Myth or Truth: Does Birth Control Cause Acne?
If you’ve ever gotten an acne flare-up seemingly out of the blue, you know firsthand how frustrating it can be. While upping your skincare game may help, getting to the root cause of your acne is essential to eliminate it effectively. While some people may suspect their birth control is causing their acne, that might not necessarily be the case.
Birth control and its effects on your body have long been debated. One hotly debated issue is whether birth control can cause acne. The answer is more complicated than yes or no. The first thing to understand is how hormonal fluctuations may affect your skin and how acne forms.
You get acne when the follicles in your skin become clogged with dirt, oil, and dead skin cells. Other environmental and biological factors may contribute to acne formation, but at its core, this is the cause of acne. Hormonal fluctuations can also cause an acne flare-up, and many fear their birth control pills might contribute.
Top takeaways
In this article, you’ll learn:
How hormonal fluctuations contribute to acne breakouts
If your birth control pill can be causing your acne
What types of birth control pills may cause acne
And how birth control may sometimes be used as a treatment for acne
Birth Control and Acne Breakouts
In certain scenarios, birth control may cause you to break out, but the reason you are breaking out isn’t directly because you are on birth control. If you’ve experienced breakouts while taking birth control, you may notice that it occurred when you first began the pill. When you start on birth control, your body takes some time to adjust. During this time, your hormones fluctuate, sometimes causing a surge in a particular hormone called androgen.
As you continue on the pill, your body and hormones will stabilize, and your skin should stop breaking out. If you continue to break out after months of being on the pill, it may be for other reasons, such as stress, diet, and certain medications.
Birth control pills that contain forms of progestin that cause a rise in androgens often cause acne as a side effect. However, newer birth control pills that contain progestins like desogestrel, norgestimate, and drospirenone are less likely to cause side effects related to androgen surges.
Birth Control Types and Acne Side Effects
There are two main types of hormonal birth control – the combination pill, which contains both progestin and estrogen, and the mini pill, which contains progestin alone. Birth control pills that contain some forms of progestin alone may cause a surge in androgens. However, not all types of the mini pill cause acne. Certain types of progestin could cause acne in certain people, while others don’t.
Androgens are typically referred to as a “male” hormone, but in reality, this hormone is present in varying levels in every human. When there’s a surge in this hormone (like around your period), it may cause side effects like acne and excessive hair growth.
Given how acne occurs, you might wonder how hormonal fluctuations inside your body can cause your face to break out. A surge in androgen production causes your skin to create more sebum, an oil your face produces. As mentioned, an excess of this oil, alongside dirt and dead skin cells, can block your pores. To answer the question technically, birth control doesn’t exactly cause acne. However, it could cause hormonal fluctuations, which could contribute to acne breakouts.
Should you stop taking birth control if it causes acne?
It’s not advisable to abruptly stop birth control once on it unless you’ve been experiencing severe side effects. In some cases, if your birth control seems to be causing your acne, it may resolve on its own in a few months. Stopping your birth control before then may only further contribute to your hormonal fluctuation and might even increase the severity of your acne. One of the most common causes of hormonal acne is stopping your birth control.
Birth Control as Treatment for Acne
As early as the 1990s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved several types of birth control pills specifically for treating acne. The types of birth control recommended for the treatment of acne are typically combination pills. Pills that contain both estrogen and progesterone.
Birth control pills may help to treat acne in two ways. The first is estrogen which decreases the oil production in your face causing it less likely for it to clog your pores and break you out. Some types of birth control also keep your androgens in check. Some research shows that taking certain types of birth control can lead to an increase in a hormone called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). This hormone prevents androgen from entering your skin cells, which can also prevent and treat acne breakouts.
Conclusion
While some people benefit from clear, acne-free skin while on birth control, others may struggle with acne breakouts. This is primarily due to the type of birth control pill you are on. While the combination pill is often recommended even as a treatment for acne in some people, one of the side effects of using the mini pill can be acne. Not everyone on the mini pill will experience acne; for some people who do, it resolves within a few months.
Before starting a birth control pill, speak to your healthcare provider. They’ll be in the best place to advise you on what pill will be most suitable for you. They’ll also be in the best place to answer any questions you might have.
Different people’s bodies respond in different ways to birth control pills. While the type of birth control a friend takes might cause their skin to glow, it might cause you to develop acne. Speaking to your healthcare provider and doing your research is best. If your healthcare provider determines a birth control prescription is right for you, with The Pill Club, you can easily access most birth control pills suitable for acne treatment.
Panzer, C., Wise, S., Fantini, G., Kang, D., Munarriz, R., Guay, A., & Goldstein, I. (2006). Original research—women’s sexual dysfunction: Impact of oral contraceptives on sex hormone‐binding globulin and androgen levels: a retrospective study in women with sexual dysfunction. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 3(1), 104–113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2005.00198.x
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