View Full Version : Severe anxiety and depression with birth control pills..........
Since I have been "out of the loop" concerning the effects of birth control pills, I am really surprised to hear that they can cause severe depression and anxiety in some women. Someone I know started on these and during that time she became extremely anxious, depressed, compulsive/obsessive, and also angry with me. I noticed a huge difference in her and couldn't really understand what was going on.
I just found out that she had started a birth control around the same time that these personality changes started taking place. I'm so glad she shared this seemingly unimportant fact to me (about starting the birth control), because it immediately all made sense to me. I think messing with our female hormones can really cause a lot of problems.
A few hundred years ago, when I was on them for a short while, I had really bad headaches, but I can't remember if they made me anxious or depressed.
When this friend of mine went to her last OB/GYN visit, the doc asked if she was more anxious than usual. Apparently, this is happening to a fair number of women. I had never heard of it before, and wonder if they've changed something in the pills in the past few decades, or we're just becoming more aware of the problem.
Anyhow........have any of you or women you know had pretty abrupt personality changes when starting to take birth control pills?
Heck........just think of post partum depression and psychosis, and what some of us go through during perimenopause. Our hormones have an extreme influence on many things and we shouldn't take the pill lightly.
As the old butter/margarine commercial used to say "It's not nice to fool mother nature!!"
Anyhow......my friend felt a great sense of relief when I stressed how possible it was that her problems are from the pill. She was quitting it immediately. Yes, it's a convenient method to us, but in this case, the price is just too high.
YES! That year I was on the pill almost 25 years ago is still marked as my worst year ever. I was a mess and felt like the blood was beginning to flow the wrong way in my arms!!???? Depression, anxiety, increased migraines and just plain craziness.
I have friends whose experience was completely different and loved being on the pill. So it's a good option for some. Just not me.
I took the pill for a short while. I remember joking that they worked by making you so ill-tempered that no one would want to have sex with you. :~)
ApatheticNoMore
5-31-15, 12:58pm
She could look into the copper IUD. Unlike most birth control it's completely non-hormonal and actually MORE effective than birth control pills. You can not get more convenient, there's nothing to remember. IUDs are more widely used in most countries than the pill, they are what they use in Europe etc. (probably the only reason the birth control pill is more popular here was mostly because unlike every other country on earth whose health care system covered it, IUDs were expensive paying them out of pocket! How many women have suffered no end of side effects of the pill just because of this, it's pathetic and enraging to even think about. Yea one good thing about the ACA is it does cover all birth control).
Yes if something goes wrong with an IUD, it's bad, usually needs surgery. The health risks of something going wrong in pregnancy are also bad and the risks are much higher, so the risks of birth control going wrong pale in comparison to the risks of pregnancy. Yes if they fall out it's bad as they have to be reinserted. Yes it hurts like crazy when it's inserted and for a day or two after and they won't prescribe pain killers (so it's popping 20 NSAIDS, drinking, and lying down with a hot water bottle on your stomach painful - and knowing the risks of this behavior, but just so much pain). But no permanent feeling bad like with pills. Birth control pills made me nauseous and susceptible to every cold and flu going around. But then even antibiotics make me nauseous sometimes so I think my body doesn't like medicine. Hormonal (non-copper) IUDs use less hormones than pills but it's still hormones, just a smaller dosage which some might tolerate better, things like implants may also be lower dosage hormones.
I took the pill for a short while. I remember joking that they worked by making you so ill-tempered that no one would want to have sex with you. :~)
LOL Jane!
Yes, when I was younger and on the pill I got quite bad PMS - emotionally-wise. Like crying for no reason etc. Though I'm not sure if it was exclusively the pill or because I was young and in an abusive relationship at the time too.
I didn't like all the side effects and risks of hormonal birth control so got my tubes tied when I was 31. It helped a lot that I was always strongly opposed to growing a child in my body, so a tubal was a fine solution in my case.
Since I have been "out of the loop" concerning the effects of birth control pills, I am really surprised to hear that they can cause severe depression and anxiety in some women.
That happened pretty badly with my wife. ~30 years ago. She went through several years of hell, as they tried to "fix" her by giving her antidepressants and antianxiety meds. Which all interacted of course. It was so bad for a while that she was considering committing herself... She got completely better once she went off all the meds, including the hormonal birth control.
I always explained being on the pill - for me - as being very much like having 24-7 PMS - oversensitive, anxious, cranky and puffy. :sick:
Wow........this is a real eye-opener for me. Pretty scary for those who have this kind of reaction to them. I guess we're all different, in terms of our hormonal make-up. Like some women can breeze through menopause, while for some of us it's a living hell.
This gives me hope for my friend....that getting her emotional balance back might be as easy as getting off this pill. I hope the docs are warning women now of this being a very real side-effect.
Thanks for sharing your stories with me.
I wasn't depressed or anxious, but my mind was definitely "cloudy" when I was on the pill. I attributed this to just getting older at the time, but then when I hit 40-ish and went off it, I was /shocked/ at how alive I felt, and realized what had been happening to me. I then later did a copper IUD, which was incredibly painful each and every month (and periods lasted a LOT longer), but that was still worth it compared to how fuzzy I felt on the pill.
I was on the pill for 14 years and didn't have emotional side effects, but I did have severe cramps from them. I didn't realize that the pill was causing them until I got it out of my system.
But I got very depressed when I was taking Depo-Provera (the monthly shots) for several months. I stopped using that as soon as I realized that was the cause.
domestic goddess
6-1-15, 3:34am
I never suffered from anxiety, but did have pretty severe depression from the pill, many years ago. Not fun at all, and I was so glad when my OB/GYN told me it could be the pill. Quit using it and returned to normal pretty quickly. My GP, at the time, told me that my problem was that I had gotten married too early (I was 19), which might have been true, but he stopped there and prescribed Triavil. Never asked about anything else, and I'm not sure he knew I was on the pill. The triavil made me so wonky that I quit that, too.
Got married too quickly. Add another pill. Good grief.
Someday when medical care in integrated and the various providers know what each other are doing, we're gonna look back at this time as the dark ages of medical care.
Someday when medical care in integrated and the various providers know what each other are doing, we're gonna look back at this time as the dark ages of medical care.
+1
I go on calls every week where it's clear I'm the first person to ever get a complete medical history from the patient. It is quite common for some of my elderly patients to have 8-9 meds from 3-4 different doctors, meds which interact, and none of the doctors have talked with each other or even know what other meds the patient is on.
That said, often when you ask the patient what meds they are on, they point to the counter or the medicine cabinet, and don't really know what they are taking, off the top of their head, or what it's for - they've accumulated the prescriptions over the years, and they may not be on the top of their game mentally anyways. So I can imagine that when they walk into a New Doctor's office, he doesn't get the full story. I only manage to get it because I'm in their house looking through all their bottles of pills.
+1
I go on calls every week where it's clear I'm the first person to ever get a complete medical history from the patient. It is quite common for some of my elderly patients to have 8-9 meds from 3-4 different doctors, meds which interact, and none of the doctors have talked with each other or even know what other meds the patient is on.
That said, often when you ask the patient what meds they are on, they point to the counter or the medicine cabinet, and don't really know what they are taking, off the top of their head, or what it's for - they've accumulated the prescriptions over the years, and they may not me on the top of their game mentally anyways. So I can imagine that when they walk into a New Doctor's office, he doesn't get the full story. I only manage to get it because I'm in their house looking through all their bottles of pills.
I've seen this first hand. They dont know what they are, they don't know what they're supposed to do, and tragically they don't know about the very real side effects they may be producing. And as an astute doctor once pointed out to me--they all have side effects--often multiplied synergistically.
Bae, are you a nurse? I did regular home care nursing, then hospice home care. Hospitalized people who in no way can manage their meds at home, get discharged so fast, a nurse reads the instructions quickly and out the door they go. Then, if they were lucky enough to be referred for home nursing, we took over. I'd have patients drag out grocery bag upon grocery bag and say, "I take these." But they are not quite sure, "I take that one. I stopped that one." Always a mess to fix and scares me for the patients who come home with no services. If hospital doctors realized how few of their scripts actually get filled and used properly, they would be astounded.
I took the pill for years with no side effects, except I rarely had periods, but was told this was fine. Then I got a Mirena IUD. Loved it, just a pinch going in, a little crampy that night. Only a small amt of hormones enter your blood stream. I loved it, no periods, no "PMS". 100% satisfied.
but then at 36, I kept having these massive strep infections that never really went away until I saw an ENT. She took my tonsils out the next day, because strep can affect organs if you have it long enough. Tonsils out but it was too late, strep affected my ovaries, etc. I went right to the Gyn, yup, I had not even had perimenopause, I was post menopausal, my hormone levels resembled those of someone 20+ years older. My head was spinning, but because I went so young and there is a high level of young heart disease but not breast cancer in my family, she strongly recommended Hormone Replacement therapy. Something I know about as a nurse and thought I would never choose. That has been amazing, i had some depression/anxiety, the HRT massively fixed that, same with bad insomnia. I had been having an unusual amount of hot flashes that were starting to drive me crazy. HRT, no more hot flashes. I am on a very low dose that we will stop in the next few years
Anyway, I think hormones affect people differently. There are so many BC options.
Gardenarian
7-2-15, 2:02pm
My neighbor had severe anxiety from BCP. She then developed some severe (life-threatening) side effects and was taken off. She didn't realize the pill was causing her anxiety until she got off them - she and her doctor attributed it to stress.
I think stress is given out as the cause of way to many disorders.
I think stress is given out as the cause of way to many disorders.
ITA, especially in women
Bae, are you a nurse?
No, Firefighter/Wilderness EMT/HAZMAT/Technical Rescue. 80% of my calls are medical. My department provides a lot of in-care monitoring and help for our "frequent fliers", to help them live here instead of in some far-away care facility. We created a special division a few years back to provide a higher level of care for these sorts of folks, instead of waiting for them to call 911.
Another bunnytrail on meds - alternative medicine is a big thing out here. I'll ask someone about their meds, and they'll not think to tell me about all the really quite active herbal remedies they are *also* on, that interact with their "regular" meds. You need to take a *complete* patient history, and ask the same question 5 different times, 5 different ways :-)
No, Firefighter/Wilderness EMT/HAZMAT/Technical Rescue. 80% of my calls are medical. My department provides a lot of in-care monitoring and help for our "frequent fliers", to help them live here instead of in some far-away care facility. We created a special division a few years back to provide a higher level of care for these sorts of folks, instead of waiting for them to call 911.
Another bunnytrail on meds - alternative medicine is a big thing out here. I'll ask someone about their meds, and they'll not think to tell me about all the really quite active herbal remedies they are *also* on, that interact with their "regular" meds. You need to take a *complete* patient history, and ask the same question 5 different times, 5 different ways :-)
I hear ya, "are these all of your meds, even the over the counter meds?" "Let me check," come back with 2 more bags. It can be hours before just that piece is done, lol.
that division sounds wonderful, must be a pretty advanced community?
[QUOTE=Gardenarian;207091
I think stress is given out as the cause of way to many disorders.[/QUOTE]
yes, especially most of the time it is not under our control, we are not creating more stress that we can turn off. i have felt discouraged and not seen Dr's often because of hearing the stress thing as an explanation too much. on a side note, i took a risk and went in for restless leg and have a medication i just started trying. i was so convinced i was going to get the litany (stress less, cut down caffeine, exercise more, get sleep, drink water, …) that i didn't go in while it was more an annoyance than a real issue.
early morning
7-3-15, 12:15pm
AS a flip of many of the experiences you all note - I was very healthy while on BC. before, I had wildly irregular periods, cramping, nausea, PMS AFTER, never before, to alert me to the fact that I was about to start bleeding like a stuck pig with no warning - the pill saved me from all that. It was, for me, almost a life-saver. I did have some minor depression, but since I've been off them for 25 years and STILL have minor depression, I can't blame the pill.
I did BC when I was single, for about 2 years and didn't feel anything different at all. I just didn't like the idea of messing with my hormones (and still don't), so I got very laissez-faire after I got married, got pregnant 5 times, gave birth 4 times in 7 years, closed up shop and then used natural family planning successfully for 20 years. And I wasn't even Catholic during those years.
Early morning, I think the BC pill saved my sanity and job. I was b**ch some days of the month and couldn't control it. On them, much more controlled and easy going. I was very thankful for my hysterectomy. Even menopause was not much of an issue.
But I realize that everyone is chemically different and has to ensure that whatever changes are made to diet, drugs, or lifestyle works with their body.
I love being an older woman because all of those hormonal issues seem to be a thing of the past. I have more energy and mental clarity than at any point in my life not haing to deal with monthy stuff, emotional bumps and constant anemia. The only time I felt great back then was when I was pregnant. On the topic of elderly and medications, we are dealing with that right now with my in-laws. They each take no less than eight prescription drugs and spend what little energy they have going to doctors or pharmacies. It makes me wonder if half the dizzy spells and falls aren't caused by the meds.
early morning
7-4-15, 10:28am
Oh, I'm a great fan of post-hormonal life also.... I am very comfortable post-hysterectomy, and I joke that my menopause was surgically removed, but in truth, it was. I am so glad that we live in an age where there are many birth control options. I know that the pill is not good for everyone, but it certainly was for me, and I am grateful for it!
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2026 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.