EP51: Holly Griggs-Spall on Birth Control, Feminism, and Moving Forward

What Holly Shares:

• Untangling hormonal birth control from feminism
• Why she was on the pill as a teen even before she was sexually active
• The positive effects the pill had for her
• The mental health affects the pill had on her
• Her journey discovering who she was without hormonal birth control

What You'll Hear:

• The cultural marriage between feminism and the pill
• The pushback she received against her writing criticizing synthetic hormones
• How feminism has changed in the last 10 years
• Various forms of feminism and what they mean for women
• How the pill has become our cultural right of passage
• How hormonal birth control helped manage her painful periods
• Letting go of fear and embracing your teen's sexuality
• Teen pregnancy vs. side effects of hormonal birth control
• The paranoia, depression, and obsessive compulsive behavior she developed while on the pill
• Rediscovering her emotional landscape post synthetic hormones
• The dearth of critical examination of the pill's side effects
• Side effects of the pill including reduced senses, lactation, and suicidal thoughts
• Why so many women are suffering from anhedonia and are unable to experience inherent pleasure in life
• Questioning how synthetic hormones affect our birthing, our parenting, and attachment
• Reclaiming the power of your own emotions, sense of self, and libido
• How synthetic hormones affect your attraction to other people
• Getting support for your own journey leaving hormonal birth control
• Learning about fertility awareness within the context of feminism
• Imagining a future of feminist fertility awareness plus somatic consent practice
• Embracing men and boys in the feminist fertility movement
• How coming off of the pill can be part of a social movement