Solutions to drugs that keep you fat 7—Birth control pills....

Today's Post: Friday, 4-20-2012

Friday, 3-9-2012, our post “Some drugs can keep you fat” listed several kinds of general strategies to drugs that tend to fatten you or keep you fat. For most of them, there is a better drug or a way to improve your condition that avoids using that drug.

Friday, 3-16, we covered anti-depressants since some of those can keep you fat. Some don’t including Zyban aka Wellbutrin that helps some people quit smoking.

Friday, 3-23, we covered blood pressure lowering drugs.

Friday, 3-30, we covered drugs for type 2 diabetes.

Friday, 4-6, we covered statin drugs. (There are far better ways to protect your heart. And statins cause the exercise that is essential for beneficial and permanent fat loss harm you instead.!)

Friday, 4-13, we covered Corticosteroids. (Some problems those help are hard to treat without them but your doctor may be able to help you use them in a way that minimizes the fat gain. The better news is that for asthma, using corticosteroids can almost always be temporary.)

Today, we cover Birth Control pills.

Since they contain estrogen, birth control pills can cause water retention. My wife took them back when they had even more estrogen than now and added weight to her breasts and had her hips widen. That’s not necessarily bad and is somewhat normal. But both effects do add pounds.

The good news is that there are 3 solutions.

1. One solution is to have your doctor prescribe a lower dose estrogen birth control pill.

These are usually effective at birth control and are far less likely to make fat loss and weight loss harder.

Three I've read about are: Yasmin (Drospirenone and Ethinyl Estradiol); Norgestimate/Ethinyl Estradiol combo; & Norethindrone Acetate and Ethinyl Estradiol combo.

I saw the side effect lists and none of them sounded fun to take.

BUT, you may have few side effects on one of them or find one that for you the side effects are minor or just go away after you have taken it for a bit. Most drugs have different side effects for different people. The thing you need is a doctor who knows these drugs and will work with you to find the one that works for you. And, birth control pills are more effective and easier to manage than most other kinds of birth control.

The important thing for avoiding problems with your fat loss is to see if you can avoid higher dose estrogen birth control pills.

2. The second solution is to use IUD’s, inter uterine devices. For women who have had children already or simply don’t do well on birth control pills because they get too many side effects or forget to take them and women who a 98% or 99% prevention rate is OK instead of the near 100 % of the pills, IUD’s can be great.

The woman I knew who used them found them effective and trouble free.

So if finding a birth control pill you can take OK simply doesn’t work, you may find getting an IUD can be a real solution. IUD’s do NOT add any fat or weight. Here again, ask your doctor or find one who knows IUD’s and has had successful experience with using them.

3. Making your figure more feminine and adding water weight don’t add much fat or harm your health.

So the third solution is just to work a bit harder and more thoroughly at eating right, exercise, and the small calorie cut backs that avoid the famine response.

This one is particularly important if you have lots of fat to lose. If you use this solution, you’ll still lose most of it over time even taking the birth control pills.

A good strategy would be for those who remember to take pills OK is to try the pill solution first and the IUD’s if that doesn’t work.

But to use the third solution no matter what.