I have a friend (no, really–I’m not even female) who’s on birth control pills and is wondering if there are any known interactions between the pill and psychoactive/recreational drugs (not necessarily illegal drugs). I hadn’t heard of any, but it certainly seems possible, and it also seems like something that should probably be resolved before she does much of her own experimentation. So, my question to all of you is: Does anyone know about any possible interactions between the pill and any recreational drugs? Any MDs, also, who wish to chime in on this? Qadgop?
Some of the major drugs in question here include marijuana, DXM (dextromethorphan), and LSA (the major psychoactive chemical present in Morning Glory and other plants, kind of a natural cousin of LSD). Any input regarding any other recreational drugs–again, legal or illegal–is welcome as well.
As far as marijuana, LSD (or LSA), heroine, cocaine, and derivatives, there have not been any major substantive studies which I’ve come across that would help. Use at your own risk.
DXM (dextromethorphan) is safe as long as it is used in therapeutic doses - can’t tell you whether the effect on b/c is any different if taken in the mega-doses required in order to reach the hallucinogenic threshold.
The codeine derivatives hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab, Norco) and oxycodone (Oxycontin, OxyIR) seem pretty safe as long as they are used within their guidelines. However, no data that I can find lists interactions with b/c when abused.
Smoking cigarettes and taking a b/c containing estrogen may increase the likelihood of serious cardio problems, e.g. thromboembolic disorders but that is still somewhat controversial.
Barbituates such as phenobarbital (found in Donnatal elixir) and butalbital (in Fioricet and Fiorinal) are also abused and can greatly decrease the efficacy of b/c. These drugs are also used for epilepsy, and other epileptic drugs such as carbamezepine (Tegretol) can also interfere with b/c.
Some herbal/dietary supplements can interact with b/c pills, notably St. John’s Wort, which has been used as an anti-depressant for years. The jury is still out on a lot of herbals, including Kava-kava, valerian root, etc.
My advice to your friend is of course to steer clear of using drugs as recreational vehicles while on b/c. There is very little info about these (illicit, recreational) drugs and interactions with b/c. Better to be safer than sorry.
Thanks a bunch kspharm. BTW, I don’t think this friend is going to not experiment with stuff unless she sees specific scientific evidence that it’s harmful. Honestly, I can’t blame her. Do you think it would be safer to stop B/C for a couple of days, trip out, and then start again? Would she need an additional month afterwards to get it built up again?
Bruno Puntz Jones, I saw a recent study that cigarette smoking can blind you as a possible long-term health effect. I think the deal there was that if you smoke packs a day for years you could have possible blindness/eyesight problems in old age that you wouldn’t normally have–IE, when your eyesight starts going, it just goes faster. Obviously, this doesn’t sound like the specific incident Bob55 mentioned, but there is at least a link between cigarette smoking and negative effects on eyesight.
II Gyan II, I didn’t look incredibly closely at the cite you gave, but it doesn’t look like this is something dangerous. In fact, from skimming it I got the impression that this was considered a positive side effect. I don’t know anything about uterine contractions, though. Thanks for the link, however! It definitely has some good information.
Only if she doesn’t mind getting pregnant. Seriously, if you miss 3 or more days of the pill you’re advised (by physicians, pill manufacturers, etc) to throw out that pack, have your period and start again as well as using a backup method of BC until the new pack is done.
Generally, the interaction you’re going to get with BCP and other medications is a loss of efficacy for the BCP - in other words, there’s not much point taking it if it doesn’t work - some types of penicilin do this, for instance.
Additionally, if she injests something that makes her throw up (I’m guessing pot wouldn’t do that, but I don’t know about the other things in high doses), and she throws up around the time of taking her pill the efficacy goes down the toilet as well.
Frankly, it sounds like perhaps a different birth control method would be better (IUD, for instance if she can tolerate one) for this gal if she plans on injesting a number of questionable substances.
I would post more if I knew more, but my source is not available at the moment.
My wife is an Optometrist. Her friend - an Optometrist as well - is the one who’s sister lost vision due to smoking cigarettes/the pill combo. Unfortunately everytime I visit these boards my wife has been asleep for 3 hours, so I’ll have to remember to ask her the specifics and mechanism.