Skip to main content

Not All Progesterones Are Created Equally: Birth Control Pills Differ

Image
By

There are literally dozens of birth control pills for us in the US to pick from, and we still don't have some that are the top world wide best birth control pill sellers. Most oral contraceptive pills have an estrogen hormone component and a progesterone hormone component. In other posts we have discussed the fact that the dosage of the estrogen may vary, but up until recently all have the identical estrogen (except for one of the combined pills). The progesterone provides most of the contraceptive protection in birth control. Progesterone suppresses ovulation and changes the mucus of the cervix so sperm can't swim through the cervix, nor be stored in the cervical mucus glands. Some of these cervical  mucus effects occur instantly within hours of taking your very first birth control pill, but for full effect, more like a day or two. That is why oral contraceptive pill prescriptions do work promptly! The official stance is that 7 days of consecutive pill use makes you pregnancy protected. But like all hormones, they just aren't created equally. Some are very potent, some are not; some are more androgenic (male like), and some are not. And potency has a lot to do with how much gets absorbed into the blood stream, and how much gets metabolized to less potent hormones after it is swallowed. Like the sounds of natural and bioidentical? And for bioidentical the estrogen would have to be a 17 beta estradiol, and there are not any of these pills currently available. Sadly, the bioidentical progesterones are not well absorbed, and bioidentical progesterone is only about 50% available unlike the progesterone in a pill like Seasonale which is about 99% bioavailable. If the progesterone in your pill is created to be potent, you may significant beneficial hormone effects. So that the progesterone in Seasonale and it's cousins, actually a molecule called levonorgestrel, is very potent for instance in controlling break through bleeding. Other factors control the way the progesterone in your birth control pill will act on your body. What you eat, how your liver functions, what medications you are on, what time you take your medication and the genetics of how your body naturally binds hormones all can also affect this factor of bioavailability. Again, potency may be a very good thing when your birth control pill can be affected by so many factors. So if you are having hormonal side effects from your contraception, it's time to gab with your gyno, maybe the hormone in your pill is not right and your gyno can pick a new pill for you!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments and questions. WE hope you will buy our book, https://www.gynogab.com/shop This blog is not intended to replace medical care, but is informational only. We hope you will become a follower or visit Womens Health Practice. We offer a variety of unique services including MonaLisa Touch, Coolsculpting, Labiaplasty, and Gynecoloigic Clinical Research Trials. For more information on menopause see

Popular posts from this blog

Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

By
Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously.  It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods  Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...
311 comments
Read more

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

By
If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...
647 comments
Read more

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

By
Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...
199 comments
Read more