Going Off The Pill: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Hey girl hey! 

Today I wanted to share my experience with finally ditching my birth control pill. Going off the pill was one of the best decisions that I have made for my health and my marriage, but of course there are pros and cons to everything. In this post I detail the good, the bad, and the ugly of what I experienced when going off the pill!

If you’re new to my blog, then welcome! My name is Audrey and I share content related to women’s health, pregnancy, birth, motherhood, and marriage. Sign up for my email list if you want to join the Fawn Squad and stay updated!

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. This is my personal experience and opinion and should be viewed as such. If you would like to make a change in your life, please consult your doctor first!

Now let’s jump right into the post!

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Like many young women, I started taking birth control in my late teens as a form of pregnancy prevention. I was doing the responsible thing since I knew I was no where near ready to have a baby. I started taking oral contraception when I was 16 even though I wasn’t sexually active because I wanted to be safe when that day came. That means I had been taking the pill for 10 years.

Of course I had read about the side effects of taking the pill for a long period of time, but since the pill is so widely used, I didn’t really worry too much about it. Until recently. Realizing that I had been relying on the hormones from a pill to regulate my body for 10 years was shocking. Plus, I did want to start a family within the next few years. In February 2019, I decided that enough was enough. I was going off the pill.

I was so excited to say goodbye to this daily ritual. No more hassle of getting the prescription refilled. No more pumping hormones into my body day in and day out. I couldn’t wait to see what my “natural cycle” was like since I couldn’t even remember what my life was like before taking the pill. Here’s everything I experienced…

 The Good

Mood changes

I don’t know if it was the placebo effect but I overall was feeling pretty good during the first month of going off the pill. I didn’t have that awful mood swing that I typically get before my period either which was nice.

Sex drive

I’ve been married for a while and I thought that it was normal to not be that excited about sex after being together for a long time. Turns out my body was so influenced by the hormones in the pill that it was actually the cause of my lack of interest. About 2 weeks after ditching the pill things changed DRAMATICALLY. I actually felt like a woman again and it was amazing! Over the years I have had so many emotional struggles due to this issue, only to find out that the pill was causing it all!

Weight loss

I know what you’re gonna say… “there is no proof of a correlation between taking the pill and weight gain or loss”. Bull. I have been struggling with my weight for a long time. I’m a very petite person so my ideal weight for my body type is 110. However, I often would find myself around 117-120 no matter how much I went to the gym or ate healthy. I tried to just accept my body because I know that I am healthy and strong but I always wondered why it seemed so impossible for me to lose weight.

After 2 months of going off the pill, I went from 120 to 110! I had been eating healthier since I read that going off the pill will cause hormonal shifts that can be hard to deal with if my diet isn’t healthy, so that might have something to do with it. I had also been going to the gym the exact same amount as before, 4 times a week for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Did I lose water weight? Maybe. But does that really matter? NO! Because I am finally back to a weight that I consider normal and healthy for my body.

 

The Bad

Delayed period

When I went off the pill I knew that my cycle was probably going to get messed up. When my period was supposed to come and didn’t, I started to get paranoid. I took a pregnancy test to rule that out and it came back negative so I knew it was likely being caused from the pill (or lack thereof). My period ended up coming 2 weeks later than normal but the flow seemed to have been the same as it was on the pill. Of course, that was only the first cycle off the pill so I’m sure things will probably be a little off for the next few months. I’ve been tracking my period with an app called Flo after getting off the pill which has been helpful to keep a log of how my body has been coping sans pill.

Fear of getting pregnant

Of course one of the main reasons why I got off the pill is so that I CAN become pregnant in the near future. However, I was in a period where I wasn’t 100% ready since I wanted to be on my prenatal vitamins for a few months and also let my cycle even out first. I was probably at 90% ready. Anyway, being off the pill caused me to obviously be much more paranoid about getting pregnant despite using other forms of protection.

 

The Ugly

Skin problems

OMG! So I have always had pretty amazing skin with hardly any acne at all. However, after coming off the pill I have developed acne on my back and chest that looks just awful. The pill is sometimes used as an acne treatment for people which is probably why my skin has always been so good up until now. The hormonal shifts have wrecked havoc on my skin over the past two months and I’m just hoping that after a few more months things will start to level off and go back to normal. [Update: the acne on my back went away but then I got pregnant so I got other skin issues!]

 

Is it worth it?

Knowing that my body is not going back to it’s normal cycle has given me a lot of peace of mind. I know that not all of the side affects of coming off the pill are that amazing but I think the best part of ditching the pill is that I finally feel in-tune with my body. I love and respect my body and while the pill was a good way to prevent pregnancy over the last 10 years, I now wish I had researched and maybe considered other options.

If you’re thinking of going off the pill, just know that you can do a bunch of research first, but you won’t know how your body is going to react until you actually do it.

Let me know your experiences in the comments. I hope this post was helpful! Thanks for reading!

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xo

Mother of Fawn