Does birth control affect muscle gain? We have a clear answer for you!
Author: Although contraception is highly controversial and one can't help but wonder when reading the package insert, a huge number of women use it nowadays. Although the list of negatives can be really long, in our previous article dedicated to contraception we clearly explained that gaining weight rarely affects it. But what about such muscle building? Won't taking hormones ruin your efforts? This will be the topic of our today's article.
Article content:
Contraception and the menstrual cycle
We believe that women know a lot about this issue, but our article will surely reach many men, for whom we would like to broaden their horizons. That's why it's useful to know a little about the menstrual cycle. It begins with the bleeding itself, which usually lasts only 3-5 days, but it can be very individual. It is then followed by a number of other processes that, while important for a woman, are not for our article today.
We are interested in the 14th day of the cycle, when ovulation begins. It is during this time that the production of testosterone and estradiol is at its peak - while estradiol is the typical female hormone responsible for the proper course of menstruation, testosterone in women controls (as in men) the sex-drive, influencing their mood and energy. After ovulation, levels of the other female hormone, progesterone, also begin to rise. If a woman gets pregnant, progesterone stays high, if not, it starts to drop again later.
But this is where hormonal contraceptives come in, a pill made up of estrogen and progesterone that can make a woman feel pregnant. And as you can probably guess, the whole natural production of hormones is kind of disrupted...
The point of birth control is that it affects natural hormone levels. And as you can guess, there's a downside to that.
What does that mean for women?
Disrupting natural hormone production is certainly no trivial matter. On the contrary, it brings with it a whole host of problems that would be enough for a book on its own. However, since in our article we are dealing with the relationship of contraception to muscle gain, it is worth mentioning first of all that taking contraception does not lead to the mentioned increase in testosterone levels during ovulation. This has been confirmed many times by various scientific studies. And as you can probably guess, reduced testosterone levels not only affect, for example, the quality of your sex life or your mood, but also make it more difficult to build muscle mass.
What do the studies say?
Interestingly enough, you can read about the use of male hormones in the form of anabolic steroids everywhere, but the use of female hormones in the form of contraception is hardly mentioned. Professional research does cover contraception adequately, but rarely in relation to strength training. Yet from one study conducted, for example, we know that using contraceptives can actually make gaining muscle more difficult - and not just a little. This observation featured women between the ages of 18 and 31, and while some took hormonal contraceptives, others did not.
Meanwhile, both groups did the same workout three times a week using different full-body exercises. When the results were remeasured after 10 weeks, the researchers found that the women not taking birth control had gained up to 60% more muscle mass on average than the rest.
Although sufficient research is still lacking, it seems that contraception affects muscle gain quite substantially, according to the existing studies.
Is it that hot? And why do female athletes use birth control?
On the other hand, the aforementioned study did not find any significant differences in the strength of individual female athletes and this partly indicates that further research would be needed. However, we will probably have to wait for those, so it is not possible to come up with any firm conclusions yet. In any case, it is important to remember that for many female athletes, contraception may be almost the only solution.
And they don't have to use it, far from it, just to avoid a conception that would jeopardize their entire career. This could be due to irregularity in the menstrual cycle, for example, which would simply interfere with training and ultimately limit training even more than hormonal contraception itself potentially can.
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What to take away from today's article?
The main thing you should take away from today's article is that while the effect of contraception on weight gain is a fairly clearly debunked myth, gaining muscle mass is not so simple. It's clear that birth control pills can lower testosterone levels, but so far there's only been a single piece of research that has directly confirmed that female athletes taking birth control are robbing themselves of potential muscle gain.
On the other hand, many elite female athletes use contraception and are clearly not prevented from performing at peak levels. So we'll have to wait for some more research before we can come to any objective results. And if you want to know the answer now, you'll have to test how your body reacts. But definitely don't hang up exercise while taking birth control - on the contrary, it's even more important than before to keep fit.
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