E-cigs and birth control pills ?

[illyria]

So we've all heard that there is an increased risk of cardiovascular problems while smoking on birth control pills, especially with women over 35.

What about vaping? I'm 36 and just started taking the pill again. I'm wondering if it's the nicotine that is the risk element, or the other junk in analogs. Any thoughts?

 

[Houdini]

That's definitely something you should ask a Doctor.

 

[Vocalek]

I think you could take your cue from the NRT products on the market. I would look at the nasal spray, since it delivers nicotine the fastest to the body. If there is no warning on it agains using the pill or HRT, I can't see why there would be much, if any, increased danger with vaping.

BTW, I smoked and used "the pill" until I was 35, when they ripped them out of my hands yelling "Danger! Danger!"

When I was 42 or so, they had to start me on HRT to correct a multitude of problems, and I was still smoking. They tried to take away my HRT back after the WHI, and I put up with that for a grand total of two nights. I've made it to age 63 without any cardiovascular problems.

 

[Kate51]

So we've all heard that there is an increased risk of cardiovascular problems while smoking on birth control pills, especially with women over 35.

What about vaping? I'm 36 and just started taking the pill again. I'm wondering if it's the nicotine that is the risk element, or the other junk in analogs. Any thoughts?

Welcome! You definitely should go over this with your doctor, but the whole question would be the nicotine density you use. If you're vaping enough to be ingesting cigarette quantities of nicotine you need to of course lower your intake. But if you are vaping say 18mg/ml juice and don't constantly vape your plasma level of Cotinine would be more in line with second-hand smoke. Cotinine is the by-product of bodily absorbtion of nicotine. You may want them to do a plasma (blood) test to check you cotinine level. Mine right now with the above nicotine absorbtion is at level 3 (100 ng /ml to 200 ng/ml cotinine) on a TobacAlert test strip (saliva cotinine). I would not in the least consider this high enough to be a worry. Everyone is different, depends on your metabolism, how many ml juice you use per day, etc.
Good luck, let us know what your Doc says!

 

[sherid]

So we've all heard that there is an increased risk of cardiovascular problems while smoking on birth control pills, especially with women over 35.

What about vaping? I'm 36 and just started taking the pill again. I'm wondering if it's the nicotine that is the risk element, or the other junk in analogs. Any thoughts?

Were you smoking while taking the pill?

 

[Superstargoddess]

Were you smoking while taking the pill?

I took the pill for a short time a couple of times while still smoking. Though I am still under 35 and I was taking it years ago. Not sure how much the danger jumps up when you hit 35, but I didn't have any problems at all under 35.

 

[dragonpuff]

It's really hard to tell, because all the studies were done on women who took birth control and smoked. Your doc might not even know the answer because there are no studies on people who took NRT's long term, let alone any who took the pill at the same time (please correct me if i'm wrong).

I asked my doc about being at an increased risk of stroke if i smoke and use birth control in my 20's. She said they don't know, because no studies were ever done on women in their 20's.

If you're already at an increased risk for cardiovascular problems, you might wanna talk to your doc about daily aspirin, just in case.

 

[The captain]

Hey illyria, is that your tarantula? B. Emilia? Its been years since i was in the tarantula game, i used to know alot of the latin names. Nice spider!

 

[illyria]

Hey illyria, is that your tarantula? B. Emilia? Its been years since i was in the tarantula game, i used to know alot of the latin names. Nice spider!

yes, that's my juvie emilia. How does one get out of the tarantula game? I'm hooked for life!

 

[illyria]

Thanks for the replies. My doctor is a ...... His answer would be, "don't vape".

I only recently started the pill in an effort to control my menstrual cycle. I used to take it, and smoke, but I was in my early 20's, so I never worried about it. (You think you're invincible in your 20's.) Now that I'm older, I give these things more consideration. There's a lot of heart failure in my family, as well.

I hate getting partial information from the powers that be. They tell us that smoking on the pill increases your risk of heart problems, but they don't tell us WHY.

 

[dragonpuff]

Thanks for the replies. My doctor is a ...... His answer would be, "don't vape".

I only recently started the pill in an effort to control my menstrual cycle. I used to take it, and smoke, but I was in my early 20's, so I never worried about it. (You think you're invincible in your 20's.) Now that I'm older, I give these things more consideration. There's a lot of heart failure in my family, as well.

I hate getting partial information from the powers that be. They tell us that smoking on the pill increases your risk of heart problems, but they don't tell us WHY.

This is yet another example of why they really need to do studies on various uses of nicotine and not just smoking! All the medical information gets lumped under the heading of "smoking" and all of its 4000 chemicals. That tells us nothing!

BTW, if you think you're doc's a ".....," PLEASE get a new doctor! There are a lot of doctors who are very supportive of using straight nicotine as an alternative to smoking.

 

[sherid]

I took the pill for a short time a couple of times while still smoking. Though I am still under 35 and I was taking it years ago. Not sure how much the danger jumps up when you hit 35, but I didn't have any problems at all under 35.

If you have no history of heart disease of stroke in your famiy, I would not worry much. I had two children past 35, so I am aware that doctors are very cautious after that age for many reasons. BTW, I had two of the easiest pregnancies of anyone I know. The only scary part was waiting for the results of the amnio test. I would definitely talk to your doctor rather than anyone here then decide. You might run it by Territoo since he/she is a doctor.

 

[Superstargoddess]

Thanks for the replies. My doctor is a ...... His answer would be, "don't vape".

I only recently started the pill in an effort to control my menstrual cycle. I used to take it, and smoke, but I was in my early 20's, so I never worried about it. (You think you're invincible in your 20's.) Now that I'm older, I give these things more consideration. There's a lot of heart failure in my family, as well.

I hate getting partial information from the powers that be. They tell us that smoking on the pill increases your risk of heart problems, but they don't tell us WHY.

Eh, I don't think that I would take birth control just to control your cycle. I also have a difficult cycle where I naturally only have one around every other month or every 3 months. The doctors say that this shouldn't hurt you. I'm not sure why it happens either, I've had many tests for my estrogen levels and everything seems to be normal. I only had a period every few months since I started when I was 19, but in my mid 20's, I did once a month for a while. Then after I had an unfortunate incident a couple of years ago, it went back to once every few months ago.

I worry about my fertility since I have had an issue in that department, but I'm not sure that taking birth control is really going to help anyone with anything.

 

[mm485]

I believe (and I'm not a doctor so I'm just speculating) that most warnings are due to the combustion necessary for smoking. Just like they tell you not to smoke in general because of how it will accelerate heart disease and so forth, the use of birth control amplifies that effect. However, without combustion many of these risks go away. That would lead me to believe that there would be no additional risk for birth control to amplify. I'm on birth control, so I'm going by what my doctor told me when I smoked. I remember asking her at the time if I decided to go onto an NRT would it help. She said yes, but that could be because she wanted me to stop altogether.

Sorry - just kind of thinking out loud, but I hope it made sense.

 

[fantasia]

not a doctor -- so don't take this in any way as medical advice...but here are the variables I would consider for myself (and I do, because I use the pill) -- how is your blood pressure? how is your A1c? Your blood pressure and your A1c (that shows how glycated your hemoglobin has been over the past month or so and reveals an average blood sugar value) together form a good picture, the best new research shows that the higher your A1c is, the more likely you are to have a cardiovascular event. Personally, I think that the particulate associated with smoking is what really messes up lungs and thereby screws with the cardiovascular system, making your heart work harder. But again, this is my personal observation. I think the doctors dun everyone who smokes, using every excuse they can to try to leverage you to quit. They don't know how nicotine affects hrt or hbc, because they have never done a good study controlling other factors enough to come to any useful conclusions. But even if they don't know, they feel justified in scaring you. So to fold in the effect of nicotine, you need to ask yourself what effect if any the nic has on your blood pressure and blood glucose. YMMV. Just my opinion, but you can google up more detail about all of these factors.