Birth control pills are truly one of the greatest boons to women’s sexual liberation to date. Easy, discreet and completely under our control, these pills have allowed women to express their sexuality as they choose without getting pregnant. They really are wonderful. A new study, however, has found that for some women, they might be doing double duty on the contraception front by encouraging abstinence. How? Results suggest a link between low-dose birth control pills and chronic pelvic pain and pain during orgasm. And if you find yourself curling your toes from pain instead of pleasure, you may be less inclined to have sex at all.

Recently, I was rummaging around in my younger sister’s purse for a stick of gum and came across two items: a pack of cigarettes and a pack of birth control pills. 

 

While I’m very happy that she is engaging in protected sex with her boyfriend (as if she had any choice, considering how passionate I am about contraception!), my big sister danger alert kicked in immediately when I saw the two packs side by side.

Cigarettes + Birth Control = Dangerzone

What my sister didn’t know is what many women don’t know: Smoking cigarettes while taking hormonal birth control significantly increases a woman’s risk of developing serious blood clots. These blood clots can case serious issues, such as stroke, heart attack and death. 

Many women rely on depo-provera or “The Shot” to provide ongoing pregnancy prevention, but the shot may be hindering much more than ovulation.

 

Researchers at Arizona State University have discovered that medroxyprogesterone (MPA), an active hormone in depo-provera and many menopausal hormone therapies, impairs memory in rodents, according a Science Daily article. The link between MPA and memory loss in menopausal-aged rats was researched in a study published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory in November 2010.

Psychology doctoral student Blair Braden became concerned about the effects for her friends who were using MPA as a contraceptive. 

If the Yaz family of birth control pills is the “Mafia of Contraceptives,” then somebody better tell Uncle Luigi that the family just gained two new hit men: NuvaRing and Ortho Evra Patch.

Not to be lighthearted when discussing dangerous pharmaceuticals that are used by millions of women each year, but the analogy fits. Rather than bearing concrete boots and guns with silencers, the Ring and the Patch join Yaz, Yasmin, Beyaz and Ocella as pills that can cause serious deep vein blood clots that are tied to adverse health risks, even for otherwise healthy women.

These blood clots can travel throughout the body wreaking havoc when they hit (no pun intended) vital organs such as the brain (stroke), heart (heart attack)