How the Pill Changes Everything

Your Brain on Birth Control

By: Sarah E Hill

Narrated by: Nan Mcnamara

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

'It's time for all of us to join together to ask science for some new choices and for more information about what happens to us with the choices we have. We shouldn't have to change who we are to protect ourselves from pregnancy, and we should know enough about how our own bodies work to recognise that this is exactly what we're doing when we go on the birth control pill.'

Hormonal contraception is something most women will use at some point during their life. But the reach of the pill goes far beyond the small number of targeted effects we take it for. It affects almost every system in our body. Column inches and anecdotal conversations prove there are many questions about the pill and its effects yet until now we have known very little about. 

In this trailblazing book expert psychologist Dr Hill reveals the latest science on the pill and how it's changing women and the world, for better and for worse.   

Dr Hill examines cutting-edge research, some of it conducted in her own lab, that shows how the pill affects everything from stress response to autoimmune disorders, mate selection to declining levels of male achievement. Some of her findings are shocking, others will simply verify things you suspected for a long time but figured were all in your head. Dr Hill signals a rallying cry for better science - for too long women have been understudied as research subjects. Their cycles are more complicated, it's more expensive to do research on them, and scientists are under so much pressure to publish that it's often easier to just use a largely male testing pool, or one that ignores important factors for women.     

How the Pill Changes Everything will open your eyes and put you in a position of power. It provides the latest science so that you can understand the risks, weigh up the costs and make smarter, more informed choices about your health and hormones.

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

©2019 Sarah E Hill (P)2019 Penguin Random House Audio LLC

Useful for me as a man & a pharmacist

This book was very useful for me in two of my roles. One as a man and the other in my profession as a Pharmacist. I learned a lot and would recommend it to my colleagues.

I’m a man

Learnt a lot from this book and have grown respect for issues I had never before been taught/considered.

Insights of the sexism in the medical industry very interesting too.

Recommending this to all males.

Vital reading for mothers of girls.

I never normally write reviews but feel this book has so much vital information to share I can’t recommend it highly enough. I chose it because as a homeopath I come across lots of young girls on the pill for problems unassociated with pregnancy prevention and this has led to so many other problems. I’m no endocrinologist but I have seen first hand the huge effect infinitesimal changes in hormone levels can create in a woman.

This book helped me to understand why the science is so ham-fisted and just what these pesky hormones are capable of. I laughed and gasped in equal amounts and will listen to it again and again.

Lenghtly

The book was informative but boring. There are lot of not needed informations on this topic. Big part of the book talks about evolution, mating of fish and baboons, society norms and the last one hour talks about why research isn't done on women equally like on man. Well honestly, this book should be just under three hours long if it talked purely about contraceptives.

Confirms my inner “mental” voice

A lot of these concepts are things that I have already recognised. I was on the pill for 9 years and came off 2 years ago because I was suffering from uncontrollable anxiety. Since, I have found that I am a lot more aware of life around me, even though I still suffer with anxiety, I am able to control it and recognise it in a way that I haven’t been able to before.
As a single woman in my 30’s, this book literally confirms all the things that I have though that people have told me “you’re overthinking” or “you’re just mental”. It’s a sad reality to accept, but for the first time I don’t feel alone with my ideas of how society is shaped. It is important that the idea of equality is a balance and an understanding

Fantastic

Loved it. so informative and has really opened my mind to contraception and the implications.

fascinating

I really enjoyed this book and I think all women need to read this. Not enough people understand or even consider the effects of messing with our hormones and it's just crazy!

Two things I didn't like - the swearing, there is no need? Secondly, abbreviating some terms but not others - just call Testosterone, Testosterone! it becomes more confusing when you call it T.

Pseudo-science gossip column

I was looking forward to this book, but it's written like an anecdotal gossip column. I couldn't finish it.

Patronising waffle

There were pockets of interesting information but generally it was repetitive waffle. The author tried to take a down to earth approach but it was just patronising. Sad to say I barely learnt anything.

essential reading

every woman needs to read this highly informative and insightful book in order to make more informed choices regarding birth control.

food for thought

Sometimes repetitive but overall very interesting and relevant to me. had to be in the right frame of mind to absorb it.