July 1, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – One of the most frequent reasons doctors prescribe birth control, aside from contraception, is to reduce severe acne among adolescent and young adult women. A new study finds that, in addition to having sometimes severe side effects, many hormonal contraceptives actually make acne worse.
Researchers studied 2,147 participants, who said that long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), such as the IUD and Depo Provera, worsened acne.
Yet some oral contraceptive pills – such as Levora, Previfem, and Seasonale – do no good or actually harmed women's complexions, researchers found.
“Our research revealed the efficacy of birth control as a treatment for acne largely depends on the specific hormones in those contraceptives,” said Dr. David Lortscher, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, a peer-reviewed journal. “We learned that some contraceptives can actually cause a person's acne to worsen.”
Regardless of their efficacy in reducing pimples, all forms of birth control hold the potential to irreparably harm, or even kill, the young women who take them.
“There are more than 150 brands of birth control pills, and every single one of them has serious side effects, from increased risk of blood clots to severe liver problems, heart attacks to strokes, from migraine headaches to, ironically, loss of interest in sex,” Brian Clowes, the director of education and training at Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews.
According to a 2007 Oxford University study published in The Lancet, women who take the birth control pill double their risk of cervical cancer and increase the possibility of developing breast cancer by 10 to 30.
Both elevated danger levels persist for 10 years after the woman stops taking oral contraceptives, the studies found.
“Many patient pamphlets also list acne, severe itching, skin rash and hair loss (alopecia) as side effects, so why physicians prescribe these pills to alleviate acne is a mystery,” he said.
“Why use such a dangerous product for this purpose if there is a wide range of specialty medications such as Tretinoin, clindamycin, doxycycline, erythromycin, and tetracycline made specifically for the purpose of alleviating acne symptoms?” Clowes asked.