Not Just a Man's World

I use a contraceptive pill.  It makes my life easier when trying to predict the easiest time to arrange outdoor wilderness or wild-camping holidays and for my workouts it can also prove useful.

Something that I was fascinated in not long after I started lifting was whether the contraceptive pill impacted on my ability to build muscle or strength, or on my ability to lose weight.

I’ve collected below a few articles and web pages that summarise the main views about the impact of the contraceptive pill on performance and weight gain or loss.

• One of the best articles I’ve come across on the subject of the contraceptive pill and it’s possible impact on performance is written by John Berardi.  The article is based on interviews he carried out with various women and is therefore a helpful summary of the anecdotal evidence.  The experiences seem to be mixed.  For those in powerlifting the contraceptive pill provides a useful control over hormone balances.  For others, weight gain issues are problematic and their performance seems to have improved once they came off the contraceptive pill.
• For a more scientific article about the impact of oral contraceptives on performance, Peak Performance have provided an article on the subject with reference to various scientific studies.
• I also highly recommend an in-depth article written by A J Melnikas on the subject of oral contraceptives and the menstrual cycle and how these both impact on athletic performance.
• Weight gain, fluid retention and the pill is an article that gives a helpful breakdown of the studies behind the weight gain argument and which pills minimise weight gain.
• Another article that refers to studies suggesting that the pill itself doesn’t cause weight gain is found on the Weight Loss Resources site.  Written in simple language it highlights one of the most likely causes of weight gain when starting to take the contraceptive pill – changes in lifestyle.
• Getting a bit technical again, and to finish off the weight gain discussions, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care have also done an article on the subject.

The summary seems to be that whether the contraceptive pill will impact on your athletic performance depends on your sport, though for lifting weights it looks like it shouldn’t have any significant impact (oh well, there goes my excuse).  This view is supported by the anecdotal evidence as well.

As for weight gain, it seems that most of the modern contraceptive pills shouldn’t cause problems in this area either.  So it sounds like all round the contraceptive pill is one of the best forms of contraceptive, even for most athletes.

Update 26/12/09: As a late addition to this, I have just stumbled across a fascinating study that suggests that certain formulations of contraceptive pills do impact on full body resistance training.  Women who took pills containing low-androgenicity progestins acquired muscle through exercise as effectively as did women not on the pill.  But women whose oral contraceptives contained medium- or highly androgenic progestins attained less than a 0.5 percent gain in muscle mass over 10 weeks — substantially less than the others achieved.

Related posts:

1. Training and diet on the contraceptive pill
2. Menstrual cycle on the contraceptive pill
3. Blog-watch: the impact of stress
4. Blog-watch: weight loss diet – the final instalment