Birth control is an ongoing debate within Figure Athletes and often raised as an important consideration when discussing progress or hindering it. Unfortunately, no straightforward answer exists here and instead the usual response would likely be something along these lines: “It depends.”

Prescription Issues
It is true that many women between ages 18-30 utilize oral, indictable or topical forms of birth control such as oral contraceptives or topical implants to avoid pregnancy; however, hormonal prescriptions aren’t only used for this purpose. Instead, teenage girls often turn to birth control hormones in order to regulate menstruation or even clear acne! In fact, teenage girls may even use birth control pills simply to keep regular periods!

Hormonal interventions may be useful in terms of avoiding pregnancy, helping regulate menstruation cycles, and controlling acne; however, long-term use may increase your risk for cervical, liver and breast cancers – not something to take lightly!

Figure Athletes should take note that birth control hormones can contribute to either: an increase in body fat in specific areas such as lower torso or upper arms; or difficulty losing fat by increasing exercise volume or decreasing food consumption.

Regarding this last point, in recent months I’ve worked with several female clients who, after discontinuing birth control, saw their body fat percentage decline within two months – without changing either their exercise routine or nutrition plan.

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As discussed in an earlier article, both were at around 15% body fat when they started. Though they found maintaining fitness fairly simple while on medication, whenever they attempted to increase leanness they experienced great difficulty; any small deviation in diet or workout schedule caused their weight loss efforts to falter considerably and backslide occurred frequently.

However, both individuals saw immediate weight loss after switching to IUDs and also found it relatively straightforward to increase exercise volume and reduce calories. Of course these are only two examples, but each are quite compelling.

As well as potential cancer risks and body composition changes, birth control hormones also carry another serious risk for young women. Reports indicate that birth control hormones may reduce sexual desire, arousal and lubrication as well as potentially cause pain during sex sessions.

Now, that doesn’t sound fun at all!

Two women discussed above had both been taking birth control pills since they were 16. Since neither were sexually active at that point and experienced serious sexual difficulties years later due to taking these pills, they simply assumed either sexual activity was unpleasant or that something was amiss with themselves.

Happily, they discovered otherwise over a decade later when they came off of the pill and discovered an active sexual appetite and enthusiastic sex life when previously they both reported despising it. Unfortunately, it took them so long to understand their problem and switch to an IUD.