What has been your experience with birth control?

Awful.

I was on the pill for over 6 years, have been off for a year now. Looking back, I wish someone had educated me more and not just hand me the prescribtion. I was 20, so not even that young, but I had never heard anyone question hormonal BC. It was just something girls automatically took.

The biggest downside was that hormonal BC fucked me up mentally. I would cry (not my eyes out but still) weekly, whether it was from being stressed, anxious or angry. And I'm pretty sure the hormones are where the depression/anxiety stemmed from. When I tried to inform about it to the medical staff, I was told I was under a lot of stress as a student, so nothing was done.

It made me bloated (to the point that wearing pants hurt). So I tried all kinds of diets and thought I had a food allergy. Didn't realize this was a hormonal symptom until I had been off the pill for a while without any issues and read other women's experience.

Low libido, non-existent. Didn't get pregnant, cause I didn't even want to have sex and sex was a chore.

These are things I realized after I had quit the pill. My husband told me I'm a surprisingly chill person, as he had never known the pre-BC me. I'm absolutely loving life now, I feel free, as hippie as that sounds. I get anxiety very rarely and I've only cried like 3 times in the last year.

The only bad thing is that my skin is awful now. I used to have a beautiful skin with zero pimples or blackheads, nothing. Now it's not as great, but whatever. At least I'm healthy and not pumping myself with hormones that made me hate myself.

/r/AskWomen Thread