CLEARING UP MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL PILLS

Dr Steven R. Goldstein MD is an Obgyn in Manhattan who has helped thousands of patients deal with abnormal uterine bleeding, menopause, perimenopause and other gynecological issues. Dr Goldstein has this to say on the misconceptions of birth control pills.

I find it disturbing that there still are so many misconceptions about the non-contraceptive benefits of hormonal contraception (birth control pills, rings, patches). I have talked to many patients, at many ages, about the fact that suppressing ovulation with low-dose birth control pills is closer to natural than what we, as higher order primates, have socialized into.

Modern women are having close to five hundred menstrual cycles when nature assumed you would have eight pregnancies and have to nurse each child for fifteen months (no bottle or formula in nature). Thus, nature though you would have no more than perhaps 250 menstrual cycles!

A large study in the United Kingdom of over a quarter of a million women from their national registry reported that women who used birth control pills compared to never users had 20% less breast cancer, 42% less ovarian cancer, and 57% less uterine cancer. Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article in the New Yorker magazine twenty-five years ago called “John Rock’s Error.” John Rock was one of the inventors of birth control pills. Part of the thesis was that they should have brought birth control pills out as cancer-reducing agents not as contraceptives. If you do not need the egg this month (in other words, you are not desiring a baby), suppressing the cycle is closer to natural and cancer-reducing.

It does require buy-in from the patient unlike an IUD which is placed and can just be forgotten about. It requires some diligence on the part of patients. However, the reduction in cancer, the protection of fertility, and the improvement in cycling of hormones, in my mind, are huge benefits.

Admittedly, some patients will have side effects to some brands of pill but by working with patients, we can almost always find some method of hormonal cycle control that is not only acceptable but beneficial (some pills are great for skin and acne, some are great for avoiding weight gain, others are excellent to avoid any breast tenderness or bloating).

I like to say that if I were a psychopharmacologist, I would understand the nuanced difference between various antidepressants. I do not. I clearly understand the nuanced difference between different hormones and different formulations of birth control pills.

Dr Goldstein is a leading Obgyn in Manhattan, in practice for over 35 years. He is regarded as one of New York’s top obgyns and is a tenured Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University School of Medicine.

As usual, this article does not constitute medical advice and is for information only. Consult your doctor or Gynecologist for medical advice.