I was on birth control for about 2 months, yaz, and went off of it about 3 months ago because I didn't like how it made me feel.
Since then I've suddenly gained 25 pounds and I'm eating less than 900 calories a day and working out a lot. I'm very frusturated because no matter what I do I keep gaining weight.
I've been to several doctors and have had several tests done, (thyroid, hormone levels, ovary check) all of which came back normal.
Also sometimes I get an uncomfortable bloating in my stomach that makes it stick out very far.
I'm extremely uncomfortable and I'm scared that I am going to keep gaining weight...has anyone else experienced anything like this?!?
Also, I'm not pregnant.
Please help!
Plenty of women say that they gain weight while on the birth control pill. In this thread, meanwhile, a SteadyHealth member reports gaining a significant amount of weight — 25 pounds — after coming off a combined (estrogen/progesterone) contraceptive pil. She says all this weight gain happened despite a very low caloric intake and a rigorous workout schedule.
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
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441582/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4641349/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK221834/
- labeling.bayerhealthcare.com/html/products/pi/fhc/YAZ_PI.pdf
- www.cochrane.org/CD008815/FERTILREG_effects-progestin-only-birth-control-weight
- www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/19/fat-britain-average-person-eats-50-calories-realise/
- www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/nine-medical-reasons-for-putting-on-weight/
Discussion highlights
Questions
Most of the questions asked on the thread pertained to how to lose the weight:
- What's a girl to do?
- Will my body ever go back to normal?
- Have any of you girls tried inositol powder?
- has anyone else experienced anything like this?
- What kind of treatment did they give you for your high blood sugar?
- Has anyone found a diet that works, or a solution to this problem?
- I am VERY anxious to just get back on the pill to be done with this sudden weight gain and bloating, but is it safe to get back on the pill now?
- so do you guys think that it is much better to just go back on the pill?
- what did you do to " fix" the problem?
- hi, ive been on Cerazette for 4 years came off 6 months ago and even taken up exercise and have a healthy diet anyway however gained nearly 2 stone and becoming really depressed about it, i feel sooo slugish and like u my boobs have grown and are soo sore too, did u go bk onit?
- since your post, have you done anything that worked for you?
- What did they treat you with after they found the cysts on your ovaries?
- Anyone else have pointers on dealing with POP withdrawals?
- did it get better?
- Can you tell me if you were having a hormonal issue and what the natropath suggested?
- Did you start taking the pills again?
- Is that what made you get back to your normal size?
- Did going back on the pill help you to lose the weight?
- What can I do to stop this?
- Anything that has helped anyone?
- What about something for the after retention?
- Can you please advise what treatment you went on?
- Have you had a diagnosis of pcos?
- how did you lose all the weight ?
- how did you lose the weight?
- Did the maca work?
- Hi, did you try getting back on the pill again?
- How did that work for you?
- Did you see a Doctor before going back on pill?
- To get tests done?
- Where is this weight coming from?
Experiences
Some women shared their experiences with gaining weight after stopping the use of birth control pills:
- I am thinking something like Maca may help regulate my hormones.
- I decided to start BC again just to see if this effects my pre diabetes and weight gain.
- I was also eating very little-not more than 700-900calories a day.
- I had been tested by my doc for different problems and everything was great- there was no physiological reason for my weight gain.
- More tests, more stress- nothing found again-all hormones normal, thyroid too.
- I was so happy that i finally had diagnosis!
- I don't closely monitor my calories, but I eat an almost completely vegan diet, and only ever snack on fruits and soy yogurts and veggies.
- As well, I've drastically reduced my nicotine intake to maybe three or four cigarettes a week.
- I've never been checked for thyroid.
- A year and a half ago I was negative for both ovarian cysts and diabetes.
- The progesterone made it possible for me to lose weight again and be normal (even though the spotting continued.) Long story short, I had a hormone issue that (I think) the pill was compensating for/covering up.
- I'm not currently sexually active, so there's no way I could be pregnant.
- I have been doing heaps of reading and I'm pretty convinced I have some sort of hormone or thyroid imbalance.
- I'm also trying to eat more regularly to help with a possibly sluggish metabolism.
- The withdrawal symptoms are going to be way different from those who took a combo pill.
- I have made an appointment with an endochronologist to check my horomes, and see if anything is wrong.
- Have been to the doctor and have had all the tests/scans and everything is normal.
- Perhaps as the hormone levels go back to "normal" as i have been on the pill for 20 years (off only the years i was having kids) I know the weight gain was hormonal with my eating and workout regime exactly as it has been the last few years and before stopping taking the pill I had basically weight the same for a decade, with the normal +/-5lbs depending on how much i eat for christmas or on vacation.
- My theory is my body is mimicking preparing for pregnancy, so it's giving me insulation for a baby that doesn't exist, I think this may be why it's so hard to lose the weight, because the female body is designed to resist weight loss measures while pregnant to protect the baby which again in my case doesn't exist.
- I finally thought of insulin resistance because my family has it really bad, but my blood glucose is fine and I'm not diabetic.
- After a lot of research I've found a correlation between bp and poor gut bacteria, or a lack of probiotics in your gut.
- Apparently gut bacteria influences your weight.
- They both stayed it can take 3-6 months for the body to regulate itself again.
- Hormonal weight gain is something that needs to be talked about more.
- After extensive online research I found 3 women who got progesterone tests and found their progesterone levels to be extremely low.
- Once you come off BCP your body may take months to years to produce natural hormones.
- Apparently progesterone helps to decrease appetite, lower weight, improve mood (anxiety, depression, irritability).
- The faster your metabolism the more calories you burn.
- Birth control basically controls your water weight so it sounds like you're just holding water.
- Other studies show that deficient Vitamin D is strongly related to weight gain.
Suggestions
Advice given to women who had gained weight when they came off the pill included:
- Don't cut out all the sodium in your diet and don't chug gallons upon gallons of water!
- You actually need salt so only try to cut out the salt in processed foods.
- As for water, yes, it's good to be hydrated but don't overdo it cause you might acutally end up making the problem worse (this is especially true if you were on YAz or spiro cause I know these meds make your body confused about how to regulate fluids when you stop them).
- Also look into taking a magnesium supplement.
- magnesium is awesome and basically helps with everything.
- Maybe get checked for diabetes or thyroid issues just incase you have that?
- )In less than 2 weeks after stopping~ I weighed 128I panicked and starved myself for a whole day - it was extremely hard to do and it didn't help at all.I worked out every single day~ ate no fried foods, no soda, no alcohol - no matter what I did the scale said 127-128So I started taking: Gymnema sylvestre (took away most of my sugar cravings), Evening Primrose Oil caps (made my period normal),some kind of pro-biotic (I forget the name, but I feel this helped the most.
- Johns Wort liquid drops (I take this ALL the time anyways because my husband and his family stress me out)This all natural regiment gave me my life back after birth control. I don't think I will ever take b/c again.
- but I'm happy to say (after 3 months of this c**p) I'm back down to 115 (only 5 pounds to go) It may not sound like a lot - but I could KILLLLL myself over a tread mill after STARVING myself and still the scale WON'T MOVE - so to me 5 pounds is a lot.My advice is - go to the naturalfood store and get the stuff I listed above- don't exercise yourself crazy like I did.
- Avoid Yaz like the plague.
- Have your doctors check your insulin levels, not glucose.
- Just have a good long talk wit your doctor, and if they are too busy to listen, find another one.
- The Dandelion Root (in pill form) can be taken up to 3x a day (2 pills each) for a total of 6 pills.
- Look them up to learn about the benefits when it comes to estrogen dominance.
- Dear you are probably retaining water, drink lots of water with lemon, -and do cardio to sweat out the toxins,
- I drunk 1 litre of water before 9am each morning and the other litre throughout the day - One cup of coffee a day in the morning and none for the rest of the day (this was a struggle as I LOVE coffee) - Dandelion Root Tea - 2 cups a day (recommend starting this at a weekend as it REALLY flushes you out) - Green tea (again, this was a struggle as I'm such a coffee drinker) - Generally healthy diet, lots of fruit and veg.
- - Walking: I walked for 20 minutes 3 times per week - Cod liver oil (1 tablet a day for healthy joints) 1 MONTH ON I feel GOOD.
- Please do your own research too as this is simply what worked well for me and I'm not advocating this as the perfect method.
- This is what I am taking: Maca- 1 tsp in a smoothie every morning- same smoothie I was drinking before just added this.
- Chaste Berry- as directed Milk Thistle- as directed Tumeric - as directed Evening Primrose at night - as directed Vitamin D Drinking Healthy Cycle Tea by traditional medicinals - found in whole foods or sprouts Added in 40 mins extra cardio a week- and upped my weights in strength training Also went on a low estrogen diet
- Check your hormones and policystic ovaries.
- Magnesium and B complex.
- The herb Vitex is also supposed to aid in restoring hormone balance.
- Low carb, moderate protein.
- I recommend you try the Keto diet.
- For all those who are thinking of going back on the pill to stop the side effects, please don't.
Diagnosis
Those who turned to their doctors for answers were sometimes diagnosed with underlying medical issues, including hypothyroid, prediabetes, and PCOS:
- I too can't seem to loose the weight and being off BC discovered i have pmdd.
- I also have high glucose (pre-diabetic?) There has to be some correlation.
- Finally in February 2008 my doctor noticed my blood sugar was at the higher limit of the normal value.
- He performed a test for diabetes with sugar syrup and guess what- it turned out i had pre-diabetes.
- He sent me to a gyno too, she found multiple cysts on my ovaries.
- I had a hormonal problem.
- I am 24 years old, and was diagnosed with PCOS at 21.
- Im also polycystic, and recently diagnosed with endometriosis and 23 total ovarian cysts.
- I have had hypo thyroidsism for years, and go ever 4 months to control so all my hormon levels are good.
- My tests came back mostly normal except one hormone prolactin, it is a hormone you are supposed to produce when your pregnant but I am not and have not been.
- I have been to a ton of specialists and was told it was not PCOS although I do have small cysts on my ovaries I had increased bleeding instead of less bleeding and other symptoms didn't match.
- After 4 tests of high prolactin I got one normal result and so now my doctors think the weight gain is just part of aging.
- i had a blood test and the only thing that showed was my sugar levels just tipping over the normal high end.
- he confirmed that I gained bc of too much estrogen.
- I got my blood tested 5 months ago and the results were high glucose (pre-diabetes) and high testosterone.
- The doctor gave me a tentative diagnosis of PCOS even though there were no cysts in my ovaries.
- Turns out I'm very insulin resistance and I guess the birth control hid, caused, or controlled it?
- I have endometriosis and have been on birth control most of my adult life to reduce pains.
- He said that the body react to what it is used to, and after all the years of being on a controlled hormone as the birth control is, it had been used to that and when left on its one probably went wild.
- I didn't have diabetes, but am severely insulin resistant.
- Everything was normal for my including regular diabetes tests except my insulin is high.
- My doctor explained that as I had been on the pill for so many years, my body had gotten used to the hormone regulation from the pill, and thus stopped production of those in proper doses by itself.
- When I went off the pill for those months, the result was estrogen "overload" due to lack of production of progesterone.
- This leads to weight gain among other things.
- I am 39 now, and have had diabetes ever since.
- I started when I was 17, and after the doctors found some benign liver tumors on a CT scan (for other abdominal issues) they recommended I stop taking it.
- After seeing my endocrinologist for thyroid and all other tests, she determined that coming off bc hormones is the cause for all of this.
- My body essentially thought it was in menopause which led to sleepless nights and weight gain only in the stomach area.
- In 2013, my OBGYN recommended that I go on an IUD because my blood pressure was in the pre-hypertension range.
- My nutritionist suggested that I do Vitamin D test and the results showed that I was Vitamin D Deficient, studies show that when you stop contraceptive pills the Vitamin D levels go down.
In conclusion
Women who are gaining weight after coming off the pill should probably first ask themselves:
- Could my weight gain be caused by aging?
- Am I eating more — and more processed, fattening, foods — than I think I do?
- Am I exercising enough?
If, after being honest with yourself, you are still worried about your weight gain and believe no logical explanation can be found in age or lifestyle factors, please check in with your doctor to determine if underlying medical problems may be behind your weight gain. Do not, however, simply attribute your extra pounds to the pill or coming off it, as there is no scientific evidence that these two things can be to blame for significant weight gain.