the birthcontrol pill

[starck]

hi,

I wanted to ask this a long time ago but i forget a it a little ,
but when i saw the post about the period i remembered it .
here are my questions : :)

1. do you take the pill ?
2. what do you find of the birth control pill ?
3. what changes are going to happen we i will take the pill, what changed with you.


i ask this because i really don't know if i must take the pill or not .

please help me.

[abeautifulworld]

Hi, starck. I started taking the birth control pill when I was 16 (I'm 21 now). It was prescribed for moderate acne, and looking back, it's almost comical to consider what I viewed as "acne." I might have had one or two spots a month. MAYBE. But after starting the pill, within six months my skin was breaking out like crazy. I gained weight. I started getting depressed. I switched my pill five or six times between ages 16 and 20. The last one I took was Yasmine, which gave me adrenal fatigue, nutritional deficiencies, and awful, oily skin. My hair started falling out, and I was dizzy and out of breath a lot. At one point while on Yasmine, I could barely drag myself out of bed in the mornings. I missed a ton of class that semester of college because I was so exhausted. I spent a lot of time just sleeping on my couch. At the time, I had no idea that the birth control pill could be the cause for so many problems, because I, like so many young women in the U.S., had been brainwashed into thinking that the pill was somehow inherently "good" for me. Surely it must have been better to be ON the pill than OFF the pill, right? But luckily, my interest in natural and holistic living began to blossom, and I began researching hormonal birth control. Looking back now, I'm certain that taking the pill contributed to many, many problems that I struggled with as a young woman, and I can't help but wonder how my body and mind might be different had I not been poisoned by hormonal birth control for so many years.

Now, I use the paragard IUD, which still isn't entirely natural, but it sure beats having synthetic hormones surging through my body everyday.

If you are considering taking the pill, I would suggest you perform some in-depth research concerning the potential side effects and harm that can be caused by hormonal birth control. Best of luck to you.

[busybees]

I'm not quite sure what you are asking so I'll just give you my story ...

A long, long, long time ago I thought you had to take the pill because that's just what society did. Society stated 2-3 kids max was ideal. So I took the pill. It made me sick - oh so very sick - horrible, horrible side effects (note the side effects listed by abeautifulworld above me). The dr kept lowering my dosage until I was finally on the lowest possible dose and I eventually wound up pregnant with my second. So they did not work at that low dose but I couldn't take any higher dose because of how sick they made me.

I also tried the depo-provera which was simply awful all the way around. I don't even want to get into what all it put me through.

After much debate and prayer I decided to track my cycles which has *ALWAYS* been accurate as to when I ovulate even when I ovulate 2-4 weeks "late" - I know I haven't ovulated and don't have to sit there wondering if I am pregnant or if something is wrong ... I know *exactly* what is going on with my reproductive body at anytime during my cycle. During this time we also gave our reproduction over to God and allowed Him to give us gifts of children as He saw fit.

I still keep up with my cycle so as I know what is going on with my body but I don't worry about the getting pregnant part. I've been noticing that I'm ovulating a little later than I what I normally average - this can be several things that I will simply have to keep up with - either a sign of peri-menapause or my body healing and getting back to what it should be doing. But I'm not worried about it right now since I am healing my body currently.

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that chemical/hormone birth control is simply bad for our bodies and should be avoided by all women except in extreme cases (but even then I think diet changes may heal them).

One more story - not mine - and I'll hush ... a girl at my university was getting married and she didn't want to have children right away as she wanted to finish school and get started in her career. So she researched all the forms and finally chose the nova-ring. She shared this information with our environmental science professor who cautioned her about using chemical/hormonal birth control. *HE* is a proponent of the man using condoms or the woman using a diaphragm - he is very against chemicals/hormones because of the risk women take simply not to have babies. She had it inserted/put on about a month or so before the wedding so that it would be in full affect before their honeymoon. Not a few few weeks after they married she died from blood clots caused by the nova ring. It is a very powerful testimony as to what we women go through not to have children when men could be contributing to not having children if that is how strongly people feel about not having them.

[terry brown]

My 22 year old daughter started with Yaz about a year ago for acne. It has worked really well for her. No more acne and her hormones are balanced. She had years of PMS and painful periods. No more since the pill.
Intuitively I would be agaisnt it but I must say in her case it has worked out really well.
I have always avoided it as i did not want to have experinces like abeautifulworld had.

[Aleesha Sattva]

Moderator's note:

Please post your thread in the appropriate section. This has nothing to do with raw food... so posting it in the "Other Health Related" section is more appropriate.

[Dimond]

It may "appear" the pill helps many with issues, but it's doing so much harm to your health it's not worth it.

[Sweetness]

First, start off with the side effects and possible harm. Blood clots, strokes, etc. What issue are you dealing with that you'd be willing to risk blood clots or stroke to fix?

Second, if you have any pro-life leanings you will want to research the conflict with the pill. While it is rare that it is an abortificant, it does have that function by stopping a fertilized egg from implanting. I'm not starting politics here. Just making sure you're aware.

I'm in the health field and discuss BC options with women all the time. The pill, and other hormones, are seen as "harmless" because "everyone uses it" (kinda like McDs! :) but for those interested in optimal health and not willing to take risks.. I don't see where hormones are a good option.

My $.02. The most important thing is to be as educated as possible and decide from there. Not public opinion or whims.

My personal history is that I took the pill for three months and had extreme emotional side effects from it. For bc I use a barrier method because it don't screw with my heath. :)

[nadien alexandra]

I took bc, serveral different ones to 1. regulate my menstral cycle 2. help with acne and 3. as a birth control method.

It did in fact regulate my mentral cycle. I had a period every month like expected. However, I had the worst mood swings, extreme manic depression, and terrible acne.

In my experience, sacrificing my mental health was not worth it. Not in the least, and the manic depression really took a toll on my life.
In the same month that I stopped taking birth control, My mood changed completely. I haven't taken it since and I haven't gone through anymore bouts of depression.

However, I didn't get a period for a year after that, and have only had a few in the last two years. Though, still not pregnent, my face is clear as ever (I contribute that to raw food and changing my cleansing routine), and I'm a happy girl :)

In my opinion, stay away from artificial hormones, and find other alternatives to whatever you were considering using it for.

[Amberly]

condoms ; )

[Amarynth]

Always having an irregular cycle, by the time I was 18 I was put on BC to regulate my periods. I didn't mind skipping a month or two here and there but went along with what the doctor said and took the pill. I think it was Ortho-novum or some such thing like that. I don't even know if they prescribe that one anymore. I have a history of seizures in my childhood but was seizure free from age 10...until I started taking the pill. For four months, exactly one week before I was supposed to get my period, I had a very severe seizure. At the time the doctors didn't want to acknowledge that the pill could have instigated the return of the seizures, so I was forced to live on Tegretol to take control of the situation. I also took the BC pill until age 23, when it no longer worked to regulate my periods. I got married and pregnant within the same year. I did not go back on the pill and used the 'pull' method which worked for 2 and a half years. Surprise number two was on the way. lol With surprise number 3 we weren't even really trying to 'not' get pregnant. I seem to be a 2 and a half year gal because all three of my children are exactly the same length apart.

As for the tegretol..I stopped taking that on my own and never, ever had another seizure. I also went to a neurologist and had some tests done, which revealed nothing out of the norm. He agreed with me..that the BC could have definitely caused the seizures.

So ya..artificial hormones=bad IMO As of now? I had a tubal with the birth of my last child, am now happily divorced and no longer have an issue. :)

[sport]

My friend uses something called ladycomp and recommends it.

[starck]

THANK YOU for waking me up
now i really know i don't want to take to pill :)

i have taken the pill years ago for my acne i started to take it in 2003
and stopped almost 2 years ago. when i took the pill my acne got better
also the acne on my back ( it wasn't that bad ) , but i felt i wasn't myself anymore , my humor and silliness was gone . than 2 years ago i decided to stop with the bc pill .
at first everything was normal but than after a month my skin got bad , really bad , but i kept going and i went to a place where they threat acne with special care and lasers , yes it was expensive and i couldn't buy almost nothing else ( clothes , going out alot , ...)i'm still a student . butt it really helpt alot and i'm glad i did .
if i had not done that i would have know alot of scarring .
and an other thing was when i stopped with the bc , was the my period was really out of control the first year i had my period once in the 5 months !!
know i have it every 2 -3 months so it's not really ok :)

The reason why i wanted to take maybe the bc pill , was because now i'm single , but when i have a boyfriend i don't want to get pregnant right away.
so i'm going to search for a natural way.


and since i stopped with the bc pill, me is coming back , step by step
the only thing i have to do is to loose some weight and get healthy
so i can be the best version of myself ;)
so what i'm going to do is start tommorow a 40 day raw cleanse and after it i will decide how much % raw i will be :)

xxx

[starck]

Hi, starck. I started taking the birth control pill when I was 16 (I'm 21 now). It was prescribed for moderate acne, and looking back, it's almost comical to consider what I viewed as "acne." I might have had one or two spots a month. MAYBE. But after starting the pill, within six months my skin was breaking out like crazy. I gained weight. I started getting depressed. I switched my pill five or six times between ages 16 and 20. The last one I took was Yasmine, which gave me adrenal fatigue, nutritional deficiencies, and awful, oily skin. My hair started falling out, and I was dizzy and out of breath a lot. At one point while on Yasmine, I could barely drag myself out of bed in the mornings. I missed a ton of class that semester of college because I was so exhausted. I spent a lot of time just sleeping on my couch. At the time, I had no idea that the birth control pill could be the cause for so many problems, because I, like so many young women in the U.S., had been brainwashed into thinking that the pill was somehow inherently "good" for me. Surely it must have been better to be ON the pill than OFF the pill, right? But luckily, my interest in natural and holistic living began to blossom, and I began researching hormonal birth control. Looking back now, I'm certain that taking the pill contributed to many, many problems that I struggled with as a young woman, and I can't help but wonder how my body and mind might be different had I not been poisoned by hormonal birth control for so many years.

Now, I use the paragard IUD, which still isn't entirely natural, but it sure beats having synthetic hormones surging through my body everyday.

If you are considering taking the pill, I would suggest you perform some in-depth research concerning the potential side effects and harm that can be caused by hormonal birth control. Best of luck to you.

hi
this paragard IUD looks really interesting , how does it works ?
and are there any side effects you had to deal with ?

x

[abeautifulworld]

Here are some links you can check out:

http://www.paragard.com/
http://contraception.about.com/od/iud/a/paragard.htm


As far as side effects, I don't have many. I've heard stories of some women who have really bad periods with paragard, but if you follow a raw vegan diet, I don't think your periods would be too bad. Mine have gotten lighter and shorter since going raw. When I first got it put in, I bled very lightly for about three weeks, but then that stopped and eventually my periods regulated after having been on the pill for so long. Some women say that insertion of the IUD is extremely painful, but my doctor gave me what was basically a really strong dose of advil to take two hours before my procedure, and I didn't feel anything. Good luck!

[starck]

oeh i think that's not for me
i hate procedure

are there any other natural ways instead of the bc ?

x

[abeautifulworld]

The rhythm method. That's about the only other completely natural way I know of. If you are very regular, you can track your cycle and can figure out exactly where in your cycle you are ovulating.

[busybees]

The rhythm method is not good at all because it is a rare woman that falls into a 28 day regular cycle ... It's the Natural Family Planning Method that is actually EXTREMELY reliable because it is a daily tracking of ~ basal body temperature, cervical mucus, cervical position, etc. ... IF you actually track these they will always and consistently pinpoint ovulation. Even those with regular cycles can have annovulatory cycles or ovulate early/late ... which cannot be predicted with the simple rhythm method even in regular cycle women.

Check out Toni Wechsler's "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" ... it is the most comprehensive, easy to understand book out there on this subject. I believe it should be mandatory reading for every single woman. My oldest daughter will be reading it this summer (it's her required reading!) :)