Oral Contraceptives and Weight Gain, Myths and Truths and Anecdotes
Blogger Scicurious (she’s now at SciAm) puts on her ranty pants (she wears them like few others can) and digs deep into the birth control/weight gain science.
HINT: What you may have heard isn’t exactly what the science says.
This is key for people when trying to rule out causes: “…on average, hormonal birth control alone does NOT cause weight gain.” [emphasis mine]
I had to read this article because - hormonal contraceptives made me gain weight, dammit! I studied what was going on pretty carefully at the time, so I had no doubts that the contraceptives were the culprit (no, not studied in a scientific way, in a “jesuseffingchrist I have never been fat and now suddenly I’m fat, I must analyze this!” kind of way).
I was in the initial stages of mental preparation of leaving a comment, though not looking forward to going through all of that, what with the explanations and specific circumstances to bolster my argument…especially since she’d already dismissed my experience as “anecdotal”. (Which I had actually been saying to myself before I even started reading, so I knew I’d be agreeing with her - how do you argue when you agree on nearly all points?)
But then I came to this part in the article: “What DOES cause weight gain is the progesterone only contraceptive, given as an injectable or as an IUD.”
Oh. Okay. So I had to change out of my own ranty pants (or at least turn them inside out), because that changed everything. I was on oral contraceptives for many years with no noticeable problems, but when I switched to progesterone only, that’s when things went koo-koo with the fat cells. The injectable was HELL; the other forms are tolerable, but it’s definitely more difficult to maintain weight or *gasp* try to lose the weight it’s caused you to gain. And the best part is, I didn’t have to compose a comment.
