How Birth Control Pills Can End Your Acne

by Jessica MacQuarrie

It would almost be shorter to list the things that birth control pills DON'T effect, then to mention all the things they DO affect. They don't, for instance, effect vegetables, they don't affect rocks, and they don't affect outer space, however they may, on occasion, affect machinery and small animals.

Whether you're taking them to even out your menstrual cycle or to keep yourself from getting pregnant, now you have yet another reason to try out birth control pills,... clear skin. Birth Control Pills have proven that they help reduce acne. So much so in fact that the FDA has approved Ortho Tri-Cyclen and generic norgestimate/ethinyl estradiol (the stuff in Birth Control Pills) for use in the treatment of acne.

How Does this work? Androgen is a male hormone that increases oil production. Androgen is always working away, but it increases it's production of oil just before menstruation begins, which could result in your skin breaking out around you period. Where does "the pill" fit in? Low-doses of birth control pills have shown that they decrease these excess androgens. That means less oil and less breakouts, and they can even be used with other acne therapy (details can be found in the February 2001 Skin Therapy Letter)

Does this mean you should go out and pick up some birth control pills to kill that acne? Probably not, remember these studies were done with low doses of birth control pills. You might want to think of it more as one of the things to add to the benefits of birth control pills. Maybe it'll help offset the nausea and headaches over on the drawbacks side.

Jessica MacQuarrie is a writer from San Francisco California. She currently edits her web site www.endacnenow.com from her bay area home.