Contraception = weight gain?

Two things: yes contraceptive can make you gain weight. I'm surprised you weren't told this. Two, I was confused about why I was gaining so much weight... I eat pretty healthy because of food allergies..what I didn't take into consideration was the number of calories I was putting away! MFP has been a huge eye opener for me, that is for sure. So, I don't know how faithfully you are logging, but I highly recommend it. If you don't want others to see what/how much you are eating, you can keep your food diary private.

Contraception increases your appetite. it does not just magically make you gain weight. so im afraid your appetite may just be higher than it was

If you're not satisfied with the Implanon but don't want to worry about a pill every single day, you have a couple of other options you can look into. Yes there is the shot but anecdotally I feel like there are still a lot of reports of side-effects/weightgain with that one too. Plus you can't just 'stop' the shot whenever you feel like, once they give it to you, you just have to wait around for it to wear off. IDK. Some women really like it but others are not exactly satisfied. It's really individual.

You also have the option of looking into an IUD (either hormonal or non-hormonal - they are inserted into your uterus by a dr. and can stay in place for years, but can also be removed by your dr whenever you like) or NuvaRing (you insert it into your vagina yourself (not up into the uterus like the IUD) - it is hormonal like the pill, you keep one ring in for 3 weeks, then leave it out for 1 week, then insert a new one for 3 weeks etc. Everyone has different preferences and everyone has a different experience with possible side effects on various birth controls. It's really trial and error until you find one that works for you and your lifestyle. Regardless, if you are tracking your calories and exercise and sticking to your goals, you shouldn't gain 'real' weight although there's always the possibility of holding onto water weight even if you think you're doing everything right. Very frustrating but one of those things we just have to deal with sometimes.

Good luck.

I got pregnant and had two kids and I LOST weight with them. Got the Mirena.. bam 20lbs in less than a year. It's vicious.

Depo shots are just as bad IMO. My favorite and most least harmful BC was that NUVA ring. Once a month; leave that sucker in for 3weeks, remove, get period, repeat. It gradually releases the hormones into the body. No it doesn't "interfere" with getting physical and NO it doesn't fall out... if it does that's a whole OTHER issue!

I was on Depo for a year a couple years ago, just currently got back on it. But with my lifestyle on addition to it increasing my appetite I gained 30 or more. I don't blame that entirely on the shot though. That's why I got back on it a month ago and starting to exercise and eat better

Two things: yes contraceptive can make you gain weight. I'm surprised you weren't told this. Two, I was confused about why I was gaining so much weight... I eat pretty healthy because of food allergies..what I didn't take into consideration was the number of calories I was putting away! MFP has been a huge eye opener for me, that is for sure. So, I don't know how faithfully you are logging, but I highly recommend it. If you don't want others to see what/how much you are eating, you can keep your food diary private.

Okay, this is just bad info. Not all contraception causes weight gain.

Implanion is known as the contraception most likely to cause issues - they believe it's because you are sending the hormone through your entire blood stream, rather than a more localized approach. If you had problems with that, it's likely it was the Implanion.

Someone else commmented that their Mirena caused weight gain. That one is significantly less likely. If I recall correctly, during clinical trials only 0.8% of participants experienced weight gain. (I could be slightly off, but it's a very low number). I have not had an issue with mine at all, and I've had the Mirena for two years. Mirena is an IUD, as someone mentioned, and because of the more localized hormonal release, you're less likely to experience the side effects that you would with Implanion.

Nuvaring is also a good option with a similarly low rate of weight gain like the Mirena. Same hormonal based contraceptive.

Paragard is another IUD option, which uses copper rather than a hormone to prevent pregnancy. This is good if you want to avoid hormones or feel like you may be overly sensitive to them (like they are more likely to cause you weight gain.) Paragard is good for 10 years (Mirena 5), and is inserted by your health practitioner. Can be removed any time. Paragard has a slightly higher rate of pregnancy in clinical trials (I think Paragard was like 0.9% where Mirena was 0.4%?) which is one reason I chose Mirena. The other reason is because they don't know how Paragard works really, just that it does. I'm not crazy about the "we know this works but have no clue why" approach, but that's just me.

Paragard is more likely to make your periods slightly heavier, Mirena tends to make them lighter, and with the Mirena about 6 months after insertion 20% of women stop having a period altogether. I'm one of the 20%. I'm okay with that.

I love my Mirena, really. I know people that love their Paragard. I also had Nuvaring and loved that, too. I think you might find that you would be really happy with any of those choices. I highly recommend researching, and use the sites for the medication and read the package inserts (available on all the websites). It will give you a lot of really good information.

If you have questions feel free to message me. I'm a wanna be women's health nurse practitioner, so I've done a fair amount of research and reading in this area. :-)

I was told by my physician that typically people who wind up experiencing the side effect of weight gain on birth control typically had weight problems to begin with. Of course, when we had those conversations we were talking about the pill and Nuvaring, not Implanon (which I've wanted for awhile).

I went and got it to deal with sever symptoms I was having during TOM, and was told BC would help. My weight immediately went up. I was like screw this, I'm working so hard to lose it I don't want this. My mom told me that when she was having issues she took Vitamin B complex and B6. Started taking those daily and I haven't had any of the severe nausea I was having since. And since I don't need it right now for the contraceptive properties, I think I'll continue to not take it. I don't need that side effect.