Weight gain, with oral contraceptives

Adverse effects include nausea, weight gain, breast tenderness, and breakthrough bleeding. Oral contraceptives have also been associated with an increased incidence of thromboembolic disease, particularly in women who use tobacco products or have other risk factors for thromboembolism. The development of these complications is significantly reduced when low-dose estrogen formulations of oral contraceptives are used.3... 

Low-dose oral contraceptives based on the older proges-togens are relatively well tolerated in the short term, better so than the products that preceded them and those that came later. Two placebo-controlled studies with the combination of levonorgestrel 100 micrograms and ethinylestradiol in 704 patients over six cycles showed no differences in unwanted effects compared with placebo in particular there was no evidence of weight gain (311). 

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