Birth Control Pills and Weight Loss

Birth control pills have been around for many years and their success just shows that it can prevent pregnancies. In fact, there are so many of them around that despite the side effects women are still willing to make that sacrifice.

Side effects associated with birth control pills include light bleeding in between periods, skipped periods, nausea, weight gain, bloating and an increased risk of vaginal infections. You will probably experience either one or two of those mentioned since each person is different. Most of the time, this problem can be stopped by changing to a different pill.

But can birth control pills make you lose weight? Most studies have shown that you will gain weight rather than lose a few pounds because the hormone estrogen causes fluid retention in the body. So you can just imagine what a 50 mcgm pill can do compared to that of a lower dosage.

This is even if one pill called Yasmin, developed by Berlex laboratories made some women lose 2 pounds but then gained it back a short while after. Should the company be successful in proving that it can cause weight loss, the US FDA or food and drug administration may approve this as a weight loss aid.

Other changes in birth control pills include the volume of hormones. This means that there are fewer women these days that suffer from the side effects associated with hormonal changes or imbalances.

Since the objective of taking birth control pills is to prevent pregnancy and not to gain or lose weight, one effective way of doing this is by taking pills in 20mcgm dosages. Some examples that have this are Alesse, Levlite, Loesterin-Fe and MIrcette. You should also ask your doctor for other recommendations before you buy it from the drug store.

But if you are gaining weight as a result of the pill, you should have yourself checked by the doctor for insulin resistance. Should tests confirm this, you should go on a low carbohydrate diet. Exercise will also help a lot so you are able to shed off some of those excess pounds.

According to one population survey, more than 18 million women use one out of 40 birth control pills that are available in the market. All of them are prescribed by a physician and so if one doesn’t work, there are 39 others that you can choose from.

Birth control pills are not the only ones that can cause weight gain. The use of injectibles also produces the same result. The only difference is that most women gain about 5 pounds or less using pills rather than 6 to 7 pounds using the injection.

So, if you are considering using birth control pills or any other method, do some research about the side- effects? Gaining or losing a few pounds should be the least of your worries because other things may happen such as blood clots, heart disease, heart defects, a stroke and severe migraines to name a few.

You could end up in the hospital instead of looking much bigger than you were before. Sadly, this is the price you have to pay if you don’t want to raise a family or have kids anymore until a pharmaceutical company is able to make a more effective birth control pill or method.