Birth control pills can be used to treat PMS (premenstrual syndrome). Birth control pills for PMS are hormone based and as well as preventing pregnancy, they can be prescribed by doctors to modulate heavy and painful periods. Birth control pills can also provide a means of hormone therapy to help balance the hormone levels that in some women, can trigger the spectrum of PMS symptoms every month. Both estrogen and progesterone hormone production declines during the final stages of the menstrual cycle, when PMS symptoms strike.
One recent study has shown that both physical and emotional PMS symptoms can be significantly reduced by taking a low dose birth control pill containing an equal combination of drospirenone (a synthetic progesterone) and ethinyl estradiol (a form of estrogen).
Not all birth control pills will benefit PMS symptoms, as shown by the conflicting data from other studies in which different types of birth control pill alleviated some PMS some symptoms while worsening others. The key seems to be in the balance and relative doses of estrogen and progesterone hormones contained within the formulation.
Yasmin, the birth control pill shown to significantly alleviate PMS symptoms, is the only birth control pill formulation to contain to contain drospirenone. Drospirenone has antimineralocorticoid activity that influences the regulation of water retention, bloating, and electrolyte balance in the body. Discuss taking the birth control pill with your doctor as a means of hormone manipulation to treat PMS symptoms, or if you already take birth control pills, discuss switching to one with proven benefit in treating PMS.
