Because fasting and especially dry fasting is so powerful and balances out hormone imbalances is there potential that it could prevent birth control from working?
Interesting thought. I don’t know for certain, but i’ll speculate a bit based on what I do know…
If you are on the pill, certain antibiotics can cause your body not to metabolize the pill correctly, leading to it being less effective. I’m not sure if birth control pills need to be taken with food to be metabolized correctly.
If you’re on something like nuvaring, that is obviously absorbed differently, so digestion wouldn’t impact that.
Certain other things that impact hormones, such as st. johns wart, can for sure alter the effectiveness of hormonal birth control. But taking supplements/meds that alter medication is different than your own body self-regulating it.
Longer term BC options like nexplanon or a hormonal IUD release a such a small amount of hormones already that I don’t anticipate natural hormonal fluctuations would impact them much.
I doubt the shot would be effected at all because it’s just a massive, mega dose of hormones and I’m pretty sure not much can disrupt it. That said, it seems to be a terrible option for your body based on what I’ve read, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you just really, really want it.
You could ask your gyno about it, but my gut is telling me it wouldn’t make a drastic enough difference in your hormones to impact the effectiveness of your BC.
The main thing I’d be concerned about was how BC pills are metabolized and if food improves their absorption, but if you’re using an alternate form of bc like nuvaring or the patch, that obviously wouldn’t be important.
Fasting helps balance your hormones and getting into a normal weight range does so as well. BC is actually less effective on overweight and obese women than it is on normal weight women.
And, personal experience, I have a hormonal IUD and have fasted on semi-regular basis. So far, no accidents. *knocks on wood*