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Contraceptive pill ‘does not cause weight gain’

Fattening fears are an ‘urban myth’, say medics.


The contraceptive pill does not cause women to put on weight, say researchers who have surveyed data from more than 40 studies.

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Posted by Michael Hopkin on January 25, 2006 12:01 AM |

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"Family Health International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina" that conducted the study, and I'd like to see where their funding comes from....

Okay I searched their website. In addition to other sources, their funding is provided by:


Aventis-Pasteur
Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Contraceptive Research and Development Program CONRAD)
EngenderHealth
Gilead Sciences, Inc.
GlaxoSmithKline
Indevus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Personal Product Company (Women’s Health
Division of McNeil-PPC, Inc.)
Pfizer
PharmaLinkFHI, Inc.
Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceutical, Inc.

Hmmmm. I'm unsurprised to see the major manufacturers of contraceptive pills are funding this organization which has found pills to be safe and NOT make you gain weight. I don't consider this impartial research. Sorry.

Posted by: Shawn | January 25, 2006 07:49 PM

I am most sceptical.

I was assured by nurses while I was in College that the contraceptive injection doesn't cause weight gain either...

I discovered that research into these contraceptives shows it affects your glucose tolerance - a known factor in diabetes. I got that info off a manufacturers website no less!!

I think its all rubbish anyway...there is a clear link between hormonal irregularities and weight gain. Anything that could upset the hormonal system as severely as oral contraception couldn't possibly NOT be involved in weight problems.

I will allow that perhaps it is a matter of the individual's own propensity to such abnormalities, which might be why not all woman experience this problem, and also would explain the statistical spread the researchers see.

If, like the link between viruses and cancer, contraceptives COULD increase weight problems only if a unknown set of other factors are in place, this new research may prove to simply be a smokescreen by the drug industry.


Pull the other leg...it has bells on

Posted by: Christel | January 26, 2006 12:19 PM

Men could soon be able to use a 'male Pill' that has no side effects, scientists have revealed.

The chemical implant acts as a contraceptive but does not change the balance of a man's sex hormones.

Posted by: Joe Volpe | November 22, 2006 03:04 PM

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