Reuters: Birth control pills may weaken bones

Via Reuters (8/24):

Oral contraceptive use and loss of normal menstrual function may negatively impact bone health, according to a study of female military cadets.

By contrast, “greater amounts of exercise and increased milk intake were found to be important to skeletal health,” co-investigator Dr. Jeri Nieves told Reuters Health.

Nieves, of Columbia University in New York City and Helen Hayes Hospital, West Haverstraw, New York, and colleagues looked at associations between lifestyle, diet and exercise factors and bone health in 107 female Caucasian cadets who averaged 18.4 years of age upon entering the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York....

“A loss of normal menstrual function was found to have a detrimental impact on the skeleton and, in these young adults, oral contraceptives also had a negative impact on the skeleton,” Nieves said.