Did you know that some birth control pills can contain iron in them?
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Yup! Not only are we living in a world where our food is fortified with iron, iron shavings are being thrown on our crops like fertilizer, but now we also have to consider the medication we take to avoid iron overload.
Oof.
Luckily, not all birth control pills contain iron.
Of the few out in the market that do contain iron, they are:
🔸️Lo Loestrin Fe
🔸️Lo Minastrin Fe
🔸️Lo/Ovral -28
🔸️Blisovi 24 Fe
🔸️Junel Fe
and can contain up to 75mg of ferrous fumarate a placebo pill!
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Why is this a lot?
Well, let’s first back track a few posts that we have a thing called the RES ( Reticuloendothelial System), also known as our iron recycling system. Our RES can recycle 24mg of iron a day, leaving us with 1-2mg to lose from our gastrointestinal system, sweating, and even shedding cells. Technically speaking, if we are healthy and we have a functioning RES, we don’t need much iron to ingest, except for that 1-2 mg which we can EASILY get from food.
Learn more here why iron can be dangerous
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Note: We need about 25mg of iron to support red blood cell production.
So throw in that 75mg birth control pill, and we are WAY over the amount we need, and this can cause some heavy duty issues.
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Iron overload can lead to slowing down our RES system, which can stress the body into focusing on other mechanisms, as well as tuck iron away in tissues. Iron stuck in the tissues can further exacerbate mineral depletion, like magnesium and copper, as well as increase estrogen accumulation.
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Reminder: estrogen is a hormone of growth, and as much as we need some of it, too much can act as a stress on the body, upping our cortisol levels and increasing inflammation.
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HOWEVER, understand that even though not all birth control pills contain iron, all of them DO deplete minerals that we need to regulate iron in the body like copper, magnesium, vitamins C and E, and more.