Birth Control
As you can tell by the title and photo, this post is going to be about birth control, so bail out now if you don’t want to read about it.
So, I’ve been something of a moody bitch for the past five days or so (apologies all around, truly). What do I have to blame for this? “The Pill,” methinks.
Now, of course, the ideal is to find a pill (or whatever else, but I’m going to talk about the pill because that’s where my personal experience lies) that gives you little to no side effects. However, getting to that point is tough. Over the years I’ve tried, with varying levels of success and side effects, four different brands of pills with four different combinations and types of hormones. Tomorrow I take the final active pill of the first pack of brand number four (Trivora, the generic of Triphasil). Up until the past few days I was thinking this might be the brand for me. I’ve been a little sleepy and slightly hungrier since I started taking them, but none of the other side effects were present up until recently. About halfway into the last set of pills in the pack, which last for 10 of the 21 days, I started to notice the emotional impact. It’s not that I’m crying at the drop of a hat (as I did with other pills), but small things that might ordinarily bother me a little bit seem to be hitting me harder than they should, causing me to be a little moody. So, not fun for me or anyone else, but, it’s absolutely a good thing to be aware of.
See, the thing is, despite all the stupid commercials for various pills we have to sit through, and in spite of the fact that 11.6 million women in the US alone (that’s 19% of women 15-44) are on hormonal birth control, people don’t really talk about the subject. I think because the pill truly is a wonderful thing, that so many of us are grateful to have the option of taking, there’s the idea that we should just sort of suck it up and deal with the side effects. There’s also the idea that to talk about the pill openly is to talk about sex. Scandalous!
I also think because this is something women alone have to deal with (at least insofar as we’re the ones who have to take the hormones and deal first-hand with all that entails) it’s marginalized. … I had a short Feminist rant here, but, as valid as I think it is, it’s not really what I want this entry to be about, so I’m leaving it out.
So, back to me. Now, all things considered, Trivora is going well for me. “They” say to give a pill 1-3 months to see how your body reacts and adjusts to the hormones. Some pills have made me feel so dreadful that I gave up on them before a month was even over. Despite the craptastic last few days, I’m going to keep going with them. I mean, it’s not ideal as it stands, but five days or so of being a little moody each month isn’t terrible. I think some B-vitamins could help with the sleepiness, as the pill can interfere with B-vitamin absorption, so I’m going to try that too and hope things do level out after a couple months. If I’m still dealing with some moodiness, then I’ll decide whether it’s an acceptable side effect for me, all other things considered, I guess.
I think the thing is to be aware of how the pills affect you. I’ve tried to be really cognizant about how each combination of hormones has impacted me the past few weeks (as the brand name suggests, the levels change three times throughout the month). It’s something millions of us have to deal with, and our doctors are (at least they should) be there to help us find the medicine that works best for us, but we’re the only ones who know our own bodies and what is and isn’t normal for us. Annoyingly, it’s basically a trial and error thing and no one pill is going to affect all women in the same way. If only it were that easy, right?
