Antibiotics and birth control

Understanding the link

For all those women who are not in favor of waking up one day only to find that they are pregnant, in depth informing on the matter of mutual connection between the antibiotics and birth control is more than vital. In the most recent of times there have been certain internet-based discussions though, of the possible effects of antibiotics on the effectiveness of birth control pills. Of them all, penicillin can also have the ill effect, thus making a woman even more prone to getting pregnant. As a direct result of the varying effectiveness rates of different birth control pills, all such information is potentially misleading and can be all to perplexing.

In case a woman has chosen to use the combined version together with the progestin-only version of the pill, that woman will surely be more than satisfied not only with the convenience, but also with its high effectiveness rate. Having this in mind, it needs to be emphasized that when it comes to various types of birth control products, including the birth control pills, there is a whole lot of confusion going on. And this goes as well for the effects of antibiotics on the above mentioned anti-birth products. What has to be kept in mind, in the first place, is that all such varieties of the birth control are essentially part of the oral-contraceptive group. Thus the effect of antibiotics will only be mild and will not influence the effects of those contraceptives, i.e. barrier methods (e.g. condoms, caps, spermicides, contraceptive injections and patches etc.) to a great extent, including also other varieties of birth control like contraceptive implant, for example.

When it comes to the direct relationship between the ill effects of antibiotics and birth control pills, it should be emphasized that there exist two distinct ways. Namely, that combined variety of the birth control pill is known to have in it estrogen. What is also a known fact is that such antibiotics as Griseofulvin, as well as Refampin, do have the tendency to bring about liver enzyme alteration and thus synthetically enhance breaking down of estrogen in one’s body. The function in question diminishes the levels of estrogen, as well as the overall effectiveness of the pill itself. Bottom line would be that antibiotics and birth control have the tendency to counteract each other by means of their effects on estrogen, thus increasing the chances for occurrence of unwanted pregnancy.