Birth Control and Muscle Gain

Many women are aware of the side effects of birth control- weight gain, bloating, moodiness, increase chance of cancer, but a new side effect has been discovered that many did not know about. The American Physiological Society conducted a study detailing the effect of contraceptive pills on muscle mass. Its all in this article by empowher (a womens online health forum)Researchers found that women taking an oral contraceptive who performed 10 weeks of resistance training gained 40 percent less muscle mass than women who were not taking oral contraceptives.
Exercise physiologist Chang Woock Lee, and several other researchers at Texas A&M University, says this is due to the way that oral contraceptives affect a woman’s hormone levels. Lee also found that certain pills made muscle gain less likely, such as medium and high androgenic progestins. "In the blood concentrations of women in the study who were taking oral contraceptives, we found lower levels of anabolic or muscle building hormones and higher levels of catabolic or muscle breaking hormones as opposed to women who were not taking oral contraceptives,"