Usually I am asked about diet pills and breast enhancement pills and if they will decrease the effectiveness of the pill. Unfortunately my answer is usually "I don't know, what are the ingredients?" Dependent on what is them, that will decide if it will affect hormonal forms of birth control. Hormonal forms of birth control include the pill, mini-pill, Norplant, Depo-Provera, Ortho Evra (the patch), Lunelle, the progesterone IUD, and NuvaRing. There are many different medications and herbs that can lower the effectiveness of these forms of contraception.
HERBS
Herbs to avoid while using hormonal birth control include St. John's Wort, Vitex (chasteberry), Red Clover, Black and Blue Cohosh, Fennel, Hops, Dong Quai, Wild Yam, and Licorice. There could be many other herbs that interfere with the effectiveness of birth control, but because few studies have been done, it is not known which ones do this. Most of the herbs listed interfere because of their properties. All of them, except for the Licorice and St. John's Wort, contain hormones (mostly estrogen) and can interfere with hormonal birth control by providing too much, or by causing the body to try to 'correct' any hormonal imbalance present.
St. John's Wort can cause irregular bleeding (bleeding between periods). Because of this it is thought to reduce the effectiveness of hormonal forms of birth control. How it might do this is not known. Licorice can increase blood pressure and lower potassium levels when taken by women that are using hormonal forms of birth control. Because of the seriousness of these, licorice should be avoided while using hormonal contraceptives.
Any herbs that are known for their fertility enhancing properties should be avoided while taking hormonal forms of birth control.
ANTIBIOTICS
Some antibiotics will cause a decrease in the effectiveness of hormonal birth control, so when using these drugs to treat infections, a non-hormonal back up method must be used. Most of the antibiotics are in the Penicillin and Tetracycline families. These include, but are in no way limited to; Amoxicillin, Ampicillin, Penicillin, Demeclocycline, Doxycycline, and Tetracycline. The antiviral drug Griseofulvin and the antituberculosis drug Rifampin can also cause hormonal forms of birth control to become less effective.
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