Do oral contraceptives affect cholesterol levels?

Question

I eat a very healthy diet and exercise light to moderately. Could oral contraceptives be affecting my cholesterol levels?

Answer 1

You know, I thought the answer to this was no. I am glad I looked it up. Although they can't CAUSE high cholesterol, they can make it worse. Oral contraceptives can alter your cholesterol levels, and if you already have high cholesterol, that increases your risk of side effects from the pill.

This may be something you want to talk about with your doctor.

Answer 2

Nope. Oral contraceptives increase the risk of heart attacks because they cause blood clots, not because they affect cholesterol.

Answer 3

Yes, any type of hormonal birth control can affect your cholesterol levels. The big problem, though, is that they cause breast cancer.

Here are a few links if you'd like to learn more about the Big Announcement on Friday December 15th that, WITHOUT A DOUBT, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) causes breast cancer. Since the time when women were discouraged from taking HRT back in 2001-2002, breast cancer rates have sharply dropped by an unprecedented 7%! In the scientific community, this is a bombshell proof positive of the connection. Note that breast cancer rates originally started increasing rapidly when birth control pills and now other forms of hormonal birth control began to be widely used. Hormonal birth control methods contain the SAME hormones that are also the most widely used in HRT (estrogen and progestin). Hormonal birth control methods include; The Pill, The Mini-Pill, The Patch, some types of IUDs, Nuva Ring, Depo Shots, and Nor-Plant. They all administer the same hormones by different delivery methods. Hormone levels in HRT are actually lower than levels found in hormonal birth control methods. Consider that on top of the fact that hormonal birth control methods are used by young healthy women with already normal levels of naturally occurring hormones. They’re getting MASSIVE dosages, even with the more modern low-dose pills being used.

How long will we have to wait before the medical community admits to women that hormonal birth control methods are just as dangerous as HRT? I have a feeling that it will be much longer, as hormonal birth control is considered to be the "holy grail" of "women's reproductive freedom". Never mind that women are dying of breast cancer at alarmingly increasing rates since 1974, around the time when landmark cases were decided and BC pills began to be more widely used. Thirty years later, we are reaping the "benefits" of artificial hormones that are used to suppress and tinker with the natural processes of the female body.

The female bodily functions of ovulation, pregnancy and menopause ARE NOT ILLNESSES. Medications should only be taken when it's absolutely necessary to prevent or cure ILLNESS, and then ONLY if the benefit outweighs the risks. If you have a medical condition that your doctor wants to treat with hormones, make sure to do YOUR research and challenge his or her opinion. Get a second or even a third opinion. Explore alternative treatments. Doctors are not infallible and in the end, only YOU can determine the best course of action with regard to your health. Only after you’ve exhausted your other options, if it is apparent that hormones are the only treatment that makes sense, then by all means, DO IT.

If you must practice birth control and cannot try abstinence; condoms, diaphragms, or cervical caps used correctly with plenty of spermicide gel or foam, are STATISTICALLY JUST AS EFFECTIVE as hormonal birth control. Condoms also decrease your chances of contracting an STD and they don't work by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg, like hormonal birth control does. If you are pro-life and believe that life begins at conception, this last point should be of particular interest to you. Abortifacient types of birth control also include non-hormonal types of IUDs, which work exclusively by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg…they don’t even ATTEMPT to stop ovulation and subsequent fertilization…and they can cause uterine perforations and other complications. Even if you DON’T have any moral objection to the abortifacient birth control methods, at least stop using hormonal birth control and IUDs for the sake of your own health!

HOW HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY AND HORMONAL BIRTH CONTROL METHODS HAVE NOW DEFINITELY BEEN SHOWN TO CAUSE CANCER
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1025191125.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/15/gupta.breast.cancer/
HOW SOME TYPES OF BIRTH CONTROL CAN CAUSE ABORTION WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE, ALONG WITH INFORMATION ABOUT NON-HORMONAL BARRIER BIRTH CONTROL METHODS THAT ARE JUST AS EFFECTIVE
http://abort73.com/HTML/II-D-2-types.html

Answer 4

depends what pill you are on i was on marvalon and took diazepam and was told it would not affect the pill.