Do any vitamins interact with birth control?

Asking whether any vitamins interact with birth control is like asking if celery has calories. It may seem like a harmless question, but the answer is more complicated than you think. Put simply: it depends.

Depending on your specific birth control method and the types of supplements you take, certain vitamins can interfere with hormonal contraceptives or increase their side effects—potentially resulting in unwanted pregnancies, decreased effectiveness from missed pills, or other health problems (yikes!).

To avoid running into trouble at the pharmacy counter or during your annual gynecologist visit, here’s what you need to know about how common vitamins and minerals might impact your ability to prevent pregnancy while on birth control.

The Basics of Hormonal Contraception

First things first—you have to understand what kind of hormonal contraception methods are susceptible to interactions before diving into which vitamins may be problematic.

There are two types of hormonal contraceptive options: combination methods (estrogen and progestin) and progestin-only methods (also called “mini-pills”). Some examples include:

  • Combination oral contraceptives
  • Combination skin patches
  • Combination vaginal rings
  • Progestin-only pills
  • Progestin injections
  • Implants under the skin
  • Vaginal progesterone rings

Once you identify which type of hormone-based birth control method suits you best—pro tip: talk to your doctor!—you will better able to determine if vitamin interaction could be something worth researching further.

Vitamin B6

B6 is touted as many good things for our bodies including its potential benefits for female reproductive organs. However when in comes over-reliance by using it alongside other medications such as medication for PMS symptoms, this may cause an issue since regular use could affect ovulation processes which means essentially all that planning behind taking birth-control pill would become entirely ineffective.

Vitamin C

Do you love oranges? We do too (Jinx! You owe me a soda!), but if you’re taking birth control pills, it’s important to avoid consuming excessive amounts of vitamin C in foods or supplements. Excess intake can impair the liver’s ability to metabolize estrogen and progesterone effectively accordingly lowering effectiveness of birth control pills as exhibited in research studies done on women using oral contraceptives reducing their contraceptive effectivity from 89% to 45%.

Vitamin Supplements are generally good for your health however administering any supplement alongside other medication goes beyond mere popping down some pills into your stomach without knowing how each one work together. Especially when these vitamins that may look harmless could be detrimental towards how effective medicines especially hormonal contraception methods perform. Do not hesitate if any doubts arise from these concerns raised towards seeking medical professionals in order to have full awareness on how different substances may function according to our physiology; it’s our body after all!

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