Many people take Melatonin for sleep, and many birth control pills also contain Melatonin. Both of these medications are designed to help regulate your sleep cycle, but what if you want to use both? For some people, this can be a great idea, for others it may have adverse effects.
Read on to learn more about the interaction between Melatonin and birth control pills in order to make an informed decision about how these two medicines will affect you!
Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone in the body that helps regulate sleep cycles. It’s also important to note that it can be synthesized and given as medication too!
While birth control pills are designed to lessen ovulation, which decreases risk of pregnancy, but they may also contain Melatonin for regulating your menstrual cycle or decreasing irritation from your periods.
Melatonin pills, or supplements that contain Melatonin like Kalms Night Time Sleep Aid, are designed to be taken at night before bedtime and may help you fall asleep faster because it helps inhibit the chemical messenger in the brain called “GABA”.
It can also make sleep more restful without interruptions from snoring or other noises as well.
Hence, birth control pills have a different mechanism of action than Melatonin: they work by preventing ovulation, changing cervical mucus consistency so sperm cannot reach an egg cell if released during unprotected sex (or there’s no egg for them to fertilize), and thinning out uterine lining so implantation of any embryo is less likely.
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will melatonin intake affect birth control in a way?
You can use Melatonin to reset your sleep cycle, but it doesn’t work with all types of birth control.
Use the following information if you want to know how they affect each other and whether or not Melatonin is safe for you when combined with a certain type of birth control.
the effects of melatonin and birth control on one another:
Melatonin is a hormone that helps to regulate your sleep-wake cycle, or circadian rhythm. Melatonin levels are high at night when it’s dark and low during the day when there is light. It can help you sleep better because it tells your body that it should be nighttime.
Birth control pills contain estrogen and progestin, which can affect melatonin levels.
Birth control may decrease Melatonin production because it regulates hormones that interfere with its release from the pineal gland in your brain into your body’s circulatory system.
In addition to affecting sleep cycles and circadian rhythms, Melatonin is also a natural anti-oxidant. It protects against cancer and cell damage and helps regulate blood sugar levels.
The combination of these two factors means that estrogen containing birth control pills might have other effects on health as well if you don’t use them correctly or for an extended period of time (longer than one year).
You should not take Melatonin while taking oral contraceptives or hormonal therapies such as hormone replacement therapy without first discussing this decision with your doctor.
Melatonin can affect how birth control pills work and while there are a number of different factors that play into this, it is important to note that the healthiest course of action for you may be not to take one.
Melatonin works in direct opposition with hormones like estrogen by blocking its release from your pineal gland so if you’re taking oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), these drugs will have more of an effect on your body than they would otherwise.
Additionally, melatonin has been shown to impact blood sugar levels and some studies suggest that those who use it as a sleep aid often do so because their bodies don’t produce enough natural melatonin during darkness hours when other people’s bodies do.
If you’re on oral contraceptives, the estrogen in these drugs can also increase your risk of breast cancer and blood clots; so it’s wise to weigh the pros and cons before taking one with melatonin.
Does melatonin cancel out birth control pills, and how?
Melatonin and birth control are two very different products, but there is a way they can be used together.
Combining the pills with melatonin may not shorten your cycle or change ovulation symptoms in any significant manner; however it could help you sleep better when taking them during the time you would normally take oral contraceptives for contraception purposes.
In doing this, experts say that you will also reduce some of the side effects associated with hormonal medications like blood clots and breast cancer risk.”
A note about hormone replacement therapy (HRT): Hormones such as estrogen from these drugs increase chances of breast cancer or blood clotting so talk to your doctor before using both substances at once. You should know the possible risks of using HRT if you are over 50 or have had a hysterectomy.
In the end, it is up to each individual person to decide what they want to do with their body and how they feel about risk versus reward.
Related articles:
What is a Melatonin Overdose?
How Long Does Melatonin Last: Tips and Tricks to Ensure Optimal Sleep
what interferes with birth control?
these are some of the most common ways how hormones can interfere with birth control:
- hormones in oral contraceptives or HRT affect natural hormone levels and may alter drug receptors.
- hormonal changes can cause a woman to ovulate more often, which is when fertilization occurs. this makes it harder for a condom to prevent pregnancy during sex.
- the two substances combined both suppress estrogen production so using them together may decrease benefits from hormonal therapy as well as protection against breast cancer risk due to low levels of the female hormone.
In addition, people who use Melatonin should get tested for sleep apnea before they start taking an oral contraceptive because there’s an increased risk that their body won’t be able to take it. Melatonin can make you sleepy and cause a decrease in your sex drive.
Women who use it should not take oral contraceptives because the combination will suppress estrogen production to low levels, which could increase their risk of breast cancer.
Melatonin may also interact with other drugs like blood thinners or antidepressants. It is a hormone that induces sleep. It has been shown to help with jet lag and shift work, but it also works as a contraceptive.
Melatonin can be used in conjunction with the birth control pill when there needs to be some sort of emergency contraception outside of the span where it would otherwise have taken effect.
what are the birth control options available?
- Birth control pills: oral contraceptives that use hormones to prevent pregnancy. They are taken for 21 days and then have a withdrawal period of seven days when they don’t take any pills, after which another pack is started again; or until the person becomes pregnant. The side effects can include weight gain, mood swings, nausea and more.
- Depo Provera: a type of synthetic progesterone that is injected every three months and can’t be used if someone has certain types of cancer, breast tenderness or unexplained vaginal bleeding.
- NuvaRing: A small flexible ring which contains two hormones, one releasing estrogen and the other progestin. It’s inserted into your vagina once per month for three weeks in each cycle; it releases these hormones at a steady level to prevent ovulation and fertilization. The side effects include headaches, nausea, vomiting, weight gain, depression or mood swings.
There are many different birth control options available but they all have their own pros and cons depending on what you’re looking for!
Can supplements interfere with birth control?
Mainly, supplements don’t affect birth control but they can cause other side effects. For example, if you’re taking a supplement that supresses your appetite and it suppresses hunger for too long then the lack of food intake will lead to weight loss which in turn may affect birth control.
Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in animals (including humans) that helps regulate sleep and wake cycles. Melatonin is typically used as an over-the-counter medication or dietary supplements to help with sleeping troubles like insomnia.
The hormones estrogen and progesterone are released when a woman ovulates each month but levels decrease after fertilization has been achieved so this means they interfere with melatonin production according to some studies but not others! It’s unclear how much impact these hormones have on how much melatonin your body produces.
Melatonin + Birth Control: Taking a birth control pill which contains estrogen and progesterone will suppress the production of natural hormones like melatonin by up to 85%, so if you are taking these pills it may be wise to take some additional supplements or other interventions for sleep quality!
This supplement is used to improve sleep and regulate the body’s natural circadian rhythms, it can also be found in some sleeping pills.
FDA recommends avoiding taking melatonin if you are already on birth control as this could affect how your hormones work.
Expert Opinion:
“Melatonin should not interfere with contraceptive pill use or have any other effect on hormonal contraception; however there may be increased bleeding so women who take both will need a few months before they decide whether to continue treatment.”
– Dr Anthony McCarthy, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Cancer Partners UK & Honorary Senior Lecturer at University of Surrey Medical School.
“In theory, Melatonin supplements taken an hour prior to bedtime might lower the effectiveness of hormonal contraception, however this has not been confirmed in studies.” – Dr Anthony McCarthy.
Final thoughts:
if you want to use Melatonin and birth control at the same time, talk to your doctor about how this might affect them.
if you are not on any other form of hormonal contraception or taking any medication that is interacting with Melatonin, please see a doctor before starting supplementation as it may be unsafe for some people.
We hope this article helped clear out your confusion, happy self care!
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