The Pill May Limit Muscle Gains in Women

But experts say results from the small study are no reason to stop birth control

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

Related Encyclopedia • AIDS and HIV Infection • Amenorrhea • Amniocentesis • Amniocentesis and CVS More... Related Healthscout Videos Custom Ankle Replacements Optimistic Healing Early Babies: How Soon is Too Soon? Aqua Lipo More... Related Animations • Allergy • Breast Reduction • Breast Self-Exam Video • Erectile Dysfunction More... Related Drug Information • Actonel • Cialis • Detrol LA • Diflucan More... Related News Articles • Focusing on School Could Prevent Teen Pregnancies • Low Vitamin D Tied to Estrogen Decline • Caring Through Sharing -- Life Changing Stories • Breast Cancer Pain Continues Years After Treatment More...

FRIDAY, April 17 (HealthDay News) -- Lower hormone levels in women who exercise regularly and take birth-control pills may result in less muscle mass increases, a new study suggests.

But the muscle-mass differences between women taking "the pill" and those not taking the pill did not affect performance.

Text Continues Below

---

At this point, the finding, from a study scheduled for presentation Friday at the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society in New Orleans, is no reason to stop taking oral contraceptives, experts said.

"It is premature to say anything conclusively at this point," said study lead author Chang Woock Lee, a doctoral candidate in the department of health and kinesiology at Texas A&M University, College Station. "Vigorous future studies with more stringent control and clever design will be definitely needed to confirm the results and/or elucidate the underlying mechanism conclusively."

Others agreed.

"It's just one small, a very small, group of women. If you think of how many women actually are on the pill, how significant is the difference in terms of patients noticing anything or even an actual health effect?" said Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "This might make a difference for a high-performance athlete in a competition, but, for your normal patients who have a healthy exercise routine, this might not make a difference."

"I don't disagree with the statistical significance, but the clinical significance is very questionable," added Dr. Amanda Weiss-Kelly, director of pediatric sports medicine at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, part of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. "The difference didn't translate into improvement in performance," she added.

There is some existing research into the effect of oral contraceptives on body composition, Weiss-Kelly said, but most studies have been small, and results have been conflicting.

Page:  1 | 2 | Next >>