Lactose in Birth Control Pills Issues?
I am a 21 year old who has pretty severe PMS symptoms that sometimes wake me up in the middle of the night. I went to an on campus health center and was told the solution was to put me on birth control. I am not ready to be pregnant so I was okay with the idea. I was going to be put on Yaz. However, when I got the prescription, it says that it has lactose in it. I asked my provider and she didn't consider that and since I can't handle any dairy (even cross contamination puts me in bed), she said we would need to choose an alternative non-pill form of birth control as all birth control pills contain lactose. I have seen a few different doctors since that appointment for other health issues. Every time, they've tried to put me on birth control and I mentioned this issue. Every provider has been surprised and said they didn't know about that but if I wasn't willing to go on it, we'd need to explore other choices. Since no one else knows about this and with how common lactose intolerance is, I am starting to question the on campus provider. Has anyone with severe lactose intolerance had issues with birth control pills? Has anyone even heard of this issue before? Any advice for moving forward would be great!
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You might discuss a merina IUD. It can drastically reduces bleeding (20% of patients have no periods after 1 year). Studies on PMS are mixed however. May be worth a try.
To my knowledge, all birth control pills contain lactose.
Other lactose free options include the contraceptive patch (evra), injectable contraceptives (depoprovera, many don’t like this option as periods become irregular and sometimes heavier), implants (nexplanon).
I don’t know what the price of these options are.