Birth Control as Risky as HRT?
February 23, 2005
By Amanda Jackson, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A source at Boston University School of Medicine says by the end of 2005 study results will be published showing multiple negative side effects of taking birth control pills.
The doctor compares the findings to the roller coaster of information surrounding hormone replacement therapy over the past couple of decades. After years of HRT being pushed by many doctors, it was proven to possibly increase risk of heart and stroke, breast cancer and endometrial cancer. Among researchers, they often say the effects of therapies cannot definitively be seen until after 30 or more years, which is what may be currently occurring with these preliminary study results of birth control.
He says permanent and irreversible changes may result from just a couple years of its use.
The reason is synthesis of the sex hormone binding globulin is about three-times the normal value in the body of a woman on birth control. Even when she stops taking the pills, globulin never returns to the normal value present in women never on birth control. That results in the woman having a higher testosterone level since the binding globulin binds testosterone. A woman stuck with a high-binding globulin has to have a high testosterone level to have functional values of testosterone. This puts women at higher risk of low-testosterone health-related issues like bone loss.
Look for further details of this study to hopefully be seen later this year.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview, Feb. 22, 2005
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