Top Unknown Side Effects of Contraceptive Pills

The birth control pill, often known as the contraceptive pill (OCP), is quite effective in avoiding pregnancy. These are tiny pills which include the hormones estrogen and progestin. 

These hormones restrict ovulation in women by inhibiting the pituitary gland, which prevents conception. However, it has some potential & unknown adverse effects, just like any other medication.

Consult your doctor immediately if you experience continuous or severe adverse effects after having oral contraceptives. Further, this article will also discuss how oral birth control works. And what potential & unknown adverse effects could the use of these oral contraceptives have?

What Are Contraceptive Drugs?

Hormonal contraceptive methods include medication, vaginal ring, and patch.  However, because of their accessibility and ease of use, contraceptive tablets are a more preferred method for birth control.

Contraceptive pills come in two major varieties: mini-pills that only comprise progestin and combination pills that include progestin and oestrogen manufactured artificially.

How Do Contraceptive Medicines Work?

Various contraceptive medicines function in different ways to control pregnancy. While some drugs discourage ovulation, some pills thicken the cervical mucus since condensed cervical mucus stops the sperm from reaching the uterus.

Some medications, particularly tiny pills, thicken cervical mucus while thinning the endometrial lining. It renders fertilisation more complicated, and even if it does, the thin endometrial lining tends to make it more challenging for the fertilised eggs to implant.

Birth control medications also help to manage heavy, irregular, or hurting periods. Moreover, you can even have them to treat endometriosis and PMS. Nonetheless, you should not ignore the drawbacks of contraceptives and the long-term side impacts. 

Some Lesser Known Side Effects of Contraceptive Drugs

Side effects of the contraceptives might stay for the long term or short term. The short-term impacts might get resolved within months since your body gets adapted to the intake of the hormones.

But the long-term impacts include blood clots, high blood pressure, cardiac problems, stroke, cervical cancer, and breast cancer. So if you take contraceptives for an extended period, you might be at more risk. Further, look at the lesser-known side effects of birth control pills.

Headaches 

Since birth control drugs have hormones, most women are susceptible to such hormones, specifically estrogen. The estrogen in pills can induce a headache and even worsen it if you are already prone to headaches and migraines. 

Women who go through migraines also face mood swings and might notice that their headaches get heightened at specific times throughout the menstrual cycle. It happens because of the hormonal shifts as a part of contraceptives.

According to research, long-term use of birth control tablets increases the risk of brain inflammation and significant health issues, including stroke in women with migraine, particularly those with allure migraine.

Hence, immediately talk to your doctor if you are dealing with chronic headaches after taking pills. He might prescribe you alternative drugs that will only have a progestin or a small amount of estrogen. 

Yeast Infections

Yeast infections occur due to the overgrowth of yeast in a vagina. Candida is a kind of yeast that generates infection. It can drive inflammation and severe itchiness and is accompanied by thick white discharge. The discharge can appear inodorous. 

So women are more inclined to get yeast infections when taking contraceptives. It is primarily because the contraceptive tablets trouble the natural hormone balance. 

Depression

Some studies also revealed that depression is a primary side effect of hormonal contraceptives. It is more apparent in adolescents who take contraceptive tablets. Further, a woman with a history of mood swings and anxiety dealing with insomnia might experience depression if they begin taking contraceptive pills. 

Hair Fall

Birth control pills can cause hair fall, specifically in women who are more sensitive to hormonal shifts and women who have a family chronology of hormones-related hair fall. 

While some women might experience hair fall when they are on pills, and some might experience it soon after they stop using them. Further, hair loss can also happen if you change your medicine. 

Blood Clots

Experiencing blood clots is a rare side effect of contraceptive tablets, but it is a serious one. Contraceptive pills can not directly cause blood clots, but research indicates they can raise a woman's risk of getting one. Blood clots in major blood vessels increase the likelihood of a heart attack and stroke, making this potentially fatal.

Contraceptive tablets include synthetic estrogen and progestin hormones. Estrogen hormones might activate the elements that clot the blood. Yet, for an average woman, the hazard of a blood clot is pretty minimal.

Decreased Sex Drive

It is a destructive side effect, but research reveals that contraceptive drugs can decrease your sex drive. It happens due to the anti-testosterone properties of the tablet. 

Hormonal birth control techniques work to control ovulation, and for this, they suppress the female hormones. And sadly, those hormones are also responsible for generating sex drive in women. Further, sometimes, women might also experience vaginal dryness and breast pain due to pills which can bring down their sex drive. 

Skin Problems

Oral birth controllers can raise the stake of skin problems like acne, melasma, dry skin, etc. This risk is high in women who have susceptible skin and women who have family records of melasma. 

Dried Eyes

Hormonal changes due to contraceptive pills can also cause dried eyes in women. Specifically, estrogen-based drugs can cause dry eyes and vision issues. 

It is so that the unfavourable side effect of dry eyes caused by estrogen's adverse effects on the tear gland can be avoided. However, women who take progestin-estrogen combination tablets experience less dry eye syndrome.

Skipped Period

You might probably miss your monthly period while taking birth control drugs, but it is not an issue to worry about. Contraceptive medicines work by giving various hormones to your system that inhibit ovulation and hinder other factors that facilitate fertilisation. 

So it can even affect the monthly periods. However, most women can experience light bleeding, and some might skip their period. 

However, most such problems can decrease once your body familiarises itself with hormone pills. Also, the good news for you is that the side effects of birth control drugs will be infrequent in your future pregnancy. 

Final Thoughts 

Contraceptive birth control medications have been the foremost choice for most women. Still, despite the benefit, they can also cause multiple severe side effects that can prove dangerous if left untreated.

So if you are also experiencing any of the above-described side effects, converse to our Fertility Expert & Gynecologist, Dr Shesha Sinha and get immediate medical help. Further, if you find this article helpful, share your views and questions with Antenate.