Like all my other articles, this one on the link between oral contraceptive and overweight is an article in which I speak on a personal basis, which I recommend reading but also the need to further document yourself to form your own opinion, as well as confront yourself with the doctor, and which, I remind you, is written by a blogger, who is not a doctor. Having said that, and always inviting you to be cautious when you read something on the internet, we address an issue that for many women is thorny, and on which the responses of gynecologists can be discouraging.
The pill makes you fat, where by pill I mean the contraceptive pill? The answer is: yes, it can be, and not: no, it doesn’t make you fat .

So the answer is yes. It can make you fat, but it doesn’t necessarily happen, and usually it is a negligible weight gain, of a few pounds at most, within the first months of taking it and as a side effect.

I know that telling you that you could gain “a few pounds at most” with the pill makes you foam from the mouth, but the studies that have linked the use of the conception pill to being overweight speak of a negligible weight gain as possible, albeit rare, side effect, while it is more common to experience water retention, worsening or appearance of cellulite, bloating, digestive problems, mood problems.

All things caused by the presence of estrogen , which however is also linked to the accumulation of body fat on the breasts, hips and thighs. And the appearance of cellulite. Not only that, an excess of estrogen is linked to the risk of contracting numerous diseases , and it is no coincidence that there have been studies that linked the use of the contraceptive pill to the risk of neoplasms (in the breast, in the cervix).

Another study looked at the tendency of women to gain weight due to the contraceptive as a consequence of the effect that hormones have on the liver. Estrogen interferes with the way the liver burns fat. 

In fact, wondering if “the pill makes you fat” is not in my opinion the best question to ask, especially to a gynecologist. Perhaps to an endocrinologist, but he should be asked, rather if “estrogen makes you fat” , since the contraceptive pills on the market are almost always based on estrogen and progestin in different doses (combined oral contraceptives). There are also progestogen-only pills, without estrogen (minipills), but the contraceptive effects of the latter can be variable, and in turn they are not free from side effects.