A reassuring "after BCP" story

[Rhiannon137]

Hi all,

Since there are so many worries floating around about coming off the pill (I had ALL of them myself), I thought I would share my own rather positive experience for reassurance.

I am 34 and had been taking Ortho Tricyclen (regular, not the Lo) for 19 YEARS straight. I first started taking it to induce menstruation, which I had lost due to being underweight. I remained extremely underweight for the first ~10 years on the pills, but would usually get a withdrawal bleed every month. I have been a healthy weight for the last ~10 years, but was still expecting a terrible time of things when DH and I started NTNP 4 months ago.

I finished a pack of pills and had a normal withdrawal bleed. If the first day of the withdrawal bleed is counted as CD1, I had another "regular" period 29 days later, which lasted 5 days. I had no obvious signs of O that month. Every month since, I have had regular cycles with ~4 days of EWCM starting at CD 9 or 10 and 5-day periods starting at CD 27 or 28.

I think since people are more likely to post about problems than non-problems, the frequency of problems might seem higher than it really is. I just wanted to throw out a positive story that might help anyone else who is working themselves into stress about coming off BCP.

 

[lm3898]

Hi all,

Since there are so many worries floating around about coming off the pill (I had ALL of them myself), I thought I would share my own rather positive experience for reassurance.

I am 34 and had been taking Ortho Tricyclen (regular, not the Lo) for 19 YEARS straight. I first started taking it to induce menstruation, which I had lost due to being underweight. I remained extremely underweight for the first ~10 years on the pills, but would usually get a withdrawal bleed every month. I have been a healthy weight for the last ~10 years, but was still expecting a terrible time of things when DH and I started NTNP 4 months ago.

I finished a pack of pills and had a normal withdrawal bleed. If the first day of the withdrawal bleed is counted as CD1, I had another "regular" period 29 days later, which lasted 5 days. I had no obvious signs of O that month. Every month since, I have had regular cycles with ~4 days of EWCM starting at CD 9 or 10 and 5-day periods starting at CD 27 or 28.

I think since people are more likely to post about problems than non-problems, the frequency of problems might seem higher than it really is. I just wanted to throw out a positive story that might help anyone else who is working themselves into stress about coming off BCP.

Thank you for posting!! I have been worried too just coming off YAZ. I didn't have a withdrawal bleed but my first cycle last month was 30 days...I O'd cd 21 and got AF cd 30...I was worried about a short luteal phase but I have to say this month is already looking better - about to O tomorrow [cd 17]!

When I went to my gyno appt. on 6/11...he told me some docs are starting to prescribe the pill to women having trouble ttc!! A month on/a month off or 3 months on/3 months off and a lot of people are more fertile right after stopping bcp...so likely we'll find out it's not all bad!

Hoping for a soon myself & good luck to you!