Birth control pills: Questions for the pros

My girlfriend just started taking birth control, and I'm wondering how safe that actually is. She also smokes occasionally—just a few cigarettes here and there with her coffee—but the instructions say she shouldn't smoke at all. What kind of risks are we looking at if she keeps smoking, and what's the actual connection between cigarettes and the pill?

Any advice would be appreciated...

It says so right there in the manual.

it all depends on a lot of things. like how old you are. if you're over 35, a heavy smoker, or have family history with clogged arteries, you're basically in the danger zone.

I honestly thought it had something to do with blood vessels. Based on the instructions, they mention things like vasoconstriction all over the place...
How reliable are these pills, though? Is there a 99% or even 100% guarantee that pregnancy won't happen?

If they take them religiously and don't miss a single dose, there's a 99.9% chance they won't end up pregnant.

But if they skip a pill one day? They better watch out until their next period.

The only way to be 100% sure is total abstinence.

It actually helps if you take the pills at the exact same time every day.

Thanks so much for the help...

She really shouldn't be overdoing it on the pills... tell her to cut back to at most five a day...
Otherwise, she risks her blood clotting too much, which could lead to a pulmonary embolism, a stroke, or worse...
blah blah

This is serious stuff.

Have they actually run blood work to check her clotting time yet?

I’d go so far as to bet they aren't. These days, getting your hands on birth control pills is about as easy as grabbing a pack of Tic Tacs at a gas station.🙄

So, here’s the deal. I’ve been on Cilest for two and a half years now. Honestly, it’s fine—no side effects or anything weird. I don't have an issue with the pill itself, but!

The instructions say this:

"Oral contraceptive use is linked to an increased risk of several conditions, including thromboembolism, myocardial infarction, and stroke. This statistically significant risk increases with age, particularly in heavy smokers (consuming more than 15 to 20 cigarettes per day). Therefore, women over the age of 30 should be advised to quit smoking for preventative purposes."

It used to say "women over 35"!!! 😲

Can someone who actually understands this stuff explain how this affects the body to cause a heart attack? And what on earth is thromboembolism? 😕 (I hate it when they write instructions like this where a regular person can't make heads or tails of it :roll: )

I have noticed two things, though: more broken capillaries on my legs than before, and my bruises take way longer to heal. Could there be a connection there? 😕

😲 🙄

I'm losing my mind here...😢

Look:

Smoking and hormonal birth control don't mix. It ramps up the risk of blood clots. Usually, they start in the deep veins of your leg, then they can travel to your lungs, brain, or whatever.

You could end up having a heart attack that way because your blood starts clotting too easily. When someone shows up with deep vein thrombosis, doctors always check if they smoke, take contraceptives, have been sedentary, or had an injury that kept them immobile—those are all major risk factors.

As for the fat content thing, I don't think there's a connection there.

Basically, thromboembolism is the clot itself, while a stroke or heart attack is what happens when those clots cause damage 😉.

Just quit smoking 🥳.

...seriously, just quit smoking...stop using birth control altogether...you're basically just inviting a whole host of problems into your life...using contraception is arguably twice as much trouble as the habit itself...
...as a general rule, messing with your hormonal system is a bad call, so stick to condoms, diaphragms, tubal ligation, or whatever tenth alternative you can find...just stay far away from the pill...it’s easily the worst way to go about it...especially if there's any history of reproductive cancers in your family tree...meaning, if anyone in your lineage dealt with those kinds of tumors...

...from a medical standpoint, the pill is definitely the absolute worst option out there, at least for women—for men, it's practically ideal...but hey, you decide...🙂...who's actually pulling the strings here...anyway, take care...

Robert Alvarez said:...oral contraceptives are arguably the least ideal method when you look at the medical implications for women; for men, however, they’re quite perfect... well, one has to wonder... who really benefits from this setup... anyway, cheers... 🙂...

Are you a doctor? Or perhaps a med student?

Robert Alvarez said:...just stop smoking...stop using birth control...you're just asking for trouble...and honestly, birth control is a bigger evil than the smoking...

I mean, if we’re looking at the long game here, isn't it more likely someone would drop dead from smoking before birth control even becomes an issue? 🙂

...look, I'm a guy, I'm currently in college... and you've got it all wrong... but hey, have it your way...

Robert Alvarez said:especially if there’s a history of reproductive system tumors in your family... basically, if anyone in your bloodline dealt with that kind of thing...

Actually, you've got that wrong... unless we're including breasts in the equation, the risk is higher there.

Robert Alvarez said:...pill-based contraception is easily the worst option from a medical standpoint—at least for women. For men, it’s basically perfect... well, you see how the game is played... anyway, cheers... 🙂...just follow the money...

Agreed.

🙂

If you’re weighing "pulling out" against actual birth control, I'm picking birth control every single time.
Between condoms and pills—condoms win. Period.

At the end of the day, if someone wants to take that risk, that's on them.

Hannah Scott69 said:When choosing between condoms and other forms of birth control—condoms take the prize!

But wouldn't you say that hormonal contraception offers a higher level of reliability🤔?

...it’s not like it's inherently evil, baby; the reality is that the frequency of certain cancers goes up while others actually go down... so you just have to weigh all those factors on a scale and decide what makes the most sense for your own life...

...if I were a woman, I don't think I'd ever touch birth control pills myself...