question for the ladies

[sarasquirrel]

i went to the doctor today for a check up and my first gyno checkup..eek.

anyways i told the doc of my severe cramping. she had suggested either a prescribed pain reliever to take the days leading up to my period....or go on the pill

since over the counter stuff hasn't worked well for me. and since my periods dont come the same amount of days every time, we both leaned towards birth control. she gave me a free sample of two months worth of loesterine24fe...this would be my first...i read reviews of it online and got scared by some of the side effects


does anyone here take that pill? or any in general?

[lupo pazzesco]

I'm on the pill.

I take it for similar reasons. abnormal cycling (Seriously, two periods in the month of february?? Yech!!) and severe, horrendous mood swings, and vicious, vicious cramps.

As for side effects, I'm on a much much higher dosage than you are, and I don't really experience any. It's a beautiful thing. Realize that side effects, while they DO exist, are usually only in rare cases. I know that some women gain weight, some lose weight and some (like me!!) notice their skin issues clear up. It's all dependent on how your body reacts. Smart of your doc to give you samples. The whole purpose is to test and see how you'll react.

The pill, in my opinion, is a good thing if you're having cramps that pain relievers can't fix, and your cycle is eratic. Give it a shot, but that's just my personal opinion and advice.

[fireheart]

I'm on neither, but if you don't feel comfortable staying on the Pill, ask your doc about the Implant. It's a matchstick sized thing that goes in your upper arm for three years. Has about the same effectiveness and such as the pill, but without some of the side effects and is good if you have high blood pressure or a risk of DVT. (It has progesterone in it as far as I know)

Yes I sound like a doc. IANAD.

Good of them to give you samples though. My doc did that with me when I went on my anti-depressants. Gave me about 3 weeks worth of sample packs and we went from there.

[spark]

As has been said, most of the side effects probably won't happen. I have pretty much no side effects (can't be lucky enough to get any of the good ones, like acne clearing up either. :P ) but it hasn't changed the severity of my cramps or done anything else other than make my periods regular, which they never used to be.

[AnaKhouri]

I was on Yasmin ('Yaz' is how it's advertised now, so hip! ) until we decided to have kids. I found it incredibly helpful for my cramps. They went from agonizing to mildly uncomfortable. I wish I'd known about it in high school, I would have taken it then!

I never experienced any of the bad side effects: no bleeding, blood clots, weight gain, etc. Remember if you try the pill you can always drop it if you don't like the effects. And there are a wide variety of different kinds so if one kind doesn't work for you, another might.

[Soulstealer]

I've been on the pill. It's regulated and lightend my period. Also cramps aren't as bad.

[Setsunaela]

I'm on the pill as well. It regulated my highly irregular periods, and lightened the bleeding on the ones i did have, but my cramps are a lot worse. Then again, before I started having a regular period, I had barely any cramps at all.. >.>

[BookstoreEscapee]

I believe that most of the scarier side effects (blood clots and such) are more common in older women; you're young so unless you have other medical issues or smoke, that shouldn't be a problem. The most likely side effects may be annoying but are probably not dangerous. If you take it for a couple months and find that you have side effects that are more than you want to deal with, talk to your doctor and see if you can try a different formula. It's a pain, but sometimes trial and error is the only way to find what really works.

[Megg]

Every woman is going to react differently. I loved the Depo shot, it was awesome. Norplant (dating myself a bit lol) was the implant thing in your arm, it made bad things happen. When I went on the Pill, it made me insane. Like psycho raging hose beast insane.

You will know within a week or so if it is going to make you nuts. Just pay attention to your body, and it will tell you if something isn't right. I probably should have adjusted my dosage, but I got pregnant when I stopped taking them and just got fixed after my daughter's birth.

[blas]

You'll have to pardon me, as I'm a Pill baby, so no matter what any pill may do for cramps and acne and period regulation, I refuse to ever go the Pill.

If you decide the Pill isn't for you, I'm on the Depo shot, which comes with a lot more (possibly worse) side effects, but you should never have to deal with a period again, so long as you stay on the shot.

Just something to consider.

[Reyneth]

I was on Loestrin (sp?) last year for one month. Ended that month with a 18 day (or so) period that was so heavy that I was going through OB's Ultra at one per hour. Not a good thing at a call center when they were cracking down on availability numbers.

I begged the nurse to help, her response was that this could be a side effect rarely and could take 2-3 months more to get to "normal." Oh, and to use Depends if too heavy was an issue. Yeah, no.

Called my regular doc, got back on a higher dose triphasic that has worked for me for years, and now if I use 3 super plus tampons during my 4-day period, that's unusual.

Lest I scare you, the story is also that you need to find what works with your body and stick to it. Low-dose ones don't work for me (and I knew it but the doc really wanted me to try that one). I will refuse any pushing of any others in the future. On the flip side, they may be what your body needs. My experience was very rare, so don't let it scare you.

Just be sure if you are *ever* on antibiotics not to rely on the pill, 'kay? That goes for everyone, it can't be said enough. I read about family years ago before that was well known that added TRIPLETS to their two school-aged and twin toddlers! yikes.

[sarasquirrel]

thanks for all the info gals

im still kinda nervous, but really, the cramps i get, i cant ignore them...i need to do something

considering the effects i get from my period to begin with aren't bad, other than the cramps, i cant imagine getting all these side effects from nowhere

[PepperElf]

i did for a while, lo/orval i think... it's specifically low dose, so you have to take them about the same time every day. and... with the ones i took, if you wanted you could forgo taking the placebos, and only take the birth control pills to avoid having a period all together. (though that's not always comfortable)

First of all I'll talk about side effects... mainly the first side effect listed is "blood clot"

that was actually explained to us in my human sexuality class ...

birth control pills usually "double" your chances of having a blood clot. While that sounds scary at first, the stats come from the number of women per 1000 who have blood clots.

normal woman's chance of blood clots: 1 in 1000
on birth control: 2 in 1000 (so yeah, your chances are "doubled")
while pregnant: 15 in 1000


as for cramps... before i started taking mine, my body was in a state of torturing me.
a week before my period my breasts would start to ache horribly, up until my period finally hit.. and then for the first day the cramps were intense.

after i started... my breasts stopped hurting and my cramps really relaxed.

even after i stopped taking them about a year later, i didn't really go back to the same level of pain.


one thing i will warn you of, in case you decide to go off the pills... sometimes your body might decide to "make up" on the eggs you didn't drop. i'm not sure about today's pills, but in that class, the teacher warned that if you want to get pregnant, wait a couple of cycles after stopping the pill... because if you got pregnant right after you stopped, there was a higher chance of fraternal twins or more etc

[sarasquirrel]

it just seems like every site i go to, people are basing it

today i also got my 1st shot of gardisil, and stupid me decided to read side effects (my arm hurts where i got the shot) and read all these horror stories, and of course naturally freaks me out.

[AdminAssistant]

I'm also on the pill!

I gained about 15 lbs, but all of it was in "good" places ifyaknowwhatImean. Seriously, I went up an entire cup size and went up a pant size. I haven't had any problems whatsoever; I've been on desogen (a variety of brands and generics) for nearly 10 years. Like others have said, just pay attention to your body. You may also want to ask your doctor about prescription-strength naproxen - basically high-dosage Aleve. Not a narcotic, I can't imagine why you couldn't get a prescription for it if you needed it.