Can women who are on the pill get PMS? Since ovulation is stopped and hormone cycles are shot to heck… I wonder?
Oh yes, we can. Precisely because our hormone cycles are shot to heck, we can get it. What IS true is that it is more predictable, & sometimes the symptoms are different. Off the Pill, I get tired & forgetful when I have PMS; on it, I get really, really sad & cry for no reason. The Pill does generally reduce cramps, but of course they aren’t only symptom of PMS.
Chiming in with another “We sure can!”
I’m dealing with it right now. Whee! I agree with Stella*Fantasia about it being more predictable, or at least, in my case, more consistent. I also think it hits me harder now because, silly me, I was under the impression that it would lessen once I went on the pill. It’s been just about a year now, and every month I’m reminded of how wrong I was. Which is not to say that I’m suffering terribly-- if I was, I’d try to get a different pill or try a different form of birth control. I just spend a couple of days being over-sensitive and getting irritated with people who make eye-contact on the subway.
What Stella and Rose said. When I was on the Pill, I had different, often much more devastating PMS symptoms, including horrible nightmares three nights a month, migraines, cyclical paranoia and a monthly infection (I tried several different brands and dosages, none of which really improved the situation. Some would eliminate one sysmpton while producing a new one. Me and the Pill just did not get along). Since I went off it, my PMS consists of occasional cramps and mild irritabilty.
I thought I heard that different brands of the pill would have different side effects. So, sometimes if the effects are too bad switching to another brand might help.
FTR, now that I’m on the pill I don’t get horrible cramps like I did when I wasnt on it, but ManAlive, my mood swings are way more drastic.
lucieI hadn’t considered nightmares as part of the pill effects. But now that you mention it, they do seem to fall around that time and are always very emotional.
Switching brands can indeed help. Since I switched brand, my PMS has changed from feeling miserable to feeling irritable. The symptoms are on the whole more predictable, but there is still some variation from one month to the next. None of the symptoms are as bad as they were before I went on the pill.
It’s difficult to give a general answer, as an individual’s symptomatic response to hormones is, well, individual.
I’ve been on Desogen for almost seven years now (treatment for menorrhagia) so I don’t know what life off the pill is like… I guess I’m lucky enough not to get PMS. I was just wondering.
I have a friend who was on the same brand I was and nearly went crazy–uncontrollable crying, anger, etc. Switching brands helped her.
Okay, thanks!
And just what did you mean by that question, little Miss High and Mighty?! Of course we can, and do, still get PMS. Every freaking month! Twelve months a year. How dare you ask such an idiotic question?! Why are you picking on me?! I feel terrible, and you know it. You’re just trying to provoke me… You make me so mad. You just don’t love me, 'cause I’m fat… What do you mean we’re out of chocolate?! You ate the last piece? Well, you’ll have to die then. Stop yelling at me! I…just…can’t take this abuse…
::sobbing hysterically::
Just hold me! Please?
Anybody else around here hate Wednesdays?
Personally, my symptoms are less severe than they used to be off the Pill, but I still get PMS. Basically my cramps went from so-freakin’-painful-I-can’t-stand-up to somewhat-less-painful-I-can-still-walk-from-class-to-class-and-get-the-day-over-with. And headaches are more-or-less a constant from the day I go off the hormones to the day I go back on them, though they are milder than they were without the Pill. I also have wild mood swings, usually the Monday on the sugar pills. I suppose I just need a day or so to rebalance. The hormone pills are normality for me, while the week off them is just insane.
The good thing, though, is that it is predictable, so I can warn my boyfriend when to try and lay low, and I can tell myself to avoid situations which might irritate me more than usual. And I’m never caught off-guard by my cycle anymore - irregular by anywhere from 25 to 45 days (pretty common in my family, apparently) was just too insane for me.
28 days is good.
But Wednesdays suck.