- 2. When you stop taking birth control pills, the menstrual cycle may stop or go badly.
Rarely. Disorders of the menstrual cycle are most often associated with satiotic changes in the endometrium. This can happen if you have taken COC for at least five years. In this case, the doctors prescribe estrogen therapy, which, as a rule, quickly recovers the cycle. As studies show, only 2% of women aged either up to 18-20 years, or even 40-45 years after stopping the COC of menstruation may not be more than six months - and more often these women have other health problems.
- 3. Birth control pills can be taken in parallel with other medications
Not always. In addition, some antibiotics - for example, rifamnin, amoxicillin and dockepticin - reduce the effectiveness of oral contraceptives.
- 4. If you take hormonal contraceptives, smoking is very dangerous
True. Smoking cigarettes increases the risk of the most common side effects of hormonal contraception - problems with the cardiovascular system. You risk getting varicose veins, thrombosis, even a stroke. If you already have problems with blood vessels, you smoke, you are more than 35 years old - look for alternative methods. By the way, smoking marijuana while taking COC is less dangerous than cigarettes - it contains a minimum of nicotine. But this does not mean that marijuana is useful, - it reduces the efficiency of the brain.
- 5. You do not need to take pills.
At the same time of day, the truth. But still try to stick to the interval at 12 o'clock, no more. It's best to tie the pill to a daily routine like breakfast.
- 6. Taking tablets, you can not drink grapefruit juice
True. Better replace it with an orange one. Although grapefruit juice does not reduce the effectiveness of hormonal contraceptives, it can change the body's response to estrogens or interact with enzymes that affect the effectiveness of certain medicines. Among doctors, there is an opinion that if you drink more than two glasses of grapefruit juice a day, then some side effects of hormonal contraceptives - for example, pain in the mammary glands - can intensify.
- 7. Birth control pills are rare
From the first hormonal contraceptives women actually recovered, but modern drugs contain small doses of hormones, and, as studies show, almost none of them gain weight from them. On the contrary, some COCs even contribute to weight loss. But contraceptives can provoke the accumulation of fluid in the tissues before the monthly, from which the body weight actually increases. Therefore, if you decide to protect yourself with COC, it is very important to find your "own" pill - to choose a dose of hormones that will suit you depending on your hormonal balance and health in general.
- 8. After long reception of contraceptives it is difficult to become pregnant
Not yet known. Some doctors are of the opinion that atrophic changes in the reproductive system caused by hormonal contraceptives, subsequently reduce fertility. On the other hand, the ability to conceive with age decreases without contraceptives. A recent study of 8,497 couples where a woman stopped taking pills and decided to become pregnant showed that it is easiest to conceive a baby in the first year of stopping the COC. The reasons: the ovaries during the reception of tablets "rest", as there is no ovulation, plus the hormonal background normalizes and the risk of endometriosis decreases. In the near future in Europe, new hormone tablets with folic acid should be on sale, which will prescribe to those who are considering becoming a mother in about six months.
How to protect it
Men's birth control pills already exist! American doctors have established that the hormonal drug Depo-Provera, which is prescribed to women as contraceptive injections (they are made four times a year) also affects men: it prevents the formation of sperm, but does not spoil orgasm. Other "candidates" -androgen-replacing gels (Testim or AndroGel): they have already shown successful results in clinical trials. True, these preparations have not yet been licensed - in particular, because when they are taken, the production of sperm by the body stops not at 100% and there is a chance of "leakage". Now with might and main there are experiments on the creation of a new generation of men's contraceptive gel, but it will go on sale at best in ten years. Sociologists, analyzing the demand, said that the first one to patent a male contraceptive would instantly become a billionaire.
- 9. Because of hormonal tablets, you want less sex and have a headache
True. These side effects of COCs have not been canceled, but, according to doctors, correctly picking up pills, this problem can be avoided. It is believed that some hormonal contraceptives of the last generation, on the contrary, have a beneficial effect on the nervous system and activate sexual fantasies, and also have a rejuvenating effect on many body systems.
10. Tablets are the safest way to protect yourself.
A controversial issue. Recently, hormonal injections are gaining popularity, the action of which lasts 8-12 weeks depending on the composition - a combination of estrogen and progestin or only progestin. True, the results of recent studies have shown that the side effects of injections - for example, problems with bones or with the vascular system - may be stronger than from tablets. Also on the market are contraceptive patches and vaginal rings. Both of them, after consulting a doctor, can be used independently, changing every seven days. The hormone-containing spiral is a separate case. Often it is put (its time of action is up to five years), not so much for the sake of protection, but for therapeutic purposes. I will say at once - there are no homeopathic contraceptives. Because one of the main tasks of homeopathy is to maintain fertility, to help a woman who wants and should give birth to children. If we are treated by patients who can not become pregnant, we are dealing with this problem using homeopathic remedies. But it happens that they come to us for a different reason. For example, a woman has endometriosis or a tumor. She's forty. She has long put an end to children. We begin to treat her, and suddenly she becomes pregnant. Miracle? In no case. I would explain it this way: homeopathic medicines are not medications in the conventional sense. They do not serve to kill microbes, they are not used to replace any substance that is lacking in the body. In homeopathy, there is no cure for the tumor, or for the common cold, or for the same infertility. The goal of homeopathy is to restore the natural self-regulation of all body systems, including normalize the hormonal balance so that a woman can then easily become pregnant. And thus - not to cause those side effects which can not be avoided at traditional methods of treatment, including hormonal, at which weight of contraindications. I will mention only some of them: diseases of mammary glands, liver and biliary tract, thrombophlebitis, hypertension, rheumatism, diabetes.