Estrogen levels?!
Question: What is the normal estrogen levels that a woman's body makes during her cycle when she is not on birth control pills?
I'm trying to figure out how the estrogen levels differ from a woman that is not on birth control pills compared with the estrogen levels from a woman that is using birth control pills?
Answers: What is the normal estrogen levels that a woman's body makes during her cycle when she is not on birth control pills?
I'm trying to figure out how the estrogen levels differ from a woman that is not on birth control pills compared with the estrogen levels from a woman that is using birth control pills?
Well, the situation is really complicated, so to answer your ultimate question (estrogen levels normally vs. on BCP) it's easier just to answer in general terms rather than give actual levels. Estrogen (and there are many different types of estrogen in your body) varies day by day in women who are fertile, depending on where she is in her cycle. You can see this on this chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Menst...
When you take birth control pills, estrogen is typically the same for 3 weeks out of 4, and that level exposes you to more estrogen than you would be exposed to by your cycle alone. Of course, during one week, you aren't taking hormone pills, but your body will produce some estrogen on its own. Some birth control pills are "tricyclic" and give you three different types of pills, with different amounts of estrogen, throughout the month. This will still be more than you would have yourself, usually. So the take-home message is that taking BCPs exposes you to more estrogen than you'd get naturally. But now we currently use "third generation" birth control pills, which have lower levels of hormones than ever before. The first generation pills had levels that were something like 3 times greater than they are now, so they came with certain risks that birth control pills no longer have. But in any case, because birth control pills have more estrogen than one would normally have, women who take them have a slightly greater risk of breast cancer while they are taking the pills. Once the pills are stopped, risk quickly returns to normal.