There are many benefits of contraception including help you prevent getting pregnant. But they can also make your period less painful and more regular, clean up your skin, and decrease your risk of some cancers.
While birth control is the most common reason people use the pill, 14 percent of pill users use it for reasons other than birth control. Moreover, more than half of pill users take it for reasons other than pregnancy prevention. Aside from avoiding pregnancy, there are other benefits of contraception.
Benefits of Contraception
Here are the 12 most common Benefits of Contraception:
1. Regular Periods
Contraceptives can help you regulate your period so you know when it’s coming. The hormones estrogen and progestin are found in traditional contraceptives, which are comparable to the hormones produced by your ovaries. For three weeks, you take hormone-containing “active” pills, followed by one week of inactive pills. The week you take the inactive pills, you get your period.
Newer options allow you to take the tablets to control your period in the manner that is most suitable for you and your lifestyle. Some products now contain 24 active tablets and 4 inactive pills, resulting in a shorter monthly cycle. You take active tablets for a longer period of time with these extended-cycle kinds. One alternative is to take active tablets for three months before taking a break. This means you’ll only get your period four times each year.
You may also plan ahead of time to avoid your period at busy times such as final exams, sports activities, or social gatherings. With newer extended-cycle options, you can take active tablets every day for a year to completely stop your period.
Another type, known as a minipill, can either stop or lighten your period. You must take these tablets every day for 28 days.
2. Help with Cramps, PMS, and Anemia
By delaying ovulation and making the uterus lining thinner, birth control tablets may reduce your chance of heavy menstrual bleeding. A lighter period reduces your chances of iron deficiency anemia, which is caused by excessive bleeding. Because it prevents ovulation and lightens your period, the pill may help reduce severe cramps.
Contraceptions may ease pain such as mood swings, breast pain, weight gain, bloating, and acne if you have PMS or PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) by balancing hormone levels during your cycle. Using the pill to regulate your hormone levels may also result in fewer and fewer menstrual migraines.
3. It reduces your chances of developing uterine cancer
Hormonal birth control offers some long-term advantages as well. According to research, women who use combination contraception are 50% less likely to get uterine cancer. These effects might continue for up to 20 years after the pill is stopped.
It can also lower your chance of developing ovarian cancer.
4. It reduces your risk of ovarian cysts
Ovarian cysts are tiny, fluid-filled sacs that develop in your ovaries during the ovulatory cycle. They are not harmful, but they can be painful at times. Women with PCOS often have an excess of small cysts in their ovaries. Hormonal birth control can prevent these cysts from developing by preventing ovulation. They may also prevent previous cysts from regrowing.
5. Endometriosis Symptoms and Ovarian Cyst Prevention
Endometriosis is a disorder in which the uterine lining develops outside of the uterus. This might result in painful periods as well as unpleasant menstrual cramps. Contraceptions will not cure endometriosis, but they will help you reduce your pain by stopping periods.
One added benefit of this contraception is it may also prevent the development of ovarian cysts.
6. Clearing the Skin and Preventing the Growth of Unwanted Hair
Contraceptions can help with acne and hair development in the middle of your body by lowering the levels of male hormones produced by your ovaries. You may develop hair above your lip, beneath your chin, between your breasts, between your belly button and pubic bone, or down your inner thigh if your levels of these hormones are higher than normal or if you are susceptible to them. Within 6 months, you should see less unwanted hair.
Hormones in contraception can also help prevent acne, although it may take many months to notice a difference.
7. Help With Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a common disease among adolescent girls and women, is a hormonal imbalance in which the ovaries produce excess testosterone. It can result in irregular periods, unwanted hair growth, and acne. Contraceptions can help these symptoms by balancing your hormones, reducing your testosterone levels, and controlling your period.
8. Lower Your Risk of Some Cancers
Taking contraception might increase your chances of getting some cancers while decreasing your chances of getting others. Women who have used birth control have a 30% to 50% decreased chance of developing ovarian cancer than women who have never used the pill. The longer you take it, the less likely it is that you will get this type of cancer. The reduced risk lasts for up to 30 years after you stop the pill.
Women who have used contraception are also less likely to develop endometrial cancer than those who have not. It reduces your chances of getting this type of cancer by at least 30%. The longer you take the pill, the lesser your chance of getting cancer. This advantage continues for several years after you stop using the tablet. Growing research shows that taking the pill may reduce your risk of developing colorectal cancer.
9. It makes periods less painful
Menstrual pain is cited by around 31% of women who use contraception as one of the reasons they continue to use them. Ovulation is prevented by hormonal birth control. Your uterus does not experience the painful contractions that produce cramps during ovulation when you don’t ovulate.
If you have painful periods, hormonal birth control may give some relief from the pain.
10. It can help you get rid of hormonal acne
Hormonal changes are often major acne causes. As a result, acne is usually at its worst throughout adolescence. Hormonal birth control can help to manage hormonal acne by reducing these fluctuations.
The most powerful acne fighters are contraceptions that include both estrogen and progesterone also known as combination pills.
11. It helps in the treatment of endometriosis
Endometriosis is a painful disorder that occurs when the tissue lining your uterus, known as the endometrium, develops outside of your uterus. This tissue bleeds throughout your period regardless of where it is located. When tissue bleeds in locations where blood cannot easily get out of your body, it causes pain and inflammation.
Hormonal birth control methods are beneficial as they allow you to skip periods. Continuous contraception and IUDs are usually effective treatments for endometriosis.
12. It can also help with menstrual migraines
A migraine is a severe kind of headache that affects almost 30 million Americans, with women accounting for 75 percent of those affected. This is due in part to the fact that hormonal changes are a major trigger for migraines in some people.
Menstrual migraines, according to experts, are caused by a reduction in estrogen and progesterone just before your period begins. Hormonal birth control options such as a continuous pill, implant, or IUD that allow you to skip your period can help you prevent this drop.
The Bottom Line
Aside from pregnancy prevention, birth control tablets may provide many advantages, but they may not be the best birth control choice for you. They also do not protect you from STDs. Consult your doctor. You can select what to do together.
