November 12, 2025
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- Seven percent of women reported discontinuing oral contraceptives due to weight gain.
- Women with overweight or obesity had greater odds of discontinuation vs. women with normal weight.
ATLANTA — Women with overweight or obesity had greater odds of discontinuing combined oral contraceptive pills due to perceived weight gain compared with women with normal weight, according to a presentation at ObesityWeek.
“Combined oral contraceptive pills came to the U.S. market around the 1960s and one of the earliest publications in around 1985 discussed how weight gain was a common thing that women were concerned about, and a common reason for discontinuing combined oral contraceptive pills,” Adnin Zaman, MD, assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, New York, said during the presentation. “Despite this decade-long concern about weight gain with birth control use, the literature has not shown that there is a conclusive link between birth control use and weight changes and beyond that there are no studies that show whether or not the perception of weight gain impacts birth control use and disuse across the BMI spectrum.”
Women with overweight or obesity are more likely to discontinue using oral contraceptives than women with normal weight. Image: Adobe Stock
Zaman and colleagues analyzed data from 3,709 nonpregnant women aged 20 to 49 years who had ever used combined oral contraceptive pills and were surveyed in the 2017-2019 National Survey of Family Growth. All women had a BMI calculated from self-reported height and weight and completed in-person computer-assisted interviews wherein they reported reasons for contraceptive pill discontinuation.
Overall, 2.6% of women were underweight, 34.3% had normal weight, 27% had overweight and 36.2% had obesity. In total, 35.2% discontinued contraceptive pills due to dissatisfaction and 20.2% reported clinical adverse events as the main reason.
Seven percent of all women reported discontinuing contraceptive pills due to weight gain. Of these women, 2.6% had underweight, 5.5% had normal weight, 8.4% had overweight and 7.7% had obesity.
When adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic factors, compared with women with normal weight, those with overweight (P = .04) or obesity (P = .03) had greater odds of discontinuing contraceptive pills.
“It’s still important to understand that perceptions, not necessarily physiology, are often driving why women are potentially starting and, more importantly, discontinuing birth control pill use,” Zaman said. “Despite this, combined oral contraceptive pills are still very highly effective and accessible methods of birth control, and clinicians ultimately should address weight-related concerns that are very prevalent among women with overweight or obesity when counseling about contraceptive use.”
Sources/Disclosures
Source:
Zaman A, et al. Oral-073. Presented at: ObesityWeek; Nov. 4-7, 2025; Atlanta.
Disclosures:
Zaman reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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