Birth control pills come with a whole lot of perks. But, as with any medication, women on the pill may also experience some side effects, including this potential one: Low-dose birth control pills may put you at higher risk for both chronic pelvic pain syndrome and pain during sex, according to new research presented last week at the American Urological Association’s annual meeting.
Lead author Nirit Rosenblum, MD, an assistant professor in the urology department at New York University Langone Medical Center, noticed a number of young women coming into her practice over the years who complained of varying pelvic pain symptoms—vaginal pain, pain in the lower part of the abdomen, “anything sort of below the belly button,” says Rosenblum. The common thread with these patients: Many of them were on low-dose birth control pills.
So Rosenblum and her colleagues set up an anonymous survey of more than 900 women ages 18 to 39 to investigate. The women on the low-dose pills were significantly more likely to fit the criteria for chronic pelvic pain syndrome than the women who weren’t on birth control pills or even those who were on normal-dose pills. And they were also much more likely to report pain during or after orgasm than either of the other two groups.
This survey only showed a link between the low-dose pills and pelvic pain, not causation. But if the low-dose pills are behind the pain, Rosenblum says it might be because of a dose-dependent mechanism: Women on low-dose pills have especially low levels of estrogen (women on normal-dose pills also have lower estrogen levels than those not on the Pill, but not quite as low as women on low-dose pills), so those low estrogen levels might somehow be coming into play here. The bottom line: More research needs to be done to understand why this higher incidence of pelvic pain may be happening, says Rosenblum.
If you’re currently on a low-dose pill and experiencing these symptoms, Rosenblum says the first thing you need to do is talk to your doctor, who will work with you to rule out other explanations for the discomfort. If the signs are pointing toward your pill, alternative options include going off of it, trying a higher-dose pill, or switching to a different birth control method.
Rosenblum says she doesn’t think these pelvic pain symptoms are dangerous, but that it’s important for patients to be aware of the link. “When you’re given any medication, you have to understand the potential side effects so that you can be a self advocate,” says Rosenblum. “You have to decide if the benefit of taking the medication is worth either the risk involved or the potential side effects, which may not be risky, but can affect quality of life.”
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