Contraception (Let's Talk About Sex Part 2)
Hello!
This week has been interesting to say the least. I've had raging PMT, period pain, and a contraceptive pill swap. I decided that it would therefore be an apt time to talk about my journey through various methods of contraception and how those methods have affected both my physical and mental health over the years. Hopefully this will also help if you're on any of these and feel the same, you're not on your own. And, it might change a few attitudes of men who "just don't like the feel of condoms." I'm in no way attacking men, I just know a few that have assumed that it's super easy to take hormonal contraception.
I started on hormonal contraception when I was 17 having used condoms for a while. As you may know from my post on pseudo-syncope, I began suffering from the condition at 17 so as you can probably imagine, I was hesitant to start on anything hormonal for fear of making the condition worse. Unfortunately, my boyfriend at the time didn't seem to understand that and neither did his mum. Yes, you read that right, mummy got involved too and tried to force me to start on hormonal contraception. Eventually, I caved and went to the clinic asking for the implant. They didn't give it to me straight away (perhaps sensing that I didn't actually want it) and put me on the pill that I'm about to start taking again (Progestogen-only pill). I was on that for a couple of months before I eventually had the implant fitted. Ironically, the boyfriend left me two weeks after that fitting.
The implant was an absolute nightmare. I should have known from the beginning that something wasn't quite right as it was incredibly painful and unusually bruised as soon as it was fitted. I mean, when I say it was a nightmare, I have to admit that the first 6 months were ok. I had no periods, no obvious weight gain, nothing. But I also wasn't sexually active at the time. 6 months after fitting it, I began to see people again and weirdly, my periods started again. But they weren't normal periods at all. They could go on for up to 4 weeks, they were painful, tiring, and my hormones were a mess. I went back to the clinic and they put me on the combination pill (includes oestrogen alongside progestogen) for a course of 3 months to regulate my periods. This seemed to work, I took all the pills and came off them with no bother. Things went back to normal for a month or two at most. The lengthy periods came back so I went back on the combination pill alongside the implant. What I didn't tell the clinic was that the arm that the implant was in (my left) had become painful to the touch as my body was desperately trying to reject it. Pretty much as soon as I went on the pill this time, I began to put on weight. A lot of weight. As well as this, I began to feel bloated a lot of the time, I felt lethargic, emotional, tired... you name it, I was feeling it!
Left image (above on mobile) is before and right (below) is after. I've talked about weight gain etc. before so I won't bore you all with that but I will link it if you haven't read it. One thing I will say is that contraceptive weight gain does not look the same as the normal, somebody ate all the pies look! I found that it looked like someone had taken a bicycle pump to me and inflated me; possibly why I couldn't lose it no matter how hard I tried. I'm not sure if the weight gain is the same for everyone but if you're looking swollen rather than fat and you can't get rid of it, it could be your contraception.
As time went on, the hormones were really starting to get on top of me. I would literally cry at anything. At its worst, I remember my stepdad asking me why I hadn't made a pot of tea and had just put teabags in cups, and I was sobbing for a full 15 minutes. It was at this point that my mum sat me down and basically instructed me to have the implant removed. When I did, it practically jumped out as my body had been trying to reject it for so long.
Once it had been removed, I began to feel bloated for a while as my body got used to the shift in hormones and I carried on with the combination pill. As predicted, the excess weight came off easily and I started to feel more like myself. I was joking around a lot more and people could tease me without making me cry - definitely a plus!
I thought that I may have finally sorted myself out as the combination pill seemed to be working fine... until about February this year, about 7 months after the implant had been taken out. My periods began to get heavier and more painful, and I started feeling a bit more emotional again. I mean, I was having a stressful time at uni so I didn't really think anything of it until I had a migraine in March...
I'd never had a migraine before so I went to the doctor to make sure I wasn't dying of something horrific! He put it down to stress but told me I'd have to keep an eye on things as the combination pill can be dangerous if you suffer from migraines as it can make them worse or cause blood clots. This freaked me out a bit and I started becoming paranoid about headaches, which of course, made me have more; not migraines though, just regular headaches. I think I must have been beginning to have a reaction as my family and boyfriend began to notice that I was becoming far more explosive when things went wrong. And I was beginning to become convinced that my relationship was about to end for no reason at all and I was just feeling really upset and couldn't explain why.
So, I went back to the clinic this weekend and they decided it would be safer to switch my contraception again and put me back on the P.O. pill. I haven't started it yet as I don't really believe in taking drugs to stop your periods - you do you if that's your thing but my body doesn't like me mucking about too much. So, I'll start taking it this weekend. Hopefully, this will work out and I'll start feeling happier again soon.
Now, if you're reading this and you've never tried hormonal contraception, please don't freak out! Everyone's body is different and mine just happens to be extremely reactive. For example, anti histamine tablets hospitalise me, coloured suncream for children brings me out in a rash, and I can't even walk into Lush without feeling it on my skin. I am weird. I know this. Just be aware that if you start adversely reacting to something, don't wait for it to go away and also, do not allow your boyfriend/sexual partner to force you into anything. It's your body and you should work to your rules.
As always, don't hesitate to like/message me/share.
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
