Birth Control Pill increases Insulin Resistance???
I've been reading in so many places that BCP's increase insulin resistance and can make you outright diabetic. I am insulin resistant, and almost 300 pounds, though I have recently lost 45 pounds. I am SO interested in BCP's because of how they are supposed to help with hirsutism and hair loss (both of which and increased ten fold since I started treatment in March)... I have been on Spiro 100-200 mg for 4 months and, Met 1000-2000 mg for 6 months and finasteride for 1 month.
Anyway, EVERY doctor I've been to (about 5... including 2 endo's) wants to immediately put me on bcps. When I tell them about it increasing insulin resistance (which is supposed to be one of the main causes of pcos), they seem flabbergasted and tell me it isn't true. Do you guys know anything about this... or have any of you been insulin resistant, taken bcp and not had your IR increase? Or have you been IR and taken bcp and become diabetic??
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
25 y/o
Diagnosed 3/2008
Severely Obese, insulin resistant, rapidly progressing hirsutism and hairloss (male pattern balding), severe acne
(surprisingly all has increased ten fold since the start of treatment)
It's true, there is so much conflicting information out there! It seems to me that there are simply not enough studies on the newer progestins and low-dose combination pills with relation to insulin resistance. I do believe there was a correlation between increased insulin resistance and the older OCs that contained higher doses of synthetic hormones. Here's a quote I pulled from an online article published by the American Academy of Family Physicians:
Quote:
Oral contraceptive pills containing third-generation progestins reportedly have several benefits.9 Androgenicity associated with older progestins has been linked to adverse lipoprotein and carbohydrate changes, weight gain, acne, hirsutism, mood changes and anxiety.5 The third-generation progestins have minimal impact on blood glucose levels, plasma insulin concentrations and the lipid profile. Thus, they are suitable to use in patients with lipid disorders or diabetes.
Anti-androgenic oral contraceptive controls PCOS without higher CV risk by Martha Kerr
Last Updated: 2007-07-27 17:11:22 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Ethinyl-estradiol plus cyproterone acetate, an anti-androgenic oral contraceptive (Diane Diario, Schering Espana S. A., Madrid, Spain), does not affect the insulin sensitivity index and does not appear to increase other measures of cardiovascular risk in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), according to a new study in the July Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
"The classical pharmacological approach to PCOS is the use of oral contraceptives," study investigator Dr. Hector F. Escobar-Morreale, of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, told Reuters Health.
"This treatment is quite effective in controlling the signs and symptoms of androgen excess, and in restoring regular menses, thereby preventing the development of endometrial hyperplasia and cancer. However, data obtained from studies conducted in non-hyperandrogenic women suggest that oral contraceptives, especially the older ones, might favor the development of disorders of glucose tolerance, thus increasing the cardiovascular risk of these women."
Dr. Escobar-Morreale and colleagues randomized 34 women with PCOS to Diane Diario (35 milligrams ethinyl estradiol plus 2 mg cyproterone acetate) daily or metformin, 850 mg twice daily, for 24 weeks.
Baseline fasting glucose was 93 mg/dl, fasting insulin was 14 microIU/ml in the oral contraceptive group and 18 microIU/ml in metformin-treated patients, and the insulin sensitivity index was 4.4 in the oral contraceptive group and 3.8 in the metformin group.
Mean apo-lipoprotein-A1 level was 127 mg/dl and mean HDL cholesterol level was approximately 156 mg/dl at baseline for all women in the study.
"Diane Diario resulted in higher reductions in hirsutism scores and serum androgen levels compared with metformin," the investigators report. "Menstrual regularity was restored in all the patients treated with Diane Diario compared with only 50% of those receiving metformin."
Plasma apolipoprotein A1 and HDL cholesterol levels increased with Diane Diario, while metformin did not induce any changes in the lipid profile. The insulin sensitivity index increased with metformin but did not change with Diane Diario. There were no differences between the two groups after treatment in abnormalities of glucose tolerance or dyslipidemia.
"I would use oral contraceptives containing a non-androgenic progestin as first line drugs for PCOS patients not seeking fertility," Dr. Escobar-Morreale said. "The high dropout rate, together with the lesser efficacy of metformin for PCOS and the fact that only half of the patients achieved regular menses, restrict my use of metformin."
J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2007;92:2453-2461.
__________________
Hey, SoulCysters! Need to eat more veggies, but can't find recipes??
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
All I can provide is anecdotal evidence - since my GTT showed that I am not IR and I do not have diabetes. But when I was on Yasmin, I was hungry ALL THE TIME and if I didn't eat something at least every 2 hours, I would get nauseous, have abdominal pains and get extremely irritable. That's the only BCP that ever did that to me...but sounds like it had some effect on my blood sugar.
Yaz raised my triglycerides pretty significantly which is one of the markers of Insulin Resistance. When I stopped Yaz, they returned to near normal levels. There is an a study that showed BCPs made teenagers more insulin resistant. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...t=AbstractPlus
Birth Control Pill increases Insulin Resistance??? 
