Oral Contraceptive

My symptoms included a loss of about 1/3 of my hair (grew back after 9 months), mild mood swings the first couple months (which is normal), massive acne (much better now, but I still experience somewhat), ovarian cysts (seem to be gone now), pain during intercourse (gone now), yeast infections (only at first), abnormal pap smears (which finally normalized). My cycle was regular the whole time so technically I’m a “success” as I have several friends who came off and have had awful problems with not ovulating, etc.

The other symptoms which may or may not be due to the pill is basically complete immune system collapse and feeling energy of a 70 year-old or worse for months on end (after that it rose to a more acceptable level, but my energy has only returned to normal in last few months, which I credit to homeopathy more than anything).

I think my situation is an interesting case for several reasons. 1) I was on BC for more than 15 years, and I think the length of use is really key, 2) I was doing my disastrous experiment with RBTI that summer after coming off and was not eating enough period (because I was trying to do stupid things like not eat meat or sweets after 2pm), and most importantly not having enough salt, and also min-col was crashing my blood sugar, 3) I had an insanely stressful summer at work, and 4) Due to an anaphylactic food allergy emergency (very stressful to the body in itself), I had to take steroids for several days. My entire body collapsed at that point, to the point that I could barely drag myself off the couch for months except to go into work (where my performance was sub-par, but thankfully my supervisors were understanding). I took tons of sick days. I got one illness thing after another, I went through all sorts of tests for things like epstein barr and lyme disease and really everything you can test for, and nothing showed up as being wrong. I rested a lot, and tried to eat well, and all of that helped eventually, but I was in a bad place for awhile. As of early 2012, I was at least functional and able to participate in social stuff again, and things improved from there. I was using homeopathy since Summer 2012, and noticed some improvements, particularly in the ovarian cyst area, but when I started a new remedy in April/May of this year, it was like a light came on and I could finally do things like exercise again and I felt like my normal self again.

So, anyway, I am pretty good now, although I continue to work on sleep and stress management, and I went through a heart-wrenching break-up recently (which affected my sleep and my cycle), but I guess other than the residual acne my body has adjusted fairly well at this point. Still feel just instinctively like it’s not 100% there, though, but I think I’ll get there soon. I wish I had never gone on the pill to begin with.

Wow, that sounds really miserable! I guess I should count myself as lucky – I was on the pill for 7-8 years (with maybe 6-12 months off in the middle at one point), then off it for a bit, then back on it for another 7 years or so, then off it to have my babies… while I was breastfeeding I was on the progesterone-only pill… then back on the regular pill when my second child turned about 3… she is 6 1/2 now and I’m off it again for good. Looking back I did have several breaks from the pill so maybe that was good for my body… I’m 44 now and not going to go back on it at all at this point. I plan to hit menopause head on with no hormones.

I’m glad you are feeling better. All of those things you mentioned sound like they were a definite strain on your body.. emotional stuff like breakups (it was work stress for me) really take a toll as well.