13th December 2006
Kszan is not alone. I also had a horrible experience on birth control pills. I would NOT advise them for regulating your period unless you saw your gyno and your period truly was abnormal (like several weeks long, so excessive you are close to fainting from blood loss, etc.).
I took BCPs for 7 years. At first, I thought I was handling them OK, but then side effects started piling up--breakthrough bleeding, depression, anxiety & panic attacks, no sex drive. I took many pills. Out of them all, I'd say I had the least problems on ortho-novum 7/7/7. After that, it was just downhill--tons of breakthrough bleeding on ortho-lo, HUGE water retention & weight gain on Ovcon35--in fact, Ovcon35 was what did it for me. It made me feel pregnant. I gained 20 lb. of water weight in the first month of use (I am not kidding). I had a HUGE never ending appetite, mood swings, anxiety, depression, a feeling that all the cells of my body were pushing outward, strange food cravings, bulgy area of my abdomen over my uterus even though I was not preggers. Doc switched me to Loestrin. At first, the symptoms of Ovcon disappeared, but then they came back. No relief on Yasmin. Then it dawned on me--this is not right. My body doesn't like this. No more hormonal birth control for me.
I've been using condoms since June. I've been charting my cycles and last month doing fertility awareness method. Last month was my first month not using condoms during my infertile days after ovulation and I did not turn up preggers...I'm feeling much more normal. Sex drive has returned and my mood is much better. But my period is STILL not normal and I still have the water retention. I'm having extremely light periods right now (due I think to a hormonal imbalance caused by the pill, hopefully, I will have more normal periods as time goes by). I never thought I'd complain about light periods, but due to them, I have HUGE water retention which is much worse than a heavy period. I don't advocate the pill either. I'm not totally against it for women who feel it works for them, but I do feel healthcare providers should be more open about all the side effects. It made my life a living hell.
I took BCPs for 7 years. At first, I thought I was handling them OK, but then side effects started piling up--breakthrough bleeding, depression, anxiety & panic attacks, no sex drive. I took many pills. Out of them all, I'd say I had the least problems on ortho-novum 7/7/7. After that, it was just downhill--tons of breakthrough bleeding on ortho-lo, HUGE water retention & weight gain on Ovcon35--in fact, Ovcon35 was what did it for me. It made me feel pregnant. I gained 20 lb. of water weight in the first month of use (I am not kidding). I had a HUGE never ending appetite, mood swings, anxiety, depression, a feeling that all the cells of my body were pushing outward, strange food cravings, bulgy area of my abdomen over my uterus even though I was not preggers. Doc switched me to Loestrin. At first, the symptoms of Ovcon disappeared, but then they came back. No relief on Yasmin. Then it dawned on me--this is not right. My body doesn't like this. No more hormonal birth control for me.
I've been using condoms since June. I've been charting my cycles and last month doing fertility awareness method. Last month was my first month not using condoms during my infertile days after ovulation and I did not turn up preggers...I'm feeling much more normal. Sex drive has returned and my mood is much better. But my period is STILL not normal and I still have the water retention. I'm having extremely light periods right now (due I think to a hormonal imbalance caused by the pill, hopefully, I will have more normal periods as time goes by). I never thought I'd complain about light periods, but due to them, I have HUGE water retention which is much worse than a heavy period. I don't advocate the pill either. I'm not totally against it for women who feel it works for them, but I do feel healthcare providers should be more open about all the side effects. It made my life a living hell.