, your sex drive should peak not just for when you want to
around ovulation, but the Pill prevents conceive.
this from happening. Not only that, but
the synthetic hormone mix destroys
It masks reproductive
your testosterone reserves, which, health issues.
along with a holistically balanced
hormonal system, is a key to your
The pill is not a real treatment for
sexual desire and enjoyment. Studies
reproductive health issues - from
have shown the Pill can even lower
PMS to PCOS. Hormonal birth
your ability to orgasm and make
control can help manage
orgasms less intense.
symptoms for some women, but it
is only a band-aid solution. This can
It Suppresses Ovulation. be dangerous, because it can mask
issues long term, if women are not
diagnosed prior to being
Research has shown that consistent prescribed hormonal birth control.
ovulation protects women’s long term Once you come off the method, the
health, especially when it comes to problems will return and potentially
avoiding issues like osteoporosis, have worse symptoms than before,
heart disease, heart attacks, and as well as becoming harder to treat
breast cancer (all top killers of and resolve. It’s better to tackle
women). Hormonal birth control these problems head-on and not
(except, sometimes, the hormonal wait until you’d like to conceive or
IUD) suppresses ovulation. suffer the long-term health
consequences.

It Makes You Choose the
Wrong Guys.
So you have a 7 day window in
which you would need to
Multiple studies have shown that the
ensure pregnancy prevention
Pill disrupts your pheromones (which
every month. That being said,
are ectohormones, they act outside of
the body rather than inside). you do need to know WHEN
Pheromones create our own personal precisely you are ovulating.
perfume and we use this scent to Before very recently, this was
match up with a mate that’s difficult. Now with so many
genetically suitable. We are supposed amazing companies in femtech,
to be attracted with men who are or heck, even with just your
genetically dissimilar to ourselves, as apple watch, you can know
a consequence lowering the chance
when you are ovulating. SO
of miscarriage, increasing the
take a breath and try not to get
likelihood of having a healthy baby, as
well as making for more satisfying sex triggered like you did when you
and a happier relationship. If you’re on were a kid in sex ed class.
the Pill, you don’t seek out this ideal
man, instead you seek out men who Barrier methods like condoms
“smell” like you – which makes for a are tried and true, but if you
bad romantic and health match. can’t get on the condom
bandwagon, you have plenty of
But Wait...What Am I Gonna
other options: like the
Use to Prevent Pregnancy?
diaphragm, the sponge, and
by-prescription vaginal gel,
Phexxi. .
I can already hear your worried cries
and I have the answers to alleviate
your fears. Despite the fear
mongering from sex ed class, let’s
review the facts. An egg is only viable
for 48 hours & sperm only live for 5
days.

SECTION 4: Why You Need Birth Control Rehab
This is important:
I do not recommend quitting the pill cold turkey, without the supervision
of your doctor and without any sort of revamped nutrition and lifestyle
plan in place. If you’re someone who started the Pill for reasons other
than contraception, you’ll likely see a return of your original symptoms,
and you’ll want some sort of safety net in place to ease the transition.

Okay, you want to go off the pill, but And maybe even help prevent the
you’re afraid your skin will break out minor ones from making a return.
and your other symptoms will come Here are the steps you can take to
back. You’re right to be afraid, if you transition off the pill:
quit cold turkey, that will likely
happen. Replenishing your
micronutrients while you’re actually
Step One: Up Your Vitamin
still taking the Pill can make this
Intake.
transition so much gentler on your
endocrine system and save you a
lot of the post-Pill side effects Synthetic hormones deplete your
women report like acne, insomnia, body of vitamins & minerals,
mood swings and irregular cycles. especially B vitamins, vitamins C &
E, and the minerals magnesium,
Taking time to strategically plan to selenium, & zinc. If you’re
come off the pill with supplements, considering coming off the pill,
diet changes, and the supervision consider taking a high-quality
of your doctor before going off of supplements now to make the
birth control pills, can help offset transition easier. Our Balance
the severity of those symptoms Supplements contains all of these
once they return. key nutrients.

Balance Supplements
The Energize formula in our Balance Supplements is a powerful B vitamin

combination that supplies most of the B vitamins in their coenzymated
forms. Incorporating lots of good quality fats and amino acids in your diet is
essential, too - they’re what hormones are made from and what your body
needs to start making more of its own and fast. If you can and do eat animal
protein, have fish and organic poultry as well as pasture-raised eggs
(including their yolks), olive oil, and avocados.
It’s particularly important to get enough high-quality omega-3 fats. Omega-

3s are less abundant than other types of fats in our modern food supply, so
supplementing is often necessary. The Harmonize formulation in our
Balance Supplements contains fish oil that’s ultra potent and delivered in
the form found in nature, to support hormone production and healthy
ovulation.
In addition, the pill ravages your internal microbial ecosystem. The longer
you’ve been taking it, the worse the impact on your body. When you’re on
the pill, eating good, clean, healthy food is the best way to start the healing
process, but in order to fast track your healing, you’ll need a powerful
probiotic to replenish the balance of good gut bacteria. The probiotic in the
Balance Supplements is a highly-concentrated dose that helps balance
flora, support mood, improve digestive function and nutrient absorption,
and reduce the chances of getting yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis.

Step Two: Work with Your Doctor &
Plan for Your Last Day of the Pill.
Talk to your doctor about stopping the pill and choose a date, ideally after
at least a month of replenishment with supplements. If your periods return
quickly and they become regular, great! Many women, however, do find it
takes months for their period to show up & then it is sporadic. This is where
being consistent with micronutrient replenishment and cycle supportive
diet and lifestyle become essential.
Step Three: Start using the Cycle
Syncing® Method.
I created the Cycle Syncing® Method after discovering that the infradian
rhythm governs not only women’s menstrual cycle timing, but also her
metabolic speed, her stress response, her brain function, her immune
system, and her sexual response patterns and realizing that we needed a
way to support this critical biological clock.
And because women have been historically left out of medical, fitness, and
nutrition research, you’ve likely been using diet, workout, and self care
practices that were studied to optimize male hormonal patterns that follow
a circadian clock and that actively disrupt your infradian clock!
All of which makes your cycle perform suboptimally and cause you to
suffer unnecessarily with your cycle. The Cycle Syncing® Method syncs
your diet, fitness, and time management with the 4 phases of your cycle to
keep you PMS free and thriving in your hormonally dynamic body!

On the surface it sounds like something really technical and complicated,
guaranteed to take up time and effort. In practice, however, The Cycle
Syncing® Method is simple. To sync with your cycle—or, as I call it in
practice, to engage in phase-based self-care—is simply to know which of the
four phases of your 28-day menstrual cycle you are in at any given moment
and then tailor your food, movement, relationship, work, and lifestyle choices
to your unique strengths, weakness, and needs during that phase. That might
sound like a lot of adapting and changing, week after week.
But once you start tracking your cycle and getting an embodied sense of
what each phase looks and feels like in your body, the tweaks you’ll make to
your food, movement, and life will become intuitive. Once you get the hang of
it, phase-based self-care feels so natural that you won’t believe that there
was a time when you didn’t engage in it.
The good news is, I built the

official Cycle Syncing® App
called MyFLO® so you can do all
of this without stress. The
MyFLO® app with the Cycle
Syncing® Membership feature
personalizes recipes, workouts,
lifestyle hacks, and more, all
tailored to each unique phase of
your cycle.

Get started with your Birth Control Rehab!
If you’re ready to start making the transition, we’re here to help!

And we’d love to offer you a special gift:
Our Balance Supplements will provide daily

support to detox your hormones and help you
transition off the pill, so that you can feel your best,
and get your natural cycles back.
Purchase Balance & get one FREE month of the

Cycle Syncing® Membership!
Use code: NOPMS at checkout to redeem!

BONUS SECTION:
Cycle Syncing® 101
What to look forward to after the pill
Now that you understand all of the factors that can cause hormonal
dysfunction and deregulate your menstrual cycle, you can see how
important it is to address all of the root causes of your symptoms--not
just mask them with the Pill. Your body’s natural rhythm is not static and
regimented—so, of course, eating the same way all the time isn’t going
to keep it in balance.
Our menstrual cycles have four distinct phases. In each phase, as our
bodies produce different levels of hormones, and we have varied energy
levels, sleep patterns, cravings, and even different thoughts. Doesn’t it
make sense that we would have different food and lifestyle needs at
each phase?
That’s why I created The Cycle Syncing®

Method to help guide you back into balance
with your cycle. You can read even more about
this in my second book, ‘In the FLO’.

How does your pill-free cycle affect your
body and brain?
Did you know...?
There’s a 25% change in your brain chemistry over the course of

the month
Your metabolism speeds up and slows down predictably across the
month and you need to change what you eat and the intensity of
your workouts each week in order to optimize your metabolism
Your cortisol levels are higher in one part of your cycle, so pushing
yourself through an intense workout bumps up cortisol levels even
further, adding to your stress and inflammation, disrupting your
hormones, and making you feel anxious and unfocused
People with female biochemistry need more sleep than men
because we have a more complex brain, and it needs 20 minutes
longer to clean itself and reset for the cognitive day
People with female physiology tend to need less in the way of
extreme self-care practices because we have more efficient biology
As this list shows, your body and brain change significantly throughout
the course of a month. Specifically, we move through four distinct
phases within the course of 28-days.
They are:
Phase 1: Follicular (the 7 to 10 days after your period)
Phase 2: Ovulatory (the 4 days in the middle of your cycle)
Phase 3: Luteal (the 10 to 14 days between ovulation & your period)
Phase 4: Menstrual (the 3 to 7 days of your period)

During each of these four phases, you experience normal hormonal
fluctuations that influence your body temperature, skin elasticity, sleep
cycle, energy, emotions, and cognitive function. What’s more, your 28-
day cycle (infradian rhythm) works in close concert with your 24-hour
cycle. A dysregulated infradian rhythm will mess with your circadian
cycle — and a wonky circadian cycle will negatively influence your
infradian cycle. In this way, using phase-based self-care not only
supports your month-long hormone cycle, but also your 24-hour sleep-
wake cycle. This makes practicing The Cycle Syncing® Method even
more powerful in promoting hormone health and overall health.
The Cycle Syncing® Method
Once I uncovered all of this about the infradian rhythm and our specific
needs, it was clear that we needed a diet, fitness, and lifestyle program
that would help us support our biological rhythm. This is why I created
The Cycle Syncing® Method.
Practicing The Cycle Syncing® Method is easy. It starts with deepening

your familiarity with your 28-day hormone cycle—something you can do
with the MyFLO® app and then tailoring your food, movement,
supplements, and lifestyle choices to your unique strengths,
weaknesses, and needs during each phase of your cycle.
That might sound daunting, but it’s not. Before long, you will develop an
intuitive sense of how your body feels during each phase of your cycle
and what it needs to maintain hormone balance. You will begin to
naturally shift your food, movement, and schedule as your hormones
fluctuate. With time, making phase-based self-care choices will be
second nature.

About FLO Living
FLO Living is a dynamic hormone

healthcare platform giving women
personalized Functional Nutrition
guidance from her first period to her last.
We support women through our digital

therapeutic programs, therapeutic-grade
supplements, MyFLO®, the official Cycle
Syncing® app, and with our telehealth
coaching support.
We help women with hormonal issues from

PMS, to PCOS, to fertility issues, and
navigating the perimenopause transition.
Take our free 2-minute hormone

assessment & you will receive a
personalized care plan. There is no
reason to suffer with unnecessary
hormonal symptoms.
You can get back in your FLO and

live a symptom-free life!

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Birth Control Rehab:

How to quit the pill without breaking

out, freaking out, & going through

Created by Alisa Vitti,

Founder & CEO of FLO Living

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Section 1: Why Go Off The Pill At All Page 4

Section 2: Understanding What the Pill Page 6

Section 3: What the Pill Is Doing to You That Page 9

Section 4: Why You Need Birth Control Page 13

Bonus Section Page 19

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Whatever the reason, you’re ready to break

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

I recently had a session with

Her profound statement really resonated with me and eloquently

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Problems Than They’re Solving

Most of the women I see in my Although your doctor likely

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

is Actually Doing to You

If you weren’t prescribed birth control pills in order to prevent

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

But it’s true: the bleeding you’re

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Problems, Quitting the Bad, Is it?

Pill Can Cause Them

You Cleanse, Spin, and do Sun Salutations – Why Are

You Ingesting Chemicals?

So many of my clients tell me they religiously consume organic kale juice,

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Don’t Know About

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Hormonal birth control prevents the absorption of micronutrients, vitamins

It Disrupts Your Microbiota.

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

The Energize formula in our Balance Supplements is a powerful B vitamin

It’s particularly important to get enough high-quality omega-3 fats. Omega-

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Plan for Your Last Day of the Pill.

Step Three: Start using the Cycle

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

The good news is, I built the

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

If you’re ready to start making the transition, we’re here to help!

Our Balance Supplements will provide daily

Purchase Balance & get one FREE month of the

Use code: NOPMS at checkout to redeem!

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

Cycle Syncing® 101

What to look forward to after the pill

That’s why I created The Cycle Syncing®

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

body and brain?

Did you know...?

There’s a 25% change in your brain chemistry over the course of

©2024 FLO Living LLC. All Rights Reserved

The Cycle Syncing® Method

Practicing The Cycle Syncing® Method is easy. It starts with deepening