Birth Control, healthy or not?

A friend of mine have recently been prescribed birth control pills for her acne. The doctor told her that her hormones are imbalanced and that birth controls pills would help her regulate that so she won't have break outs. She is among the several million people out there who wants the easy way out for their health. The toxicity causing acne and break outs I would like to talk about another time. The focus today is on birth control, something I have very little knowledge about but because of my friend I am curious to learn about them.

According to the Planned Parenthood website they give you birth control pills at a glance:

• Take a pill each day to prevent pregnancy
• Safe, effective, and convenient
• Easy to get with a prescription
• Cost about $15-$50 each month

 The way that some birth control pills work is that they contain two hormones: estrogen and progestin. When taking the pills, they prevent woman's ovaries from releasing eggs - ovulation. Hormones also thin the lining of the uterus and thickens the woman's cervical mucus to block sperm from joining with an egg.

One thing I love is that where is says Birth Control Pills are safe is also says "But all medications have some risks, so safety is a concern when choosing a birth control method." So some risks includes high blood pressure, it's bad if you have had breast cancer, blood clotting problems, lupus, diabetes, liver disease, smoke, etc. This surprises me because in my friend's family there has been diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems. Did her doctor look into that before prescribing it?

I stumbled upon an article about blood clots and Birth Control Pills. In particular it referred to a research study done by the FDA on pills containing drospirenone. They estimated 10 in 10,000 women taking the drospirenone drug would get a blood clot per year. "A clot in the blood vessels can prove fatal if it breaks loose and travels to the lungs, heart or brain." Not good. This is a concern because it includes popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin.

The second half of the article included interviews with doctors and people on their views of the data. One person stated that if the doctor prescribes it then they will go with it. As much as I know doctors do not intend on harming their patients but honestly how much do they really know about the drug. They know what they are told by the pharmaceutical reps.The best thing for any decision is to make sure you make an educated decision. Do the research.