Coeliac And The Mini Pill

[nikky]

Wasnt really sure where on the forum to post this, but thought this might be the best place.

Im an 18 year old (19 in a week and a day) female from the UK and since I've been 17 i've had problems with very painfull periods. Each month I find myself curled up in bed with a hot water bottle and unable to carry on with day to day activities. I've tried all manor of remidies, breathing excersizes, going for long walks, running, numerous medications and even herbal remedies, and none of it seems to help. Due to this my doctors have mentioned hormonal contraception, which, due to complications, is limited for me. The easiest of the available options is the mini-pill(progesterone only pill) which the doctors seem to think is safe for me. However, when I went to a drop in clinic for under 25s at a health centre yesterday, the nurse told me that she would be very reluctant to perscribe it to me due to the low absorbption associated with coeliac. I explained to her that my coeliac is well under control, I was diagnosed 4 years ago and that appart from a few accidents with being CC'd at the start, i havent had any flare ups since.

Despite this, she said that she would still be uncomfortable as she wouldnt know if the coating on the tablets would cause a flare up, but surely if i made sure there was no gluten in the brand i was perscribed before taking it, it should be fine?

I really need to get this under control as I'm starting a nursing degree next year and really cant afford to miss the time off Uni.

Would be grateful for any thoughts on this or anything you can tell me from your own experience?

THANKYOU

[rosetapper23]

Yes, I think if you can contact the lab that makes the pill to find out if it contains gluten, you should be fine. You'll just need to assure the nurse that you're aware that you might not be "protected" enough to have sex and that you'll use another form of birth control when necessary. That might be the real reason for her concerns. I didn't know until I was 47 that I had celiac, and I had been on birth control pills since the age of 15 because of pain and excessive bleeding (except for when I wanted to have children). I can attest to getting pregnant three times while on the Pill, but I miscarried each time. Malabsorption can be a real problem; however, I really don't think the nurse should have any concerns as long as the pill doesn't contain gluten.

[lemontree1]

I can't give any advice concerning the pill, but still wanted to put in my 2 cents. I used to have very painful periods every month. Curled up in pain kind of stuff. I missed a lot of school and work from it. It wasn't until I started messing with my diet that I figured out the cause of my pain. I'm lactose intolerant, and my only symptom is painful periods. I don't know if your pain has the same cause, but I really think we do more harm by throwing drugs at our problems rather than trying to find the source of the problem and fixing that.

[HappyHuman]

Hi Nikki,

I took the mini pill for years before finding out my health problems were caused by Celiac and going gluten free. Despite that, I never got pregnant while on the pill and it was the method of bc on which I relied. I of course had no idea at the time that there could be a problem with malabsorption but for me, apparently, I absorbed it okay.

One thing my doctors stressed about the mini pill is that due to the low dosage it is vital to take it at the exact same time every day. Even a few hours delay, she said, can leave one with the possibility of not being protected. So I was extremeley careful about that and if your doctors didn't mention that - maybe you should be careful about taking it at the same time every day too. Figure out what time you can be consistent with. For me, I kept the pills with my toothbrush so I'd see them each morning when I brushed my teeth. I think more people use bedtime as their cue to take their pill, but my bedtimes vary so much I didn't think that would work.

As with any medication that you take - it is important that you find out for certain that there is no gluten contained in the pills. It can be difficult to determine with generic so I always get name brand medicines. You can call the company to find out whether there is gluten in the coating or the filler of the pill. If there is, just get a different type. Don't accept any medication with gluten in it. It is odd that your doctor is worried about the coating. Perhaps she doesn't understand that you can find out whether a pill contains gluten. Perhaps she also doesn't understand that now that you've been gluten free for so long, you don't have absorption problems. Stress to her that you are careful not to be glutened and you might also find some articles to show her which would support the fact that absorption gets better as you heal. You might also find out the brand of pill and do some homework finding out whether it is gluten free or not so that you can present her with the correct information.

Hope this helps :-)