What is the effect of the combined oral contraceptive pill on body weight?

What is the effect of birth pills on body weight?

All of us are intermittently gaining or losing weight. Inevitably some patients find that they gain weight around the time of starting the combined oral contraceptive pill but others observe a weight loss. In a personal computer search of the medical literature from 1966 to date I found exactly fifty papers (articles in medical journals) where weight change in relation to the combined oral contraceptive pill had been studied. Thirty-six papers indicated no change, eleven found an increase varying from 0.3kg to 2.4Kg. Three papers found weight loss with the combined oral contraceptive pill for women who were overweight or who had polycystic ovaries.

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