It’s funny, now that I think back on it: throughout my entire reproductive life, I’ve spent only…four, maybe five years – tops – on the pill. Sure, oral contraceptives have their obvious charms w/respect to spontaneity, and – with the exception of one, college-era prescription - I never had any problems with it…

Yet there was always something about taking the pill that…bugged me. Simply put, I just never liked the idea of messing around with my hormones.  Thus, I opted for other forms of birth control most of the time: diaphragm or IUD. I’d cycle oral contraceptives in for a year or so (mostly for John’s sake, lol), then return to somewhat more awkward, but also less (psychologically) bothersome, forms of protection. Finally, John had a vasectomy right after Nick was born and that was that…birth control became a total non-issue for me.

Until I got into bodybuilding, that is.

Bodybuilding is all about the “Big T” – testosterone, which even women need in order to add muscle and lean out.  I didn’t think about how OC’s might interfere with that, however, until I did some research into PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome).  As it turns out, putting women on the pill is a standard treatment. Women with PCOS typically have symptoms of androgen excess (hirsutism, acne) which – among other things – the pill helps to counteract.

That caught my attention. As I dug a little deeper, I discovered that hormonal contraceptives put a pretty signficant dent in a normal woman’s testosterone levels, too – and jack up SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) levels in the bargain. Since SHBG limits testosterone bioavailability (only free testosterone can interact with androgen receptors), it’s a “double whammy”, so to speak. Even worse, SHBG levels may remain elevated long after a woman is off the pill.

This makes perfect sense when you think about how hormonal contraceptives work… It’s just that I never really thought about it from this angle before.  It’s not the sort of stuff that’s highlighted in the patient literature.

Putting two and two together, I realized that – while it may not be an impediment to achieving/maintaining a normal weight/body comp - hormonal contraception could be a real disadvantage for women looking to get to the next level.

I had no direct proof, of course…just anecdotal stuff here and there – but it made sense to me.

Looks like it might be correct, too.

Lower hormone levels in women who exercise regularly and take birth-control pills may result in less muscle mass increases, a new study suggests.

…The authors of the new research studied two groups of 18- to 31-year-old women: 34 who were on the pill and 39 not on the pill. All were active and healthy and took part in a 10-week resistance-exercising training program (three times a week) as well as analysis of their body composition both before and after the program.

Women not taking oral contraceptives gained more than 60 percent more muscle mass than those on the pill.

There were other changes noted in participants on the pill, including reduced concentrations of the hormone DHEA, which Lee explained, is an anabolic hormone and therefore builds muscle.

Now 60 percent is a pretty big number, and probably doesn’t convey the final results very accurately.  The article doesn’t say, but I imagine the total muscle gains were relatively small…after all, the study subjects were probably new to training, the study was only 10 weeks long, and workouts likely weren’t that intense.  In addition, many exercising women undereat, so their calorie intakes may not have been conducive to optimal muscle gains.

On the flip side, however, we can extrapolate… what might the differences be like over a year of dedicated training?  Two years?  More?  I know of women who work hard, yet always seem to struggle to get below 20%-23% body fat, or to see some visible muscle.  Could hormonal contraceptives be playing a role?

Looks like my early instincts were sounder than I realized at the time…I’ve occasionally wondered how much of my own success has been due to my long-term, pill-free status.  Needless to state, I’ll be very interested to see some follow up research.

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