Taking the pill for health reasons

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This isn't a question about contraception. I want to know if anyone has benefitted health-wise from taking the pill.

I am sick of getting stomach cramps, headaches, general exhaustion, not being able to concentrate, feeling too hot and sweating excessively and all over pain for a week and a half before my period every month. Has taking the pill helped anyone with this? I'm taking evening primrose at the moment, but it's not helping.

Evening primrose oil does nothing.

I take the pill because I produce too many androgens (I haven't had sex for a while, so it's not for that). It helps with the spottiness and greasiness I get from producing too many male hormones and keeps my 'periods' (obviously on the pill, they're not real periods) regular.

If you're taking it continuously without a break, you don't have a period. If you do breaks, you bleed, but it's not a true period because you didn't ovulate. It's also less hormonally and physically taxing than a normal period.

I've been taking the birth controll pills to deal with my cramps for years. Before I started, I would have cramps that caused me to stay home from school because they were so horrible. After I started taking pills (and found a type that worked for me) the cramps became easily managable, although they didn't go away completely (I would actually be a little worried if they did, since they are a natural part of having a period).

Be aware that, even when you find the right pill for you, if your body chemistry changes, the pill may stop working correctly and you will have to try others. I have been doing this for a year now because half a year before that, I started getting two week periods, despite the pills I was taking. I still haven't found the right pill to overcome this problem.

I take the pill for cramps. I was a trial period on one but I had an issue with it.
My cramps use to make sick, like wanting to throw up, made me miserable, I couldn't do the fun stuff i like to do - play video game mostly. Taking the pill was the best thing i ever done.

I'm not on the pill (I have a hard time remembering to take pills regularly), however I do use the Nuvaring. I was diagnosed with PCOS recently. Sometimes my body would not produce enough estrogen from month to month, leading to me not ovulating (peppering my ovaries with small cysts) and throwing my body off. I suddenly gained a lot of weight back when I graduated high school (I went from being underweight all my life to over 160 lbs, and I'm now stuck at a flat 180 lbs) and have a bit of hirsutism. My aunt also has PCOS and gets terrible cramps (even to the point of passing out from the pain when she was in high school).

I take the pill for endometriosis so that when I actually want to get pregnant, it will actually INCREASE my chances of conceiving by suppressing tissue growth and cysts and whatnot. Since I recognized it in the early stages, I still have a good chance of bearing children.

Although I do have a boyfriend (who has autism) our relationship is actually quite chaste since we don't see any reason to have sex now so we decided to wait until marriage and be old fashioned like that. Even after we get married though, I'll still probably be on the pill for a year or so until I'm ready to conceive since I also need to speak with my psychiatrist to change my medication so that it doesn't harm my child in addition to speaking with my gyno as well.

I started the pill for acne (which it didn't do anything for) but kept on because it got rid of cramps. I have noticed that I have a lot more stomach upsets, so I'd be careful if you have a sensitive stomach. A lot of women said they gained weight; I, however, did not have this side effect (but I exercise regularly).

I've been on Mycrogynon for about 4 1/2 years, for irregular periods and horrendous period pains. I've had fibromyalgia since summer 2007 so the irregularity caused me a lot of stress (which made the fibro symptoms worse) and because one of the problems with fibro involves muscles, my cramps got even worse. Since I've been on the pill - I've been extremely lucky in that the first one I tried works really well - I've had no cramps, regular periods (take the pill 3 weeks on, 1 week off, during that week I have a lighter-than-before-I-went-on-the-pill periods) and it's been WONDERFUL.

At some point in the fairly near future, though, I'm going to have to think of coming off the pill - although my boyfriend hasn't officially proposed yet, it's when rather than if (he knows what I'd like for a ring and a few weeks ago we went and found out my ring size) and we really want a family. Plus I'm Catholic - though I did recently find out that the Church's official teaching on use of contraceptive pills states that if you're on the pill for medical rather than contraceptive reasons, technically the Church is OK with it - though I know quite a few Catholics who are or have been on the pill post-marriage. It's something I'll have to think long and hard about, but I will come off it at some point after I'm married (and probably soon, because I'll be 30 next year and we both really want a family, and recent events have made me realise how much I really want to be a mum). They usually say come off it 6-12 months before you want to start trying for a baby.

I have NO regrets about going on the pill - it has made things SO much better, easier and more comfortable. It's helped me cope with periods a lot better than I coped before (ie. badly).

Update - I've been on the pill for 3 months and I don't feel any better for it. I still have a week of insomnia, sweating excessively, uncomfortable swollen breasts, feeling over heated and bloated and not being able to concentrate and feeling angry before my bleed. I'm on Mycrogynan 30. Go back to doctor for my check up next week. He said we'd give it 3 months and see how I get on. Sick of being ill.

Food grade diatomaceous earth is the best thing for cramps.

I started going on the pill because I was having irregular periods (as in, about 3 to 6 months between periods). The reason why I chose to go on the pill is because my OBGYN said that I had an increased risk of cancer if I continued to go multiple months between periods.

I do indeed have regular periods now, although they are rather close together (about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks apart) and I tend to bleed black blood a lot. Is this something I should be concerned about?

to IdahoRose - that doesn't sound normal, see your doctor.

To hurtloam, I had great luck with the Pill and easing cramps. I had terrible cramps when I was younger - the Pill worked for me completely.

When I came off it after some years, they came back. But not quite as bad.

I then (much later) got pregnant and had a baby - and I haven't had a serious case of cramps since then - just mild tension and pain easily dealable-with with some ibuprofen or tylenol. Pregnancy also had the same affect on my migraines! Rather unbelieavably.

Of course, I did get fat and I now have a child - so there are some side-effects to this treatment.

I take it for reducing acne in particular those cyst like ones which can be painful for me. The contraceptive part is merely a bonus.