Mood swings and birth control
Hi women, I have a question. Does anyone find a relation between mood swings/meltdowns and birth control? And if so, when do you get bothered the most? I started microgynon (brand name, not sure if it's used in the US) 2 months ago, and this month I am having terriblemeltdowns starting mid-third week (just started pill-free week today). Exact same last month only it got really bad in pill-free week (such bad meltdowns that I almost had to be secluded [psych hospital]). There could be other factors, and I'm reluctant to mention this possibility to the staff here because I fear they'll assume I'm trying to find excuses or avoid responsibility. I was just wondering, since it's quite coincidental. Meltdowns are a part of my autism presentation so there are obviously other factors, but I was wondering if this could be a contributing factor. The patient handout lists mood changes as a possible side effect, but I was told this could only happen int he pill-free week. Any thoughts?
You might need a milder pill once I went off them I was back to my normal self.
The way I understand microgynon is already a low dose pill. By the way, did you have these mood sinwgs all the time or just some of the time? have been pretty normal my first and second week and most of third week both months, so that confuses me: my mood swings run on (so far, but tehn again how much evidence is only two months?) on four-week cycles, three weeks fine and one week very bad. It was this way a little before I started on the pill, too (some PMS-like symptoms, never mentioned to medic either for fear of being called a whiner), but not as obviously.
poopylungstuffing
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Joined: 8 Mar 2007
Age: 48
Gender: Female
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I was briefly on the patch for a few months...,and it threw my system completely out of balance for almost a year...Never had I had such cramping, bleeding, and crying....then after I got off the patch, I was plagued with really awful... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelschmerz
Yeee...awful...That was my main experience with birth control...I have come to terms with the fact that I am naturally infertile..and maybe that might be one of the reasons I had such a negative reaction to birth control...dunnow...
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When I got onto birth control, I'd just moved, quit drinking and smoking, and had massively cut down on all of my meds because I couldn't find a shrink. Since I survived all that, the pill must not have done anything too awful to me mentally.. LOL I think I have been breaking out more since I started taking it, though.
I think I'm going to switch to Yaz, because the one I've been on has now been discontinued.
I've just come off the pill aswell, it was causing pains in my legs (mainly in my knees) sometimes they were so weak I had to keep sitting down then when I would attempt to walk I could only walk with a limp
I used to get a lot of headaches aswell.........................
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Hmm - I've been on the pill for ten years - Tricyclen - which is a graduated dose pill, meaning that the first week has low hormones, the second higher, the third highest, and then you have your week off. I started the pill on Microgynon and only did about two months when I went home and my doctor yanked me off it and put me on this one. I've actually found that the pill helps to smooth out my mood swings (or what I can remember of them - but then I was also a teenager back then too!) and I like my pill because it mimics the natural cycle a little bit with the flexuating hormone levels.
I think everyone reacts differently to the pill - I know friends who also experienced mood flat-lining on the pill, and that's actually why they went off it. Not many people I know experience crazy mood swings from it, though. I would stick with it for another month or two, if you can, and then if the swings continue to match the pill cycle speak to your doctor about it. It is very likely, all your other influences aside, that the pill could be causing or contributing to these meltdowns.
Good luck!