Hi. I have just recently started the candida diet and am deciding whether I should should renew my birth control pill or not- finally found one I like. I am presently on Lybrel which means I get the same dose everyday - no menstruation. From what I understand is when there is an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone due to birth control pills or before your menstrual period, it can interfere with the intestinal flora causing candida growth to occur. My question is, is it better to stay on the birth control since there will be no fluctuation in levels or is it better to get off?? or are there other reasons birth control pills can cause candida? Thanks so much. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I have been on the pill for over 10 years due to painful cycles, so getting off of it is going to be so hard...

Hi there Pear,

Welcome to Whole Approach. You've joined us in the midst of a transformation so our apologies that some of the links are inactive right now. There are usually a lot more people here too as you can likely tell from past posts but our move has been causing some slow downs.

We have a great welcome post that will give you a feel for what we have to offer. If you go to the Getting Started forum section and look for the post called "Welcome to Whole Approach", you'll find it. The links within posts like that one will need to be replaced in the coming weeks but at least you can see the names of the posts and sections referenced so that if you want, you can search for them using the search function.

I am not able to advise you about coming off th pill since this would be medical advice. However it's true that the hormones in the pill can exacerbate yeast symptoms. If you are not menstruating then how does the uterus cleanse itself? Are they doing D and C's?

Do you know of a good naturopathic doctor who specializes in candida issues and women's health? We have a post in the Protocol FAQ section to help you choose a practitioner if you don't have one. They'd be the best people to talk to about herbal support for going off the pill and about alternatives to it. Given the hundreds of excellent women's herbs available to help balance cycles that are off kilter, I'd consider it overkill to use a synthetic hormone product, especially one that stops your period.

naturalmethods.com sells a computer fertility awareness device that is worth looking at for actual pregnancy prevention. Hopefully your ND can help you with the rest.

Take good care,

Tarilee

Thanks Tarilee for responding and so sorry it has taken me forever to respond back. I really appreciate your help and this forum. Although I did decide to resume my bc pill for this month, I have finally accepted that going off the birth control pill may help assist in getting better, so I have decided to stop once my month finishes- do not want to stop mid-cycle. From what my ob/gyn has told me the uterus does not undergo the changes needed for menstruation to occur so cleansing is not necessary. Either way, the truth is I have no idea how I became so sick and I have been on birth control for a long time. I also know there is not whole lot of research on the long term effects of birth control, especially since it still considered to be relatively new.

As for finding an ND, I have not had much success. There are not too many where I live and I was not able to find one that met the criteria in your post, but I am still looking. I was seeing a Complementary Health MD a couple of years ago, but stopped because I did not feel it was helping much and it was getting to be very expensive. Quite honestly I was doing everything told such as taking the supplements and going twice a week for my treatments, but was not following the diet as I should have. I was much too sick then to be able to cook for myself as I was also recovering from a virus. I have been more compliant with this program though. Having only been on the candida diet for about a month now and just starting phase one last weekend, I have already noticed slight improvements in my health.

I am really excited about this program and have been reading a lot of the posts. I am learning so much! I just hope that I will be able to continue on this path for a long time. Thanks again.

I hope you're able to continue with it as well Pear. You can take heart in the fact that many people need to start it and stop it a few times before they 'dig deeply' enough into themselves to find the stick~to~it~iveness to carry through! It's really hard slugging to be learning detective skills and a whole new way of eating when we are feeling so sick. But the best thing about these efforts is that the rewards increase exponentially with time and one of the rewards is more energy to do more self care! Keep up the great work!

TLC

hi there!

i personally think the pill was one of the reasons (combined with antibiotics) that I got candida, and I definitely noticed my problems were worse when I was on it. it also made problems worse when I got off, for example, I never had problems with cramps until I got on the pill and then got off (period problems are often yeast-related, from what I've been told.)

Thanks Tarilee and Sbabayan. I stopped taking birth control already. I talked with my ob/gyn about stopping it early and she said it was fine to do that.

This has been so very hard and frustrating. Six weeks ago I ate everything. I was having gummi bears, Hagan Das ice cream & doritoes everyday. Vegetables was just not something I ate very often, but I am trying a lot of new foods and am actually starting to like vegetables.

A few days ago I found out I have celiac and a soy allergy. I have been very good at avoiding gluten because I kind of suspected an allergy (plus it is not allowed on this diet) and I was just waiting for the test results to come back, but soy has been a little harder to avoid. It is in everything. As for sugar, that was the second thing I removed from my diet---well most of it. I have been drinking a lot of Rice dream rice milk with my morning pills and probably having more carbs than I should be. I just found an almond milk and hemp milk without sugar though so I will be trying that next.

I am definitely feeling better. My allergies have improved and I have stopped taking one of my nasal sprays.

Thanks for the good news Pear! Keep up the awesome transitions!

Tarilee