Lauriane has tears in his eyes. By discussing the pill, she realizes that she is not alone in having suffered from undesirable effects. Far from it.

This 27 -year -old woman has stopped hormonal contraception for a month. A few weeks which have already allowed him to rediscover himself.

“I had many side effects when I started to take the pill, especially in terms of my mood. I had periods that came back in which I felt like I was missing something, not to be myself."

"It was very special ," explains Lauriane, from the Lyon region. I was no longer recognized and wondered where the sports girl who loved the countryside could have passed. I was quickly tired, I didn't have a taste for much. I also gained a lot of weight and my libido dropped. "

Testimonials like this, we received nearly 1,500 of them following a call for witnesses launched on the sites of the Nice-Matin group.

Women from all over France, of all ages, wishing to tell their negative experience of the contraceptive pill.

A stroke at 21 years old

Among them, Carla, 22 years old. Last year, she made a stroke.

"It's been a few years since I had migraines but I was not worried, I thought it was my body, because my life before pill, that I started at 15, I don't really remember it ," retraces the Vallaurian.

On September 12, she wakes up with a “big headache” , which is getting worse over the hours. Around 5 p.m., she no longer holds. While she was in a shopping center, she took paracetamol and, ten minutes later, the stroke symptoms appear.

"I lost the use of my right hand, the whole right part of the body was numb, I lost the floor. I went home and went to see SOS doctors, but the queue was immense so I returned home. Then I laid the floor."

In the evening, Carla vomits blood and ends up falling asleep. The next morning, she took the car to go to her parents, in Vallauris. A journey of several hours from Montpellier, where she studies.

“Arrived at my house, that was not going well at all. It was really horrible. I started to vomit again. My parents immediately took me to the antibes hospital." The young woman says that he was just a blood test and a COVID-19 screening test, pandemic requires.

"I was told that it was not serious, that it was just a headache and that it was necessary to take paracetamol. But they still prescribed me an MRI and that is what saved me. She showed that I had a stain on my brain. The doctor called me to tell me to go immediately to the emergency room, that it was very serious."

She goes to the Monaco hospital, where "they said to me right away: " You throw your pill box in front of our eyes and you never take it again " ."

Carla stays a week in the hospital, where she spends “all possible and unimaginable exams”. "But I had no problem, everything was perfect. I have a very healthy lifestyle, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I eat well ... Nothing in my behavior suggested a stroke. The only toxic thing I consumed, in spite of myself, it was the pill."

"What is horrible is that they cannot say 100% that it is because of the pill but they know that is it," said the young woman.

On September 12, Carla stopped the pill. She never had a headache again. “For 7 years, I had a migraine once a week. I've been revising for 4 months, it's magic!"

Three brain tumors

There is also the story of Anne, 55, in Paris. For thirty years, she took hormonal contraception and chained several pills like Diane 35 , Lotéran , Lotényl and Androcur .

That pinned pills, still very recently by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), for demonstrated Méningiomes, brain tumors.

"In 2015, I went to my ophthalmos to change my glasses and we couldn't find the right correction. She prescribed an MRI, because something was wrong, and we discovered three meningiomas" , explains Anne.

On the phone, the 50 -year -old has trouble remembering her career with precision. She keeps a medical file, open in front of her.

“I started by seeing blur from time to time, then as epilepsy attacks, I lost control of the upper limbs and then lower. I was brought to hospital but they could do nothing and, as soon as it calmed down, I was sent back home."

Anne made several crises before making it a more serious in 2016. “In the hospital, we did not immediately realize that I had lost part of my memory.”

She says she felt abandoned, isolated, until the hospital runs out of the hospital in the heart of Paris. She returns home, but does not remember how, and remains in bed three months.

The 50 -year -old consults a first neurosurgeon, who tells her that she is “crazy” and that she has no meningioma. The second tells her that she did not take the pill long enough to develop.

By doing research on the internet, she comes across Amavea , an association of victims of meningiomas. “I read lots of testimonies, I contacted the association and I finally understood what happened to me, I was not crazy!”

Today, Anne's meningiomas are recognized. One of the tumors is not operable, the other two are “too small”, “no need to have surgery” .

"The gynecos still prescribe these pills and laugh when we talk. It is unacceptable. I told my daughter not to take them. They are benign tumors, that's what they say, but I am visually impaired!" 

Now, Anne is looking for alternative treatments, turns to reflexology and micro-osteo. And she “ learns to live with it.”

“At least 83 deaths each year”

The cases of Carla and Anne do not reflect the majority. They have undergone serious accidents under pill, which can range from cancer to stroke through venous thrombosis, the formation of a blood clot which can lead to pulmonary embolism.

"Women under the age of thirty who took the pill at least once in their lives have a death rate three times higher than those who have never taken it ," summarizes journalist Sabrina Debusquat - who published in 2017 the book "I stop the pill" - based on a study published in the British Medical Journal in 2010.

“The estroprogestative pill (the one that nearly 80% of French women) have been classified by the International Center for Research on Cancer (WHO branch) since 2005 as a primer of first category for breast, the cervix, the liver and the bile ducts.

"We can estimate that at least 83 French people die because of their hormonal contraception each year ," says Sabrina Debusquat, taking into account breast cancers and thromboembolic accidents.

The risks of meningiomas, the brain tumors, were quantified “for the first time” during a vast study published in June 2020 and relayed by the ANSM, the drug agency.

It reveals that the risk of developing meningioma is “multiplied by 12.5 from five years of treatment under Lotényl” and “multiplied by 7 for 3.5 years of treatment under Lutéran”.

The pill, barrier against cancers?

"The danger, with the contraceptive pill, is the cardiovascular risk" , tempers the gynecologist-obstetrician Véronique Gaid, based in Valbonne.

"It is very linked to the patient's field. The factors that increase the risks are, in particular, age, tobacco, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, family history ... From the moment a woman has no contraindications, the risk is brought back to the same level as without pill."

"There is no increase in the risk of cancer, on the contrary, studies show that taking the pill for a very long time decreases the risk of uterus cancer, the endometrium, and the ovary" , certifies the gynecologist, who has been practicing since 2002.

An argument dismantled by Sabrina Debusquat in her investigation “I stop the pill”. She became interested in two major studies: that of the Royal College of General practitioners in London and the Walnut Creek Contractive  Drug Study.

She reproaches them, among other things, their methodology. “Two groups of women have been established to be compared: women under pill and women without pill. But two major problems appear straight away. First, these groups are not representative of the entire female population. Second, women who have taken hormones similar to the pill are classified in the“ without pill ”group.

"However, if we take up the study by eliminating this bias, the results are very different: the pill has no protective effect" , attests to the journalist, who relies on a study published in The Lancet in 2015.

"These two studies are therefore absolutely not credible in their conclusions, however they are considered to be the most prestigious in the world. It is thanks to these works (and many others conducted for fifty years with the same biases) that global health authorities ensure women that they can take their pill with confidence and even that it protects them from certain cancers ... It is on this science more than your generalist or gynecologist inform."

“A hundred” side effects

In addition to serious accidents, the pill can also cause many mild side effects. "A good hundred ," said Sylvain Tassy, ​​obstetrician gynecologist in Nice, specializing in endometriosis.

Among which: drop in libido, depression, chronic fatigue, migraines, vaginal dryness, heavy legs, nausea, breast pain, bleeding between two cycles, pelvic pain, vaginitis, polycystic ovary syndrome, food allergies, diabetes, epilepsy, cystitis, acne, asthma, osteoporosis, Hypertension, mood disorders, hair loss ...

Louise, 32 -year -old anti -loose, had mounted milk caused by the Jasmine pill. "Like a person who has just given birth, when I was 16 years old. Milk climbs lasted three weeks, while the body is recovering. Now when I talk, I tell myself that it is still mind -blowing that a cachet can provoke this in someone! I just said " Oh well she doesn't suit you, we're going to try another one . "

After 17 years under hormonal contraception, to chain several pills like Diane 35, Androcur and Lotéran, Louise stopped everything on January 1, 2020.

"When you are used to taking a pill since so young, you do not realize the side effects because it feels like it's normal" , analyzes the antiboise.

"What I took a lot for phases of depression, I told myself that it was in my character. The drop in libido? All the doctors will tell you that it is because you have problems of couple. In fact, everything had a reason to be. It was by finally stopping the pill that I realized that all these things were reversible. At the time, I did not necessarily realize the impact that it had."

These undesirable effects are not deadly and all the women under pill will not necessarily experience them but, "added to each other, they can rot the life of a patient. They are not necessarily serious individually, although, but not harmless together" , confirms the gynecologist Sylvain Tassy.

Minimized effects

Undesirable consequences often minimized, even ignored, by the medical profession.

"There is a real denial on the part of doctors, gynecologists and generally from the whole of society vis-à-vis the side effects of the pill and drugs , confides Sylvain Tassy, ​​who nuances: the problems can be linked to the pill but are not necessarily to be fully attributed to the contraceptive".

“In 2017, when my book“ I stop the pill ”was released, I had the opportunity to be confronted on TV or radio sets with many members of the medical profession. I was quite frightened by this almost systematic minimization of the undesirable effects of the pill and sometimes, worse than minimization, it is a total erasure. When we hear some media gynecologists talk, it is almost as if these unwanted effects women ” , confirms journalist Sabrina Debusquat.

"Very regularly, patients say to me: " Ah but my gynecologist told me that this side effect was not possible! " “ , Adds Sylvain Tassy.

A minimization which ends up turning into lack of information, especially for adolescent girls who take the pill as the first contraception almost automatically.

"I am angry, not necessarily against my doctor but overall, we are not informed enough. I have friends who smoke when they are under pill; in college, we had prevention days but nobody told us that the pill was risky, on the contrary!" , exclaims Camille, 21, who lives in Val-de-Marne.

A year ago, the young woman made a venous thrombosis with pulmonary embolism. "They told me that it was most likely due to the pill but they are not 100% sure because it was already four years since I took it. We did several exams but they could not find other causes."

The “All-Pilule” model

Since its invention in the 1950s in the United States, the pill has established itself as one of the pillars of contraception.

It was the most used method in France (36.5%) in 2016, according to the Barometer France.

"I was not really aware of other means of contraception, whether hormonal or not, apart from the condom , remembers Lauriane. I really had in mind that each young girl becoming" sexually active "was prescribed the pill."

This “all-pilule” model ends up encroaching on the women's desire to change contraception, after passing through the pill.

"I was not at all accompanied by my gynecologists at all in the process of stopping the pill , says Louise. When I asked for the advice of my gynecologist, who is a specialist, he replied: " It is out of the question " . There is not even a notion of consent. I was answered no. I was said: " Listen, we have struck enough to find a pill that is not going to stop everything, "

Stockholm syndrome

Why do gynecologists, general practitioners and generally members of the medical profession, are not talking more about side effects? Why is the pill so protected?

"There may be a confusion, which has developed over the decades, between hormonal contraception and contraception ," said the Nice gynecologist Sylvain Tassy.

"The pill has been placed in the woman's sexual liberation icon, which is something extremely important, but it should not have the monopoly of this liberation, which does not necessarily go through hormonal contraception!"

An idea shared by journalist Sabrina Debusquat, who considers “that we have a kind of Stockholm syndrome vis-à-vis the pill”.

"Because it was a great advance and a symbol, we are unable to see the flaws of the pill and it is like any problem, when we do not see that there is one, we will never move on it."

She continues: "There is no question of questioning the formidable advance that was the pill, there is no question of saying " we must prohibit the pill there right away " , it would obviously be a disaster, it is a question of hearing women and wondering all together, simply go towards the best,".

His solution? Release the floor. “This is why I launched the hashtag #Payetcontraception , to do a bit like a #MeToo of contraception and illustrate, via testimonies of women who write to me, the reality of the adverse effects of hormonal contraceptions."

Control the births of the poor

If the pill allowed women to be sexually released, it was not created for “feminist reasons” , says Sabrina Debusquat. “For me, this is what explains the cascade of events until today.”

"The pill was developed in the late 1950s in the United States. Not only was science was not what it is today with the standards and the criteria that we can have, but also listening to women was not the same. What we would consider today as something unacceptable, at the time of the 1950s and science of these years, it was accepted ," she poses in the preamble.

"In fact, they are white eugenic eugenist billionaires in a context of cold war which, seeing the ethnic communities begin to activate politically (Latinos, blacks), saw in the pill a political tool for these people to reproduce less in number. They were afraid of losing power."

She explains, in detail in her book, that the pill was funded for political purposes. Bring to a product without side effects was not the priority. And these side effects were known from the start.

The anecdote of the ratatious testicles 

Sabrina Debusquat evokes an anecdote, which "perfectly illustrates the mentality in which the pill was born and which is no longer that of today".

In 1954, Gregory Pincus, the scientist behind the pill, went to an asylum in Worcester, in the United States, to do tests.

"He said to himself: " Here, I notice that when we give our first pill to women, they have Libido decreases ". First info: I realize that, since 1954, Libido decreases are known by the very inventors of the pill. Then Gregory Pincus said to himself: " Here, and if I declined this pill for women in chemical for the homosexuals "."

He gives his pill to eight homosexuals interned in asylum "and it turns out that there is one who sees his testicles missing after a while. The tests are stopped immediately”.

In parallel, the American scientist launches tests with the same pill on women. Five suspicious deaths are noted.

"I can only notice the discrepancy: when you make a pill for men, even if it is in the idea of ​​chemically castrating homosexuals, you stop, completely frightened, as soon as there are ratatious testicles. Next to women, for women, there are five deaths, well it comes out on the market."

Chemical castration

How is it that the pill reduces the libido of people who take it? "Testosterone is the main hormone of sexual desire in men and women. Most pills will decrease this testosterone rate up to 50%. Some doctors and specialists therefore consider that taking the contraceptive pill is a form of chemical castration ," said the journalist.

“Cyproterone acetate, which is a progestin that is found in a pill called Diane 35, is also used in the context of real chemical castration of male sex delinquents."

There are two types of pills: estroprogestatives, the most common, and progestinies, without estrogen. Among the most used, there are four generations, which correspond to the developments of the formula with each their advantages and disadvantages.

The pill is an endocrine disruptor, “substances that disturb the hormonal functioning of living organizations and can thus lead to harmful effects on health and the environment” , informs ANSES , the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Work.

In other words, the hormones present in the pill will cause disturbances in our body, by modifying the links between several organs, which facilitates the appearance of diseases.

"Let us stop demonizing the pill , puts Vanessa Srom, gynecologist in Nice into perspective. There is no magic contraception, you should not be fooled. There will always be effects. What is the best? What is the least worse?" Difficult to say. "

“Sometimes the pill saves lives, especially for women with very painful rules. Sometimes premenstrual syndrome causes much more intense depression phases. Sometimes women will never find a pleasant state under pill."