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  • This Is Your Brain on Birth Control

  • How the Pill Changes Everything
  • Written by: Sarah Hill
  • Narrated by: Nan McNamara
  • Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (88 ratings)

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This Is Your Brain on Birth Control

Written by: Sarah Hill
Narrated by: Nan McNamara
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Publisher's Summary

An eye-opening book that reveals crucial information every woman taking hormonal birth control should know

This groundbreaking book sheds light on how hormonal birth control affects women—and the world around them—in ways we are just now beginning to understand. By allowing women to control their fertility, the birth control pill has revolutionized women's lives. Women are going to college, graduating, and entering the workforce in greater numbers than ever before, and there's good reason to believe that the birth control pill has a lot to do with this. But there's a lot more to the pill than meets the eye.

Although women go on the pill for a small handful of targeted effects (pregnancy prevention and clearer skin, yay!), sex hormones can't work that way. Sex hormones impact the activities of billions of cells in the body at once, many of which are in the brain. There, they play a role in influencing attraction, sexual motivation, stress, hunger, eating patterns, emotion regulation, friendships, aggression, mood, learning, and more. This means that being on the birth control pill makes women a different version of themselves than when they are off of it. And this is a big deal. For instance, women on the pill have a dampened cortisol spike in response to stress. While this might sound great (no stress!), it can have negative implications for learning, memory, and mood. Additionally, because the pill influences who women are attracted to, being on the pill may inadvertently influence who women choose as partners, which can have important implications for their relationships once they go off it. Sometimes these changes are for the better...but other times, they're for the worse. By changing what women's brains do, the pill also has the ability to have cascading effects on everything and everyone that a woman encounters. This means that the reach of the pill extends far beyond women's own bodies, having a major impact on society and the world.

This paradigm-shattering book provides an even-handed, science-based understanding of who women are, both on and off the pill. It will change the way that women think about their hormones and how they view themselves. It also serves as a rallying cry for women to demand more information from science about how their bodies and brains work and to advocate for better research. This book will help women make more informed decisions about their health, whether they're on the pill or off of it.

*Includes a PDF of figures from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Sarah Hill (P)2019 Penguin Audio
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What listeners say about This Is Your Brain on Birth Control

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eye opening book!

incredibly written and the perfect balance science and humor to prevent it from getting dry. made me reconsider my birth control options having been on the pill for four years.

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Lots to think about

I would recommend this for mothers with daughters and any women using or planning to use contraceptives. A lot of great information to question and consider.

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Insightful information!

Highly recommend this book as it gets s filled with lots of science to help women better understand the pill and know their options.

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Very Informative

100% would recommend this book, Decided to listen to this because I was having concerns about my birth control, and it solidified my choice to stop taking hormonal birth control.

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Interesting

I learned so much listening to this book, thank you for sharing your knowledge in a very informative book.

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Insightful but simple

The book provides insight at a level that anyone can understand. I wish it were a little more science-heavy though because a lot was redundant generalization

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Wow

This book is fascinating and really delivers on its claim to help women make informed decisions about their bodies. Some of this information blew my mind, and a lot of it was deeply validating as well. The science/psychology nerd in me really appreciated the data, and her interpretation was often honest and accessible. If you’re on the fence about listening to this one, do it!!

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A must read!

This book was very interesting. Things I have never even thought about before. A lot of it is relatable and very interesting. I am sharing all my knowledge I have learned with my friends and mom. Some of the information is quite shocking to even think is going on. It makes you really think about things.

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every women must ready this

No matter if you are on birth control or not every women must read this. you will learn so much about your body and have the right information to make informed decisions about your body and what you out in it. also context to so many more things that make us women. love love love this book.

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Great book!

So informative and such a good listen. I'll be back to re-listen to this multiple times, I'm sure!

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