Unbelievable negative side effect of taking the birth control pill - 5 other health risks discovered

Now more than 100 million women worldwide use oral contraceptive pills to prevent pregnancy or control menstruation. But the pill and other hormonal contraceptives are not without side effects. We usually focus on the pill's effects on physical health, but the most common reason women stop taking or switch pills is because of mental health side effects.

The birth control pill has long been heralded as one of the most innovative and important drugs ever to hit the market. But while we recognize the importance of reproductive health, we have long been concerned about the unwanted side effects of this popular prescription drug. For years, doctors and scientists have been familiar with a number of health problems and risks associated with oral contraception.

For example, new study Li et al. found that combined oral contraceptives are particularly susceptible to drug interactions. These interactions can reduce the effectiveness of the tablets or increase risks such as thrombosis, emphasizing the need for careful assessment when other drugs are taken concurrently. To make matters worse, research has revealed a surprising side effect of the "pill" that can further isolate and challenge women. Women on the pill struggle with 'emotional recognition'.

A team of researchers from Germany published an eye-opening article in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. Their study, entitled "Oral contraceptives impair recognition of complex emotions in healthy women", put a group of healthy women (42 of them on oral contraceptives, 53 not) through an emotion recognition test. How well can these women identify other people's emotions based on complex and nuanced social cues and facial expressions? The researchers found that "women using [oral contraceptives] were indeed less accurate"—by a margin of about 10 percent—"in recognizing complex facial expressions than women not using [oral contraceptives]," especially with "difficult to recognize" expressions such as pride and contempt.

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Simpler emotions, such as fear and happiness, appear to have been spared drug-induced surveillance. The idea that taking such a common prescription drug can negatively alter a person's psychological health may be surprising at first glance. But stacks of data also suggest that oral contraceptives increase the risk of depression—which women experience at higher rates than men.

What's going on? The leading (and logical) hypothesis is that oral contraceptives change a woman's sex hormones, thereby affecting the neurobehavioral elements of a healthy psychological profile. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing the pill does. As if emotional difficulties weren't worrisome enough – check out these 5 other harmful side effects.

More than 100 million women worldwide use oral contraceptives – often for decades! We think doctors need to do a better job of clearly explaining the negative side effects these patients are likely to face. In addition to emotional recognition difficulties and depression, common adverse effects and risk factors of the pill include:

1.Increase in body weight and decrease in lean body mass

2. Reduce a woman's sex drive

3.Increased risk of cancer, including cervical, breast, liver, ovarian and endometrial cancer

4.Increased risk of heart disease, including stroke, heart attack, deep vein thrombosis (blood clots), and high blood pressure

5. Headaches and migraines

Women need to be aware of these well-documented consequences of this prescription drug. They should be educated more about other effective and affordable birth control options that are safer and pose less risk to physical and mental health. And in light of the new "male birth control pill" racing through clinical trials, we ask that doctors give men the same due consideration.

Sources for this article include:

NIH.gov
Medicalnewstoday.com
medicalxpress.com
frontiersin.org