the pill and cycling performance

[ride mama ride]

Just curious about anecdotal feedback on whether other women cyclists have noticed increased or decreased performance on the bike while taking the birth control pill. I just had my second--and LAST--child, and am considering whether to take it or not. I am a competitive cyclist and am specifically wondering about weight gain and heart rate. Any info you'd like to share would be appreciated!

[Aquila]

I went on the pill more for period control than anything else, and I LOVE not getting cramps and losing about 10% of my life to feeling semi-crappy. If there would be any increase in my performance, it would easily come from feeling good more and wanting to go out and do stuff pretty much all the time. Depending on your crampiness, pms, etc, you may find the pill great or no big difference.

I didn't gain weight on it, but there are lots of different formulations, and your experience might be different.

My heart rate is 66 at rest (the blood donation nurse takes it), for what that's worth (I'm 47 and overweight, but in decent shape biking). I don't know if it's known to have effects on heart rate or blood pressure, but if so, it hasn't caused me any problems in either area.

For me, feeling good and the freedom of not having to deal with periods while traveling and living abroad has made it a good choice.

[alpinerabbit]

I once read it is performance enhancing - the only drug that is and that they can't put on the doping list, for ethical/discrimination reasons.

Basically it keeps you low-level pregnant, doesn't it? in certain countries where the gov't placed lots of emphasis on olympic medals, they would get the athletes pregnant shortly before important events, so they would be in the first weeks, only to have an abortion later. Sad but performance enhancing.

[OakLeaf]

According to this abstract, the IOC originally banned norethindrone NOT because it is performance enhancing in itself, but because some drug testing labs couldn't distinguish it from nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.

Interestingly, the Snopes entry on abortion doping suggests that it's the abortion, not the initial pregnancy, that is supposed to be performance enhancing. (Now, I consider Snopes only marginally more reliable than the rumors it's supposed to debunk, but FWIW, she lists that one as "indeterminate.")

I've never taken it myself, so can't add anything personal.

[ny biker]

It caused me to retain water, which made my legs feel heavy and swollen and left me constantly worried about whether I would be able to prevent dehydration (or hyponatremia) during rides. It also made me gain weight, caused frequent migraines and generally turned me into an angry *****. And this was a low-level dose that I took to fix a problem with too-frequent periods. After 4 months I stopped taking it and it was several months after that before the migraines subsided.

Your mileage may vary...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I've never had any problems, weight gain, or side effects at all from being on the pill years at a time.

[redrhodie]

I've been on it for years, and I remember the first 6 months being kind of rough (mostly due to moodiness), but it got much better. Lighter, painless periods are a plus, so is clear skin and the ability to anticipate the start of my period within a few hours.

Since I didn't start riding until I'd already been accustomed to it, I can't give info about how it will effect your ride. It often takes some getting used to, but once you adjust, it's definitely got its perks.