Benefits of Birth Control Pills
This page discusses the benefits of birth control pills. This page relates to combination pills, though some points can also apply to progestin-only pills.
Being on the pill can help regulate a woman’s menstrual cycle. This means that it will be easier to tell when your periods will happen.
Being on the pill often makes the menstrual flow lighter, which means that women lose less iron each month. This means there is less anemia in women on the pill.
Although the pill can increase the risk of certain kinds of cancers, it lowers the risk of endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer.
Women on birth control have fewer benign cysts in both their ovaries and their breasts. It lowers the rate of breast disease overall.
Birth control pills have a positive effect on cholesterol (both types, HDL and LDL).
Birth control helps clear up acne.
In women over thirty, being on birth control helps to prevent bone density loss. Birth control helps lessen the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
Birth control pills mean that there is less likely to be an ectopic pregnancy (one that is not in the uterus). Ectopic pregnancies can be fatal. Birth control pills also lessen the chance of fallopian infection, which in turn means that there is a lower chance of infertility.
Women on birth control have fewer abortions, and are able to avoid the complications and health risks associated with pregnancy. The side effects and dangers of oral contraception are still safer than childbirth.
