Negative Side Effects Of Hormonal Birth Control – Alexandra Perez, PharmD, MBA, BCGP Medically Reviewed — By Ann Pietrangelo — Updated March 30, 2023

Hormonal birth control is not without side effects. As with all drugs, there are beneficial effects and potential risks that affect everyone differently.

Negative Side Effects Of Hormonal Birth Control

Most believe that hormonal birth control serves one purpose: preventing pregnancy. While it is very effective compared to other forms of birth control, the effects are not only limited to pregnancy prevention. In fact, they can even be used to help treat other health issues such as menstrual relief, skin changes, and more.

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Birth control pills and patches are dispensed only with a prescription. Hormone-based contraceptives are available in several forms, including:

Each type has similar benefits and risks, although everyone responds differently to hormones. If you are interested in birth control, talk to your doctor about which type is most effective for you. Effectiveness is based on how consistent your birth control use is.

For example, some people find it difficult to remember to take a pill every day so an implant or IUD would be the best choice. There are also non-hormonal birth control options, which can have different side effects.

However, no form of hormonal birth control protects against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). You will still need to use condoms to prevent STDs.

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Ovaries naturally produce the female hormones estrogen and progestin. Any of these hormones can be synthetically made and used in contraceptives.

Above normal levels of estrogen and progestin stop the ovary from releasing an egg. Without an egg, sperm has nothing to fertilize. The progestin also changes the mucus in the uterus, making it thick and sticky, making it harder for sperm to find their way into the uterus.

When using certain hormonal contraceptives such as the Mirena IUD, you might experience lighter and shorter periods and a relief from menstrual cramps and premenstrual symptoms.

These effects are among the reasons some women take birth control specifically for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a severe form of PMS. Some women with endometriosis also take birth control to ease painful symptoms.

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The risk decreases the longer oral contraceptives are taken and the protection continues even years after a woman stops taking oral contraceptives.

However, the risk of breast and uterine cancer may be increased in women taking the oral contraceptive pill.

While birth control has many benefits, it can also cause side effects. Spotting between periods, also called breakthrough bleeding, is common in people on hormonal birth control.

Spotting is most common with very low-dose, low-dose forms of hormonal birth control such as the hormonal IUD, the implant, and birth control pills.

Birth Control Pills: Dangers, Side Effects & Alternatives

Birth control can cause other side effects as well. Reproductive side effects as your body adjusts to oral contraceptives, inserts and patches include:

For some women, birth control pills and patches can raise blood pressure. These extra hormones can also put you at risk for blood clots.

These side effects are uncommon in most women, but when they do occur, they can be very serious. This is why hormonal birth control methods require a prescription and routine monitoring.

Since the body works to maintain a hormone balance, it is possible that the introduction of hormones creates a disturbance, causing changes in mood.

Coming Off The Pill

But there are few studies on the mental health effects of birth control on women and their well-being. Only recently, a 2017 study looked at a small sample of 340 healthy women and found that oral contraceptives significantly reduced overall well-being.

Some women experience changes in their appetite and weight while taking hormonal contraception. But there are few studies or evidence that birth control causes weight gain.

Some women taking hormonal contraceptives may experience side effects such as nausea and bloating. These tend to ease after a couple of weeks as your body gets used to the extra hormones.

Taking the pill with food can help with nausea. Switching to a pill with less estrogen may also help.

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See your doctor if you have severe pain, vomiting, or yellow skin and eyes (jaundice). Dark urine or pale-colored stools can also be a sign of serious side effects.

On the other hand, other people may experience breakouts of acne or notice no change at all. Every woman’s body and hormone levels are different, so it is difficult to predict what side effects will occur as a result of birth control.

Sometimes, birth control hormones cause unusual hair growth. More often, though, birth control actually helps with unwanted hair growth. Oral contraceptives are also the main treatment for hirsutism, a condition that causes thick black hair to grow on the face, back, and abdomen.

Talk to your doctor if you feel that your current birth control is not right for you. Being open and honest about your side effects and how they make you feel is the first step to finding the right dose and quality you need.

Is Birth Control Bad For You? Experts Debate The Issue

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Our experts continuously monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available. In today’s industrialized nations, synthetic hormonal oral contraception (aka the birth control pill) is the most common practice to prevent pregnancy. Despite the evidence that there are many potential dangers of birth control pills, millions of women choose to take these hormonal drugs every year. In fact, 67 percent of all women who report “practicing contraception” currently use non-permanent birth control methods, mostly hormonal methods – including pills, patches, implants, injections and vaginal rings – or IUDs and condoms. (1) About 25 percent of these women rely on taking the pill for birth control every day, even though most know that “the pill” affects their entire body.

While birth control pills are convenient and indeed effective at preventing unwanted pregnancy – studies say they work more than 99 percent of the time when taken correctly, and less than one in 100 women will get pregnant each year if they are taken regularly. take the pill every day. as requested — many feel that as far as mental and physical health are concerned, the risks of birth control outweigh the benefits. (2)

They found that the dangers of birth control pills can include side effects such as cystic acne, anxiety or moodiness, breast tenderness, weight gain, or for some difficulty getting pregnant after stopping the pill. Birth control pills can even cause depression.

Birth Control For Men

If you currently use any type of birth control (the pill, the shot, the patch, etc.), I cannot encourage you strongly enough to consider natural birth control alternatives instead. There are many other safer ways to prevent pregnancy, such as using condoms or avoiding sex on certain days of the month, that do not cause the side effects associated with taking birth control pills.

The Department of Health and Human Services defines birth control pills, also known as oral contraceptives or just “the pill,” as types of medication taken daily by women in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy. (3) While the majority of women choose to take birth control pills to avoid the risk of accidental pregnancy, a small percentage also take them for other reasons, such as controlling or temporarily stopping the menstrual cycle or reducing symptoms associated with PMS and/or hormonal imbalance. (such as acne, heavy menstrual bleeding or painful cramps).

As of 2012, only about 11 million women in the United States reported using birth control pills, and the number is over 100 million women worldwide! The total number of women exposed to any type of “synthetic hormonal contraception” is even higher, as most figures do not account for women using the “morning-after pill” – a type of high-dose hormonal birth control available in the United States. State over-the-counter since 2000. Surveys show that the women most likely to take the pill are white women, women in their teens and 20s, women who have never married and cohabited, women who do not have children, and college graduates. .

There are dozens of different brands of birth control pills, and most fall into one of two categories: combined pills or progestin-only pills.

Long Term Side Effects Of Birth Control Pills

Birth control pills, patches and vaccines stimulate the estrogen levels to continuously increase in a woman’s body, something that is neither natural nor very safe. A woman’s natural menstrual cycle consists of estrogen and progesterone levels that rise and fall throughout the month. Birth control pills work by keeping estrogen at an unnatural level throughout the month – high enough to even trick the body into thinking it’s already pregnant! Since the body sees high estrogen levels as a sign of pregnancy, it stops ovulation, and therefore when taking the pill another pregnancy cannot occur.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, it has been found that the effects of continuously increasing estrogen levels in the female body due to taking birth control pills can include: (5)

Birth control pills contain the same types of synthetic hormones as hormone replacement medications commonly used by menopausal or postmenopausal women. Researchers have now gathered evidence regarding significant problems associated with the effects of synthetic hormones that some suggest women should not take at all. The same thing

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