Birth Control Pills: Do They Increase The Risk For Heart Disease? - Dr. Smolens

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Dr. Smolens explains if taking a birth control pill will increase a woman’s risk for heart disease. Dr. Iva Smolens is a Board Certified Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Banner Heart Hospital in Mesa, Arizona.

Dr. Smolens:
Oral contraceptives do increase the risk for heart disease. When you are younger and typically using oral contraceptives, the risk is probably pretty low. However, as women get older, perimenopausal women using estrogen used to be thought to be protective for them from heart disease, and a study early in 2000, The Women’s Health Initiative, demonstrated that not to be true, and actually using estrogen as a decrease for risk factor for, decrease in risk of incidence in heart disease has been disproven, and in fact, women should be taken off of estrogen replacement once they hit the perimenopausal years.

About Dr. Smolens, M.D.:
Board Certified Cardiothoracic Surgeon Iva Smolens, M.D., serves as medical director of the Women's Heart Center at Banner Heart Hospital in Mesa, Arizona. She currently serves on the American Heart Association’s Board of Directors for the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Keywords:
Condition: Heart Attack, Heart Palpitation, Heart Disease

Related Terms: Chest Pain, Stress Test, High Blood Pressure, HDL, LDL, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Exercise, Angiography, Stent, Heart Bypass Surgery, Open Heart Surgery, Vascular Disease, EKG

Expert: Dr. Iva Smolens, Iva Smolens, M.D., Doctor Iva Smolens, Cardiologist Iva Smolens

Expertise: Cardiology, Heart Specialist, Heart Disease, Cardiovascular Disease, Coronary Artery Disease, Heart Attack, Heart Palpitation