7 Birth Control Effects
According to a recent 2021 study, 25% of women ages 15 - 44 that use contraception report that they chose oral pills as their method. Many women are administered the birth control pill to not only prevent pregnancy but also to regulate periods, treat endometriosis, and reduce acne. It is important to know the birth control effects on the body to know if taking it is right for you.
Source: NIH
1. PREVENTS PREGNANCY
One of the birth control effects on the body is that it prevents pregnancy. Though many women who take the pill are taking it for contraception purposes, others may take it for weight management or for acne benefits. The effectiveness of birth control pills comes in at about 91% for typical use (includes human error). With perfect use, the pill stands to be 99% effective when taken every day at the same time with no missed days. The pill prevents pregnancy through the administration of artificial hormones which will impact ovulation.
Source: NIH
2. Regulates Menstrual Cycle Length
The first birth control effects on the body is that it will regulate your cycle. Our menstrual cycle is on average 28 days in length, so oral contraceptives work in the same way. Each pill is associated with a different strength of estrogen levels or a combination of estrogen and progesterone. These different strengths of hormone levels will be a replication of our natural levels. For 3 weeks you take one pill per day and then the fourth week you do not need to take a pill because this is your ‘period’ week, more information on that will be mentioned later. Taking the pill each day at the same time is vital for keeping effectiveness high.
Source: NIH
3. Nausea
Another one of the birth control effects on the body is nausea. At the beginning of your use of birth control, your body is adjusting to the artificial hormones from birth control, and nausea can occur. This is caused by the increase in estrogen in the pills. High levels of estrogen irritate the stomach lining resulting in an upset stomach. To mitigate the nausea effects of birth control, many women opt to take the pills are night before bed, so that the effects of nausea occur while you are asleep.
Source: NIH
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4. No Ovulation
Another one of the birth control effects on the body is that ovulation does not occur. Many may not know that on oral contraceptives, ovulation is shut off, and this is why you do not get pregnant. Ovulation is one of the most necessary parts of conception. In addition to this, birth control pills prevent pregnancy by thickening the mucus in the cervix so that the sperm have a harder time entering the uterus. Conception is dependent on the egg being in the fallopian at the same time that the sperms swim up into the fallopian tube. At that point, the sperm can fertilize the egg and conception occurs. When you do not ovulate the sperm can not fertilize. Birth control pills contain artificial forms of hormones that will turn off the production of hormones, thus the brain-ovary connection is severed.
The amount of hormones administered through the pill will simulate the hormone levels that a pregnant woman has. This works because when you are pregnant your body naturally does not ovulate. The body will prohibit ovulation so that a woman can not conceive while she is already pregnant. Due to this, the pill will give a false sense of pregnancy so the body will not allow ovulation to occur.
Source: NIH
5. ‘MENSTRUAL CYCLE’
Another one of the birth control effects on the body is the new ‘menstrual cycle’ that occurs while you are on it. The reason that it is put in quotes is because this menstrual cycle is not a true menstruation. Normal or true menstruation occurs because of a failure to fertilize an egg after ovulation. In the case of birth control pill use, the body will not release an egg and therefore no ovulation or true menstruation will occur. Well, you might be asking what is happening then on every fourth week of the birth control pill use? This bleeding is just a light shedding of the endometrium, but it is not correlated to an egg being shed or the normal build-up of the endometrial wall in preparation for pregnancy. This period that occurs on the pill is much lighter and less symptomatic because the bleeding is not associated with the natural hormonal output.
Source: NIH
6. Sore Breasts
Sore breasts are another one of the birth control effects on the body because of the excess estrogen. The breast tissue is reliant on hormone levels, and after taking birth control hormone levels change the increase in breast tissue can cause your breasts to feel sore.
Source: NIH
7. Mood changes
Increases in sensitivity of mood is another one of the birth control effects on the body. Some people report better effects on mood, while others say that their mood is more unstable after using birth control. This can be due to the adjustment period of starting birth control as your body is no longer producing any more hormones of its own. Preexisting depression may increase risk of having adverse mood effects when taking birth control.
