Study: Link between birth control pill, weight gain a myth
Ever hear the (crass but widely repeated) joke that the pill works by making you chubby and hairier so one wants to have sex with you?
A new study seeks to put the link between birth control pill use and weight gain to rest, using primates to determine whether introduction of the pill to a female’s daily regimen is likely to result in weight gain. Not only did the study not find a link, but it actually seems the pill could speed up a woman’s metabolism, making weight loss a more likely outcome of birth control pill usage:
At the beginning of the study, half the animals were obese and half were normal weight. During the eight-month treatment period, animals received doses of oral contraceptives, adjusted to the weight of the animals so that it mimicked dosage in humans. Researchers tracked weight, food intake, activity levels, body fat and lean muscle mass. At the study’s conclusion, the normal weight group remained weight stable whereas the obese group lost a significant amount of weight (8.5%) and percent of body fat (12%) due to an increase in basal metabolic rate. No changes were seen in food intake, activity or lean muscle mass for either group.
So why the misconception? One of the study’s authors suggests that women may be attributing the weight gain that can gradually occur with aging as a side effect of the pill.
Tags : birth control pill, birth control pill and weight gain, medical myths, weight gain, weight-loss
Posted: January 21, 2011
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Jan 22, 2011
Sorry but this is a complete bad study: Millions of women gain weight on birth control. Also Obesity and Diabetes was recently shown to be the fault of doctors
see here
Oct 12, 2011
This is absolutely a false study. Women do gain weight on the pill or any other birth control hormone. Maybe they should use actual women for these studies instead of primates.
Oct 27, 2011
ANIMALS? Since when do animals need birth control? Studies that have been conducted on HUMAN patients turn up different results. In fact, the results are so conflicting and shaky that one should carefully consider if it is really what she needs. Pretty sure in many cases it does cause weight gain, beings it is synthetic estrogen- which causes weight gain and makes it harder to gain muscle mass. Seems like they try to attempt to minimize this notion to discourage silly irresponsible adolescents from having children- which the medical community almost sees as more of a danger than cancer, blot clots, depression, premature osteoporosis, weight gain, or simply putting synthetic hormones in girls without fully understanding the risks it could pose to future generations instead of teaching them to keep their damn legs closed. Personally, having a child was all the birth control I needed.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_oral_contraceptive_pill#Cancer
May 7, 2012
The study doesn't sound like it factored in bloating. Which is a VERY common occurrence in many women and isn't a "myth".