Do the pill and other combined hormonal contraceptives cause weight gain?
Weight gain has not been conclusively proven to be an adverse effect of using the contraceptive pill, patch or ring. Many women have a problem with weight gain as time goes by, whether or not they use hormonal contraception. Combined hormonal contraceptives include the oral contraceptive pill (also called OCP or simply “the pill”), the contraceptive patch and the contraceptive vaginal ring. They are called combined contraceptives because they include two forms of hormones: an oestrogen and a progestin. There are also pills with only one hormone in them (often called “mini pill”). For many women, hormonal contraceptives are a very convenient form of birth control, because no preparation is necessary around the time of having sex and the contraception is under the woman’s control. You can read about how hormonal contraceptives work here. The pill is the most widely used form of birth control in many countries. But one of the more common reasons women report for stopping using the pill is
