When it comes to birth control, people only use it with the main purpose to prevent pregnancy. However, the doctors may suggest women using birth control pills to clear their skin, ease PMS, and even reduce their risk of certain cancers. 8 effects here will unveil your doubtful mind of should or should not use birth control pills as an effective remedy.
1. Ease pains
Pains such as Cramps or Menstrual Pain. “One of the most common reasons why women take oral contraceptives is for painful periods,” says Maria Lina Diaz, MD, head of the section of ambulatory gynecology at Cleveland Clinic Florida. Birth control pills suppress cramps because they stop ovulation, or when the ovary releases the egg. The pill also causes a lighter menstrual flow, which can lessen painful contractions of the uterus.
2. Reduce condition of Excessive Menstrual Bleeding
For some women, menstrual bleeding is so heavy that it disrupts their lives. Sometimes a heavy period can even cause anemia. However, in many of those cases, the pill can help lighten the period. “Pills lower a woman’s hormone levels, which can make a woman’s periods lighter and shorter,” explains Diaz.
3. Moderate Hormonal Migraines
Cyclic changes in hormone levels tend to trigger migraines in many women, with most reporting the pain immediately before or during their periods, when estrogen levels drop sharply. Birth control pills, including the progesterone-only kind, can reduce the hormonal fluctuations and provide relief.
4. Control Endometriosis
The pill can help women who have endometriosis, which occurs when tissue that normally lines the uterus grows somewhere else, usually on the ovaries, behind the uterus, or on the bowels or the bladder. Since the misplaced tissue can cause pain and very heavy periods, the pill helps stop the growth of this tissue by regulating the hormones that cause it to build up.
5. Treat Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Around five million women have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a serious condition that can lead to infertility, irregular periods, multiple ovarian cysts, and pelvic pain. For many, treatment will include the pill, which helps correct the hormonal imbalance and relieve some of the symptoms like an irregular period.
6. Lower Ovarian and Endometrial Risk
For women with a high genetic risk for ovarian cancer, the pill may be prescribed to help prevent the cancer. After one year of use, a woman’s risk can be reduced by 10 to 12 percent, and, after five years, her risk is reduced by half.
The pill can also decrease the risk of endometrial cancer, but may increase the risk of breast and cervical cancers.
7. Help women with PMS symptoms
Nearly a third of women rely on the pill for premenstrual syndrome (PMS) relief. PMS can cause mood swings, depression, and bloating. Although the precise cause of PMS is not clear, it’s linked to hormonal changes that occur during the two weeks leading up to your period. The pill reduces those hormonal fluctuations to help ease pesky PMS symptoms.
However, not all migraines can be treated with the pill. Women who experience “migraines with aura” should not rely on the pill to ease their pain; studies have found an increased risk of stroke in these women.
8. Clear Acne Breakouts
Around 14 percent of women take oral contraceptive pills to help clear their skin. Birth control pills that contain estrogen can especially help reduce acne breakouts since the hormone decreases the amount of androgen, the oily skin-causing hormone, in the bloodstream.