hmm

[badluckbetty.livejournal.com]

hi, i'm new and have just been lurking for a while.

question,
I know everyone is different but i was wondering if there is a birth control that a majority of gurls use?
Mine (triphasil) seems fine but i've never been on another and was just wondering what other gurls prefer.
I'm kind of dence towards womenly stuff, i can be shy when i want to ask my doctor questions so i figured here would be a good place to come.
thanks

Comments

[dancewhore.livejournal.com]

i'm on triquilar (pretty much exactly the same as triphasil) and it's been awesome for me... but i don't know very many people who're on it.

ortho-tricyclen and alesse seem to be popular, i think...

[dearanxiety.livejournal.com]

yeah, i've always used orthotricyclen and i've never had a problem with it!

[amidreaming.livejournal.com]

I've been on so many different types of birth control throughout the years and now I am on my first month of taking orthocyclen and so far so good... :)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I'm on condoms.

[badluckbetty.livejournal.com]

thaks everyone for answering so promptly!
so the orthotricyclen is good?

the people whom are on that, does it make you gain a lot of weight?
I've been on birth control for so long i don't remember if i gained weight or if i was ever any nicer before this?
and before the birth control i was on special pills because i cramped so bad i puked all the time and made a lot of other bathroom trips.

[isolt.livejournal.com]

here's the thing with the pill - many people react to different pills differently. A lot of people like Ortho just fine, but it made me completely crazy. It messed with my moods in ways I didn't think possible. So my doctor put me on Alesse. I've heard a lot of stories about how Alesse makes other people spot all the time, or how it causes horrible acne breakouts, but these have never been problems for me. This is why there are so many different brands of pills.

I think that you should try to find the right bc for *you*, which is not necessarily the bc that's the most popular in here. Look at typical failure rates, look at what the bc involves, and see what you're most comfortable with doing.

(and, since you asked, I'm on Alesse and I like it very much).

[84.livejournal.com]

I was on orthotricyclen for a year and a half and didn't gain an ounce. I've said it before, birth control does not cause spontaneous weight gain. It has a tendency to cause an increase in appetite, just watch what you stick in your mouth.

I'm on Depo Provera right now though, for the past 6 months. I think it's wonderful, except for the fist sized bruise I feel like I have for two days after I get the injection. For all the money I save on not having to buy tampons and panty liners, it's more than worth the cost to me.

[quikslvr.livejournal.com]

You don't get your period on DepoProvera? Really?

Huh. Any other side effects? Cancer risks? Etc?

I'm on ortho-novum, and I've never had any problems, personally.

[84.livejournal.com]

No period, no cramps, no PMS. Really. It's a wonderful thing. I think the numbers are something 55% have no period after a year, and 68% have none after 2.

As for cancer risks, they say the risk is no greater than if you weren't taking it. Unless of course, you took the shot prior to age 35, when it first came out what, 4 or 5 years ago? If so, your risk of breast cancer might me slightly increased. But that risk is supposed to now be nonexistant.

Also, it may cause your bones to hold less of their minerals, thus causing bone fractures to be easier to get. And stroke, and blood clots are also possible side effects.

Personally, I think the stroke and blood clot risks will also have a lot to do with eating habits. But I can't be positive.

There's also insomnia, depression, fatigue, loss of libido, and a few other minor ones. But I havent experieced anything out of the ordinary.

[badluckbetty.livejournal.com]

i heard that the depo provera is bad, after you of of it you bleed forever?
not literally but for quite some time.

[84.livejournal.com]

Forgive me if I misunderstood your question but, you eventually stop menstruating while you're on Depo Provera, and once you get off of it, after a month or two your cycle returns to normal. Or what it was prior to the injections.

[devi-pavarti.livejournal.com]

Really? You like Depo? God I hated it. I felt so polluted.

I was on depo for about a year and then the detox period of 6 months after that. I didn't bleed and that was great, sure, but the other side effects were so traumatic for me. The first 6 months were fine. I felt freed of all the worries of girldom. And then I started to gain weight. I went from a size 2 to a size 10 n 3 months. I was huge for me and it was not natural at all. Plus my Dr. didn't believe me. He told me I needed to loose weight and that it had nothing to do with the Depo.

I was exhausted all the time and cried at nothing and really had a hard time concentrating on anything. Eventually after my 3rd shot I went to another Dr. who poked at my ankles and said "oh god, what have you done to yourself". I just started to cry and felt so out of control and so relieve that someone believed me about what was going on.

I didn't get the 4th shot but it took 6 months after the date that the 4th shot was due to be back to normal. I lost all that weight without changing me or my lifestyle at all, it just shed when I stopped getting the shots.

I know depo works well for some people but my experiance was so scary and the amount of time it takes to recover if you do have a bad experiance is just so long that I don't think it's worth it. But that's just me.

[84.livejournal.com]

If your ankles were swollen and you lost the weight simply by getting off the injections, it was probably some sort of water retention. I think I read somewhere that birth control essentialy tricks your body into thinking it's already pregnant, and thats why you don't ovulate. Maybe your body was just too good at tricking itself with Depo, at least, thats what it sounds like.

But mainly what caught my eye though is you said you'd been on it for a year, but only received 3 shots. I'm barely hitting the 6 month mark and had my 4th shot two days ago...

You're 100% right

[devi-pavarti.livejournal.com]

You hit it on the head. That's exactly what I did. Lower down in this thread i posted about having to go off the pill because it did the same thing. My hormones are just too sensitive i guess. Either that or my body wants a baby as much as my heart does :) Damn brain, trying to be responcible.

That's weird about the shots. Maybe they've changed. I started on it summer 1996 and got 1 shot every 3 months. I know a lot of people who were on that schedule and had similar reactions as me. Maybe they've changed the dosage...that would probably make it better.

[84.livejournal.com]

I'm every 12 weeks.

Maybe it works well for me because neither my heart nor my body want a baby anytime soon.

[brandyshea.livejournal.com]

I'm on ortho tri-cyclen and I agree with the person above who said birth control does not make you gain weight. I have gained a little weight since starting it (about six months) but that's only because I haven't been very careful about what I eat and I haven't been excercising as much.

It wreaked havoc on my moods for the first month or two and almost totally killed my sex drive, but it cut down on my cramps majorly. Next time I go to the doctor I'm going to see about getting a different kind that won't kill the sex drive.

[tarafuzz.livejournal.com]

i'm on esterostep. i eat *less* than i did before i started taking it, yet i've gained 20 pounds.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

I do think that weight gain is a legitimate side effect, but its incidence may be overrepresented because of other causes of weight gain that correlate with pill use, but aren't directly caused by it.

For example, I've heard some people say that their appetite increased while on birth control. And my gynecologist theorizes that people often go on birth control at around the same time they start dating, which can cause changes in eating and activity habits.

Still, I think that it is a possible side effect. Remember, not all side effects happen to everyone - just because it didn't happen to you doesn't mean it can't happen to other people.

[falls2climb.livejournal.com]

I've been on Loestrin for almost two years--it's a low-estrogen pill, I know that much, because I take a lot of other unrelated meds that the doctors didn't want to interfere with. it hasn't caused me to gain weight or decreased my sex drive... it's good stuff.

I don't know how it rates against other pills in effectiveness though; I've had sex only a handful of times, and haven't had any pregnancy scares, but that's a precious few times to have figured anything out.

[purljamber.livejournal.com]

I'm just finishing up my first pack of Loestrin and it's great so far. My period has been the lightest it's ever been, which is a great side effect! I just switched from Ortho because I was still getting sick with it (I started taking the pill because I get violently sick without it). Before that, I took Tri-Levlen for years and it was fine; the only reason I stopped was because Planned Parenthood didn't carry it. One thing I hate about Ortho (besides the fact that it didn't help me) is that they advertise it as "the birth control that helps clear up acne!" and I really think it's stupid for them to advertise it for that reason. Just a pet peeve of mine, I guess. :) But to answer your question--after all this rambling--a lot of gals I know take Ortho and it seems to be the most popular

[badluckbetty.livejournal.com]

thank you all for all of the replies and help

Try Two.

[devi-pavarti.livejournal.com]

I was on Demulyn for most of 10 years. It's pretty hardcore hormones and not used that often unless you have some kind of special need. My period lasted from 2PM Wednesday to 12PM Thursday. It was great. But my body got overloaded on the hormones this year and I started producing pregnancy hormones naturally even though I wasn't pregnant. i don't think that's normal though. My Dr. told me to not stay on the pill for a while to let my body even out and then I can go back on it if I want. But we're going to start trying to have a family in about a year and a half so I'm just staying off them.

I'm using Natural Family Planning now and it's fantabulous. I just posted all about it on menstrualhut and if you want to look at my charts they're here (http://www.FertilityFriend.com/home/13277/)

I have some to say on Depo but I'll respond above on that thread. Just FYI - Depo Bad.

[urania.livejournal.com]

Like a couple people have said, but which I can't emphasize enough: everyone reacts differently to the different formulae. Some are more widely tolerated (e.g. Ortho try-cyclen), others aren't, but there are some people whose bodies won't tolerate one that's usually "easy," and will handle another which is difficult for many other people. The only way to find one that works for you is to try them and keep track of symptoms, etc.

That said.. :) I'm on ortho-trycyclen, have been for over a year. Before that I was on Desogen for awhile. The only major side effect I got with either was nausea in the mornings for the first several months; I was prescribed the Desogen for reducing my painful cramps, etc, and it didn't work so I was switched to ortho-trycyclen. As I said, I'm very pleased with them; now I'm getting some mild ovulation spotting (pretty common to develop after awhile) but it's so mild I don't even need pantiliners, etc.

It is worth a mention that I have both personal and familial tendencies towards depression and being overweight, but the Pill doesn't seem to have triggered either in me.

[perplexxi.livejournal.com]

i've been on depo for a year and a half now, and it has worked really well for me.

if you're interested in changing your BC, good luck with whatever method you choose -=]

[oceandream9.livejournal.com]

Ortho-tri made me break out really bad. So I've been on Zovia for four years and love it.