Most Replayed Moment: Would You Still Love Them If You Came Off The Pill...? Your Hormones Are Controlling You!

Jun 13, 2025 29m 17s 5 insights
This episode features Dr. Sarah Hill, a psychologist, discussing how women's hormones influence attraction and well-being. She explains how the menstrual cycle affects partner preferences and details the profound, often unrecognized, impacts of hormonal birth control on a woman's brain, libido, mood, and relationship attraction.
Actionable Insights

1. Understand Birth Control’s Impact

Recognize that hormonal birth control fundamentally changes who you are by altering your brain’s chemistry, affecting sexual desire, attraction, emotional states, stress regulation, and physical goals. This awareness is crucial for making informed decisions about its use.

2. Evaluate Birth Control Tradeoffs

Make informed decisions about hormonal birth control by understanding its potential effects on your body and mind, weighing these tradeoffs against your personal life circumstances and contraceptive needs. There is no universal ‘right’ answer, and the decision is highly individual.

3. Hormonal Birth Control Lowers Libido

Be aware that hormonal birth control can decrease libido and dampen attraction to masculine traits in partners, as it suppresses estrogen surges and significantly reduces free testosterone levels. These hormonal changes are known to suppress sexual desire and alter preferences.

4. Birth Control Can Shift Attraction

If you chose your partner while on hormonal birth control, understand that discontinuing it could subtly alter your attraction to them. This shift might increase attraction for partners perceived as more attractive or decrease it for those perceived as less attractive.

5. Men Attracted to Natural Cycles

Men are evolutionarily wired to be more attracted to women during their natural fertile window, finding them sexier and more appealing due to cues related to higher estrogen levels. This suggests men’s brains are attuned to natural hormonal fluctuations.