Off of Birth Control
kenzietate
Posts: 399 Member
Good morning ladies,
I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 18 (I'm 23 now) and I was immediately put on birth control. I have always hated being on it and though my time of the month has been more regular it was still never completely right. I have been on at least 4 different ones and none of them made me feel any better for sure. I have seen so many women on here controlling their PCOS naturally and/or without BC and I have wanted to be one of them for a long time. I just moved to a new area and I wasn't able to get an appt with a doctor before I ran out of my BC prescription which was supposed to end this week (they wouldn't extend it without a pap b/c I am in a high risk category). So I figured...well this is when I am supposed to get off BC. I have seen this coming for the last two months. A month ago I switched from eating Low GI to the Ketogenic diet. I have done my research, I know what I am doing and I am finally seeing the scale go down! Not to mention I feel better, my blood sugar isn't going crazy all day, and I have actually had to reduce my metformin b/c it was dropping my blood sugar too low! I have read that for women with PCOS and really women in general who are on the ketogenic diet see fluctuation in their periods. Well I started last week even though I wasn't supposed to start until this week (I was still on the regular pills, not the period pills). So my BC says that if you start early, just switch immediately to the period pills and then start a new pack when you run out. Well since i don't have a new pack, I can't do that. I won't have a Dr.s appt until August. For those ladies who have stopped their BC, was the transition difficult? Were there any side effects? I have been ready to stop for months but now that it is here, I'm not going to lie...I'm a bit nervous! I have been taking hormone filled pills for 5 years and now I am not. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!
I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 18 (I'm 23 now) and I was immediately put on birth control. I have always hated being on it and though my time of the month has been more regular it was still never completely right. I have been on at least 4 different ones and none of them made me feel any better for sure. I have seen so many women on here controlling their PCOS naturally and/or without BC and I have wanted to be one of them for a long time. I just moved to a new area and I wasn't able to get an appt with a doctor before I ran out of my BC prescription which was supposed to end this week (they wouldn't extend it without a pap b/c I am in a high risk category). So I figured...well this is when I am supposed to get off BC. I have seen this coming for the last two months. A month ago I switched from eating Low GI to the Ketogenic diet. I have done my research, I know what I am doing and I am finally seeing the scale go down! Not to mention I feel better, my blood sugar isn't going crazy all day, and I have actually had to reduce my metformin b/c it was dropping my blood sugar too low! I have read that for women with PCOS and really women in general who are on the ketogenic diet see fluctuation in their periods. Well I started last week even though I wasn't supposed to start until this week (I was still on the regular pills, not the period pills). So my BC says that if you start early, just switch immediately to the period pills and then start a new pack when you run out. Well since i don't have a new pack, I can't do that. I won't have a Dr.s appt until August. For those ladies who have stopped their BC, was the transition difficult? Were there any side effects? I have been ready to stop for months but now that it is here, I'm not going to lie...I'm a bit nervous! I have been taking hormone filled pills for 5 years and now I am not. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!
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Replies
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I stopped BC about a year ago because it was causing migraine headaches for me. I didn't notice any effects until about March. I noticed my cycles started getting longer at that time. Over the next couple months they got longer and longer and I was experiencing pelvic pain probably 2 weeks out of every month. I ended up having to get an ultrasound and it showed that the cysts on my ovaries were growing again. So the effects that I have had are that once the regulation from the BC wore off, the classic PCOS problems emerged again with a vengeance. I'm not sure what other effects you might experience. Other than your the PCOS problems there should be relatively few effects.0
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I've gone off BC twice, both times to get pregnant. I'm not planning on going back on after this baby is born. Since going off, I discovered that my headaches (almost daily at times) were being caused in large part by them.
As for the transition, one thing to watch out for: both times the first month or so I had symptoms like I was pregnant. And I've BEEN pregnant twice so I know what it feels like. Since I was trying to get pregnant both times, it was very exciting. But then, the let down that I wasn't actually pregnant. Add to that the fact that my cycles are naturally long and irregular (PCOS symptom) and it was pretty bad. I say this only because if you are sexually active and not using any other form of BC, you might start to think you're pregnant!
Other than that, I had maybe two "normal" length cycles this time and then.... nothing for seven months. I had to go on Metformin to get my cycles going again. Also, on BC I was not losing on hair. When I went off, I started losing tons of it within a few months. The Metformin stopped this luckily.0 -
Thank you both! Since it seems like I just might experience the original symptoms I had I can deal with that for a bit while I get everything on track. I feel much better about it. One of the reasons I wanted to get off was to be able to track my cycle naturally in order to start trying to get pregnant. My husband and I would like to start trying around the beginning of next year. I want to be as in sync with everything and be as healthy as possible by then!0
