Research
Hormonal
Use of oral contraceptives (OC) containing ethinyl estradiol significantly reduces whole-body insulin sensitivity in young healthy women.
If you take birth control pills, be aware that the estrogen in them can make your body less sensitive to insulin by about 40% compared to women not on pills. This doesn't mean you will get diabetes, but it is a factor to consider if you have other risk factors.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
when a group of young healthy women using OC was compared to non-OC users... insulin sensitivity evaluated by a H–E clamp was reported to be 40% lower in the OC users
Why this rating
Based on specific clinical trials comparing OC users to non-users.
Source
Gender Differences in Skeletal Muscle Substrate Metabolism – Molecular Mechanisms and Insulin Sensitivity
Anne‐Marie Lundsgaard et al. · Frontiers in Endocrinology · 2014
DOI 10.3389/fendo.2014.00195
narrative_reviewCited 272×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Premenopausal women exhibit higher insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle compared to men, a difference mediated by estradiol signaling and higher adiponectin levels.Good
- Women have higher skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase (mLPL) mRNA expression and higher plasma triglyceride clearance compared to men, facilitating greater lipid storage in muscle.Good
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