Women taking fifth generation oral birth-control pills may grow terribly hairy

Even though some aspects of our life have seriously changed, some people are still prejudiced against things that used to be imperfect some time ago but deserve trust today. This particularly concerns oral contraceptives. While millions of women take fifth generation oral contraceptives and have their health in good repair, it is still rumored that a woman may awfully put on weight and grow terribly hairy if she takes to such pills.

Photo: Women taking fifth generation oral birth-control pills may grow terribly hairy

Some people think that oral contraceptives are bad for women’s health. Doctors say that oral contraceptives have a various system effect upon the organism which cannot be specified definitely as bad or good. In many cases, doctors prescribe taking oral contraceptives as a special treatment, so the contraceptive effect is of second importance. The same type of hormonal contraceptives causes no discomfort with some women and at the same time may give rise to serious health problems with other women. In other words, it is important to have in mind that almost absolute protection from pregnancy may be connected with the risk of side effects.

Women believe that if some type of oral contraceptives turned out to be good for their female friends or relatives they may be also good for them. But oral contraceptives must be obligatorily prescribed by doctors depending upon each woman’s individual state of health. When taking oral contraceptives, women must also control the sugar and prothrombin level in blood and visit their gynecologists. It is also unlikely that oral contraceptives may cause you health problems if they did when your friend took them before.

It is a mistake to believe that hormone contraceptives are meant only for women after 20. In fact, doctors say that even young women can take them.

Contrary to the general belief that women fail to get pregnant for a long period after taking oral contraceptives, they in most cases conceive in the first month after giving up oral contraceptives. And statistics also states that the probability of giving birth to twins or triplets is twice higher after taking oral contraceptives. Doctors often prescribe oral hormone contraceptives for 3-4 months to treat some forms of infertility, and in many cases women actually get pregnant as soon as they give up the treatment with such pills. It is important that women who take hormone contraceptives can be sure that the medicines do not damage their embryos’ health.

If a doctor does not specify any individual scheme for taking oral hormone contraceptives, a woman can take such pills uninterruptedly even till her climacterium.

Women frequently ask if they may continue taking hormone contraceptives to avoid new pregnancy immediately after they give birth to babies. Prescription of hormone contraceptives to nursing mothers is a special theme. Usually hormone pills have a serious effect upon lactation and thus are prohibited for the period when a woman plans to nurse. There are contraceptives that contain small particles of hormones (so-called ‘mini-pills’), and doctors say theyare safe for nursing mothers. At that, women must be particularly careful with the regime prescribed for taking such pills. It is important that an interval between taking the next pill must be twenty four hours sharp otherwise the contraceptive effect will be lost.

Some women fear that they may put on weight if start taking hormone contraceptives. It is true that some women fix better appetite when taking oral contraceptives and others feel their appetites get lower in this situation. It is very difficult to predict beforehand how oral hormone contraceptives may influence women’s appetite. For full-bodied women doctors can prescribe hormone contraceptives with the low amount of gestagens, the hormones responsible for the body weight. Official research reveals that about 5-7 percent of women take more than two kilograms on within a year because of taking oral hormone contraceptives. As for other women, they fix no considerable weight changes.

Young girls sometimes believe that taking oral hormone contraceptives regularly is bad for their health and prefer emergency postcoital contraception. This is a serious mistake as one pill of a postcoital contraceptive contains a shock doze of hormones which is similar to the doze of hormones of oral contraceptives taken regularly within a month. If postcoital contraceptives are taken too often they may easily destroy the hormone background of a woman and even entail serious diseases and in some cases infertility.

Some women say that they got acne when started taking hormone contraceptives. And this sounds strange as often hormone medicines are prescribed to treat acne.

Another myth about oral hormone contraceptives that is still popular among women says that these pills may make women terribly hairy. Indeed, hormone contraceptives of the first and second generations intensified hair growth on female bodies. But today hormone contraceptives do not stimulate hair growth and even make hairs on the body thinner.

Investigations also reveal that women have more regular and stable menstrual periods when start taking hormone contraceptives. At that, the discharge gets less profuseand women have less pain during menstruation.

It is said that hormone contraceptives increase the risk of breast cancer and ovary cancer. A research conducted by Canadian scientists shows that oral contraceptives taken regularly bring the risk of ovary cancer down by 45-60 percent. These medicines do not influence the risk of breast cancer.

Women sometimes think that in addition to pregnancy prevention oral contraceptives must also protect them from sexually transmitted diseases. Indeed, oral contraceptives may reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases in the small pelvis thanks to their ability to accumulate cervical mucus that protects the female organism from infections. But it is known for sure that oral contraceptives never protect from sexually transmitted diseases.

Medportal

Translated by Maria Gousseva
Pravda.ru

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