:thumbup: Thanks for the great info and your side effects...

its all very scary and i think any woman on BC should do a lot of research into it no matter what form they are choosing. many studies also show a link between BC and cancer which i found when i was diagnosed and started a lot of research into causes. the first thing my naturopath suggested was that stop BC all together.

everyone is different and ever persons body will react differently. the difference with depo compared to other forms is that if you do have an adverse reaction, you can discontinue other forms, but depo stays with you for 3 months. i know my dr suggested i not take depo since i experienced depression when on BC.

knowledge is key though! try to learn as much about each form of BC to choose which one works best for your life.

Oh I would love to learn more about this method, I love a more homeopathic lifestyle then putting drugs into my body. I struggle with hormones and was actually on a bunch of homeopathic vitamins and progest cream and I felt wonderful. I need to get back all of that because I felt like a different person!

I was having severe PMS symptoms suddenly & went to see a GYno she switched me from ortho tri-cyclen to Yaz. I take it 3 months straight & then have a period. I love it. I do get spotting occasionally, but it is very lite. And it has helped my PMS symptoms.

I have thought about this and always seeing the commercials it looks like a great pill! I have horrible PMS before and after, to the point where I could stay in bed for 3 days because I am in pain...and my poor husband he knows every time when I am getting ready to start because I am an emotional wreck & bad mood swings:(

Yaz has really helped me. I was miserable a whole week before I started & the week off & then like 3 days after. I was losing like 2 weeks a month of my life. Now I barely notice, I may get a bit crankie & crampy for maybe 2 days out of ever month. I would ask your gyno if they think this would work for you.

its hard because there are no drugs involved...so its all about tracking your own cycle....when you can and cant have unprotected sex. it works for us but it also wouldnt be bad if i did get pregnant at this point in our life so if there is a miscalculation, not a huge deal! for someone that absolutely does not want to get preggers, there would be alot more "risk" in that sense. it takes a lot of dedication and tracking, but at least i dont have the drugs in me anymore.

OH, and for those of you that have bad PMS and looking for a more natural cure...FISH OILS WORK WONDERS!!! i take krill oil every day. i used to have such bad cramps that i couldnt move and would throw up all the time. ever since i started taking fish oils daily, my cramps have become a slight annoyance, but nothing more! they also helped with depression for me too!

Nice I have heard a lot of good things about Fish Oils I'll have to go and get some for myself. AS for the tracking I would totally be able to do that myself but I cannot risk getting pregnant right now. I have to wait at least a year so that might be a little bit more riskier for me. I am going to look into it though. After doubling up on my pill last night I was SICK all night, horribly sick.

Great this might be a good possibility for me, thanks for the advise and experience!

I've been on it since Sept & it's been good. The first few months were a little weird because you're body is still cycling monthly, but you have a period every 10 weeks. So you're body is having it's own period at 4 & 8 weeks just no bleeding, but you can feel the hormone changes just not as severe; then at 10 weeks the pill gives you a fake period. It was a little unsettling the first time, but now it's no big deal. and the real & fake periods are so much milder that it's still worth it.

When i was on ortho if I messed up taking my pill at all it'd make me sick for like a week cause it threw your hormones off. I don't seem to have that problem with Yaz, probably because it's mono-hormonic (has the same hormones in every pill) ortho has 3 different levels of hormones.

I did the yaz too. And the lighter version of it is my seasonique.. I love going 3 months no periods but light spotting. Except dbf wants more kiddo's now and I think he's scared my system because it's spotting more since he's told me he wanted more kiddo's.. My poor body.. LOL

LOL you poor thing!!! I wish you luck in that quest;)

On mine I get my period on wk 12 and my period stopped the first month.. Oh and if you start spotting you can double up on your pills to get it to stop faster. i didn't have any of the pms symptoms as before either. I never cramped or got migraines except the ones my dbf gave me..

I'm getting better. I think it just takes my body time to adjust to the new hormones.

I wouldnt double up. Just take your next dose at your normal time. you should have enough buildup in your system to be ok.

i've taken all forms of birth control, from all the different pills from ortho tri-cyclen, to orthotri cyclen-low, to levlen to yaz.. and i had the IUD in, did the Deppo..

everyone is different. a lot of the women on my forums didn't like Mirena only because of their sensitivity to hormones. hence why i went on the Paraguard IUD, it's great becuse it has no hormones and no weight gain or anything..

the Deppo, from experience and all my friends who went on it.. ruined my life personally.. i was on it for 1 year, and it was great, no periods at all.. but the weight gain was horrific and crept up on me before i knew it, I had went from 90lbs size double zero.. to a 160lbs size 9.. and this was awful looking on me because im very short and EVERYONE used to make fun of me.. and needless to say i did get depressed from it.. it took me soo long to lose the weight from the deppo.. and when i did, i got preggo LOL..

but i thnk you should talk to you ob/gyn and see what they recommend for you and your lifestyle and what works easiest for you. i couldn't for the life of me remember to take the pill everyday so it didn't work for me.. a co-worker likes using the Nuva-ring so that could be an option too.. :)

whatever you decide good luck.. :D

Aww thanks girl, I am one of those people that birth control just isn't for me with hormones and everything else. Thats why I was looking into an IUD with no hormones. I lose and gain weight at a drop of a dime and taking the pill doesn't help me AT ALL! Thanks for your input I really appreciate it! :)

Aww thanks girl, I am one of those people that birth control just isn't for me with hormones and everything else. Thats why I was looking into an IUD with no hormones. I lose and gain weight at a drop of a dime and taking the pill doesn't help me AT ALL! Thanks for your input I really appreciate it! :) I am actually making an appointment ASAP, as after doubling up on my pill I have been sick and started my period, and just emotionally not happy (from the pill, I already know:rolleyes:) So its time to change things up!!

I use the calendar method. The research I found indicates a 98-99% effective rate when used perfectly. (meaning you don't have sex at all on those days. Most people don't use it like this, they just don't have UNPROTECTED sex on those days. Of course, this lowers the effective rate.) And I have the calendar set up in my palm so it's automatically calculated for me. It only works correctly if your period is regular (something like a range of every 26-31 days, but don't quote me on this range....mine is 28 days exactly, so I didn't bother to remember the range).

I love this method, as I don't tolerate hormonal birth control well at all. And after doing research on it, I don't want to put that stuff in my body. Only in the last 2 years have I realized just how many problems it can cause.

For anyone interested in the effects of synthetic hormones, and using bioidentical hormones, I highly recommend the book Natural Hormone Balance for Women, by Dr. Uzzi Reiss. This is one of the many resources I found. I'm not trying to tell anyone what birth control to use or anything, it's just that I had soooo many health problems until I stopped using hormonal birth control. And I never had any idea that it could be the birth control until a dear friend finally suggested it. My problems began to improve within 1 week of stopping the birth control. Only later did I discover why this was so.

On a lighter note.. I had finally got back to my post baby weight from my first son (took 3 yrs and a final seperation from ex hubby) went from 145 to 123 size 5 (hips were to big to get into my 3's again) and wham i got prego w/ my preemie guy with my bf.. Now i sit here on bc again and struggling to lose the weight.. Even diet pills are not working for me.. LOL but!!! i cannot stop taking my pills cause dbf wants another and i'm like oh hell no i'm doubling up on my pills.. LOL.. The only bad thing i hear on the ring is when your man goes deep on you or if he's long he will feel the ring and from what i hear most do not feel comfortable with it and it can be painful for you if he's hitting it also.

isn't it great after you've lost all that weight and BAM! preggo! lol, yea so i'm really looking forward to getting my butt into gear and losing ALL the weight lol.. and DH is going to stay FAARR away from me lol..

LOL ya good luck on keeping him far away.. I said the same damn thing to dbf and ya.. Even got my belly button peirced too because I lost the weight didnt have pooch belly sticky out and had to take that damn thing out too and lose it..now all i got is a scare where the whole used to be LOL..

I guess I will have to amend this to 95% rate....I still would swear I read 98-99, but cannot for the life of me find the book. :rolleyes: So I will go with the online article I can find now, which says 95%. Still not too bad, though.

i have a scar too! darn!!! lol