[Ashlee T.]

I've been on this birth control rollercoaster now for going on a year. I've posted about this before so instead of going into too much detail I'll brief you going back about 1 yr:

Ortho Cyclen - too high dosage - was on for over a year - gained 10-15 lbs - extremely fatigued

Switched to Loestrin 24FE - lost weight - TOTALLY lost sex drive - extremely uncontrollably irritable - infrequent periods

Switched to current pill LoSeasonique. Normally this is a pill where you'd only have 1 period every 3 months, but I didn't want that, so my doctor told me to take it like normal BC for 3 weeks, then skip the last week of pills and that would cause me to have a period. I'm almost halfway through my second pack. First month went great except the spotting. I spotted for nearly two weeks. Now, about a week ago I noticed cramping in my lower left abdomen (between my hip bone and my vagina). I ignored it and went on. Now I have that same cramping which at times feels like a stabbing pain in that same area. Hurts in my back too in that same area. On top of that, I am having bad menstrual cramps (though I'm not spotting or having a period) and I have extremely sore nipples. Basically, I feel like . I'm off work for holidays with a million things to do, and don't feel (emotionally or physically) like doing any of them.

What I want to do is just go off of it. H*ll, I dont feel like having sex anyway. But I know that IF I'm going to have sex, I don't have much other choice. I've heard horror stories about IUD and non hormonals. Condoms only just aren't enough for me. Not only do I NOT want to get pregnant right now, but after finding about my boyfriends possible genetic disease, I feel even more responsibility NOT to get pregnant. So, I guess I'm stuck pumping my body full of artificial hormones.

I want to know if any of you have any experience with this pill? I searched but could find no reviews online for this particular one. I suppose it's quite new.

[kira]

Personally I found the dosage of the hormone really doesn't have a lot to do with whether you have side effects or not. It's how well your body tolerates the hormone itself. My body will not handle the hormone that's in seasonique, seasonale, and lybrel. All of those have different levels of the hormone (lybrel being the lowest) but it doesn't matter. I can't tolerate any of them. It also didn't matter if I took ortho cyclen or ortho tricyclen lo. My body did not respond well to the progesterone hormone in those. The pills that do work it doesn't matter which version of it I take. The hormone works at any of the acceptable doses. You probably just need to try a different hormone from ortho cyclen. There are lots of them these days.

[MsModelGirl]

I've been on this birth control rollercoaster now for going on a year. I've posted about this before so instead of going into too much detail I'll brief you going back about 1 yr:

Ortho Cyclen - too high dosage - was on for over a year - gained 10-15 lbs - extremely fatigued

Switched to Loestrin 24FE - lost weight - TOTALLY lost sex drive - extremely uncontrollably irritable - infrequent periods

Switched to current pill LoSeasonique. Normally this is a pill where you'd only have 1 period every 3 months, but I didn't want that, so my doctor told me to take it like normal BC for 3 weeks, then skip the last week of pills and that would cause me to have a period. I'm almost halfway through my second pack. First month went great except the spotting. I spotted for nearly two weeks. Now, about a week ago I noticed cramping in my lower left abdomen (between my hip bone and my vagina). I ignored it and went on. Now I have that same cramping which at times feels like a stabbing pain in that same area. Hurts in my back too in that same area. On top of that, I am having bad menstrual cramps (though I'm not spotting or having a period) and I have extremely sore nipples. Basically, I feel like . I'm off work for holidays with a million things to do, and don't feel (emotionally or physically) like doing any of them.

What I want to do is just go off of it. H*ll, I dont feel like having sex anyway. But I know that IF I'm going to have sex, I don't have much other choice. I've heard horror stories about IUD and non hormonals. Condoms only just aren't enough for me. Not only do I NOT want to get pregnant right now, but after finding about my boyfriends possible genetic disease, I feel even more responsibility NOT to get pregnant. So, I guess I'm stuck pumping my body full of artificial hormones.

I want to know if any of you have any experience with this pill? I searched but could find no reviews online for this particular one. I suppose it's quite new.

I tried taking Seasonique and never stopped bleeding on it so I stopped it real quick. The pain you're feeling sounds like it's radiating from where your ovary is, you may have a cyst. I'd recommend going to your GYN asap to see what's going on. Pain is never a good thing!!

If you don't want to deal with hormones maybe talk to your Dr. about the copper IUD...hormone free