Does the birth control pill cause you to gain weight? I’ve been on a low dosage for 2 years and gained 20 lbs! An herbalist friend said its definitely the pill that caused this.
Some women say it does, other women don’t have problems with it. For some, changing pill types may help.
According to this site
The (rather expensive) pill Yasmin claims it prevents weight-gain. Some women swear by it, and some don’t and believe Yasmin just found a golden marketing slogan.
Judging from the anecdotes on this board, when this subject came up before, I’d say there is no solution of the kind “one fits all”. If you are unhappy about your own BC-pill, it is worth the trouble to talk to your doctor about trying other types/brands.
HA!
I switched to Yasmin, was on it three months, and gained a clothing size and a cup size without changing anything at all about my diet or lifestyle. I switched to something else real quick!
Each pill is different for everyone, and your body will react how it likes. If you’re concerned that your pill is contributing to weight gain, talk to your doc about it and try switching types.
When I was on Ortho Tri-cyclen I gained about ten pounds, and it would have been more if I didn’t constantly struggle against it. It made me feel really, really hungry all the time. This is also how I get a few days before my period, so that may be part of it. I switched to Lo-ovrall (sp?) and that fixed it.
I think the hook of Yasmin is that it tends to prevent water retention due to the nature of the progestin used, not weight gain per se.
I gained around 40 pounds on ortho-tri-cyclen. It also made me super depressed and unable to do anything except lie on the couch all day, which was probably the main contributor to the weight gain and not the hormones. Now I am on progestin-only pills (Camila) and have not gained any weight that I can detect. No real emotional changes either. Worth a shot?
Of course bodies are so different that I’m sure there’s someone that had a totally diametrical experience to my own.
Microgynon made me depressed, and gave me the appetitie of a horse- I gained about 12 pounds and lost it as soon as I stopped taking it.
Microlite made me vomit everyday- so I lost weight and only took it for 3 weeks!
Dianette made my boobs a cupsize bigger (heh 30DD-30E isn’t exactly a momentous change) but no appetite change, good moods and no weight gain.
Yasmin (which I went onto straight after Dianette)- boobs still 30E, no weight gain, good stable mood and my pre-menstrual abdominal bloating disappeared.
All of those pills have either 30mcg or 35mcg estradiol and varying progestagens- it’s obviously the progestagens that affect me differently.
I’m 3/4 way through my first packet of Cerazette, a progesterone only pill (but a new one, which has better contraceptive cover and anti-androgenic progestagens- it hasn’t got FDA approval). So far good mood, no weight gain, boobs a little smaller (still 30E, just a tiny bit smaller). I wait with baited breath to see if this makes my periods disappear (which I’m hoping for) or randomly timed, or worse (which I’m not hoping for).
For me, the weight gain was about appetite and mood, never fat just magically appearing from nowhere. Think hard about whether you’re weepier, moodier or hungrier than normal on this particular pill than you are normally.
Changes brands before you give up entirely.
I asked my doctor about this before I went on the pill. He said that it doesn’t cause you to gain weight, but it can increase your appetite. He told me that if my diet didn’t change then my weight wouldn’t.
I gained maybe 5 lbs on the pill, and that was using various types including Marvelon and Tri-Cyclen.
On the injection AND the patch, I gained 10+. Bear in mind both of these options give a higher amount of hormones, and at a more constant rate.
I’m generally a very thin person, so the weight gain has actually made me look better, but if you’re looking to avoid weight gain you may want to try a low-dosage pill instead.
I don’t know if I gained weight on Marvelon but I lost about 5 lbs when I went off it. A number of people that I know call Marvelon the “boob pill” because it’s supposed to give you boobs. I noticed when I went on it my boobs did get bigger. When they started to get too big (IMHO, and for other reasons) I went off it. Sadly, they’ve gotten even BIGGER now that I’m off it, so I’m pretty sure the two aren’t related. Really, my grandmother had "G"s, so it’s probably not that surprising.
I had a temporary weight gain of about two pounds when I first started using Depro-Prevera.
I gained ten pounds in four months when I was taking oral progesterone for peri-menopause symptoms. I lost five the first month after I quit taking it.