The Unseen Side Effects of Birth Control Pills for PCOS | The Real Root of PCOS

The concept with birth control pills is if you can block cycling, you'll block follicle formation development. So you'll block the formation of the cysts in the polycystic ovarian syndrome. The issue with that is part of PCOS is not only insulin resistance, but elevated testosterone levels. So you will get abnormal hair growth, hirsutism, hair in your chin, nipples, acne, some other undesired, oily, greasy skin. And birth control pills, one of the interesting things they do is they actually increase endogenous androgen levels. Certain areas of the female body, particularly the external vagina outside the introitus, which is where this kind of internal labia kind of come together, are exquisitely. Testosterone, they need androgens. And so one of the results can become thinning of that skin, painful intercourse, urinary bladder problems, uncomfortable urination. It can almost feel like you have weird infections and things are kind of off down there solely from low androgens. Testosterone, basically.