I wish my doctor would have suggested birth control pills when I was that age. I just got huge horse pill size ibuprofen or Aleve which made me sick to my stomach and did not help the pain. So not only did I have bad cramps I felt like throwing up from the pain pills.

Yes there are risks involved with taking the BCP. It's much less then it used to be though. My mom is almost 70 and took the BCP when she was in her
20's and they were very high dose back then. Now the dose of hormones is so small in comparison and the risk is much less. This is in response to the original poster saying how risky taking the pill is.