Sudden weight gain after stopping birth control?!

What do the experts say?

Anecdotally, lots of women report that they gain weight while on "the pill", a term that can refer to combined oral contraceptives that contain both progesterone and estrogen as well as progestin-only pills. Let's take these statements at face value and assume that women who say they gain weight while on the pill really do — does that mean the weight gain is caused by the pill? Not necessarily, as research has established that people tend to gain weight with age as well as that numerous other factors, including diet, genetics, physical activity levels, metabolism, and even culture can impact weight gain. 

'Side effects' may not be

Take Yaz, for instance, the pill the person who started the thread reported taking. Weight gain is indeed listed as a possible adverse effect. It is, here, important to understand that package inserts that come with medications may list as side effects symptoms users experienced while taking the medication, even if it has not been established that the symptom in question was indeed a direct result of that medication — and even if similar numbers of people who took a placebo rather than the drug in question had the same symptoms. 

One research paper explains this further:

"Currently, the package leaflet is first and foremost a legal document rather than an instrument to inform patients – the information provided in the package leaflet is regulated by law and the pharmaceutical company can be sued if damage occurred due to a package leaflet not being on the current state of medical knowledge. It is therefore not surprising that pharmaceutical companies add side effects to the package leaflet whenever there is the slightest possibility for a causal relation."

Weight gain and the pill

To come back to the more common idea that birth control pills directly cause weight gain, we managed to find only one credible bit of research to suggest that progestin-only pills may do this in some women. There is, meanwhile, no evidence whatsoever that discontinuing any form of birth control has this effect. Let that sink in for a moment — with millions of scientific studies out there, not one has found that coming off oral contraceptives can make women pile on the pounds. 

We'd go so far as to say that it's nearly impossible to take in a meager (nearly starvation-level) 900 pounds a day and to exercise a lot, and to still gain significant amounts of weight. We suspect that something else is going on here. Data from the United Kingdom suggests that folk ingest about 50 percent more calories than they think they do. They may burn fewer calories exercising than they believe, as well. If you, too, are gaining weight while believing you eat next to nothing and are highly physically active, it may be time for a reality check. 

However, causes of sudden weight gain in women may include:

• Pregnancy
• Hypothyroidism (a slow thyroid)
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), an endocrine and metabolic disorder that often leads to obesity
• Taking corticosteroids
• Cushing's Syndrome, a rare hormonal disorder that leads to high cortisol levels
• Stress, depression, and anxiety
• Fluid retention