85. Hormonal Birth Control: Andrea’s IUD Story

In this episode, nutritionist and fitness coach Andrea Riofrio-Halford joined us to share her wisdom and personal experience using Mirena, a hormonal intrauterine device (IUD).

Together, we confront the thorny issues surrounding hormonal health, from the physical discomfort of IUDs to the emotional rollercoaster of synthetic hormones. Our conversation is a candid one, placing personal autonomy and informed consent at the forefront of our exploration into the myriad of birth control options and their impact on women's lives.

Wrestling with the side effects of birth control can be a solitary struggle, but in our dialogue, we uncover how shared experiences can empower us to take the reins of our hormonal health. We weave personal tales with client anecdotes, sharing the challenges and triumphs over anxiety, mood swings, and the often underestimated influence of lifestyle factors like diet. Armed with stories and resources, we advocate for education and awareness, encouraging women to understand their menstrual cycles and to question the status quo of birth control methods, embracing alternatives that resonate with their bodies and values.

Our journey through the enigma of fertility and contraception doesn't end with the physical; it's a spiritual quest, too. Andrea and I delve into the teachings of the Fertility Awareness Method, discussing the implications of long-term birth control use on fertility and the significance of tuning into our intuition. We champion the idea that knowledge is power, urging listeners to seek out diverse sources of wisdom and to trust their inner guidance when making decisions about reproductive health. This episode isn't just a podcast; it's a call to embrace your autonomy and become the CEO of your well-being.

Transcript

Rebecca Twomey: 0:33

Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission Podcast. My name is Rebecca Twomey and we are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through your life and with your relationship with Christ. We are currently in a series on the female body where we're discussing birth control, and we have a lovely guest here today to share her experience and her story with birth control. Her name is Andrea Riofrio-Alford and she is a nutritionist and fitness coach focusing on pre and post natal. You can find her on Instagram by searching her name at Andrea. Underscore Rio R I R I O, f R I O. Underscore Halford H A L, f O R D. Andrea, thank you so much for being here today.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 1:26

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

Rebecca Twomey: 1:29

I'm so excited we were just talking before we started recording about how this is actually the first time you and I have seen each other face-to-face in a conversation. We became friends through Instagram, I think through the podcast actually, I think it was before the podcast even.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 1:44

Yeah, I think it was before the podcast even.

Rebecca Twomey: 1:46

Okay, was it from Healing Birth, the Healing Birth podcast? Yes, I think so. Yeah, it seems like a lifetime ago. It's been years and now you and I talk almost every day and just through chat and send each other voice memos, so it's so amazing to get to see you face to face. Thank you for joining me. I'm so excited to just have you. You are such a blessing in my life, so thank you for being open.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 2:10

No, likewise you're having such a blessing in our lives, like not just mine, but Josh's too. You know, with your advice and all your, the knowledge you share.

Rebecca Twomey: 2:19

Oh, thank you. You know that's the mission here. We just want to share what I've experienced, what Rachel has experienced, and now even my husband. You know that's the mission here. We just want to share what I've experienced, what Rachel has experienced.

Rebecca Twomey: 2:29

And now even my husband, you know he's come on and actually I'm excited he's going to be sharing his faith story soon, which is kind of cool, so really cool, awesome. Yeah, well, we'll stay tuned for that one because that'll be a good one. But I know this is kind of a heavy topic and I want to give kind of some background info as we get into your story of using hormonal, non-hormonal birth control, whatever the case might be. But we mentioned in last week's intro episode on this topic that our goal here is to have an open discussion about the topic of birth control. This is not medical advice. These are our real life stories that we are sharing on this podcast. We are pro-medical freedom on this podcast, which means that we're not here to tell you what to do. I know sometimes our opinions come out as we're speaking, but at the end of the day, it is about informed consent and you as a listener, understanding and knowing what your options are, understanding products and being informed on what it is that you are doing or taking or whatever the case might be. So we're informing you on the actual real life stories of women who have interacted with pharmaceutical birth control.

Rebecca Twomey: 3:48

And if you're tuning in for the first time, please listen back to that last episode where we discuss alternatives to pharmaceutical birth control, because there is a. That's the big thing. Whenever we talk about birth controls, people are like, well, there's not, there's no other option but to do this. But there are other options. So listen back so you can hear more about those options, because, believe it or not, there are. In fact, god designed the female body on a fairly predictable clock, if I might say so myself, where we can track the phases of our cycle, and he also created plants and animals that live on this earth, and he gave us food and for medicine. So, those that suffer from heavy periods, endometriosis, pcos, ovarian issues, so on, birth control and hysterectomies are not your only option. Again, not medical advice, but listen back to that episode and we'll talk more where we talk more about that.

Rebecca Twomey: 4:46

The Lord has many ways of healing our bodies, but it's also worth noting that we, as human beings here on this earth, having this human experience, we're forged in the fire. The Lord doesn't promise us a life that's free from pain, suffering, worry or even good health. In fact, it's really in our darkest moments where we meet and find the Lord, and I know that that has been true for me. I have my own experience with birth control, my own experience with birth, and those things are what led me to even create this podcast and talk about these things. So if I hadn't gone through those dark moments, I probably wouldn't even be having this conversation right now.

Rebecca Twomey: 5:29

So this is why we're talking about pharmaceutical birth control. The marketing for these products is deceptive and in many ways, these products are disconnecting us from our bodies and arguably even the Lord himself. Obs and OBGYNs. They tell us that these products are safe. We're given a package that has a long list of side effects on that insert, but those side effects are entirely played down, and I have yet to encounter an OB personally that has actually explained what happens to our natural hormones when we use pharmaceutical birth control. So, andrea, I know you've had quite the experience yourself in this area and thank you for being willing and open to talk about it. When were you first introduced to birth control and what was your experience? Tell us more about your story, tell us more about your story so well.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 6:24

I'm originally from Ecuador, so Ecuador is a very Catholic country. So, growing up as a female, my family was very conservative I would say so, like sex and birth control was never like spoken of right. But then we moved to the states and, uh, for some reason, I think I probably, went to the doctor and around 16, 17 years old, I was put on birth control and, um, it was mostly because, just just in case, um, I guess I'll get pregnant, but I wasn't like sexually active by then. Then, around 18 years old, I started getting migraines. So the doctor was like, let's put you on a different type of birth control to control your migraines. So I feel like I pretty much stayed on it because it was expected and it's something that you were supposed to do as a young female, right A part of your OB care.

Rebecca Twomey: 7:27

Were you put on a pill back then? Was it the pill or one of the many?

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 7:33

Yes, one of the many pills, and then they changed it to a low estrogen one. I believe it was because of migraines. I started getting very bad migraines. I'm talking about migraines that lasted three days every week. So most of the month I was living with migraines. It was terrible and, you know, I had my eyes tested to see if I had, like any vision issues. I started wearing glasses. I went to see a neurologist. They did MRIs and things like that, but they were like they're hormonal, like my grandmother had them and my uh, my mom. My mom had migraines, my sisters had migraines, so they were like the birth control will help. Interesting, I was like okay, wow, okay.

Rebecca Twomey: 8:20

Wow Okay.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 8:21

Okay, so then I guess I just stayed in it because it was expected and and I did, you know, had a few relationships and I guess I was taking adjusting days to prevent pregnancy, never really cared about learning. I knew I was supposed to get my period every month, you know, I didn't know the effects of the hormones in my body and what it was really doing. Then I met my husband in 2015, stayed on it, but I was the psycho girlfriend, sometimes out of nowhere. I had anxiety. I was texting him constantly out of nowhere at least terrible anxiety and um.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 9:07

I can relate yeah, it's like out of nowhere, like this anxiety will hit me out of nowhere and I will text him and and he will say things like I was going crazy and stuff like that and I couldn't connect it with what. What it was, you know.

Rebecca Twomey: 9:25

But, you had this. It sounds like you had an innate feeling that that wasn't who you were. That wasn't you that there was. You were having that experience and you were feeling anxious and maybe mistrust or whatever it might have been in that moment, but there was part of you that knew the way that your body was feeling internally, wasn't you?

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 9:49

Is that correct?

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 9:52

Yes. So I've always had an interest in fitness and nutrition. So I started lifting more for power lifting, and I control my nutrition even more with, like my macros, protein, carbs, fat and all that and I still wasn't seeing the results I wanted to see with my body composition, and the more you dial into your nutrition, the more you know how you're feeling after you eat certain things, after you eat a higher carb meal and things like that, so you get more in tune with your body, the more you dive into nutrition and fitness. And I started seeing that I wasn't seeing the results, besides being the psycho girlfriend that I wanted to see, with like dialing my nutrition like almost a hundred percent, and I didn't understand it. So I started like checking things off.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 10:43

Like I said, I was vegetarian for a time, I was vegetarian for a time. I was vegan for a time. You know, I was cutting out red meat, doing all these things, thinking it was the food I was eating, more than what I was putting into my body. Like you know, a pill that it was like normal, it was part of what I was. You get up, you take the pill and you continue with your day. It's like such a small part of your day that you don't even attribute anything to it.

Rebecca Twomey: 11:10

We don't think about how something as small as that teeny, tiny little pill changes all of our hormones and how our hormones naturally occur and balance in our bodies. Because they tell us like, oh, this just balances your hormones, or this just, it's just a little bit of hormones to help with not getting pregnant. But we're not told the significance of using an artificial, a hormone that's from artificial sources to then change the composition of our own internal hormones, so putting us in a perhaps state of high estrogen or high progesterone, like it. It's manipulating our hormones. But you're right, we don't think about it. It's a tiny little, what's it going to? What's it really doing? Oh, we're just not going to get pregnant. It's magic.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 11:59

Yes, it's kind of like a big deal, but it's not because it is a big deal, because you're not going to get pregnant, which is the fear, right, like I'm dating, I don't want to get pregnant, or I'm married but I don't want to get pregnant and yet, so I want to take the pill, but it's also such a small part of my day, but it's a big decision at the same time. Right so to me was a point that I had to start pointing things out, and I'm sure this happened with you when you were going through your allergies. I've heard you talk about it. You start really looking at the details, you're doing everything else and still not seeing the results you want. So that's what it came down to, to what led me to say it's the breath control, to what led me to say it's a breath control, and it always felt weird like I'm taking this or where, when I will talk to other girls that I work with, that they had, like the one that you put in your arm you know the oh implant implant on.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 12:57

I think it's called oh yes yes, and they haven't had a period of years and things like that in in my nutrition and fitness background. It didn't feel right. I'm like I don't want to do that. Periods are not fun for most women, but I don't want to get to that point where I don't get a period at all. It doesn't feel normal. Yeah, so then we got married in 2017. 2017 I was still on the pill. 2018. Uh, I guess Josh kept complaining I was still going psycho, and then I was. I wasn't seeing the results I wanted with my body composition. I felt bloated. I felt I had, uh had anxiety. Uh didn't have the, the I didn't. It didn't feel right. It didn't feel like everything that I was doing with my nutrition and training and sleep wasn't matching the way I wanted to feel and the way I wanted to look. Yeah, and so I switched from the pill to the uh, mirena the pill to the Mirena?

Rebecca Twomey: 14:11

Yes, to the Mirena IUD, which is the plastic IUD, for those wondering, and we did talk about that last episode. So if you need a background on Mirena, tune back in. Go ahead, but go ahead, yeah.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 14:19

Supposedly it was the best option for me. I had never had children. Supposedly it was the best option for me. I had never had children, and she did say it was going to be a little painful.

Rebecca Twomey: 14:28

Yes, so the doctors are interesting when they talk about oh, we're going to give you an IUD? We have the Mirena, the plastic one, and it's smaller. If you haven't had a baby, we could fit it in there easier, but if you've already had kids, the copper one. I remember that talk. Oh yeah, Sounds like you had the same talk as I did. It's like scarred into my brain. How was the insertion for you? Because it was extremely painful for me.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 14:55

It was terrible. It was so bad and I do believe I have I don't believe I have that high pain tolerance I'm still yet to find that out but it was terrible, it was so bad and I feel like I should have had Josh next to me or somebody, a support person. I'm more of uh, uh, what to expect? You know? I don't. I don't believe I am and I don't want to say somebody that experiences pain at a higher level is a weak person. But I was used to lifting heavy loads, putting my body through a lot of stress at that time, and I worked out hard. I had to work two jobs. I don't believe I'm super mentally weak.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 15:44

And that was super painful. And she did say it was a smaller one. I mean, was it? It was gonna feel like a pinch? It didn't feel like a pinch. I felt like I almost passed out. It was a really negative experience, wow, I bet.

Rebecca Twomey: 16:00

So they take this plastic piece that is wrapped with Lord knows what and it's folded down when they put it in, so it kind of looks almost like a small pencil, or it's not. That's not what it looks like. It doesn't look like a pencil. I will have to share pictures of what it actually looks like, but it's. The little arms on it are closed when they insert it, but they stick it through our cervix. So it goes through the vaginal canal, through the cervix, into the uterus, where then those, once it gets into the uterus, those arms pop open and then they kind of even pull it down a little bit to get it to kind of stay so it doesn't float around in there. And then there are strings that come out the bottom. So they come out through the cervix, through the vaginal canal, and then they trim the strings to a different length. And what they say is they'll trim the strings. There's two of them next to each other and it's exactly like fishing wire.

Rebecca Twomey: 17:03

So for anyone that's wondering, what are these strings made out of? That's what it feels like fishing wire. And then they what's it called? They take the strings and they swoop it. There's this little piece of our bodies right underneath our cervix where they can swoop it so that the end of the string isn't pointing down.

Rebecca Twomey: 17:23

Because you have to also think about this, men and women when we are making love the way that God has intended us, the man's I don't know how graphic we want to be on this podcast right, the man, when he is going inside of that vaginal canal, it is going to the point where it can touch the end of these strings. So if you think about it, if they cut it too short and all that's sticking out from the cervix is a little bit of those strings, hypothetically the end of a man's penis is going to poke right into those strings. So what they say that they want to do is leave them a little longer and swoop them around. But now think about it. The man's penis can still touch the end of where that swoop is. It's just that it's touching the looped part instead of the end of it.

Rebecca Twomey: 18:13

I don't know if those listening if this makes any sense, but it probably sounds crazy. To someone who has never had an IUD too, that does not sound good. But when you are sitting across the desk or in a room with an OBGYN and they tell you this. It doesn't seem as extreme as talking about it right now, right, like they just like oh well, we just put this thing in here and it's going to prevent pregnancy and and that's it, but when we really think about it, it's pretty crazy, huh.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 18:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like to have something sitting there for who knows how long. And to me they made it sound like, oh, you haven't had babies yet, so this is the best option for you, because I guess it's the smaller one, I believe, and that's why they suggest that you you have that if you, but they, she did say it's going to be more painful than putting it in a female that has had babies before, but I did not expect it to be that terrible.

Rebecca Twomey: 19:14

Yeah, my OB said to me oh, I have this. That was kind of how she sold it to me. It's like oh, I have Mirena, so you know it's fine for you. You haven't had any same thing, you haven't had any babies yet, so it's not going to be so bad. So you had Mirena placed, and then what happened after that?

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 19:36

So I had it, honestly, for three weeks. That was all like maybe three to four weeks, and immediately it didn't feel right because, obviously, the pain they said I will have a little bit of cramping and all that but the pain didn't go away, not the intense pain of the insertion, but the constant cramping. And the weirdest thing was when I was doing normal lifestyle, for example, putting the clothes in the dryer. I will bend over and I will feel something poking on my back from inside, like if something was like really, really poking. It was so painful and I like putting stuff in the laundry basket, in the laundry basket or the dryer, stuff that you don't even think about right, I will bend over and feel something poking. Then, doing a deadlift, I will feel an intense pain, something poking. Then doing a deadlift, that will feel an intense pain, uh, something poking me. And I called them and they were like that's normal, just wait a few more weeks, just give it time. But I was in pain every single day for doing random things, bending over, grabbing stuff, and it didn't feel right. But they tell you wait a little bit, wait a little bit.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 20:50

So Josh was, my husband was like that is not okay, like you shouldn't feel that way. You got this to feel like better and to make it more convenient of not having to take the pill and see if it made you feel better with your results. And you cannot even work out without pain, or even when you do the laundry or whatever, right? So he has a friend whose dad is an ob and he was like, call him. So I call, uh, his friend's dad and he's an ob and he said they need to remove that. You should not be feeling anything. You should not be complaining of pain every single day, especially from doing simple things. Call them and demand that they take it out. So I called and I said I want this out and they heard it, I guess in my voice I wasn't probably advocating myself, advocating for myself, as much as I should have when I called the previous times, because I feel like you're very submissive sometimes when it comes to doctors not anymore. Yeah, yeah, I hear you back.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 21:56

Then like I felt like I have they know better, right, um, and I guess, because she was a female doctor, I I thought like she, obviously she knows and all that and um, and I'm not taking credit away from them, right, but not every person not every patient is the same and you need to listen to that specific concern. So I demanded to have an appointment to have it removed. So I got an appointment. I went to see them and they had a ultrasound and she said oh, it looks like you had a little cyst that probably like, uh, what is it? Ruptured and made the pain worse, so let's take it out, since you want it out. Taking it out was terrible. I don't know if that was your experience, but I think it hurt more than pretty bad, like when they inserted it at first. It hurt so much and when she took it out she was like oh, you're right, it's not. It's not how it's supposed to look. It bent, it wasn't placed correctly you know.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 22:58

So this whole, time it was not right. I was in pain and, uh, it probably, like I know, it wasn't for me, you know, and it probably shouldn't be for many females out there. So I felt so relieved and that was June of sorry, that was sometime 2018. And it goes to maybe October or so 2018. And my husband and I had the talk and said we're not ready for children. He was ready to have children before, I was, but we just took different alternatives, like no birth control for me to take because of my mental health, my health in general, the fitness goals that I had at the moment and for a relationship too. You know, because I was, I had like anxiety and psycho moments at times. So I haven't felt better, honestly, and since not having to take anything like that, and we didn't get pregnant.

Rebecca Twomey: 24:02

Sorry, yeah, I was going to ask. So how did you, how do you feel like your hormones balanced or changed after you got off Cause you went from the pill to having Mirena and then you went to having nothing and it was probably your first time not being on any hormonal birth control in like a decade at least, right. And then when it came out, was it immediate or was it something that you noticed over time? How did you feel? Did the you noticed over time? How did you feel? Did the anxiety go away and did you feel more balanced with your hormones? Were you still angry?

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 24:38

texting. I mean, sometimes the angry texting still happens. I guess we gotta be real, right, yes, but I mean I felt like training wise.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 24:43

I felt like I was finally seeing results and with my nutrition, like dialing my nutrition, doing things that I need I knew I needed to do.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 25:05

Um, mood wise, I felt so relieved I don't know if it was psychological, psychologically psychological but I felt so relieved that I didn't have to depend on something to control my hormones and emotionally I felt more at ease and I think it was um immediate, because I was not in pain and I felt that was the answer to a lot of my questions of why am I feeling so much anxiety? Do I still have anxiety sometimes? Yes, because of life, you know, but I can, I can say, okay, I'm feeling anxious because of this, instead of saying I don't know what I'm feeling this way. It's coming out of nowhere, like this rush of saying I don't know why I'm feeling this way. It's coming out of nowhere, like this rush of anxiety that I couldn't explain why it was happening. You know, and if I start feeling worried or having anxiety for whatever reason, because of life, you know, I can't say why it's happening. You know, like, like, maybe it's because I don't know the dogs are barking or something.

Rebecca Twomey: 26:12

Yeah, something's going on, or maybe you had too much caffeine that day or whatever the case might be. It's interesting because I noticed this with my last pregnancy that I started to have swelling at the end and I cut caffeine out. And I'm not even a big caffeine person anyway, I don't drink coffee every day but just the simple act of drinking coffee for me, it gives me a little bit of anxiety. It makes me feel like a little anxious in my chest, right. So something as small as squeezing a couple of beans can make you feel anxious.

Rebecca Twomey: 26:44

Imagine what taking synthetic hormones, having them inside of your body every day, is going to do, and then eliminating that.

Rebecca Twomey: 26:53

It's kind of that same thing. It's like you're washing your body of whatever the effects of what you're taking are, and I think that that's this is why we want to have this conversation, right. It's just so that when we think about what it is that we're putting inside our bodies whether it is food, caffeine, coffee or birth control because it does change our bodies God designed our hormones and our hormonal system in a very complex way. We have all sorts of hormones that are shooting off because of different things, and we know that stress hormones from things like the dogs barking or babies crying or whatever the case might be, that changes our bodies too and we go into this kind of fight or flight or we're feeling anxious. And then we realize sometimes, in those moments when we just stop and we go wait, thank you God for these gifts and we can step back and we're able to get those. You know, get control of our nervous system. It's hard to control your nervous system when you're not in control of your nervous system right Meaning.

Rebecca Twomey: 28:02

We have synthetic pharmaceuticals inside of us. It's kind of hard to you can't control that. They're doing whatever they're doing. And it's an amazing piece when we don't have that to worry about, right.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 28:18

Yes, I agree, and I think that was because I had thought about what I was doing. I knew that was the answer, right, or I was hoping that will be the answer, and when it stopped, like I took the ID out and all that, I felt very relieved. But then I did see the results, you know, I saw that I had more control and it was my responsibility and this was before I started coaching mostly females. It was my responsibility and this was before I started uh, coaching, uh, mostly females. It was my responsibility to learn my cycle. It was my responsibility to learn my body and not let something appeal or something determine what I was supposed to do, right.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 29:03

So I think that's a lot of, uh, a lot of, probably females feel that fear like I have to learn my body. I have to do learn all this knowledge, learn all these things that I have no idea because I have let the pill control my cycle and my life. Or since I was 16, 17 years old and I know there are little girls that started like at 13, 14 years old, you know, and to me, now that I am, I have found Jesus and we have found Christ in our lives. To me I feel and this is not to judge anybody but if your main worry is to get pregnant from a random dude, you have other worries, bigger than just the pill, you know.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 29:45

So to me, like, control your um, learn your body, learn, learn what, what's causing certain things and I've seen this with with my clients like they are doing everything they're supposed to be doing, but the moment I know they're in birth control, I know we're gonna have certain struggles. I know they're going to experience more, um, weird cravings. I know they're going to feel more bloated. I know they're probably not going to see results as fast as they want and it's I. I do tell them what my view is, my experience. But at the end of the day, your personal choice, like you said, is like, um, you know what? What did you say?

Rebecca Twomey: 30:25

free consent yeah, yeah, Informed consent To be informed of. Before you consent to something, be informed about what it is that you are agreeing to and you know. We could even say we were informed because we were told, oh, there might be side effects, read the insert. But that's not true informed consent. Informed consent is listening to stories like this, listening to what is happening to real women out there. There are so many Facebook groups about healing from birth control. That is an indication. So if you're listening to this and you're like I don't know, I'm taking this specific birth control, Look it up because there's probably a group for you. I experienced copper toxicity and I shared that in the last episode, and I came across a copper toxicity Facebook group. There's 15,000 women in that group that have experienced copper toxicity.

Rebecca Twomey: 31:25

And that's not all of us right. That's just the ones that sought to you know. Seek other people that went through that experience right.

Rebecca Twomey: 31:34

And then there's groups for Mirena specifically too, because Mirena is not made out of copper, it's made of its own nasty stuff. So there are going to be people out there that are going through what you're going through. So if you are having a poor experience with birth control and this is running through your mind and you're saying like I've had a similar experience too, you're in the right place. You're listening to real stories of women's experiences. Don't let the medical system gaslight you. That is my biggest pet peeve about these. Iuds is just like in your story. When you said you called and told them what was going on, they said, oh, just give it time, just give it time. This is what the medical system does. The same thing happened to me. I got Mirena in. I experienced acne. I have never had skin problems in my life. I was breaking out everywhere. I felt nuts and I called same thing. I'm like I want to get this out, this is not for me. And they said, oh, just give it a couple months, your hormones need to adjust. And she acts like it. She acted like it was my hormones that were needing to adjust. Meanwhile, my actual hormones were being suppressed and manipulated. They weren't adjusting my hormones. They were ruining my hormones, and so it's important for us to be informed about these side effects.

Rebecca Twomey: 32:55

I also I want to talk about the technicality, the specifics of your IUD also being bent and you feeling things when you are bending or moving. I think something that people don't realize or think about is that our uterus is teeny, teeny, teeny, weeny, tiny. When there's not a baby in there, it's very small. It expands a ton to accommodate the baby because it is a muscle that grows, but when there's no baby in the uterus, it's super small. So when you put this foreign object inside of a uterus, it inflames the uterus, and that is part of the reason why it is painful, because you're experiencing inflammation, and a lot of women don't realize that. That's why they retain weight when they have an IUD, because it doesn't stay localized in the uterus where the inflammation is occurring.

Rebecca Twomey: 33:51

You can have inflammation in other parts of your body too, especially with the copper one, but I have heard stories about these IUDs perforating the uterus, so poking through it, because it has pointy edges on it.

Rebecca Twomey: 34:06

In my case, it grew into my uterine wall. My Mirena was embedded to my uterine wall, meaning it grew into it, and when they went to go remove it they couldn't because it had forged into the side of my uterus and they had to scrape it out. I mean, does that seem like something that God intended for us to do? Because that's the argument that I hear from a lot of Christians is like well, you know, god created medicine because he created us humans to figure these things out. And I agree in some senses that God did create us to be inventive and have ingenuity and create things that will improve life. But when it comes to his design the human body we were created in God's image and taking a piece of plastic wrapped in synthetic hormones and shoving it inside of an organ, I don't know, I don't think that that was part of his design, but that is my personal opinion.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 35:09

Yeah, don't think that that was part of his design, but that is my personal opinion. Yeah, yeah, I think our bodies, uh, male and females, but a female body, the female body is, so it's nothing can't compare to it, obviously, for more periods to be being able to have babies and birth babies and just be wired the way we are wired, right, I think, um, and not to get too too controversial, but I feel it's a way of controlling what we need to know. You know, do you need to know your cycle? You know?

Rebecca Twomey: 35:44

do you need to control that or do we need to control that.

Rebecca Twomey: 35:48

You are spot on. So that is the biggest piece of this. That I personally have learned is when I took birth control as a teenager. What did that mean? That meant I was depending on a pill to regulate my hormones and my period, and it takes care of everything. So I don't have to know anything about how my body works. I don't have to know anything about my fertility, about my uterus, about my fallopian tubes. I don't need to know anything, right, I can just trust this pill. So you're right, we give away our knowledge, we give away our ability to learn about our bodies.

Rebecca Twomey: 36:27

And I want to mention some resources here. I've mentioned these in the past, but there is a wonderful book called Taking Charge of your Fertility. If you are a mother of a daughter who is about to go through her her period, get her period or whatever. That's when I would start doing this. I would not wait until she's 20. Start now. If you've got a 12, 13 year old even younger. I mean, I teach my four year old about the ovaries and the fallopian tube, but you know I'm kind of a freak in that way, but it's because of what I went through.

Rebecca Twomey: 37:01

Right, taking charge of your fertility explains how the body works, how the female reproductive system works. It does talk about the male's reproductive system too. There's also another book that's called the Fifth Vital Sign. It's a newer book, so it's shorter, kind of more to the point, but what I like about taking charge of your fertility is that it's been around for over 20 years. We've known this stuff for a long time because this is how God created our bodies on a clock, on a cycle, and when we know how it works, man, what happens to us? There is a power. That is there. We are empowered when it comes to our own bodies, that we don't need pharmaceuticals. And so you're right. It's a trick. Don't learn about your body, just take the pill. Don't learn about your body Just take a shot. Just put an IUD in there, just plug it up. Don't learn anything. I'm on a rant.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 38:14

I agree, I feel like the older you get and I think becoming a mom helps you like even be more aware of these things, right, but I think a lot of the fears that I hear from all family members and clients and even myself back then was like I don't want to get pregnant, right, and I was still married, obviously, but I wasn't ready. But what we did and I won't go into the details of you know how we prevented it but what we did was we talked about it. You know he, uh, josh, my husband, was like you. I don't want you taking that. Even him as a male knew that it wasn't right. Right, yeah, and in a way, probably his military background he probably doesn't trust a lot of things.

Rebecca Twomey: 38:58

I don't blame him. Yep, they shoot the military up with a lot of stuff.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 39:03

Yes, so I think he had a lot to do with that and still a lot of things that the way he is. It has a lot to do with that, right. But even him as a male, seeing me struggle with things, he was like this is birth control, stop it, right. So I listened to him Once he watches this, he'll be proud and I stopped it and we didn't get pregnant. I stopped in June and maybe I want to mention this because a lot of females probably are going to be like okay, so you've been having babies after babies.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 39:36

No, it has not been that way. We talked about it. It was a discussion that we had. You know, what are we going to do? How are we going to prevent this? And I wasn't ready to have children yet, and he's been ready way before I was, and this was 2018 and we didn't plan to get pregnant until about June of 2019. So, almost like a, I didn't get pregnant, not like by accident, like I learned. You know, when I was supposed to get my period, I didn't use a fancy app or anything. I just knew like how many days in between encountered nothing fancy. June 2019, we decided to try to have babies and I didn't get pregnant until probably September.

Rebecca Twomey: 40:24

So and I know that's probably.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 40:27

Yeah, that's probably fast for some people, but we had to actually like make that decision, you know, like make the decision to make it happen Right, sure, make the decision to open.

Rebecca Twomey: 40:38

Open the gates. Gates closed.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 40:42

Yes, and before then was like we're not having children. You know we have been away and whenever we made that decision it happened. And then this pregnancy right now Carson was born 2021, june 2021. We didn't decide to get pregnant again until 2023. So that showed you almost two years of I wasn't on birth control in between Carson and this pregnancy. If you have that conversation with your partner, if you know your cycle, if you take ownership of your life in this way, you're most likely you're not going to get pregnant right away.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 41:20

It takes a lot to get pregnant, takes a lot to uh. For a lot of women it takes years. You know, I had a client. She came off birth control. She went through a lot of heart heartache and I believe it was because of the of the uh birth control she wasn't. You know it affected her uterine lining a lot. The doctor mentioned it it to her and she was a lot of heartache, unfortunately, and I see this a lot. So I'm like when I feel when I have somebody, a new client, that tells me she's not on birth control, honestly I am in a little bit, in a big way, relieved because I know it's going to save a lot of heartache in the future.

Rebecca Twomey: 42:03

Yeah, that's a hurdle that she's. That woman is not going to have to jump through as many as those that are on birth control. Well, I didn't mention this at the beginning, but you just you just mentioned it just caught on Andrea's pregnant right now, so we were just I was just joking with her. She's going to have to come back and share more about birth stuff after baby, but we'll get there, so that's a very exciting thing. And, yes, you mentioned you and I had a similar experience with our first babies too, so there's lots to talk about from the birth realm. But you had another kind of thought that you were making me think about when, when you mentioned what was it just now when you were mentioning, oh, not getting pregnant. And I think that there's a misconception out there that we can just get pregnant any day of the month that way Any day you can get pregnant, but that is false information.

Rebecca Twomey: 43:02

Do we get pregnant when we are ovulating, when we are going through that phase of our cycle and it technically is only six days out of the whole month. So for six days you are fertile and then for the rest of it you are not. And that is what you'll learn in books like Taking Charge of your Fertility and the Fifth Sign is. They explain that cycle and that's one of the things you mentioned that you were able to know when your fertile window was, so that you could avoid the seeds being planted during that time for a number, for however long, until you guys felt convicted and ready to have your baby. And I went through the same thing. Right, we used FAM to prevent pregnancy and we've used FAM to attempt pregnancy. Now it's funny that I even say I used FAM, because it's not a guarantee that you're going to get pregnant ever, like we're not guaranteed baby. None of us. Children are a blessing and, like you said, some people it takes a long time. Some people it takes the first time that they're going through ovulation. It depends on the person, but we are seeing more and more and more and increased, increased infertility, and birth control definitely plays a role. It's on the insert, so y'all go read the insert that birth control can cause future infertility.

Rebecca Twomey: 44:29

This was actually a tremendous fear that I had when I got off of all this stuff and I started to learn. I was terrified that I would be infertile because of all the stuff that I was on for all those years. And I mean, technically I'm still not out of the woods, right Like there's things that these pills and products could have done to my body that I may have to face the consequences of later. And you know I try not to live in a state of fear or worry, but I'm just trying to be realistic, that you know I made this choice to do, to take these things, and so it's important to be aware that just because we don't experience it now, you know, doesn't mean that we're in the clear.

Rebecca Twomey: 45:10

And again, this is not to create fear or cause anxiety, but I we have to. We have to be truthful about the facts that are in front of us when we look at these inserts and we look at these papers and what they have said that other women have reported, because that's the side effects that are on the insert are what have been reported. There might even be stuff that hasn't been reported yet. When I had my experience with Mirena, I called them and I reported what happened to me. But how many times do we report medication side effects?

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 45:41

I don't. I think that was the first time.

Rebecca Twomey: 45:43

Yeah, you didn't re, you didn't report yours. And I should, now that I think about it, yeah, call them up and that's how I felt it was such a bad experience. But think about it. It's like a bad review, right, like you have to go out of your way to leave a bad review. You have to go out of your way to call this phone number and say I had a bad experience, here's what it was. So not everyone's going to do that and that's where they get this information from. So I guess I'm saying, if you're listening and you've had an experience like this, call, report your symptoms, because that's how they know what is going on, that's how they know what's happening. But this has been super helpful. Thank you for sharing your story. Is there any last pieces that you would like to weave our audience with, or any last thoughts or encouragement?

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 46:37

Last thoughts or encouragement. So, like I was saying, you know we're not giving medical advice. This is personal experience and you know what I experienced myself with birth control and and the Mirena. And then you know now that I do this world, living like coach women with fitness and nutrition, I see it also happening to them. But I will never say get off of it.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 47:07

You know it's your decision, but always take do not only take the, always ask your doctor, but also do not take that opinion and that advice as the only thing, like you mentioned, like food for thought. Right, if you hear somebody saying they had a negative experience or they are seeing negative experiences with clients or with themselves, go look it up. Go talk to other women, go ask them questions, because the doctor is not probably living that reality every day. You know that, especially with a male doctor, he's not living that reality and even if it's a female doctor, she's not living your reality. So if you have questions, if you're questioning a product, if you're questioning a medicine, just go ask. Um, you know, do more research, read about it. Do not just take when somebody's word for it or that medical advice as the only route for your fertility, for your hormone, health and anything that you do. So just talk to people.

Rebecca Twomey: 48:16

Absolutely. I totally agree with that. And the last thing that I would add is also pray for discernment from the Lord If you are feeling convicted about, if you've been taking birth control for 15 years. The Lord is there, he is there for us, he is our rock and he will guide us to the answers that are right for us and our bodies. And I lived in a lot of years of guilt over this and just feeling a certain kind of way, but I have peace now from the Lord through this. So I just encourage anybody to pray for that discernment. Lord, is this the path that you have for me? Is this right for me? And then listen when he speaks to you, because it's easy for us to ignore that and say, like everything inside of me, my intuition and the Holy Spirit are screaming to not do this. Listen, listen. So that's my gut feeling. That's right. That's right.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 49:18

It's really God telling you stop and think and talk to people.

Rebecca Twomey: 49:22

That's right. That is right. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story and being on the podcast. I am looking forward to us doing this again.

Andrea Riofrio Halford: 49:32

No, thank you so much for having me. It's been a lot of fun and I'm glad to finally meet you, hopefully one day in person.

Rebecca Twomey: 49:41

I know right, I am too. I am too. And to find Andrea on Instagram, her handle or profile is at Andrea underscore Rio Frio underscore Halford, and I will also link it in the show notes so that you can find her. Definitely go and check her out. She has awesome stuff for women on fitness and recovering postpartum, but also preparing before baby. I love watching your videos. You're so inspiring. So definitely go to the show notes and grab more information. And thank you for tuning in and for being on this journey with us.

Rebecca Twomey: 50:18

If you'd like to follow along outside of this podcast, you can join the mission on Instagram or Facebook at the Radiant Mission, or on YouTube. You can watch this on YouTube. If you're not already, just search the Radiant Mission or my name, rebecca Toomey. And today we are going to close with Andrea's favorite Bible verse, matthew 6, 27. When she feels worried, this verse reminds her to let God do his job. Matthew 6, 27 reads Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? That is so true. We will not. Hey, I'm going to add another quote to this. Worry is like a rocking chair It'll give you something to do, do, but you won't get anywhere. And I think that's what the lord is saying. Yeah, that's true. Right, we are wishing you a radiant week and we'll see you next time. Bye everyone bye.