well drosperinone (the progestin in yaz) is anti-testosterone - not my first choice for athletes - so I would believe the less aggressive....

not sure about VO2 and would bet it has not been studied

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cat
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what other pills, or hormone combos would you recommend for the athlete? way back before i started doing Ironman I ran my best marathon while on triphasil.

my favorite is the nuvaring as it delivers a constant dose and the progestin has some androgenic qualities.
but if you liked triphasil go back on it!

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cat
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I experienced the same thing when I tried to go back on the pill about 7 years ago. YOU ARE NOT IMAGINING IT! Felt like I was breathing through a straw, and could barely run or ride up a hill. I know one top US cyclist who went through the same thing and quit it as well (weight gain was an issue for her as well and the tightness in the chest / lack of air).

When I orginally went on the pill in my 20's, I don't remember ANY side-effects. I stopped in my late 20's for a few years. I tried to go back on the thing in my early 30's and had nothing but problems... migraines, inability to breathe when exercising, weight gain, feeling like crap. I tried 4 different pills and the patch and same issues everytime eventually.

I wonder if the side-effects increase with age and the changing of the hormones? I was pre-menopausal by the time I was 32. Never could take the pill after that.

I am 22 and have been on the pill my entire time mensturating, since i started super late at 18 (I went on it to start me going on my cycle). I went off it briefly when abroad and had much heavier periods, cramps, and major fatigue. On the pill (yasmin) i have almost no cramping, and very light bleeding. Overall, it seems to help me by making the periods less of a big deal, but again, i don't have much experience off the pill. My biggest issue with my period, and maybe the pill, is that i have pretty bad PMS depression. I HATE training during that week, so i take bad work outs much more personally and overreact, and sometimes have motivation issues. I have not noticed a change in my breathing since before I was on the pill.

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"What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass for six hours a day. What are YOU on?" - Lance Armstrong

I have always wondered how performance is affected by the pill too.

I haven't gotten my period for about 1.5 years, and my doctor gave me a pill prescription so I could get my period again. I took them for only 1 month, because I felt horrible while on them - extremely moody and I felt like crap while training. Maybe I should have given it more than 1 month to adjust.... but wow - what a noticeable difference they made.

I love the nuvaring.

Hmm.. this raises a very good question that I've never really considered. I'm much like another poster, where I went on it at 18 to kick things into motion (so much for girls developing earlier and earlier?), and I'm 23... I started on Ortho, then went to Seasonale (Worst stuff in the world.. uncontrollable moodswings, hardcore depression, etc. Happens to a ton of people that tried it.. Last I heard the FDA pulled it for a while), then onto ortho-lo. Since going on Lo about 2 years ago, I noticed that when I run, it feels like I can never suck in air smoothly, like I'm always gasping.


Something I'll definitely start experimenting with. Thanks for bringing this one up!

About a year after I went on the pill I felt like I was experiencing excerise induced asthma. I got tested at the hospital, it was like a 3-4 hour test, methacholine challenge test, and it came back borderline. They gave me an inhaler (albuterol) and I used it here and there but eventually the symptoms went away. I stopped using or even carrying the inhaler.

recently, I visited an allergy specialist because I started getting a weird reaction to aspirin and aleve. the Dr. re-visited my asthma test from 3 years ago and said that this was definitely not what an 'athlete' should have, that I definitely have asthma and gave me a new inhaler - one to take every day. The quick lung funvtion test she gave me was below normal. This was 10 days after finishing ironman. I'm going back on the 23rd for another lung function test to see if the inhaler I'm using is helping. They gave me one called QVAR.

My lungs are definitely my limiting factor in exercise.
I wonder if going off the pill would help or not, but I shudder to think about dealing with those debilitating cramps again.

Thanks! This is really interesting. I felt exactly as you described, can hardly swim a stroke without taking a breath and felt pressure in chest like i had a balloon in my chest with lungs with no capacity at all, and barely able to run up hill for around two weeks of the month (week 2 and 3) for last 4 months. Week 4 and 1st week of new cycle feel pretty much normal. The first two months I kept convincing myself that I was just not in good of shape as I thought. But now I am realizing it is likely the pill.

I also started the pill in mid-20's with no issues at all and was also doing rigorous training at the time... I stopped taking it after a few years because I thought it would be good to give body a rest and the pills were much more expensive when I switched jobs and went on a different health ins plan. I tried it again a few years ago for convenience factor (predictability, light flow, etc) and remember feeling weird for parts of the month (gained weight just in the belly and chest that I could not loose and totally felt like I lost competitive edge during racing) so again just stopped taking it.

Now at age 33 I decided to try pill again early this year after having the worst timing at a fall Ironman last year (race was on the heaviest day of the month made for some fun stomach issues in addition to normal ironman digestive woes!). But now I am seriously concerned it is inhibiting training and racing.

My asthma was diagnosed while I was not taking the pill I am pretty sure it is unrelated and that I do have asthma (non-exercise induced). When I mentioned this to my allergist she suggested I go to some sort of therapy for breathing during swimming (???) I told her that is was only during certain times of month and she was stumped...

I had bloodwork done and thyroid, iron, etc all normal..... I guess the next step is to try another pill with less anti-testosterone qualities? Or else just stop the pill and get the training in before my Ironman in October then address these issues in the off-season?

Good to know there are other people out here who have experienced similar issues. I hope someday they will do more studies for athletic women and how the pills may affect people differently based upon their activity and/or body chemistry.

aw, you should be so tired from the IM training, who needs sex anyhow? :)

seriously, even though i am not on the pill anymore, on the last 10 days of my cycle, i still have the chest tightness thing, at times i feel like i am gasping for air, ESPECIALLY in the pool. i am almost 44, and on HRT, and it helps alot, but not all the time. it was 10 times worse on the pill.

HAHAHA! I hear you sister! lol.

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Isaiah 40:31 - Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.

I've actually swung the other way. Since I went off a couple weeks ago I've been a mess and running is horrible. I can't seem to catch my breath and I feel like it is more than just not training consistantly for a couple weeks. I mean, running my normal 2 mile loop is killing me!

I think it is safe to say that artificial hormones effect all of our systems. Some good, some bad. It is a question of whether the positives outweigh the negatives for each individual. I'm still deciding for me as my withdrawl has been hell.

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Jen

"In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce

Hmm, good discussion. I never thought about how the pill might effect performance...

Kinda freaky for me too b/c I just went off the pill--on it for too long and my mom had breast cancer--and I have a race on Sunday and another one in September. I gues we'll see how it goes. Luckily they are short races and I can guage how it will be before my IM next year.

s

hey, so what do u think about levora? my dr recommended trying it after my complaints about yaz interfering with training?

levora should be good - uses levonorgestrel - an older progestin with a long history - and a much better choice for an athlete as it is a progestin with some androgen component.

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cat
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Any thoughts about Micronor/norethindrone?
I'm finally getting brave (or perhaps desperate) enough to try BC pills as a solution to my brutal PMS issues. I'd heard so many good things about NuvaRing but I have a family history of breast cancer and my Dr thought that a progestin only option would be preferable and also address my problem better. I guess there are two of them available and norethindrone seems to be the oldest and the benchmark for everything else?
Any womens tried this? Comments on how it affected your training?
I also got a referral to go see a gynecologist so I'll for sure quiz him but I seem to get blank looks from a lot of Drs when I ask about how things relate to training so it would be nice to have an idea of what to worry about upfront.

Thanks for any thoughts :)

Miranda

There is NO evidence at ALL that any hormonal contraception increases the risk of breast cancer!
I don't like the progestin only pills - lots of side effects, lots of breakthrough bleeding...

the nuvaring would be perfect for you.

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cat
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Hi CatIsTriing,
What about Alesse? My Dr just prescribed Alesse to me since I have done well on it before (no side affects, no weight gain). I have not had a period in ~9months and she suspects it is due to training volume, leanness. Obviously I do not want to see any performance declines, tho. Thanks.

Alesse should be fine

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cat
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Like some of the other ladies here, I went on the pill in my early 20's. I didn't, at the time, notice any major changes but over time I started having some serious trouble. By my early 30's I had to admit that I'd been having serious migraines, gained at least 20lbs, had mood swings like Florida gets hurricanes and was generally quite miserable.

I never wanted kids, I finally had insurance of my own and a doctor willing to help so I got a tubal ligation and went off the pill. It took nearly a year for my body to normalize, and by that I mean for my natural hormone balance to stabilize.

I say all this to say that yes, I would suspect the pill. I'm not sure there is one that won't affect your athletic performance. Seems this is a situation where you'll have to weight the pros and cons to your options and pick the one that comes closest to working for you all around.

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There is no justice, there is only me. -- Death

Hi Cat,

My gyno recently suggested I try Yaz to help with severe PMS symptoms (painful periods, depression, mood swings) because it has been advertised to help with this. If you believe it could potentially hinder athletes, is there another pill/hormone that would help with these symptoms?

THANK YOU!!!!

all pills help with those symptoms - I would pick almost anything other than yaz/yasmin

have you tried any others?

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cat
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"I recently had a physical and asked my dr if their was any sort of increased risk for complications/side effects of the pill when doing intense training (ironman). She seemed to believe that excercise would decrease the chance for a blood clot. However, reading posts here and hearing other stories it seems that this may not be true.... any thoughts?"

I think I would disagree with this, as some of the key risk factors for blood clots include (in no particular order):
- over 35 yo
- on the pill (or equivalent)
- low resting HR
- smoking

sorry but the low resting HR from all your training paired with the pill and your age could actually result in higher chance of clotting.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS