There has been a lot of talk over the years about whether or not birth control pills can cause hypertension. Hypertension is basically the medical term for high blood pressure. Some patients taking oral contraceptives find that their blood pressure is markedly higher on this medication.
This is definitely a symptom to discuss with your doctor if you find that your blood pressure has risen dramatically after starting a new birth control pill. You don’t want to mess around when it comes to your blood pressure. Arteries and blood vessels can become damaged over time as a result of hypertension, and the heart muscle can also begin to sustain damage from the condition, leaving a person at a risk for a heart attack or stroke.
Patients taking birth control who smoke have a bigger risk of developing hypertension. Smoking causes damage to lung tissue, resulting in less oxygen getting into the blood stream. A lower amount of oxygen and a higher blood pressure means even less oxygenated blood can get to the body’s many tissues. This means that the brain and heart muscle can receive less oxygenated blood, which can result in a heart attack or stroke over time.
Symptoms of hypertension are somewhat easy to see if they are bad enough, usually causing headaches and a “pounding” feeling in the chest from the heart beating extremely hard. If the blood pressure has escalated but is not noticeable to the patient, there may be no symptoms at all. Patients starting a new birth control medication are often encouraged to monitor their blood pressure to find out how the medication is affecting their body.
The most common treatment for hypertension brought on by a birth control pill is a doctor switching the patient to another form of birth control. This could be a different birth control pill, since there are a number of different types of contraceptive pills that they can prescribe. A doctor may recommend an intrauterine device, commonly known as an IUD, instead of a pill. There are also injections of birth control hormones which some patients get periodically.
Oftentimes, however, patients which blood pressure control issues when taking birth control will experience them regardless of which hormonal birth control method they are on. Since the majority of birth control methods are effective because they alter hormones to stop the release of eggs from the ovaries, chances are any type of hormone-altering birth control is probably going to cause high blood pressure in a patient which is prone to this condition. Therefore, doctors often encourage these patients to consider other forms of birth control, such as condoms, tubal ligation, or a vasectomy for their partner. These methods don’t alter the body’s natural hormones, so there is no risk for blood pressure problems as a result. Some people just have body systems that react differently to medications designed to alter their hormones. The cardiovascular system is quite reactive to hormones, and the blood pressure can raise and lower if hormones are altered even slightly by a med ication.
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