Birth Control Pills and Weight Gain

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Birth Control Pills and Weight Gain

As individuals age, there is a tendency to gain weight, with or without BCPs. It is difficult to show any significant additional weight gain in groups of women taking low-dose BCPs compared to groups of women (of the same age) not taking BCPs.

That said, there are certainly individual women who gain weight when they take BCPs and lose the weight when they stop taking the BCPs. Similarly, there are individual women who lose weight while taking the BCPs and gain it back when they stop.

For those women who tend to retain water in the presence of elevated estrogen levels, changing them to a stronger progestin pill with a longer half life may resolve the weight gain problem. This works because the stronger progestin will more consistently suppress ovarian function, suppressing the woman's own estrogen, while providing a small amount of "add-back" estrogen from the pill to prevent such hypoestrogenic symptoms as night sweats, vaginal dryness, and hot flashes.

This information is provided by The Brookside Associates. The Brookside Associates, LLC. is a private organization, not affiliated with any governmental agency. The opinions presented here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Brookside Associates or the Department of Defense. The presence of any advertising on these pages does not constitute an endorsement of that product or service by either the US Department of Defense or the Brookside Associates. All material presented here is unclassified.

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