(Start ramble) I've been on birth control since I was 17. Since then I have never not been on it. I've only ever used the pill and never had any problem with it. UNTIL last year.
Last winter I got a really bad virus. We're talking worst ever. Three weeks in bed with not a whole lot of food. Thought I was dying, with countless of walk-in clinics and the doctors not being able to find anything except "it's just a really bad virus." I blame it on living with children but who knows. Anyway, I swear that the virus changed some things in my body, because after I healed and was back at work, I started getting really bad migraines regularly. I've gotten migraines with vision loss before, but never very often. These started happened almost every day, and taking care of a toddler is not an easy task when you can't see and your head feels like The Rock has his hands on either side and is squeezing as hard as he can.
I tried changing my diet, my sleep habits, my water intake but nothing was working. So I started doing my own research and obviously decided that I was dying. Lots of trips to the walk-in clinics (I didn't have a doctor while living in Toronto) to try and figure it out, or figure out what meds would help. On one particular visit the doctor was asking me the standard questions, "Do you take any medications?" "Just birth control." She confirmed it was the pill and then got super worried that I was having blood clots in my legs, which is a possible side effect of the pill, and said I needed to go to emerg. Which of course freaked me right out because I can't deal with anything medical. I had the baby so I told myself that it was enough of an excuse to wait until the next morning when my sister, Bridget could go with me.
The next morning bright and early we hopped on the street car and went to the hospital. Where we waited for about 6 hours in total for various tests and results. I got an ultrasound done on my legs, my blood tested, everything else tested. They found nothing except "must be a virus." And I went on my way.
While all this was happening I was in the process of getting a doctor, and I finally had an appointment. It was just a regular check up, but I mentioned how crazy my health had been and she started asking me some questions. She wanted to know what pill I had been taking (Marvelon) and said that to her limited knowledge, that would be making my migraines worse. She switched me immediately to the mini pill, and booked me an appointment with a specialist.
Fast forward to the specialist appointment. By this point I had been on the new birth control for a month or so, and stopped having migraines. He agreed that it was a smart change and gave me some more tips and I moved away from Toronto. In Sarnia, my skin started getting really bad, which I attributed to moving and stress and blah blah. But I did all the things I should do and changed all the things I should change and it wasn't getting any better. I googled my new birth control and saw that while other pills improve your skin, this one makes it worse. Great.
I went to see a doctor to talk about my birth control options. And I had next to none. Basically there are the birth controls that contain estrogen (the majority of them) which caused me to have migraines, and there are the other ones, progestin-only, that cause me to have bad skin. These are limited to the mini-pill, which I have been taking, and the depo-shot, which is the same hormone in a different format. Aka there is no reason why it would be any different than the mini-pill.
It's frustrating, because I never had a problem with the pill. I remembered to take it every day and I felt great. And now I can't seem to find something that will work. So what did I do? Stopped taking it. And started doing research on "natural birth control" aka the fertility awareness method. Which I always thought was a funny joke and why doesn't everyone just take the pill because it's so easy. Jokes on me. I have no idea how this will go but we will see. Wish me luck pretty please. And if you have any advice, resources, stories, I would loooove to hear!
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