thinking of getting of BC...

Sarahkay488 · July 2010

Ok so I'm thinking of getting of my hormonal BC. I've been on it for 5 years now. My husband and I plan to TTC later this year. I've had a love/ hate relationship with my BC. I haven't gotten pregnant on it (win), but my emotions and moods have been a roller coaster (fail).

Has anyone else gone off BC recently? Any side effects? What should I expect? Thanks

Sarahkay488 · July 2010

and my of, I mean OFF. duh Sarah.

mandac033 · July 2010

I have been off BC since April. I haven't noticed a big difference in emotions for anything else. I had been off BC for 5 years before the wedding and then went back on last May so I wouldn't get pregnant before the wedding. So far..so good!! Good luck!!

goldgold · July 2010

I went off of mine a few years ago for 4 months. My problem is that when I get my period I get ice-pick migraines which I never had before (though my dad use to get really bad ones). I will usually skip my period for 3-4 months at a time because of this. When I went off BC I felt really good, went on weight watchers and was able to lose 20 lbs. My skin/scalp got oily which was the major downfall.

MrsMaldo · July 2010

When DH deployed last year I went off BC because I figured I didn't need it and why take the extra meds for nothing. WORST IDEA EVER. My face blew up like I was 13 years old. It was awful. It was never that bad even before I went on BC years ago. I'm really not looking forward to going off it again when we TTC later this year.

Diver0214 · July 2010

I just went off of it in June.....I had been on some form of BC for the last 10 years or so. I can say that I am not liking it at all. I have not had a period in a long time ( I was on the depo shot for awhile) and since I went off it has been nothing but abdominal cramps bloating and acne. I know people say this is just your body getting used to not being on BC. We are TTC next month. AF is due this week so after that. If I had known I would have went off BC sooner just so that I had more of an adjusting time than I have,

I also have some other side effects feel free to PM me if you have any questions, since it seems like we are on the same time frame on TTC.

hrchick72 · July 2010

I was on BC since I was 15 for medical reasons - terrible, terrible periods kept me home from school 2 days every 4 weeks and I even landed in the ER at age 15 because of my cramps. I was on it for 16+ years when I decided to go off. The first thing I noticed was how far my emotions swung and how quickly and I cried a lot more. I was single at the time and didn't have anyone close to me observing, so I asked a couple of my co-workers to keep an eye out and they noticed the difference too. And my lebido went through the roof! (I didn't have anyone observing that though - I just knew it..hehe!)

I went back on the pill after 20 months of emotional and physical misery. They told me I would grow out of the terrible cramps, but 20+ years after I started my period, I still had them. Last summer (2009), I went off again after a 4-year stint and what I noticed this time is how much my breasts hurt for several weeks after. I mean they ached like a sprained ankle...no joke! And I am spotting more leading up to my actual 1st day, which is hard to judge these days.

Give yourself some time to let your body adjust. I hope your symptoms are like some PP's who noticed very little change.

JEHC · July 2010

I actually hate taking the BCP. I started taking it when I was 16 or 17, and had my first serious boyfriend. I took it until I was 22, but switched brands a number of times in those 5 years because I could never find one that really worked for me. They just make me feel weird. I went off it when I was 22, just after I started dating HH. (Backwards, right? haha) I told him why I was going to stop taking it (I hated the side effects, I hated trying to remember to take it every day, I was MISERABLE for the few days before my period started every month...) I seem to have the exact opposite reaction than every other person who is on BCP. For me, it made me a bit of a lunatic. So I stopped taking it, and I LOVED not being on it. We just used other methods of protection. I started taking BCP again in January so that I wouldn't have my period on my wedding day. I decided to keep taking it until after the honeymoon, because I don't want my period then either. After the honeymoon I'm going to stop taking them, and we'll either go back to using different methods of BC or we'll just wing it...we haven't decided yet!

CTGirl30 · July 2010

I had been on the Pill for about 12 years before I went off it 2 years ago. I couldn't stand the side effects - panic attacks right when I went off the active pills for that one week, etc. No thank you - plus I was tired of manipulating my body hormonally.

I have felt 10x better off of BC than I ever felt on it. My skin is clear. I don't have monthly anxiety attacks that I can attribute to the pill timing. And my cycle is extremely regular - 26 days. I track my cycle using an app on my iPhone and I always know exactly when it's coming. I've only ever been off by 1 day. I don't have migraines / horrible cramps / irregular cycles or anything like that so being au naturel works for me.

DH and I used condoms while we were TTA and now that we're not TTA anymore, we obviously don't use anything. But I know I will never, ever go back to hormonal BC ever again.

Kelly5110 · July 2010

jehawley:
I seem to have the exact opposite reaction than every other person who is on BCP. For me, it made me a bit of a lunatic. So I stopped taking it, and I LOVED not being on it. We just used other methods of protection.

Not everyone! I went crazy when I was on the NuvaRing for a few months. I was having panic attacks every day, and I had this overwhelming, irrational fear that I was experiencing blood clots and was about to die at any second. One day I literally left work in the middle of the afternoon and went to the MedExpress clinic because I was so convinced that I was having a heart attack. We decided estrogen was not for me.

The mini-pill didn't make me insane, but it did make my skin break out something awful, and then my hair started falling out. I could have dealt with acne, but I don't have much hair, to begin with!

So it's hormone-free for me...

Diver0214 · July 2010

Kelly5110:

[ We decided estrogen was not for me.

This also, that is why I was on the Depo shot for so long I had very bad reactions to estrogen

katyp51 · July 2010

I've only been on BC for a little over a year now. I had really bad cramps and really heavy bleeding before so I don't plan to stop anytime soon. I keep the alarm on my phone set so I don't forget to take it. HH and I really like the pill and I haven't gotten pregnant so far so its working!

pb&fluff · July 2010

I've been on BC for about 10 years and don't remember my body off of it. I'm sure I'll have some acne, but I'm hoping everything else isn't too bad. I remember telling my mom I wanted to go on it because of the cramps (which weren't horrible), but that was also right after I lost my virginity, so I'm pretty sure I was just wanting to go on it so I wouldn't get pregnant with my then bf. I don't recall any horrible symptoms, except my acne was pretty bad. I guess I'll find out in a couple months what life without BC is like.

thinking of getting of BC...

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