The Pills and Your Gallbladder-

Hey everybody! Dr Hagmeyer here and I want to welcome you back to this video series titled “Is The Pill Wrecking Your Gut” If you are just tuning in, I have been talking about the many ways that “The Pill” and other forms of contraception affect the health and integrity of the digestive system.

Past Videos if you missed them

I talked about The Birth Control Pill and Gut Dysbiosis and disrupts the Gut Microbiome
I talked about The Birth Control Pill and Crohn’s Disease/ Gut Inflammation
I talked about The Birth Control Pill and Leaky Gut/Intestinal Permeability
I talked about The Birth Control Pill and Acid Reflux and SIBO/SIFO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)

I encourage you to view these other videos by clicking on each link.

‘The Pill” and Gall Bladder Disease

One of the major problem that develops when woman start taking “The Pill”, HRT, fertility shots, IUD’s, etc is that of estrogen dominance.

Estrogen dominance is an all too common problem seen in woman who are on birth control pills, HRT, and woman who had trouble conceiving and have resorted to high dose hormone injections or fertility shots.

Estrogen dominance occurs when there is an imbalance between the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone.

Estrogen dominance causes bile to become thick and sluggish. Bile is a dark green-yellow- brown fluid, produced by the liver, that aids the digestion of fats the small intestine. It helps you absorb fats and vitamins like ADEK

When bile become thick and sludge like– you can probably imaging that it’s not going to flow the way it is supposed to. Sometimes this is called Biliary dyskinesia or Biliary colic- Now…

Here’s Why Bile Flow Is Critical To Your Health….

Healthy bile flow is needed to get rid of toxins, waste, bacteria,
Bile is needed to get rid of heavy metals
Bile is needed to remove excess hormones (especaily in the case of estrogen dominance)
Bile is needed in order to get rid of metabolites of medications.
Bile is needed to removes excess cholesterol and old red blood cells from the body-
Bile is also needed in order to absorb fat and fat soluble vitamins, vitamins like A, D, E, K in the small intestine.

So as you can see, Bile and Bile flow is so important. Here is where it gets really interesting take a look at some of the most common symptoms of vitamin A deficiencies, Vitamin D deficiencies , Vitamin E deficiencies or Vitamin K deficiencies and you soon to start to see how vital fats and fat soluble vitamins are to our body and how important to gut health these vitamins are.

The Symptoms Of Poor Bile Flow and Gall Bladder Disease.

Here are some common symptoms of gallbladder problems:

Severe pain in the upper right or center of your abdomen
Tenderness in the abdomen, particularly the right upper quadrant
Abdominal pain lasting several hours
Pain that may extend beneath the right shoulder blade or to the back
Pain that worsens after eating a heavy meal, particularly fatty or greasy foods
Pain that feels dull, sharp, or crampy
Pain that increases when you breathe in deeply
Heartburn, indigestion, and excessive gas
Chest pain
A feeling of fullness in the abdomen
Nausea
Vomiting
Fever, ranging from low-grade to severe
Shaking with chills
Stools of an unusual color (often lighter, like clay)
Dark urine (often described as tea-colored) (5,7,8)

Gallbladder Pain Occurs in the Upper Right Quadrant and Shows Up After You Eat A Meal.

You can develop abdominal pain, shoulder pain, nausea, bloating and abdominal pressure after you eat a meal, or you have pain in the upper right quadrant of your abdomen,

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases,

“Extra estrogen can increase cholesterol levels in bile and decrease gallbladder contractions, which may cause gallstones to form.”

Here is another study

How Do You Know If you Have Problems With Bile Flow?

Impairment of bile flow within the liver can show up on laboratory tests serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, ALT, AST, LDH, GGTP.

If these come back abnormal your doctor may order an ultra sound or a HIDA scan to evaluate Gallbladder function

It no longer phases me when a young woman consults my office because her primary health concern is a hormone problem and it turns out she had her gall bladder removed.

I would estimate that at least 50-75% of the time that when a woman has hormone problems she also has problems with her liver but also her gall bladder.

If you are a woman and you had your gallbladder removed after being on birth control, HRT or fertility shots- feel free to leave a comment below- What you will find is that you are not alone.

In 20 years of practice- I no longer find this to just be a coincidence. So there you go, hope you enjoyed this video on the effects that Birth control pills have on the gallbladder.

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In my next video in this series, I will unpack how the pill affects your liver and your thyroid and how those unwanted symptoms like fatigue, brain fog and weight gain are often the end result. .