I started Ortho-Tri Cyclen back in January because my periods had become irregular.
For the most part, all is well. Broke out my skin for a while but it’s fine now. No weight gain.
But the PMS …
Oh my gosh. I mean, it was bad before but now it’s REALLY bad. I am such a BITCH during my period now! Mean, my temper flares at the slightest thing, I just basically stay pissed off the whole time over NOTHING. And the worst is that I know I’m doing it and I don’t like that I’m being such a bitch but I can’t help it! I really am a nice person the other days of the month!
I’ve been waiting it out but I think I’m going to have to call the midwife on Monday and ask her to put me on Prozac. She told me back in December that this is a very common side effect of the pill and lots of her patients had to go on an antidepressant, not because they became depressed, but apparently the antidepressants can fix your hormones or something.
So if you’re on the pill did this happen to you? Am I normal or crazy? Did the antidepressants help?
I’m on Ortho-Tri Cyclen also and I am a huge bitch during the week that I am off my pill. The second my period starts, I am back to normal. Same as you, I know what I’m doing, and I know I’m being horrible, but I just can’t help it.
Never tried the Prozac thing though. Does the midwife always prescribe Prozac for the people that want it? Do they take it all month, or just during their period?
I must say, it would be nice for these monthy mood-swings to stop!
I wish I could help; my mood swings are FAR worse OFF the pill. I was on Ortho Tri-Cyclen for a year, but around the ninth month a much worse thing than being bitchy started – migraines. Lasting for my whole period, hit when period started, ended when period ended. Three or four days of PAIN.
Mind you, I am a major bitch when I’m hormonal. You can ask my mother about that. I know what’s going on but I can’t help it.
Before you go the Prozac way I’d ask if there’s another Pill that might not cause that particular side effect for you.
There are many different birth control pills; with differing levels of hormones. Some work for some people, some don’t.
Marvelon is the one I use; seems to work for me. I don’t notice any side effects. Apparently it’s one of the higher dose ones. I’ve also tried Allesse (not for me) and Ortho 777.
Your doctor should be able to find you a different pill to try.
I had some serious issues with Ortho-Tricyclen (which has one of the highest hormone levels!) and Yasmin - both caused me to be way over-emotional, and the Yasmin had some sexual side-effects due to its testosterone suppressant. I just got switched over to Mercette (generic Kariva) and have been very happy with it; no emotional or sexual side-effects. It’s only been a couple months, but so far so good & I’d tentatively recommend it.
I really really really do not believe Prozac is the answer to your PMS problem. Most people I know who’ve been on anti-depressants have found they felt like emotional eunuchs - the anti-depressant supresses both negative AND positive feelings for some people. I’d definitely recommend you talk to your doctor about a different type of birth control and give it a try before you start taking another drug.
I too had the opposite. No PMS on the pill. Raving hormonal bitch off it. Mine was ortho tri cycline (usually) as well.
I’d have the midwife try a different pill before I’d do the antidepressent play with your brain chemistry thing. I’ve done the antidepressent play with your brain chemistry thing, and when its needed it works wonders, but I don’t think it should be done casually. I’d live with irregular periods and a different method of birth control before I’d do the antidepressant thing.
Lots of reasons for this, from I don’t believe in medicating more than necessary to antidepressants go on your medical records and you get stuck with the mental illness lable (had to work to adopt with those antidepressants on my records), which carries a lot of stigma.
(As I said, when needed antidepressents are wonderful - they can be a true life saver.)
I’ve taken several types of birth control. One of the worst was ortho tri-cyclen. I normally never break out but that pill made my skin horrible. I was moody. I hated it.
Ortho Novum and it’s generic have been the best ones for me. I don’t break out. I’m not moody. I never gained weight with it. I’d recommend trying that brand out for a bit. It might work out a lot better for you.
I’ll also chime in with “try another pill.” Is Ortho Tri Cyclen the one with three different levels of hormones? That might be why you’re moodier sometimes than others. You might be able to switch to one with a continuous dosage. If you do (and you’re interested) you might talk to your Dr/midwife about skipping your period altogether by skipping the sugar pills.
I’m currently on Yasmin and it’s the first pill I’ve been on that hasn’t given me problems.
You guys have brought up some excellent points. I never considered the antidepressant/stigma thing, and I admit I’d never even thought to ask to switch to another pill. Switching to another pill makes a lot more sense than going on Prozac, so that’s what I’ll do if the midwife thinks that’s best (which she probably will).
Ortho Tri Cyclen is my God and I worship it as such.
I was always hugely anti-pills, and the whole idea of messing with the reproductive system via hormones made me ill.
However, I started getting horribly painful cramps. I would sometimes straight-up pass out from the pain, or else I’d be on the floor screaming. And I’m no sissy. Plus I had some PMS issues, but it was mostly just the pain.
My down-there guy told me that the best thing for this was birth control pills, and that they’d make my life a million times better than it has ever been. I’d stop having cramps and PMSing, my skin would get nicer, I’d gain no weight. Just cause I was sick and tired of the cramps I agreed to go on O-T-C, and, well, the doctor’s prediction came true. I’ve stopped PMSing altogether, my skin has cleared up, and instead of the cramps of death, I now get a slight twinge that lasts for two minutes.
I also had sexual side effects - I become more, um, enthusiastic about the whole business.
So I hope I don’t build up a tolerance to this stuff, and thank Ortho Tri Cyclen that my doctor was so adamant about it, because I would have NEVER tried it on my own.
I’m also on Mircette, and I was a little moody at first as my body was getting used to the hormones, but a few months later I was back to normal. It also helped clear my skin and cut down on my menstrual cramps, although I have experienced some vaginal dryness during sex. YMMV, but it might be a good choice for you.
I had an ugly experience with Ortho Tricylen. It made me bleed buckets for weeks on end. Spotting? What a laugh. I was flooding worse than any period I’d ever had. It didn’t stop until I got off the pill.
On top of that horror of horrors, the pill even had a diuretic effect on me. When I say I had to pee every hour that’s no exaggeration. Even at night I had to run to the toilet at least eight times. During the day, I’d go to the restroom and pee, and by the time I came to my seat, my bladder would be refilling.
But mood-wise, I don’t think the pill caused me any problems. Not to say that I was cheerful, though. Nonstop bleeding and pissing kind of made me hate the world.
Looking back on all the blood and urine I was producing during those days, it was a wonder I didn’t die from dehydration.
My sister had considerable success in controlling her PMS when she limited her caffiene and sodium intake. However, that was just HER experience, might not work for you. But cutting down on caffiene and sodium is generally a good idea anyway, so it probably won’t hurt.
I don’t think there’s a much of a stigma as you think when it comes to antidepressants any more. I’m on Effexor simply because of anxiety AND depression and during PMS I was off the wall (another recent development of getting closer to 40 lol). My depression is more hereditarily related.
I am on a very low dose Ortho Novum 7/7/7 to simply regulate my periods. It has kept cramps away, for the most part, and my moods weren’t as bad when I went on them. I took Effexor mostly because of my anxiety combined w/depression and not related so much to the PMS but it did help and it does.
Regular Ortho had me considering anti-depressants, but my OBGYN had me try Ortho tricyclen LO first. And that made a HUGE difference. After spending about 6 months on the verge of tears, and I am not a crier, within the first week on OTC-LO, I was almost back to normal.
Most of my friends went through several pills trying to figure out which one worked best for them. So ask your OB for some alternatives. BONUS: often they’ll give you a month or two on trial so that you get free BC while trying to figure out what works
Have you heard of or thought of trying the patch? I would have recommended trying a different pill, as most others here have done, and it looks like that’s what you’ll do, which is great. But the patch is another idea. I’m on that right now because I, too, used to be on OTC. It worked just dandily for the most part, although it might have contributed to mood swings/depression. (Hard to tell though, since I’ve had problems with that regardless.) The problem, though, was that I got to a point where I would sometimes forget–and if I forgot for more than about 12 hours, I would almost ALWAYS throw up. I got sick of that (no pun intended) and so I switched to the patch (Ortho Evra). You put on a new patch just once a week and skip a week for your period. Once you’re adjusted to it and have figured out a good spot to put it (I put it on my lower abdomen, right around/below the underwear line–but you have to sit down first when applying it to smooth it over your skin and stuff), it’s GREAT.
i just started taking estrostep to regulate and all that good stuff. i was just looking up more info about it online and found this site - http://www.fpnotebook.com/GYN108.htm
it has other pills listed, and under “pill associated problems” it tells of other pills that might work better for you based on certain symptoms. maybe it could be helpful in your own research or in talking to your gyn.
