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Going off birth control?
Hi there! In the last few months I have come to hate taking my birth control (Ortho Tri Cyclin) . I have been taking it for about 10 years now. I would say in the last year/year and a half our sex life has considerable dropped. I'm just not in the mood and as you can imagine, it's frustrating for both my husband and I. I would also say my energy level has dropped in the last six months as well.
I just had blood work done, and show no issues with my thyroid, just a Vitamin D deficiency. I have an appointment with my Ob/gyn on Friday to talk options.
I really think I just want to go off the pill altogether, but we don't want to have kids just yet. I mean if it happened, we would be thrilled, but would like to put it off at this point in our lives. Obviously there are other non prescription methods, but have you been in a similar situation? Did you end up trying a different rx birth control and have better results? Could I just be in a rut with my current rx?
Re: Going off birth control?
I was on the same pill for 5 or 6 years with no issues. When my sex drive dropped, I assumed it was due to pregnancy/birth/dealing with the kid. But as soon as I switched to a new pill, it came right back.
You can try a new pill or you can do a non-hormonal IUD if you're not wanting to keep with the hormones. Or condoms if you don't want to do anything that involved.
Definitely talk to them about switching to a different pill. If that doesn't help after 3 months, then see what your other options are.
There's also another non-hormonal option that isn't brought up too often, and that's the diaphram. I had this same exact problem with my birth control, and had tried quite a few different ones to see if they would be any different. In the end they weren't, but we are in the same boat as you as far as kids. So my doctor prescribed me the diaphram, and if we don't want to mess with it we use condoms.
Getting off the pill has been a blessing to our sex life and to my mood. But this isn't the same story for everyone. Just talk to your doctor about your options, and talk with your H on how long you both would like to wait. If it is over 2 years, then the IUD may be a good option.
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
I could ditto most of what you've said, except that I was on Aviane. I tried a new, super-low dose pill called Lo-Loestrin, and not only was it not covered by insurance, but I felt hung over every day.
At this point, we're doing a modified NFP, where we abstain during my fertile times, and use condoms and spermicide when we think I'm not fertile, just in case. I'm hoping Mr. Kuus musters the nerve to get a vasectomy soon, because this is not optimal.
Diaphragm always worked well for me... only thing is, if your sex life isn't very predictable, you might have to put it in when you're already getting busy!! My partner could feel it a little but it never bothered him, and vice versa. It's a little gross to take it out the next day, but whatever! Especially if you don't do it often, it's a good non hormonal choice. And you can even put it in on the first or last couple days of your period and pretend you don't have it for a night!
My husband and I used NFP. We liked NFP. Later, we learned that there is a special name for people who use NFP.... "parents." However, if you're open to embracing the possibility of having children right now, NFP creates plenty of skin-to-skin contact, and it's intimate and natural feeling. I guess some people have success with it. We didn't, and neither did our friends!!