People are starting to acknowledge that contraception is harming the environment. When women are on hormonal contraceptives (especially the patch and IUDs) their bodies receive more estrogen than they can handle and they excrete the excess. That estrogen is not treated by sewage treatment plants or water filtration systems. Several studies have found that estrogen in the water supply has led to “intersex” fish: male fish which actually produce eggs.1
"This is the first thing I've seen as a scientist that really scared me." Biologist John Woodling in a Denver Post article on intersex fish
Synthetic estrogen in the water supply is not just from contraception. There are numerous culprits, from agriculture to industry, and they shouldn't be ignored. However, the contamination from contraception alone is enough to cause alarm, as Karen Kidd’s research in Canada shows a direct link between birth control pills and the “feminization” (and subsequent population collapse) of fish.2 In fact, hormonal contraception is officially designated a type of pollution in the UK.3
What few people realize is that all this can also physically harm males. The issue with synthetic estrogen is that it is a type of endocrine disruptor. Nicholas Kristof pointed out in a June 2009 column of the New York Times that endocrine disruptors are related to increases in genital deformities for newborn boys (particularly undescended testes) and lower sperm counts in males. He even went on Colbert and explained this:
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Is this really a big deal? Well, Dr. Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Catholic Medical Association, states: "We have sufficient data to state that one of the causes of masculine infertility in the West is the environmental contamination caused by the products of the 'pill.'" Sure, his might not be a completely unbiased opinion, but it should at least encourage people to give some thought to the 20th century phenomenon of men's declining sperm count and the effect pollution seems to be having.4
The effects of synthetic estrogen on fish and frogs are considered to be the canaries in the coal mine... but the issue is being ignored. Contraception is far too sacred for anyone to suggest that it might have negative effects. The thought of forsaking the pill for some fish is laughable, and so as a society we turn a blind eye to this entire issue.
Now I don't really want to sound too alarmist (although the video below does). I will admit that when I was first learning about all this, I freaked out a bit, because I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and drinking tons of water! And not to sound defeatist, but there's not really anything we can do about it, since current water treatment doesn't take care of it and there's even synthetic estrogen in our water bottles (that's what the whole BPA hullabaloo is about).
While it may seem impossible to avoid the estrogen that’s now contaminating our nation’s water supply, it is possible for individuals (at least women) to reduce their own absorption of synthetic estrogen by avoiding hormonal contraception. In fact, NFP is attracting more and more attention from couples who are concerned about their physical health and the health of the environment. These couples realize that if they are not going to eat meat with artificial hormones, then it is inconsistent with their “green” mentality to ingest artificial hormones in the form of contraception. By practicing NFP, couples can live a lifestyle that promotes the health of both people and the planet.
References
1 Just by searching for "intersex fish" in Google Scholar, here are a few I found by their DOI (I was too lazy to type out the full citations): 10.1016/S0378-4274(98)00328-2, 10.1016/j.cbpc.2006.04.019, 10.1021/es9710870, 10.1289/ehp.8068
2 Kidd, K.A., P.J. Blanchfield, K.H. Mills, V.P. Palace, R.E. Evans, J.M. Lazorchak and R. Flick. 2007. Collapse of a fish population following exposure to a synthetic estrogen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(21):8897-8901, doi:/10.1073/pnas.0609568104
3 From this website, which highlighted these two articles from the BBC and the UK Government.
4 See also this interesting website.