Do Birth Control Pills Increase Breast Size

How the pill changes your body shape

(Prototype credit:

BBC/Getty

)

Many women believe that the pill can cause weight gain. Research hasn't found this – just information technology has found that it can change torso shape (and fatty storage) in other surprising ways.

It'southward been blamed for polluting our rivers, destroying our marriages and – ironically – killing our sexual activity drives. It'south been called a conspiracy by the patriarchy. It's even be defendant of making women fancy ugly men. But for many women, 1 of the most off-putting charges against the contraceptive pill is that it makes us fat.

In fact, weight gain is the near commonly reported side consequence of the combined pill – the most popular type, which contains both lab-fabricated oestrogen and progesterone. This is why pharmaceutical companies listing it on the parcel.

But after several decades of research, there still isn't whatever conclusive evidence that the effect is real. The largest review so far examined 49 studies of the combined pill and found "no big upshot is evident", just also that in that location wasn't enough well-conducted research to be certain. The researchers plant this is truthful no thing what type of progesterone the combined pill independent (for more on the different kinds of pill, check out this article). Other studies that looked at progesterone-only pills similarly have found little evidence of an consequence.

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Maria Gallo, an endocrinologist at Ohio State University who co-authored the review, believes our belief in the pill-weight connectedness is down to a natural human bias. People are experts at finding patterns all around u.s.a., even where there are none. The phenomenon, known as apophenia, is the reason nosotros may discover it piece of cake to compare peppers to politicians, see the faces of Harry Potter villains staring down at us from the clouds, or read too much into past lottery numbers. Nosotros're particularly susceptible to apophenia if we've been primed to await a sure consequence – such as gaining weight after starting a new medication.

"It'southward the aforementioned reason why at that place's this thought that vaccines can cause health problems," says Maria Gallo. "If you give them to a population, you're going to accept some people who have wellness problems, whether they're linked to the vaccine or not."

Researchers haven't found evidence that the pill causes weight gain – but they have found that it can change a woman's body shape and body fat percentage (Credit: Getty/BBC)

Researchers oasis't institute evidence that the pill causes weight gain – only they have constitute that information technology can change a adult female's body shape and body fatty percentage (Credit: Getty/BBC)

In the case of the pill, Gallo points out that the average person puts on simply over a pound (one-half a kilo) of weight each year for near of their life, starting in early adulthood – which, incidentally, is when almost women kickoff using contraception. It may exist reassuring to be able to arraign this 'weight creep' on something other than overeating; final year she even caught women in the act of inventing weight gain later on being fitted with the contraceptive implant.

Even and then, it'southward non all in our heads. Though large-scale reviews oasis't establish that the pill causes weight gain, it can change a woman'southward torso shape and composition.

There are three big reasons for this, and they take to practise with muscle, fluid memory, and fatty.

Muscle in

Dorsum in 2009, Steven Riechman, an practice physiologist at Texas A&M Academy, discovered one surprising impact of the pill, entirely by accident.

At the time, he was researching how a person's genetic makeup can affect their ability to grow their muscles through practice. His research team put a grouping of men and women through 10 weeks of resistance preparation – slow, punishing exercises such as crunches and lifting heavy weights. Then participants were weighed to see if they had more muscle than they started with. The team also gathered information on diverse lifestyle factors so that they could make sure any gains were caused by genetics and not, for example, the medications they were on.

While they were doing this analysis, they discovered that women on the pill had gained 40% less muscle than those who weren't on it.

"It jumped out as a pretty large impact," says Riechman.

Eight women open up about the side effects they experienced from the pill. Spotter the video below.

It's well-known that men naturally have more muscle than women. The average man has 72lbs (33kg) of brawn, compared with a measly 46lbs (21kg) in women. This is partly merely considering men are taller and heavier overall, but that isn't the whole story – every bit a percentage of overall trunk mass, men are about 38% muscle while women are 31%. This comes down to hormones: men have more 'anabolic' hormones running through their veins, which tell the trunk when to grow more than muscle.

Men tend to have a higher percentage of muscle mass than women because of their hormones (Credit: BBC/Getty)

Men tend to take a higher percentage of muscle mass than women because of their hormones (Credit: BBC/Getty)

This includes an important but little-known steroid called DHEA. Information technology'due south secreted by the adrenal glands – cocktail sausage-sized organs which sit down in a higher place each kidney – and is involved in everything from keeping bones potent to maintaining our immune systems.

The hormone used to be extremely popular with athletes, partly because of its extraordinary muscle-building ability, and partly because doping with it was legal until adequately recently. Simply in case you were getting any ideas, it also has many drawbacks, such equally the trend to cause liver impairment and compress a man's testicles.

Simply women produce anabolic hormones too – and the team establish that those on the pill had much lower levels of DHEA in their claret.

When they worked out, women on a certain type of pill had less of the muscle-building hormone DHEA – and less muscle gain – than those not on the pill (Credit: BBC/Getty)

When they worked out, women on a certain type of pill had less of the muscle-building hormone DHEA – and less musculus gain – than those not on the pill (Credit: BBC/Getty)

Even more intriguingly, the poor muscle gains weren't constitute in all women on the pill, just those that independent a certain blazon of lab-made progesterone that likes to bind to the same protein.

"We're pretty confident the progesterone is what'southward causing this," says Riechman. One possibility is that by competing for the same binding sites, the hormone may be blocking signals to abound more musculus. The results haven't definitively proven the link, simply if it does plow out to be real, surely women will want to know almost it – especially in the light of recent fitness obsessions such equally CrossFit and Instagramming your abs. "This study should absolutely be followed upwards. People are interested and nosotros become calls adequately regularly about information technology," he says.

Fat storage

And the pill may exist changing women's bodies in other ways, too. Just as information technology has an impact on the proportion of muscle in our bodies, it could be exerting subtle influences on fat – particularly where it is stored in the body.

At puberty, oestrogen and progesterone are responsible for the evolution of typically 'female person' characteristics, such as wider hips and larger breasts, largely past irresolute the fashion fatty is distributed. The hormones are also oftentimes given to transsexuals for the same reason.

The womanly 'hourglass figure' emerges as different kinds of fat tissue respond differently to these reproductive hormones. For example, subcutaneous fatty – the kind of chub that women acquit effectually their thighs, hips and breasts – contains lots of oestrogen receptors.

Because hormones react differently with each type of fat tissue, changing a woman's hormone balance could alter where her fat is stored (Credit: BBC/Getty)

Because hormones react differently with each type of fat tissue, irresolute a woman's hormone residual could alter where her fat is stored (Credit: BBC/Getty)

It's piece of cake to run into how, theoretically, irresolute a adult female's hormone residuum could alter where her fat is stored. Some research has borne this out: ane early on study constitute that women on pills with higher levels of oestrogen tended to have pear-shaped bodies and more than subcutaneous fat, though not necessarily more than fat overall.

Cell slap-up

Finally, in that location'south the acme menace of many women on the pill: bloating.

That disgusting, bloated feeling happens because oestrogen likewise affects the way the body metabolises h2o, by influencing the product of certain proteins in the kidneys. The end issue is that the torso retains more fluid than information technology usually would. This then seeps into fat cells, causing them to swell up. Because women tend to store more than fatty in their breasts, hips and thighs, these areas can expand the nearly.

Oestrogen can cause the body to retain more fluid, including the type used in the contraceptive pill (Credit: BBC/Getty)

Oestrogen can cause the body to retain more fluid, including the blazon used in the contraceptive pill (Credit: BBC/Getty)

This also happens on a smaller scale in women who aren't on the pill, during the calendar week just before their period. But information technology's exaggerated by the contraceptive because synthetic oestrogen is half-dozen to 10 times more potent than the natural kind, and because it's taken nearly every 24-hour interval, which means the levels of both hormones are more than constant.

So while the pill may not be leading to long-term weight gain, some women could notwithstanding find that their clothes fit differently.

Fluid memory may too help to explain why some women report that the pill increases their cup size. At that place have been very few studies into the result – understandably, nearly research tends to focus on chest cancer rather than size – simply back in the 1990s a couple of Swedish scientists decided to take a look.

The contraceptive pill is known to increase a woman's adventure of developing breast cancer slightly, both while she's taking it and in the 10 years after. The researchers wanted to know whether this might exist considering these women take larger breasts; at that place'south an inherent risk in having (or growing) more cells, which is 1 reason tall people tend to be more susceptible to cancer.

To find out, the team tracked the monthly cycles of 65 healthy women who either were on the pill, used to take it, or had never taken it. They found that non only did pill users accept significantly larger breasts overall, but they were peculiarly large at sure times of the month. Women who had previously been on the pill had an average-sized bust.

One study found that the pill appears to increase breast size, and not just from water retention (Credit: BBC/Getty)

One study constitute that the pill appears to increase chest size, and non but from water retentivity (Credit: BBC/Getty)

The team didn't cheque the women'southward breast measurements before they started taking the pill, then it could be argued that these women had always had larger breasts. However, it seems likely this was due to the contraceptive pill, because their chest sizes weren't linked to the normal factors you'd await – such as their tiptop, BMI, or body weight – as in the women who weren't on the pill.

Exactly how this happens remains a mystery. The breast expansion could just be swelling from fluid retention, but another possibility is that the hormones in the pill are actually causing women's breasts to grow. For example, the burst of growth that happens each calendar month, and is necessary to maintain a abiding size, could exist lasting a chip longer. This would lead to more tissue overall – and explain the heightened cancer risk.

Of course, whatever subtle furnishings the pill has on your figure – for better or for worse – millions of women feel that it'south worth it. As one Reddit user put information technology, no birth control at all is likely to pb to 25 to 35 pounds (eleven-15kg) of weight gain over the course of 9 months.

This story is part of the Health Gap, a special series virtually how men and women experience the medical system – and their own health – in starkly different ways.

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