I just recently went off of them but I was on the generic of Yasmin and was able to lose 40 pounds on it. I didn't mind it at all.

All pills gave me one sort of trouble or another. I have Mirena and LOVE it.

Second this. I'm thinking of trying Paragard (the copper, non-hormonal IUD) when I get the Mirena taken out next year, though.

If you need to be on bcp for the hormones, wouldnt mirena or paraguard be counterproductive? I am leaning towards Loestrin or Yaz because theyre monophasic. Ortho tri made me psycho. I felt like I was bipolar.

It kind of depends on how your hormones are screwed up. Most doctors put PCOS women on The Pill, because it appears to regulate the cycle. That's actually not true, and since most BCPs are estrogen-based, and most PCOS women have estrogen dominance, it can actually make matters worse.

In my opinion, there are better ways to balance the hormones than throwing birth control pills at people (what happens if/when you want to get pregnant? You can't rely on the BCP then, and have to figure out how to balance them, anyway, so why not just do it to begin with?), but if you're going to be on birth control, anyway, then I'd say either a low-dose (Mirena), hormone-free (Paragard), or progesterone-based (Yaz) option is the best bet, as they don't interfere as much, and may actually help bring the progesterone more on par with estrogen. From that perspective, then no, Mirena or Paragard aren't counterproductive.

Of course, throwing medication at symptoms is, in general, a bad idea, in my opinion. Find the underlying reason (besides "PCOS") for the elevated testosterone. There are two typical underlying causes -- too much insulin and not enough Omega-3 fats. In both cases, you can fix the underlying issue by minimizing sugar and starchy carbs, and increasing your intake of fish, pastured eggs, and/or grass fed beef and/or supplementing with flax seed or a high-quality fish oil.

I was on Yaz and it worked well, and I didn't have any complaints besides forgetting to take it sometimes. My doctor thought it was keeping my triglycerides high and suggested switching to Mirena would be a good idea. She said it carries less vascular risk as well. I got it about a year ago. I gained a little weight initially, but looking back that was probably due to eating poorly and not exercising. The scale recently started going down again. I'm happy with the Mirena now. It's nice to not have to mess with the pill every day and have lighter less frequent periods (maybe 1 every 2-3 months for 3 days).

I also take 1000mg Metformin + 50mg Spiro

my fav is portia - some of the other ones gave me crazy mood swings. It also gives me the most on time start and stop. Even with bc my period will fluctuate up to three days after i'm suppose to start or go for more than a week.

None. Partly because after I had my daughter and she was weaned by blood pressure was too high to go back on my usual BCP. During the breastfeeding months I took a minipill(not sure what brand it was long time ago now, my daughter is turning 11 in a few weeks) and that was the last bcp I took. Was on it almost a year. Then I went with diaphragm and charting to prevent pregnancy. But since her father and I separated I don't need any birth control.

I don't think I'd go back on though I do miss the option to only have a period 4 times a year or so. I dunno if I want to play around with my hormones. They are wrecked enough.