9 Vitamins You Should Be Taking If You’re On The Pill

Though the pill started out as contraception, it’s now used to “treat” a diverse array of annoying symptoms or period inconsistencies. No matter your reason for being on it though, what’s important is that women taking the pill should be well aware of its side effects, including physical and mental reactions to artificial hormones that they might not have anticipated. 

Among other things, these include an increased risk of stroke and developing depression. The pill has been shown to deplete your body’s store of valuable nutrients. These nutrients are vital to your well-being, and you might find your body sorely lacking in them, even if you choose to quit taking hormonal birth control. The absence of these nutrients can contribute to conditions like anemia, stroke, and depression. But you can start fighting these reactions by replenishing your body's nutrients now, whether you continue your use of the pill or not. Here are nine vitamins you should be taking.

CoQ10

No, this isn’t the name of Elon Musk’s newest baby – CoQ10, also known as Coenzyme Q10, is a naturally-generated compound that helps your cells produce energy. A study published in 2010 found that CoQ10 production was markedly decreased in women on hormonal birth control. CoQ10 production in our bodies naturally decreases as we age, but lowered CoQ10 is associated with an increased risk of developing serious health problems like neurodegenerative conditions, as well as cancer and diabetes. CoQ10 helps cardiovascular function, treats insulin resistance, and even addresses low cell energy that contributes to chronic headaches and migraines. 

Folate

If you’re on the pill or newly off it and experiencing muscle weakness, fatigue, and general sluggishness, then your body is likely deficient in folate. Though often confused with folic acid, a synthetically produced version, folate is also known as vitamin B9 and is essential to your body for red blood cell function, among other things. If you’re quitting birth control with the hopes of getting pregnant, folate replenishment is absolutely vital to a healthy pregnancy, as it assists in the development of a baby’s neural tubes, or how the bones of the spine and nerve roots grow. A vitamin B9 supplement or foods like legumes, eggs, citrus, and cruciferous vegetables can also help with folate nutrition.

B vitamins are essential to brain health, cell repair, energy metabolism, and mood regulation.

Vitamins B6 and B12

B vitamins, B6 and B12 being the most common, are essential to brain health, cell repair, energy metabolism, and mood regulation. If you’re experiencing some depressive symptoms of brain fog, you might be lacking in these B vitamins. Unlike other nutrients, a B vitamin like B12 isn’t naturally produced by your body, so it’s necessary to get it through food or supplements. Eggs, leafy greens, wild caught fish, organ meat, organic beef, and many other fruits and vegetables are all rich in B vitamins. 

Vitamin C

Women’s health expert Dr. Mariza Snyder calls vitamin C the “duct tape of vitamins.” It helps eradicate free radicals in your system, but also boosts your immune health and the energy produced in your cells. Hormonal birth control directly impacts how quickly your cells use vitamin C, leading to an insufficiency. Vitamin C is easily found in vegetables and fruits, and if you’ve noticed you’re sluggish, fatigued, or bruising easily (i.e., your body isn’t recovering as quickly as it used to), you’re likely deficient in it.

Selenium

If you’re one of the many women experiencing hormonal imbalance or dysregulation, you should know your thyroid function plays a crucial part in that issue, and selenium deficiency directly contributes to poor thyroid function and estrogen balance. As selenium deficiency severely impacts your thyroid, lacking this nutrient could be harmful to the healthy balance of the rest of your hormones, which interact with your thyroid hormones. Though you may have been prescribed hormonal birth control to address a hormonal imbalance like polycystic ovarian syndrome, your method of treatment could be negatively affecting your hormone production. Selenium replenishment can help rebalance hormones, specifically in aiding the metabolization of estrogen. You can find selenium in foods like Brazil nuts, seafood, poultry, eggs, organ meats, and sunflower seeds.

Up to 80% of women are deficient in magnesium.

Magnesium

If you’ve experienced hardcore headaches while on your period or cramping and aches, your body might be sending signals that you’re deficient in magnesium. 80% of women are, according to one study. Magnesium is extremely helpful in balancing estrogen and counteracting our most hated period symptoms, like headaches and inflammation, and boosting bone health, muscle recovery, and relaxation. Dr. Snyder recommends adding a daily magnesium vitamin of 300-600mg to your supplement routine, but you can also find it naturally occurring in foods like nuts, leafy greens, brown rice, and yogurt. 

Zinc

Zinc is a nutrient our bodies need for immune health, progesterone balance, and skin and nail health, but it’s one of the foremost nutrients impacted by hormonal birth control, especially because these synthetic hormones affect not only zinc production, but also how much zinc your body is able to absorb. Zinc depletion can lead to hormone imbalance, especially with progesterone, and is most apparent in lackluster hair, skin, and nails. Foods like pumpkin seeds, beans, and shellfish are high in zinc and can help address a deficiency.

Probiotics

Yes, probiotics aren’t really vitamins, but because hormonal birth control can mess with your gut health, reintroducing healthy bacteria to the gut is extremely important. Fermented foods like sauerkraut or probiotic-rich products like kefir and kombucha are beneficial to gut health and can help balance any damage done by chronic use of artificial hormones. 

Closing Thoughts

Maybe supplementing all your nutrient deficiencies won’t completely cure all your symptoms, but it’ll be a step in the right direction of counteracting potentially harmful side effects. The longer you stay on birth control, the more prevalent these insufficiencies can become if left completely untreated. Being attentive to your diet and nutrition is just as crucial to your health when you’re taking birth control as it is when you aren’t taking it. A decision like taking hormonal birth control may not feel like it, but it is a responsibility, especially when it comes to addressing the way it’s affecting your body. 

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