[leahbia_83008]

i will try my best not to ramble, but please be patient with me

i had the paragard iud inserted in april 2011 for pregnancy prevention since being on & off several different birth control pills, none of which seemed to "fit" me. i was struggling with heavy, painful periods which lead to a laparoscopy for stage I endometriosis in september. my doctor then prescribed me lo loestrin fe 24 to help manage my irregular periods & control the endo. i was on the pill for 3 months and i HATED it. i bled on and off all month, cramped for more than two weeks before AF, pain in my ovaries & tender breasts that lasted my whole cycle. i decided to make an appointment with my doctor, who believed the pain may be due to my iud so i had it removed in january 2012 to find it was becoming embedded into my uterus (no fun at all!). he then put me BACK on the lo loestrin...

this time around, i started the pack the weekend after my period (i started bleeding on a wednesday & wanted to have a sunday start for my pills). my boyfriend and i did not have unprotected sex the first week, as directed by my doctor as well as the instructions that came with my prescription. we did, however, engage in unprotected sex quite frequently after that 7 days was up. i am not a very good pill taker, as horrible as it is to admit. i missed 2 pills on two seperate weeks, but took them as directed the following day after realizing i had forgot. i have not been taking them at a consistant time, although i am never late by more than an hour or two.

it is now the first day of the BROWN placebo pills and AF has not come. i find this unusual because the last time i took them i bled frequently, where as this time around i have not bled at all besides a little spotting for about an hour midcycle, and it was barely noticeable but on toilet paper when using the restroom. there has only been ONE other occasion i missed a period & that was the third month on same pill before i took a 2 month break on birth control all together. my boyfriend and i are NOT trying to get pregnant, hence why i am taking precautions in the first place, although it would not necessarily be the end of the world if i was.

i have heard many women say they didn't have periods altogether on LLE, but why would my body react differently to it this time around? the paragard is non-hormonal so i don't see any interference with that. i have not technically missed a period yet so i haven't taken a HPT, but should i be concerned?

I have all my usual pms symptoms (moodiness, cramping, breast tenderness, food cravings, bloating, etc.) accompanied by nausea & diarrhea, but still no period. i know some women's prengnacy symptoms mimic that of pms, and since i have never been pregnant, i wouldn't know what to expect if i was. help?

[acerousme]

Ohhh yeah. I saw the title of the thread and can only come up with "Amen". Birth control SUCKS. I've pretty much given up on BC...i would much rather get pregnant than go through all the irregular periods and such

Do you have any other symptoms? Usually, when you become pregnant, your breasts feel "full" and heavy, and you'll get this weird feeling in your lower abdomen. But from what it sounds like, you're more than likely not pregnant.

But it couldnt hurt to get a test

[leahbia_83008]

ugh, i agree. i'm at the point where i don't know WHAT to do for birth control anymore because nothing i do seems to be right for me & condoms seem so impersonal after being in a relationship as long as i've been in.

the symptoms i have are headaches, indigestion, slight cramping, bloating, nausea, back pain, moodiness, increased appetite, anxiety & tiredness.

i don't know if they're all related but that's how i'm feeling right now

i'm going to wait a few days before i decide to take a HPT or make a doctor's appointment. we have had a couple scares in the past that turned out to be okay but i don't know how my body will react since having my surgery & removing the iud.

[acerousme]

Yeah...condoms suck. lol...I HATE them with a passion, so we dont use them ( I cant have kids, so what the hey! No condoms for me lol)

It sounds like PMS. Ohh I suffer from PMS...I get sooo grumpy, and the headaches WITH a back ache make me wanna sleep, and eat pickles with Mars bars (dont even get me started with these two...Ive never thought Id like two things together so much)

Chances are, you're not pregnant. Your body needs time to get used to birth control, and it can take up to 6 months for it to even get up to its...full "anti-baby" potential. So having crazy PMS is typical.

I would definitely find out though

[Ashlee T.]

I have thought I "might" be preg so many times because I had severe PMS symptoms resulting from my pill. Bloating, sore breasts, nausea, irritability, fatigue. I finally (after 10 years and no telling how many different kidns of pills) figured out that this was not ME, this was not my normal PMS, this was not just "how I was"...it was all a result of the pill.

Your body is most likely just saying "WTH!?" because of all the changes and inconsistency. The paragard, though non hormonal, has a set of side effects all its own. Many say the side effects are VERY much like that of hormonal bc. Being on the pill AND paragard at the same time combined with endo= it's a wonder you haven't given up on sex totally. I hope your man realizes how lucky he is you're even willing to try at this point. I personally got so tired of dealing with the side effects of the pill that I made the choice to go off it and said "condoms, or no sex. I'm willing to give sex up in order to feel like a normal 26 (at that time) year old woman.". I grew resentful of my bf at the time (not saying that was the right reaction) because he was just so aloof...like sex for him was so carefree and pleasurable, ALL at my expense. Anywho, you may be someone that never truly adjusts to hormonal bc, like me. Are condoms awesome? No. But neither is feeling like absolute poo all the time either. I still have an active and healthy sex life, even though condoms are a requirement. It took me a while to get used to them again, but it is SO worth it not to feel bad all the time. Guys complain about using them, but my solution is "then go get snipped...." Most guys aren't going to give up sex just because they have to use condoms. Pair condoms with a nice safe lubricant = not too shabby.

Set yourself a bc reminder on your phone. Truly, you MUST be consistent with taking the pill. And maybe, just MAYBE someday they will develop some sort of male bc so that we don't have to continue to suffer every day of every month, just to be able to have sex.

[ItsASecret]

Sometimes the pill just does not work for certain women, their body just decides "nope not happening nice try though". If you are very regular when off the pill you can attempt the charting method but that is so dependent on you being regular that it is hardly worth the effort if you are hit and miss with your menstrual cycles. I am a huge advocate of medicine because I know how it works, why it works, and numbers to me do not lie (the statistics of how incredibly effective BC is) however that said even with my high regard for bc medicine I too have been victim to side effects of the pill. Kinda dumb because I hold it in such high regard but if one is to believe it works then they must also take into account the possibility of side effects as they are not non-existent. I have been on Tri-cyclen and that made me have a non-existent sex drive, sore breasts, irregular spotting quite a bit and bloating but no PMS. I switched to Alesse and it has been working great for the past 2 years however I still have a very low sex drive, but absolutely no other side effects like I had with Tri-cyclen. I am a woman of low sex drive to begin with even before the pill so I am not thinking that the pill is playing a role in my lack of sex drive. I also have zero PMS at any time, before starting the pill 3 years ago and even now. I do not cry if I drop a pen, I do not whimper over nothing, I do not lash out for no reason, I do not throw my arms up in anger...nothing. I think that is attributed to my "meh" personality though, I am extremely laid back about everything lol. Or maybe the pill is creating a side effect of no PMS and it is all just hiding in there lol I do not know. But either way sometimes it does just take more searching around than the average woman in order to find that right brand that works for you.

All you can really do is try more, could be a total waste of time but I mean if the pill is the easiest method it could simply need more searching. Condoms make everyone have a sad face when they are brought up, nothing about them is fun, nothing about them is ideal and even as a last resort people hate them. If it is an option then a vasectomy would do wonders however so would a tubal. But those are pretty extreme resorting methods if one is not looking to search for such a drastic option.

[leahbia_83008]

well i'm not pregnant! i didn't have much of a period, but it was a period. it lasted about 2 days & was light enough that a panty-liner was sufficient. i think i am going to try to deal with the side effects for another month or two, that way i can at least say i tried. i could not tell you if my periods are regular at this point, i have been on a variety of medications since beginning birth control i don't know what my "regular" is anymore lol. but when i was on the paragard and not taking any other hormonal birth control, my periods were somewhere between 30-33 days, give or take. i don't want anything permanent, this i do know. i am only 21 with no children & i do plan on having children with my boyfriend in the future, but we are at a really bad place financially right now and i need to take the precautions to avoid any accidents.