Many of us already know that there is often increased need for certain B vitamins when taking oral contraceptives. Well now research shows that women taking birth control pills could benefit from cranking up their antioxidants.
Abstract | BACKGROUND: Oral contraceptives (OCs) may affect oxidative stress status. We aimed to assess whether supplementation with vitamins E and C reduced this OC effect.
STUDY DESIGN: One hundred twenty healthy female individuals were divided into three groups: A, control; B, untreated OCU (OC users); and C, treated OCU (OC users with vitamin E and C supplementation). In all cases, plasma glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) level were determined.
RESULTS: Significant increases were found in the plasma MDA level, and activities of GPx and GR in plasma were decreased in Group B compared to the control group. Supplementation with vitamin C and E significantly increased the activity of GPx and GR activity, and reduced plasma MDA levels in Group C (p<.05).
CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that low-dose OCs, by enhancing the stress oxidative and lipid peroxidation, may represent a potential cardiovascular risk factor, and the use of vitamins E and C may be beneficial in ameliorating this side effect of OCs.
Zal F, Mostafavi-Pour Z, Amini F, Heidari A.
Source: Reproductive Biology Group, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Infertility Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
