Binge eating.
Birth control pills are a daily medication taken to prevent pregnancy by temporarily hitting the pause button on your body's natural monthly cycle. They contain everyday hormones that signal your brain to skip releasing an egg which means there is nothing for sperm to fertilize.
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open researchers tracked 422 women who were already taking combined oral contraceptive pills. The team of scientists also monitored daily eating patterns of women which included information about what, when and how much the participants ate each day. The pattern was then followed for 49 consecutive days i.e seven weeks without skipping one single day.
Researchers aimed to evaluate whether binge eating habits can change over the course of a single month depending on whether a woman is taking active or inactive birth control pills. Generally women take 21 active pills with hormones to prevent pregnancy followed by 7 inactive pills with no hormones during which they usually have a period-like bleed before starting the next pack. According to the findings women exposed to hormonal pills showed changes in eating patterns but patterns ranged from mild changes to no noticeable changes at all.
The researchers compared each person's own behaviour at different times rather than comparing one group of people to another. Some days involved taking the pill that contained the active ingredient while other days involved taking a pill without the active ingredient. Interestingly results showed that individuals who are more likely to engage in emotional eating are on days when they were taking the active pill compared with days when they were on the inactive pill.
Shaunna Clark a coauthor of the study says the findings held even after accounting for negative mood suggesting the change was not fully explained by emotional distress. In her words, "That tells us the hormones themselves may be playing a role rather than those changes being driven by mood or other factors."
The study showed that changes in hormones can be linked with changes in eating habits within an individual but it varies person to person as the amount of changes was not the same for everyone. However it is important to note that these findings do not prove that birth control pills make people binge eat. It was only found that in some people exposure to certain hormones was linked with more emotional eating such as eating because of feelings like stress, sadness, or emotions rather than hunger.
Previous studies have also found that overeating or binge eating often becomes more common after ovulation when levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone are high. This study adds new information by showing that the artificial hormones found in birth control pills may cause similar eating patterns by looking at the same people on days when they took hormone pills and days when they did not.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not replace professional medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your contraception or treatment.
