Oral contraception

Hi I'm curious as to whether anyones symptoms got worse with oral contraception. I noticed this with my two uBPD exs and along with a few other things I'm starting to think oestrogen may have an impact.

Your thoughts on this are greatly appreciated.

It depends. Oral contraception affects hormones, so for the first few months they're gonna be out of balance, and this can cause mood swings for anyone. It would make sense that someone with BPD, who can feel negative emotions pretty strongly, would be especially sensitive to this. After those few months things should be balanced out, and if you were still experiencing a side effect like that the doctor would probably put you on a different pill (or a new contraceptive method entirely).

I don't really remember having bad emotional side effects when I started the pill, but I have had some weird feelings when I've accidentally forgotten to get a refill. Nothing (aside from the usual) when taking it normally. My doctor thankfully hit the nail on the head with what script to give me and I haven't had any bad side effects outside those first few weeks. I have heard of certain pills that were quite awful with the emotional side effects though, namely Yaz and Yasmin.

Yes, birth control made me feel really bad the first month I was on it but I can't say if it made my BPD traits worse or if what I felt was side effects that other nonBPDs feel as well. I'm on Gianvi (generic of Yaz), this is the second time I've been on it and while my sex drive is higher this time around and my side effects disappeared faster, my BPD traits were more severe, so I guess I can safely say it did worsen my symptoms for a little while. I did notice I was splitting a lot more than I had in a while, I was very angry, and very close to making rash decisions ranging from wanting to break up with my boyfriend to wanting to commit suicide.

But after I started my 2nd pack a lot of my side effects vanished to the point where I had mild PMS only a few days before my period which felt so strange compared to my normal 2-3 week long bouts of PMDD before my periods (Yaz does advertise their birth control as being a way to treat PMDD if that's something you have issues with too). I'm on my 3rd pack and I don't even feel like I'm actually on birth control, I feel the same way I would if I wasn't on it (which I can't say is a totally good thing considering I still have BPD traits whether I'm on birth control or not).

If you start a birth control and you feel as if your symptoms are getting worse and you can't pull yourself out of it and tell yourself its just the birth control making things seem worse than they actually are, do not continue taking the birth control. Your safety is more important than taking another pill. Call your doctor and let them know what's going on so they can switch you to a new one.

Thank you for the replies. From a nons perspective its given me a lot of insight and one thing that hit me is how my behaviour probably exacerbated things. I probably never realised if my exs hormones had calmed down due to how hurt their behaviour made me so I probably pulled back from them which would have caused them more stress.

When I say my exgf was bad when she started the pill it would be an understatement. I didn't recognise the two headed monster that would appear and scream and swear at me, threatening me. It was like something from the exorcist. At the time I didn't link it to the pill but looking back the timing seems more than coincidental.

Another question. Are the contraceptive pills your on about oestrogen based? My ex wife switched to progesterone based and the difference was remarkable.

DT1095 wrote:Thank you for the replies. From a nons perspective its given me a lot of insight and one thing that hit me is how my behaviour probably exacerbated things. I probably never realised if my exs hormones had calmed down due to how hurt their behaviour made me so I probably pulled back from them which would have caused them more stress.

When I say my exgf was bad when she started the pill it would be an understatement. I didn't recognise the two headed monster that would appear and scream and swear at me, threatening me. It was like something from the exorcist. At the time I didn't link it to the pill but looking back the timing seems more than coincidental.

Another question. Are the contraceptive pills your on about oestrogen based? My ex wife switched to progesterone based and the difference was remarkable.

The one I'm on right now is a combination of progestin (synthetic progesterone) and estrogen (synthetic form). I think gianvi is progestin based with just a little bit of estrogen and since BC helps regulate my body's natural progesterone/estrogen levels, it helps a lot with the PMS which worsens my BPD traits and also keeps my body from having weird hormonal spikes or drops throughout the months which used to happen before I started BC (which probably also made my BPD traits worse since it caused a lot of stress).

I'm not surprised you noticed a change in your ex wife when she switched. Progesterone, in my experience, seems to be one of the more gentle hormones a few weeks after you start it.