Can Obesity Make You Pregnant?
Well, not exactly.
But your birth control pills may not work as well…
It seems that newer birth control pills with lower doses of estrogen don’t prevent pregnancy as well as higher-dose drugs from a generation ago.
The annual pregnancy rate has increased from less than 1 per 100 women in the 1960s and 1970s to more than 2 per 100 women with some of the newer pills.
Why Is This Happening?
The FDA isn’t sure. But they’ve said the obesity epidemic may be part of the problem.
Especially if you’re overweight and forget to take the pill every once in a while.
Although birth control pills are prescribed in the same dosage for obese and thin women, the chemicals are metabolized faster in heavier women. Plus the pill has to cover a larger area.
So there’s less protection remaining from the previous day if you skip a pill.
More Evidence Of The Obesity Connection
A 2004 study published in the journal, Obstetrics and Gynecology, found the risk of pregnancy for overweight women taking birth control pills was 60% to 70% higher than for women of normal weight.
That’s for women who took the pills as directed. No skipped pills.
For an overweight woman with a body-mass index (BMI) of 27.3 up to (but not including) 32.2, the greater risk was 60%. This would include a 5-foot, 4-inch woman who weighs 160 pounds.
An obese woman, who has a BMI of 32.2 or more, faces a 70% greater chance of pregnancy on the pill.
Why Not Take A Higher-Dose Pill?
Low-estrogen pills are less likely to cause cardiovascular problems like strokes and heart attacks. For some women, there is also less weight gain and moodiness.
So What Should You Do?
The risk of pregnancy from birth control pills is still low. But talk to your doctor about your individual situation to see what makes the most sense for you.
If you’re overweight, you may want to discuss using an additional form of birth control, like a condom or diaphragm, while taking the pill.
Technorati Tags: obesity, birth control, birth control pills, pregnancy
April 9th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Holy !@%&$#$@$!!! Thanks for this information cuz the last thing I want right now is to become pregnant.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Why didn’t anyone tell us this before? The risk might be small but it’s still a risk if you don’t want to become pregnant.
April 9th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I like the way the FDA automatically decided fat people were the problem. How much is because they lowered the hormones in the newer pills?
April 9th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
WOW this is really interesting! My 25 yr old sister is probably considered ‘obese’ and on birth control pills. Knowing her, I’m sure she occasionally misses taking the pill. Now how to bring this info to her in a non-hurtful way - I’ll have to ponder that one! Thanks for the info!!
April 9th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Whoa! Gotta get some condoms. Had no idea I was at risk.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
They did a study in 2004 and we’re jsut hearing about this now?
April 9th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Man, I gotta tell my girlfriend about this, but like how do I tell her that and still have a girlfriend?
April 9th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Maybe our doctors didn’t tell us because the risk was still pretty small… at least it’s smaller than condoms alone or some other birth control methods. Still, they should let us know.
April 10th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Like we needed another reason to lose weight.
April 10th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I never heard this before. Thanx for the info!
April 18th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Actually this article is slightly unbalanced. In general, women who are overweight and not on birthcontrol have a very hard time getting pregnant as it is.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Thanks for your comment, SoulEating. I’m not a doctor so I really don’t know if what you say is correct or not. But my article is simply relaying the results of a medical study that does show obesity to be a factor in the FAILURE rate of birth control. Also, the FDA said that obesity MAY be a factor. That’s not my conclusion; it’s theirs.
I think that it’s good, though, to have people point out information that may be missing. So if you’re overweight and take birth control pills, you may want to discuss this with your doctor and mention SoulEating’s counterpoint as well.
In the last section of the post, I do say that the risk of pregnancy is still low with birth control pills. It’s just that if you want to minimize any possible problems, there are some medical experts who recommend using a second type of contraception.