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I’m More Woman than Your Norethindrone Acetate

or your norgestrel, for that matter!

Men, that’s your cue to go somewhere else. Might I suggest my husband’s site? K. Thanks. Buh-Bye.

Yes, I am talking about birth control pills. I’m not a huge fan of them. At least not in the past 4 or so years. I took them for some 8 years prior to us starting a family because while I had very regular periods that I could set my watch to, I also had ridiculously heavy periods and cramps that put me in bed for 2-3 days a month, writhing in pain, getting very little pain relief from over-the-counter drugs (Tylenol, Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Midol, or Pamprin). My doctor started me on a low-low-dose pill and it was great for a good three years or so before I changed them up because I could get them through the school (college) health center cheaper than at the pharmacy with my mom’s Rx coverage…the only caveat was that the health center didn’t carry a huge variety of pills, but carried several of the more well-known brands/formulations (otherwise I would’ve stayed with my original brand).

After two years I started to get break-through bleeding so my dosage was upped. And I was good up until I went off of them to get pregnant. Was off them for about 3 months, got pregnant, and had monstrous baby Gavin.

After 6 weeks of pathetic milk production for a large and constantly hungry baby, I gave up and put him on formula and me back on birth control, hoping it would stem the still heavy post-partum bleeding. Boy was I wrong! I bled for 3-1/2 more weeks, regardless of the birth control. And for the next two years I would have my period, then would bleed heavily on and off during the month, usually totalling about 3 weeks each month. You can imagine what that did to my sanity (since I never knew when it would stop or start up again), my tampon budget, and my relationship with Justin. Every three or four months I’d try a new pill, hoping that this one would work and get things under control, and each time it didn’t.

So a few months before Gavin’s 2nd birthday we decided we’d start trying again for our second baby…I was more than happy to toss lousy non-workin’ pills in the trash. And wouldn’t you know, my body went straight back to it’s super-regular 30-day cycle with not a single mid-cycle breathrough incident for the six or so months before I got pregnant with Cooper.

Had Cooper and breastfed him with much better results than Gavin. Post-partum bleeding stopped around the much-more-normal 4-week mark. Didn’t see Aunt Flo again I weaned Cooper down to just morning and bedtime nursings at about 6 months. And man, was she mad! She hung around for about 3 weeks. Not long afterwards Cooper got the flu and weaned himself entirely and it started again. I called my doctor to start back on the pill since my insurance sucks and thinks that birth control can only be pills or permanent surgical methods (especially frustrating after I won this debate). And so we started the three weeks of bleeding each month again.

Then in mid-May I got fed-up and got all crazy googling things like “too much woman for my birth control” and didn’t really get any answers. So I started just researching types and dosages, then called my doctor to complain again about those sucky little pills. She put me on a much larger dose of birth control because obviously I was more woman than those little doses could handle. And more woman than 4 of the 6 types of faux progesterone.

The best part was when I researched the drug. Found about 300 women complaining about it, though from their style of writing “OMG! THIS BC SUX! TEXTING BFF NOW!”, it seemed a good majority of them were fairly young…like between 18-23. All of their complaints sounded like some of the side effects of pregnancy: enlarged breasts (oh please! let it be me!), gas discomfort, moodiness, nausea, and missing periods (again! please! let it be me!). I’m now on my second month of these pills and no nausea, no missing periods (but hey, now they only show up when they’re supposed to…hallelujah!), a bit of gas discomfort the first month, no additional moodiness (I’m already incredibly moody), and no enlarged breasts…much to my disappointment. I guess we’ll see how long these babies last…they need to last for at least a year before I start brow-beating Justin into that third baby. 🙂

So am I the only one with this issue?

About the Author

Colleen

This is a blog where I will share my adventures and mundane tasks as a work-out-of-home-mom. I now have 2 kids and my wonderful husband, so the juggling has gotten a little bit more tricky (man-on-man defense). We also have 2 dogs and 3 cats (we used to have 4) so as you can imagine, our household is pretty busy. Since I never feel like I'm being listened to, I figured I'll just start talking at the general Internet community and see what happens.

13 Comments

Tranny Head

Dude – I LOVED being on birth control. It was great for me except that it was annoying that I had to go every single month to the pharmacy to get it because my insurance wouldn’t let me order multiple months at a time. I did “Estrostep.”

And speaking of Aunt Flo – I THINK she sort of returned a few weeks ago finally after 11 months of breastfeeding … but it was so brief I’m not sure what that was about. If it was really Aunt Flo or some sort of sick, cruel joke. And hell – why can’t Sumo self-wean? I gotta start thinking about weaning, myself. Another cruel joke.

Anyway, I think periods in general are some sick, cruel joke by mother nature.

Yay for Baby #3!

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LaskiGal

Yasmin. Worked well. Husband says I was more moody on birth control, but I have no idea what he is talking about.

I’m right with Tranny. Got my sorta kinda visit a month ago and then another this month, though still breastfeeding. I’m letting J decide on the whole weaning thing . . . it doesn’t interfere with anything and I’m kinda lazy when it comes to the bottle.

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Flea

HATED bc pill. Migraines weekly, daily headaches. Has your doc run thorough hormone blood checks? Progesterone, estrogen, testosterone levels? Thyroid levels, including antibodies? Any history in the family? Blood iron levels? I’m guessing you’ve probably checked all of these and more.

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Madame Queen

After Bubba was born I had really, really heavy periods. I’m talking tampons were not even an option. But once I went back on the pill they got regulated again. My doc put me on a pill that gave me NO period, but I don’t really like that either. I like having that confirmation that I am DEFINITELY NOT PREGNANT. However, I’m seriously thinking of getting the Mirena IUD. I’m just so sick of taking a pill every single day.

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Burgh Baby

Sorry, I am of no help. There is far too much Cancer running rampid through my family to even slightly consider anything hormone altering. It makes life interesting.

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Marti

I am not a huge fan of BC, mainly since the only thing it does for me is that it keeps me from getting KU every month. I still cramp, get headaches and all of that crap. And Bud SWEARS that I had a better sex drive before BC. (I think he just has wishful thinking!)
I take Estrostep and it does the job.

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ascapecodturns

I tried an IUD after 2nd baby. Didn’t like it at all. Had been on BC pills for a long time. Because of a myriad of issues, I had a hysterectomy. I highly reccommend it, but it sounds like you want to go for baby #3, so hold my advice for later. 🙂

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Karen

You know, I have no idea what the pill did for me. We alternated methods of BC between kids and each was very effective. But I was messed up one way, and then another after each kid. Now that we’re done I’m stuck in the very light but every 3 weeks routine. The light is nice, the 3 weeks isn’t so much. And I’m not on pills.

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caramama

That just sucks. I had some serious post-birth bleeding for maybe 8 weeks, but it cleared up and I’m back to normal now. I can’t imagine bleeding 3 out of 4 weeks!

I hope you’ve found the right thing and that it works perfectly!

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Wendy

I hated, hated, HATED being on the pill. I was never myself – short-tempered, moody – I would later come to find out it was much like being pregnant (except pregnancy amped me up to certifiably crazy – and I can say that, since my job for 5 years was to decide who those certifiably crazy people were). I also started the breakthrough bleeding when I was initially on the pill; tried a few, and finally was put on Lo-Ovral, which stopped the bleeding, and got me back on a normal, regular schedule. I’m guessing you’ve probably tried it, though; I know when I was having that problem, my GYN said it was the “gold standard” for breakthrough bleeding.

Personally, I think the pill or any other hormonal form of birth control is just… scary. But, I also realize that’s because I’ve had such bad experiences with it.

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