To: Sheri Kozar- best birth control options???

[Guest guest]

Helloooooooooo Sheri,

Nice to have a dr. in the house. Once and for all, I will post this question,

hopefully the last time. As a physician, what kind of advice can you give

weight loss surgery patient as to the kind of birth control do you think is

best for us. If you can give us more info. about the use of birth control pills

and the body's ability to malabsorption...hope I am saying this right. Anyhow

what type of birth control do you think is best and if you can give more

information about the new Mirena IUD. Thanks

[Guest guest]

tte,

I'll do my best to comment on birth control options, but these are

purely my opinions/experiences.

I used birth control pills after my gastric bypass. However, I had

a short bypass and never had much of an issue with malabsorption. I

would probably not recommend birth control pills as the sole form of

birth control to women less than a year out from surgery. The rate

of malabsorption varies so much between individuals who've had

weight loss surgery, so no generalization can be made. I think

birth control pills would be effective for women who've had gastric

bypass once their weight has stabilized, assuming they do not still

have signs of severe malabsorption (frequent greasy diarrhea, severe

vitamin deficiencies, etc.)

The birth control patch is only effective in those under 200 pounds,

I believe. But the issue of malabsorption at least isn't a factor

with the patch, since it is absorbed topically, straight into the

bloodstream (bypassing the GI tract.)

IUD's are very effective for birth control in the proper patient

(woman in a monogamous relationship who is not at risk of sexually-

transmitted diseases.) IUD's work by altering the environment of

the uterus, so their effectiveness would not be affected by weight-

loss surgery. Some IUD's release hormones as well which would be

absorbed straight into the bloodstream--again not affected by what

has or hasn't been done to your GI tract.

Depo Provera is very effective as a form of birth control in all

women, weight-loss surgery or not. However, it does have alot of

side effects/ill effects for some women, as I'm sure you've been

reading in the recent posts.

I can't make any generic comment about " what type of birth control

is best for women who've had weight-loss surgery. " As you can see,

recommendations would vary based on the individual person, length of

time since surgery, their social situation, current weight, degree

of malabsorption, etc. I hope this helps. Again, these are purely

my opinions.

Sheri