Grapefruit and Birth control?

I know St Johns Wort completely over rides the pill, but have never heard about grapefruit.
Ill be back in about 10 minutes after doing some googling

There is evidence to back up the claim.
There are 85 medications that have interactions with grapefruit juice

http://www.cmaj.ca/content/suppl/2012/11/26/cmaj.120951.DC1/grape-bailey-1-at.pdf

If you take a combined pill then, yes it can affect the effectiveness of the pill. I would talk to your Dr about it and avoid grapefruits completely, or use a barrier method, or both!

From what I can understand this knowledge is fairly recent in the medical field so not a lot of research has been done IMO it, but IMO better safe than sorry.

Well this is what I found after a 10 minute google session and I'm not a Dr so you might be safe. I would definitely talk to your Dr or try to find out more but if you don't want kids you gotta be doubly careful just in case.
Best bet stay away from the grapefruit. Or the husband.
I know what I'd rather avoid though lol

Maybe you should call your doctor and talk to them about it?

The components of combination oral contraceptives are metabolized by the CYP450 enzyme system, specifically CYP3A4. Grapefruit juice is a CYP3A4 inhibitor, thus consumption of grapefruit or grapefruit juice will INCREASE exposure to these hormones. The danger in this combination is not reduced efficacy, but increased risk of side-effects, some of which are serious, e.g., thrombosis. Seville oranges, which is found in orange marmalade, behaves similarly.

This. It's difficult to estimate the clinical outcomes because there are large inter-individual differences in drugs metabolism and not many clinical trials have been made (check this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12749182.
Just to be sure, doctors tend to discourage patients from eating grapefruit on a regular basis. (I'm not a doc, I'm a med student)

I've heard this warning before from my doctor when I started my pill. I was told by the gyno that certain pills can be counteracted by specific antibiotics, and grapefruit. Mine is not one of them, but yours should say on the information package if it is. If it does not simply call your doctor or the company phone line and find out. It'll save you a lot of worrying.

It's probably dose related too, so find out how many grapefruit might cause a problem.

This. It's difficult to estimate the clinical outcomes because there are large inter-individual differences in drugs metabolism and not many clinical trials have been made (check this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12749182.
Just to be sure, doctors tend to discourage patients from eating grapefruit on a regular basis. (I'm not a doc, I'm a med student)

That study tested the response of eight women, with no control group. Pretty sad, really.

I hate it when these studies have a small group or no control. Why did they even bother doing the study if we're looking at data that is not representative of the population nor even statistically sig? Didn't they take the same science classes I did warning us that this simply doesn't fly?

I don't know, crimson. I am not in the health sciences.

My sceptical side wants to say:

Dodgy trial for dodgy drug company
Dodgy people trying to keep their grants or
Dodgy government spending money on "science" to look modern and sciency.

For consideration:




OBJECTIVE:

To verify if and to which extent the interaction with grapefruit juice can increase bioavailability of orally administered sexual steroids.

DESIGN:

Pilot pharmacokinetics study.

SETTING:

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Institute of Pharmacology, Medical Faculty, Palacký University, Olomouc; Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Olomouc.

METHODS:

2 mg of estradiol valerate and 100 mg of micronized progesterone were given to eight healthy postmenopausal volunteers. Blood samples were collected at time 0, 2, 3, 5 and 24 hours after tablets application. The same trial was repeated a week later but tablets were swallowed with 200 ml of grapefruit juice. Serum levels of estradiol and progesterone were measured by RIA. Results were statistically evaluated using the Wilcoxon's nonparametric paired test.

RESULTS:

Though grapefruit juice on average slightly increased serum levels of estradiol (E2) and progesterone, this increase reached statistical significance only for the E2 level 24 hours after application of tablets. The mean area under curve (AUC) of estradiol rose significantly to 117%. The even greater increase in the mean AUC of progesterone (to 125%) was not statistically significant because of marked individual variability of response.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our results suggest that grapefruit juice may increase bioavailability of orally administered estradiol and progesterone. The response varies markedly between individuals. This observation may be of some importance also for users of OC and HRT.

I further point out that this study regards hormone replacement therapy in post-menopausal women, not oral contraceptives for fertile women, in case that needed it.

Edit spleling