Unbelievable Negative Side Effect of Taking Birth Control +5 Other Health Risks Revealed

The AHA! Team — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 08:21:49 +0000

Sara Middleton via NaturalHealth365 – The birth control pill has been long-heralded as one of the most innovative and important drugs ever to hit the market. But while we recognize the importance of reproductive health, we’ve had concerns for a long time about the unwanted side effects of this popular prescription medication. Doctors and scientists have known for years the range of health problems and risks imposed by oral contraceptives. For instance, a new study by Li et al. found how combined oral contraceptives are particularly vulnerable to drug interactions. These interactions can either reduce the effectiveness of the pill or increase risks like thrombosis, highlighting the need for careful evaluation when other medications are taken concurrently. To make matters worse, research has revealed a surprising side effect of “the pill” that may further isolate and challenge women. Women taking a birth control pill struggle with ’emotional recognition’ A team of researchers from Germany published an eye-opening paper in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. Their study, titled “Oral Contraceptives Impair Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Women,” ran a group of healthy women (42 of them on oral contraceptives, 53 not) through an emotional recognition test. How well could these women identify other people’s emotions based on complex and nuanced social cues and facial expressions? The researchers determined that “women with [oral contraceptive] use were indeed less accurate” – by a margin of about 10 percent – “in the recognition of complex expressions than women without [oral contraceptive] use,” especially with “difficult to recognize” expressions such as pride and contempt. Simpler emotions, such as fear and happiness, seemed to be spared the medication-induced oversight. The idea that taking such a common prescription medication can negatively alter a person’s psychological health may be surprising at first glance. But reams of data also indicate oral contraceptives increase the risk of depression – which women experience at a higher rate than men. What’s going on? The leading (and logical) hypothesis is that oral contraceptives alter a woman’s sex hormones, thereby influencing the neurobehavioral elements of a healthy psychological profile. Unfortunately, that’s not the only thing the pill does. As if emotional difficulties weren’t troubling enough – check out these 5 other harmful side effects Over 100 million women around the world use oral contraceptives – often for decades! We think physicians need to do a better job at clearly explaining the negative side effects these patients are likely to face. In addition to emotional recognition difficulties and depression, common adverse effects and risk factors of the pill include: Weight gain and a decrease in lean body mass Decrease a woman’s sex drive Increased risk of cancer, including cervical, breast, liver, ovarian and endometrial cancers Increased risk of heart disease, including stroke, heart attack, deep vein thrombosis (blood clots), and high blood pressure Headaches and migraines Women need to be aware of these well-documented consequences of this prescription medication. They should be educated more about other effective and affordable birth control options that are safer and impose less of a risk to physical and mental health. And in light of the new “male birth control pill” that’s been racing through clinical trials, we ask that doctors give the same due diligence to men, as well. Sources for this article include: NIH.gov Medicalnewstoday.com Medicalxpress.com Frontiersin.org To read the original article click here.

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Birth Control Pills Shrink Hypothalamus

AHA Publisher — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 08:00:33 +0000

Dr. Ananya Mandal, MD via News Medical-Net – Birth control pills have been found to reduce a part of the brain that is associated with controlling the sex drive finds a new study. The study results are being presented as a preview in the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). A team of researchers found that taking birth control pills regularly have a smaller hypothalamus compared to other women who do not take these pills. The hypothalamus is a portion of the brain that controls the release of several hormones in the body, the team explained. If there is damage to the hypothalamus, they explained, there is a risk of adverse effects on the sex drive, mood, sleep cycles, heart rate and appetite of the woman. For this study the researchers looked at 50 women of whom 21 were using contraceptive pills. The women underwent MRI brain scan and size of the hypothalamus was measured for all the women. Results revealed that the women who were taking the pills had smaller hypothalamus compared to women who were not. Dr. Michael Lipton, professor of radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, said in a statement, “We found a dramatic difference in the size of the brain structures between women who were taking oral contraceptives and those who were not. This initial study shows a strong association and should motivate further investigation into the effects of oral contraceptives on brain structure and their potential impact on brain function.” He added that these women also had more depressive symptoms and anger control problems. The researchers added that this is the first study that finds an association between the contraceptive pills and the size of the hypothalamus. They explained that these hormones present in the birth control pills essentially are synthetic versions of the estrogen and progesterone present in the body. These hormones interfere with the normal cycle of menstruation and thus prevent pregnancy. Lipton said that there have been no studies looking at the connection between these contraceptives and the hypothalamus of the brain and its ability to release hormones. The team explains that this study can reveal only an association between the pills and shrinkage of the hypothalamus but does not show a causative relationship between the two. Experts warn that this hypothesis needs larger randomized trials in future to be confirmed. Women on pills should not give them up yet, say experts. Further this study is a preliminary finding and has not been published in a peer reviewed journal yet, they explained. To read the original article click here.

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Unbelievable Negative Side Effect of Taking Birth Control +5 Other Health Risks Revealed

Birth Control Pills Shrink Hypothalamus