What hormones are in birth control pills?
Birth control pills (also called oral contraceptives or hormonal contraceptives) are the most commonly used form of birth control in the United States. Most common birth control pills contain a combination of two hormones, estrogen and progestin (although some pills contain only progestin).
Most women take low-dose birth control pills, which have 50 micrograms or less of estrogen. Modern birth control pills contain 20 to 50 micrograms of estrogen – more than 50 micrograms is considered “high-dose.” Older birth control pills contained up to 5 times as much estrogen and 10 times as much progestin as modern pills. Because studies found that these older pills caused serious complications...
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