Is there any way to use both St. John's Wort and oral contraception effectively?

February 18, 2008 12:50 PM

I've recently started taking St. John's Wort and have had great results. Unfortunately, it seems to cause my pills to stop working. My cycle has been erratic at best since I started taking St. John's Wort. Are there types of birth control pills that have less interaction?
posted by TNOTGILL to health & fitness (5 comments total)

wikipedia:

Contraceptives
St John's wort may interact with birth control pills and may reduce the effectiveness of oral contraceptives. However, while breakthrough bleeding was observed to occur in the Swedish MPA study (the sample size of 8 women was small enough that the effect could not be differentiated from common breakthrough bleeding), no cases of pregnancy due to contraceptive/St John's wort interactions have been found in the literature despite over 20 years of widespread prescription in Germany.
posted by Oktober at 1:09 PM on February 18, 2008

More than the erraticness, I would be concerned about the fact that you are no longer covered by any of the contraceptive benefits of birth control pills.

I'd check with your doc... I thought all pills were rendered ineffective by St. john's Wort, but maybe you can still do the ring or the patch.
posted by Kellydamnit at 1:09 PM on February 18, 2008

Just as a random almost meaningless datapoint, about 3 or 4 years (?) ago, I was taking SJW and the pill (Marvelon), and didn't notice any erratic-ness. I also didn't get pregnant, but that doesn't mean much.

This sounds like the perfect question for your doc. And if you're really worried, double up the contraceptives?
posted by cgg at 1:30 PM on February 18, 2008

Definitely talk to your doctor and pharmacist. St. John's Wort has a strong effect on one of the enzymes your body uses to metabolize drugs, and so could significantly change the way you react to different prescriptions you may be given.
posted by i less than three nsima at 6:17 PM on February 18, 2008

You really need to speak with your doctor about this. You're likely to be effectively birth control-less right now. There are other methods of birth control, and if you don't want to get pregnant, I'd start using a barrier method (condoms are the best).
posted by gramcracker at 7:38 PM on February 18, 2008