SS1- i was reading on supplements to help with hair loss- looks like Zinc is a big one.

Hi I am new here but was found this looking for an answer to my extreme belly bloating since stopping my bc. I have always had problems (endometriosis, ovarian cysts, had to have part of my tube and ovary removed, etc...) I finally got preggo with my daughter two and a half years ago and started bc for the first time consistantly after having her. But I noticed my migraines at the end of each pack were so bad I couldn't care for her so I decided it was time to stop and my fiance was on board with this (as long as we used some other form). So I have been off for almost a week but I feel so bloated. I feel as though I am 8 months pregnant again (I def know I am not preg) and I have had what I consider small migraines. But besides that I feel better than I have in the past two years. I feel like I have so much energy but can someone please tell me how long it will take for this bloating to go away? Thanks.

Hey ladies
Not been on here in quite a while, largely because I've been feeling much better and perhaps coming on here reminds me of the bad times, rightly or wrongly.

But thought it was my duty to come and report back!

After coming off the pill (mercilon which I'd only been on for 9 mths) I went through extreme anxiety, and depression and obsessive thoughts, largely focussed on my OH.

I went for CBT therapy which was useful but not a cure, and eventually saw a specialist who recommended agnus castus. I have to say I really believe it's the latter that's made the massive difference. I take one a day and try (but don't always remember) to take cod liver oil, calcium and evening primrose but it's definitely the agnus castus that has turned me around. I would say I am 'normal' most of the time. SOme months I have anxiety for a few days but not to the manic level of before and I try to rationally wait through it. It also helps to regulate your period. (though it may make you more fertile so be careful!)

Hope this helps.

Hi Floss!

Glad to hear you are getting better!

I too take Angus Castus and have noticed the anxiety disappeared almost immediately, I still get flare ups but no-way as extreme and it doesn't effect my sleep which was becoming a problem.

Thank you for feedback - All the best!

Well .... I'm doing amazingly better don't get me wrong I still do have those days but my anxiety is basically at zero and all of my physical symptoms have disappeared I still do get a lot of intrusive thinking but I can easily separate them from my thoughts I tried many herbal supplements but in the end I stopped taking everything I've been off about 4-5 months now since feeling better I seem to have lost track of how long it has been. Me and my boyfriend are doing very well we have even had some discussions about getting engaged in the future which is great because I can't imagine my life with out him. I'm wishing you all the best on your road to recovery how is everyone else feeling?

I have been much better lately too, eventhough i am about to come on now and so my mood and thoughts are going a little crazy. but other than that, i have been really good! one thing i do have to ask is does anyone have any unreasonable anxiety or guilt? or feel scared that something is happening/ or going to happen? i keep having this today

Hey Lara I often feel like this around my periods. Don't know if it helps you.

Yeah I have that too Larara - I too have been doing well and have dipped today, feel low and have anxiety!
I think I am having my period, I say think because I bled after my depo shot for a few weeks but this stopped 6 weeks back. I have had period pains and I've been bleeding for 10 days, which is unusal as my usual period never used to last longer than 5 days. Thats why I'm not sure if its a real period or the depo as I've been off for 7-8 weeks so I'm surprised if it is my period I've come on so quick. I've heard it would take 6 months +. Did anyone else have a long first period?

I'm about to get my implant taken out, it made me absolutely crazy and no one let me get it out up till now. Will I return to normal? I really won't be able to cope with the symptoms from the implant if they remain. Incredibly worried the effects will be permanent because my life will stop if they are.

It's very good to see I'm not alone in going off Birth Control. I went off Birth Control about 7 months ago and my life couldn't be better right now. I noticed a bit of anxiety at first but I was also starting my journey to recovery as an alcoholic so I had many things always on my mind. I have been sober for 7 months as well so it's for me to remember when I quit the pill. Everything seems to be flowing much better and my mind is more peaceful than it has ever been in my life. I attribute that to getting off the pill and also to my sobriety. I'm 23 and was on the pill for 8 years so it's taking a litte bit for everything to regulate but I'm confident it will with how healthy I feel. It feels good to not pump myself full of synthetic material and to let nature take it's course. condoms were made for a reason and my boyfriend of 6 years is very supportive as it seems like many of you share that too! I did break out a lot when going off the pill, and so I started proactiv and bare minerals make up and my skin looks better than it did before and I work out 2-3 times a week and am in the best shape of my life. Yay for us for being natural and taking control of our health!!! My sister owns a Wellness Studio and is a chiropractor, she advocates against the pill and also told me that Ginseng is really good for balancing out everything after going off the pill. Hope this helps someone!

Hey Mel

I experience the tongue tingling as well (paresthesia) when I suffer from anxiety which usually occurs a few days before my period and is accompanied by severe migraines, cramps, weakness and depression.

Hi im new to this site I stopped takin my birth control may 24 and 4 days later I had my first panic attack and ever since then I haven't felt right my head is constantly foggy I cant sleep ive lost 30 pounds I have muscle spams and chest pain I was wondering if anyone has experienced these things to I also feel like im in a dream state everyday and I dont like it at all I wanna return back to normal and fast all I do is lay on the couch all day because I get dizzy easily and I have excessive sweating and I dont know what to do im only 21 and the drs wont check my hormones I wanna get better so I can enjoy my son and do the things that I use to love doing I recently went to the hospital and they put me on beta blockers because my heart races alot someone please give me advice

Hello everyone,

First, thanks so much for all of your stories. This forum, along with another I read on Steadyhealth.com, seems to be the only addressing the negative effects of starting and stopping birth control pills. It was such a relief during my really bad days to be able to come back to these forums and know that I wasn't alone.

Since I'm new here, just a quick background. I was only on the pill for 8 days (I'd been on them years ago for acne and had no problem). I decided to stop them after 3 straight days of crying on my fiancé's shoulder. I thought I was losing my mind. The worse part was that I started to doubt everything about our relationship. I would've rather dealt with more physical symptoms because it's the emotional symptoms that truly hurt. Anyway, after 3 days of being off the pills (and feeling great) I started my period and all of the terrible symptoms returned. I had headaches constantly and my emotions were a wreck.

I'm happy to say that I've survived a month and a half off the pills. I was on the pills for an extremely short time, so I think I've recovered much quicker than most who post on here, but I still have the down days where I relive all the feelings I had when I first came off them. What still amazes me is how much they affected me in such a short amount of time. I will NEVER be on hormonal birth control again. I just can't imagine risking my emotional health that way ever again.

That being said, here are a few tips that've helped me most.

#1. Keep a mood diary. It sucks to have to record those bad days, but it did help prove to me that I was getting better, very slowly, but I WAS improving.

#2. Write a "happy letter" to your depressed self. On my happy day, I wrote a letter to myself reminding me that it was the hormones causing my dips in mood. Then, on my bad days, I would read the letter and feel tons better.

#3. Keep busy! The negative thoughts don't deserve attention. Ignore them and find something to do.

Be patient girls, we WILL get through this!!

Thanks so much for the post Jennifer! You sound a lot like me except for I took the pills for almost 8 months. For the most part now, I feel pretty good. A whole lot better than I use to be. Some days I don't even think about it but when I'm having a bad day I still doubt the relationship and then on good days I think how I could never leave him.
I do some of the same things you do. I use to write myself letters on good days so I could prove to myself the bad days werent really true. I also keep track of my feelings in my calendar on my phone so if I'm having a bad day, I will look
Back and be like ok this is normal it happened last month
How are the rest of you girls??!!

Hi there! New here, but been lurking for a long while. I've recently gone off Nuvaring (1 month ago) and am experiencing cramps, bloating, fatigue and headaches. These symptoms are sortof going away with taking dong quai, vitex berry, black cohosh, and dandelion root. I don't want to go to the dr to regulate my hormones. I want my body to do it on its own.

Nuvaring was the best birth control I have been on, but it made me steadily gain weight over the past four years. About 20 lbs worth! The most disturbing side effect (arrhythmia) surfaced within the past year, but I was only recently able to attribute it to the ring. The arrhythmia went away after the first two weeks off the ring! Doctors were wanting to put me on medications!

I have purchased a Lady-Comp with my savings and am paying it off with the six month payment plan. I feel good doing something positive for my body. I will also chart cervical fluid and BBT as added reassurance. I just can't get pregnant right now!

Are there any other supplements I should be taking? I have been taking a b-complex because I heard that BC makes women deficient in b vitamins. No normal period, yet... I hope I don't take years to regulate, like some of the horror stories I've read on the internet! My cycles were like clockwork pre-BC and slightly long (about 32 days).

DScully,

I'm still new to this site, but somewhere there is a whole page dedicated to what type of supplements you should be taking. Do a search and you should be able to find it.

Is anyone else concerned about the women out there who haven't yet correlated their symptoms with the use of hormonal birth control? I bring this up because I was just talking to my sister when I was really down a few days ago, and she confessed to me that she was on anti-depressants during her wedding and a little while afterward. She stopped taking them to get pregnant, and decided to never take them again. While on them, she'd learned how to better cope with her stress and was able to control her anxiety without medication.

Now I'm just wondering if her anxiety and negative thoughts had been brought on by BCP. She had been on the shot before getting married, along with pills at some point too. My first thought was that maybe anxiety issues run in our family, but now I'm starting to think it could have something to do with BCP.

Hey thanks! You're right. I'm sure there are loads of symptoms that are attributable to HBC, aside from what big pharma tells you in the fine print. I feel loads better being off it. My uterus feels more alive, too! (but how do you quantify that?)

I have a question for all of you, has your PMS gotten worse since coming off of birth control?

Mine was what I would consider normal before taking the pills. I had headaches, cramping, and slight mood swings. Now, everything is almost the same except that my periods are lighter and shorter and my mood swings start much earlier. Before my mood swings started a week before my period. Now, they start right after ovulation (about 2 weeks before).

Do you think my body is still adjusting or do you suppose my PMS has been forever altered?

FINALLY! A acutally message board that has real people giving their acutally account of things! If I read one more website that says the very basics of what could happen then ends it by Saying "everyone is different"(Duh!) I was going to scream.

Well I took my last Jun 17th. Had my "fake" period the week after. So I guess I'm 27days into my cycle. I was on the pill for 10 straight years no breaks. Different one threw out the years. The last one I was on was enpresse. After a long talk with my serious longterm boyfriend we decided together that I would quit and just use codoms are birth control. I just wanted to give my body a break! Just feel my natural self without the pills! And plus you are always hearing about problems from BC! So I quit. And It was also really hard for me to lose any of the weight that I put on over those 10 years. About 35 pounds(sucks). So I wanted to see if stopping the pill would help with that as well.

So happy I decided to stop...Becuase I have to tell ya I feel so much better!!!! I have more enegry then I did. And just feel more happy/postive I guess. Sex drive back. All that good stuff.
It's sad that you never really notice the effects of the pill until your off it! Although I have been feeling very bloated beach whale the passed week. But maybe becuase I'm on day 27 of cycle??? Also have light cramps threw out the month. I've had no spotting. So all in all quiting is working out.

Now I'm just waiting on my period. Thats the worrying freaking out part! Becuase I'm not ready for a baby. I guess I'm hoping it just starts tomorrow like it would have if I was still on the pill. But it's been so long since I've had a "real" period I don't remeber how long my acutally cycle is. I was pretty regular before. But I have read it can start right back up or take up to 3 months. I've had that My period is about to start feeling for the past week and half? Sucks cause I keep running to the bathroom!

When did everyone else start to come back? I read in the earlier posting about raspberry leaf tea? I just order some on amazon!

Thanks to everyone who has already posted!

Hi there! Nuvaring gave me terrible side effects that I didn't really notice until I was off it for a few weeks. I feel FEELINGS again. Plus that arrhythmia the doctor wanted to "possibly" medicate me for is now gone. I wasn't able to attribute it to the ring until I read some anecdotal stories online about cardiovascular issues being associated with HBC... scary how much that stuff can do to your body.

I shelled out the big bucks and bought a Ladycomp (with a 6-month payment plan) from RaxMedical.

One month (ish) post Nuvaring, and I really feel great! I'm not having any of the emotional problems so many other people are having. The only emotional "problem" is that I feel emotions now, and before I was just really apathetic. I barely even cared about my boyfriend anymore! I figured that was just a side effect of being in a relationship for 5 years with the same person, but boy was I wrong! I have been charting my cycle post nuvaring, and noticed that my basal temp is REALLY low in the morning right now. Like the first time I temped it was right at 97.00 degrees, and today is was only 97.3

Maybe I'll have a spike soon to show that I ovulated. I had eggwhite fluid and ovulatory pain yesterday and the day before so I might be back to normal already! I'm excited! I had super regular cycles before BC.

I have lost 5 lbs since going off that poison, as well... if anyone wants to know. And not to gloat or anything. I weigh 150 right now, and weighed 125 before I went on HBC. I want to look hot again! But hey! Feeling good makes it easier to go for a jog or do situps or walk on the treadmill. And my appetite has been reduced, too. Not sure if anyone noticed that symptom. Maybe it's a Nuvaring thing? I was always hungry as a hungry hippo while on it... now I eat a little here and there, only when I'm hungry, and I don't really even get that hungry lately. Weird? But awesome!

Another upside is I don't have to put plastic in my vagina! yay!

About Raspberry tea: I haven't tried it myself, but I have done parsley tea for making my period hurry up in the past, and it works for real. Right now I'm on: dong quai, black cohosh, dandelion root, and most importantly B-vitamins, zinc, and vitex berry. Gaia herbs has a pretty good one, but I hear Femprin is pretty good too. BC makes you really deficient in B-vitamins and zinc, so I hear (from a doctor). At any rate, they're good for you. Cheers!