Although there are various birth control options, pills are one of the most widely used. Oral contraceptives, collectively known as “The Pill”, are currently used to prevent and manage pregnancies worldwide. There are various ways that birth control tablets lower your risk of getting pregnant. First, by raising the amounts of specific hormones in your body, they stop your ovaries from secreting eggs during your monthly cycle. Second, the mucus that forms on your cervix is thickened by birth control tablets, preventing sperm from penetrating your uterus and getting in touch with an egg. The pill has a 99% success rate in preventing pregnancy when taken as directed.
Period delay tablets and contraceptives are NOT interchangeable. While you can use your birth control pills to delay your period, it is preferable to utilise each for its intended usage. Furthermore, just because birth control pills can help you postpone your period doesn’t imply you should use them instead of period-delaying medications.
Does Birth Control Lead to Hair Loss?
Side effects from birth control pills are possible. Some of the most typical are headaches, nausea, spots (bleeding between periods), alterations in your menstrual cycle, and pain that may impact your breasts. A few less common adverse effects of the birth control pill include changes in sex drive and potentially dangerous conditions, including blood clots. Although they are uncommon, it is critical to be aware of them before taking birth control.
Not many women have reported hair loss as a side effect of the birth control pill.
Because hormones have an impact on your hair’s development cycle, taking a contraceptive pill may have an impact on your hair. Some may experience this as hair loss. Please be aware that using birth control tablets can cause both hair shrinkage and hair shedding. They are caused by various factors and exhibit multiple symptoms. Hair thinning is an inherited disorder that develops gradually over time and is often referred to as diminished volume or female pattern hair loss.
Telogen effluvium, another name for hair shedding, is an acute physical symptom brought on by an internal disturbance, imbalance, or shock.
Kinds of Hair loss by Birth control
As stated above, Using birth control pills can cause two different forms of hair loss.
Lowered hair volume
Your hair follicles are vulnerable to androgens because of a hereditary disorder called lowered hair volume (hair thinning), which can be inherited from either parent. Although androgens are naturally present in all women’s bodies, not all possess hair follicles that respond to them. Once this sensitivity is activated, if you have it, your hair follicles will eventually shrink and become thinner over time. Your hair will become lighter and shorter, as a result, finally revealing more of your scalp. The way a birth control pill affects your hair depends on how susceptible your hair follicles are to the hormones it contains. Additionally, it relies on the way your body metabolises the medicine and your unique body chemistry.
Temporary hair loss
Temporary hair loss, known as telogen effluvium, can be brought on by stress, sickness, infection, or abrupt hormonal changes.
Normally, the anagen phase of your hair growth cycle, which lasts several years, is when your hair reaches its full length. The shift from growth to rest is made during the following stage, known as catagen. When hair finally enters the telogen phase, which is a resting stage, it stops growing and is changed by new hair that sprouts from the same follicle. Your hair may enter the telogen (resting) phase of its growing cycle early if your body is susceptible to the hormones in the birth control pill. You can begin to experience hair loss as these hairs return to the anagen phase because as new hairs emerge from the hair follicles, the old ones fall out.
It’s common for telogen effluvium hair loss to begin a few months after the triggering event, so it’s possible that you won’t start noticing hair loss from the birth control pill until many months have passed.
How To Stop hair loss
A rare side effect of the birth control pill is hair loss. Nevertheless, it might occur if you use a birth contraceptive pill with a high androgen index or if you get telogen effluvium as a result of fluctuating hormone levels.
The best strategy to prevent hair loss while on the birth control pill is to pick a pill with a lower androgen index and take it exactly as directed by your doctor.
Online retailers offer a variety of birth control options, including low androgen indices such as norgestimate, desogestrel, and ethinyl estradiol-containing pills.
It’s crucial to speak with your healthcare practitioner as soon as you can if you’ve only recently started taking the medication and have observed that your hair is thinning or shedding more than usual.
Your health expert may order a blood test to determine your hormone levels or do a pull test on your hair to look for telogen effluvium symptoms.
You might need to modify the type of birth control pill you take depending on the reason for your hair loss, such as moving to one with less androgenic activity or from a progestin-only tablet to one that also contains estrogen.
Hair loss due to birth control pills is typically transient. Once your body has gotten used to the medication, it should end within a few months. After you’ve been off the pill, your hair loss will also halt. The normal recovery time after quitting birth control tablets is about six months.
It is crucial to remember that many women will not lose hair after quitting their birth control.
