Former athlete Riley Gaines reveals unexpected birth control side effect she wish she knew before taking it
Former athlete Riley Gaines has opened up about an unexpected side effect she experienced after taking birth control, as a doctor flagged the medication had contributed to a concerning health issue.
The former swimmer admitted she knew little about birth control before using it in college, explaining that as a competitive athlete she spent up to six hours a day in the pool.
The conversation around birth control is often complex, with many women weighing its benefits against potential side effects.
But Gaines, while speaking on the Katie Miller Podcast, opened up about a very specific and unexpected health issue she encountered following years of taking the medication.
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"I got on it specifically to stop my period entirely. Looking back now, if I could go back and tell 18 or 19-year-old me anything, I would absolutely tell her not to do that," she admitted.
The 26-year-old, now a conservative campaigner, added: "You can imagine it’s not exactly comfortable to bleed in a sport like that. The bathing suits are pretty revealing.
"But I just had a pretty comprehensive health screening - blood work, cancer screenings, the works. One of the only things the doctors flagged was that I had super low bone density."
She initially questioned the results after pressing that she trains in weight lifting often, which should promote bone growth.
Noting the doctor's response, Gaines said: "She asked if I had been on birth control that let me skip my periods. When I said yes, she told me that was likely the cause.
"She said it’s good that we caught it now - I’m young and healthy, so I can work to build it back up - but if I had stayed on it longer, it could have really hurt me in the long term."
Adults older than 30 years experience natural decreases in bone mass as they age, according to the National Library of Medicine.
However, the concern is that taking birth control could accelerate this process or reduce fully developed bones by early adulthood.
According to the National Institutes of health, 'Combined Oral Contraceptives (COCs) may be detrimental to the BMD of adolescents, but further research is needed'.
Other side effects of the pill, as per Mayo Clinic, include nausea, headaches, breast tenderness, bloating and breakthrough bleeding.
Often women report very different side effects even while taking the same pill, making research into the medication more complex.
Mia Williams