AIBU to ask if the pill has caused / exacerbated mental health issues?

[Dobbyhasnomaster]

So I’ve just started taking microgynon after various experiments with other pills that made my hair shed amongst other problems. After not taking any pills since last August, I’m 3 weeks in with microgynon and I’ve become an anxious, stroppy, tearful mess. I feel like I’m always about to make a massive speech or waiting to hear some dreadful news - but for no reason, and nothing has changed in my life over the past month except taking these pills. In the past, doctors have been very dismissive of ‘mental health side effects’ caused by the pill, so thought I would open it up the general consensus to see if anyone else has struggled with this, or whether this is just coincidental and I need to get some help for my anxiety?!

Yes. I had terrible problems with Microgynon. In the space of a week I went from being relatively balanced to paranoid, depressive and suicidal. It was a very dark time. I wanted to run away from everything. Luckily I made the connection and stopped taking it. The GP was very dismissive. I had previously taken Yasmin with no problems, but as that's expensive the surgery wouldn't offer it to me again. Microgynon is one of the older pills and relatively cheap. I think the lack of awareness about the detrimental side effects is shocking.

I had to try a couple of different pills when I first started taking contraception one made me really weepy and another just made me feel sick all the time. I ended it on microgynon and had no issues with it, been off and on it since I was 15, old now 33 lol.

Yes - combined pilll was better than the implant but all were not great.
The copper coil is good as it's hormone free - or there's cycle tracking or (untrendy as they are), the female condom / diaphragm is what my sister swears by for something that's more reliable than cycle tracking not so long term as a coil.

No. The lows and highes of cycle were much worse.

Clinical depression here ... but that was in the 90s (smaller doses now?) Got an iud and never looked back.

I was given microgynon to stop the constant bleeding from my implant. So double hormones for 3/4 years. I was a totally different person on them, and started having what I now know to be panic attacks regularly. Unsurprisingly, I developed severe anxiety and depression in those years which ended in a breakdown, dropping out of uni losing my job and not leaving my flat for several months. Got the implant out and stopped taking the pill and gradually got a bit better. I won't touch hormonal contraception with a barge pole now.

@Merryoldgoat same. I ended up with near crippling anxiety and panic attacks and had cystic acne which I've still got the scars from to this day. I almost didn't make the connection either as I'd been on it for so long, that I just thought that was how I was. Wasn't until I stopped taking it to try for a baby, that the months past and my mental health was better than ever. Hormones are a force to be reckoned with and synthetic hormones, well. Fuck that ever again.

Yes! Although in my case microgynon was the best of a bad bunch, the mini/POP was the one that sent me utterly loopy (ditto the implant). Unfortunately I was taken off the combination pill due to other health concerns.

I gave up on hormonal contraception over ten years ago, the "benefits" really weren't worth the awful side effects for me.

I assumed that the way I felt was just my normal.... until I came off contraception to try to conceive. It was like taking off a heavy cloak of low mood, irritability and suicidal ideation. Never again. Even throughout pregnancy with all the hormonal shifts that brings I have felt much better. Numerous friends/family have had similar experiences - definitely driven the rates of vasectomy higher round here

Definitely talk to your doctor and make sure they add it to your notes- doctors are under reporting symptoms women tell them about with regards to contraceptive pills. I saw a private specialist years ago when I had major problems on and then going off the Yasmin pill. As it turned out I had serious problems making hormones and hypothyroidism. The doctor I saw said he saw it a lot with the Yasmin pill, he hated it and did not recommend it. I think this is an issue that deserves a lot more attention. I believe there has been a study reported last year indicating mental health can be affected by the contraceptive pill.

Combined pill was ok, but mini pill was awful, it took me a while to realise as I had a fairly difficult thing to deal with at the same time but it was 100% the mini pill.

Yes, I'm another one that ditched the hormones. Due To constant bleeding that the doctors weren't interested in.
Within days my entire mood lifted.
I refuse to have any hormones now.
I was on my back with a speculum stuffed up me and They were still trying to talk me into a mirena over copper.
There has to be some sort of agenda.
The mental health aspect has been consistently ignored.
Women's medicine is absolutely shocking.
It verges on abusive at times.

I was diagnosed with a personality disorder (by a consultant psychiatrist) about 6 years ago following years of extreme mood swings and associated frustration/ lashing out/ impulsive behaviour. I came off hormonal contraception about 3 years later after being on it (various types) for 12 years, and within about a month my mood swings had resolved.
Unlearning the coping behaviours I'd developed took a little longer but the underlying turmoil was gone.
I'd never go back for love nor money; it was an awful, awful way to feel, like I had no control over my thoughts or feelings.

Wow, much more common than I thought! It really is massively overlooked, quite scary. Ok I’m going to stop taking it from today and hopefully I’ll start to feel myself again....

I actually had a rough time coming off the pill, so just bear that in mind too

I've tried a few over the years. Microgynon was the very worst. I was so depressed I could barely move or speak.

We used to call micro psycho when we were at uni due to it making us feel so awful.

Yes I had this with microgynon. I use natural family planning now as well. There is no contraceptive that doesn't mess with my mind or body.

all you ladies. if you experience side effects report them to the yellow card scheme. and tell your gp and pharmacist. (in theory they are supposed to report if tou tell them, but often sometimes they don't)
yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk

I took microgynon for 20 years from age 15 to 7 weeks ago. I'm loving not taking it from a health perspective. My anxiety is barely existent now where I would have regular anxiety attacks. I have a sex drive and would event say I fancy my DH more, where I previously never wanted sex at all (my poor DH). No more water retention and just a general good feeling about myself. Don't get me wrong, the period now is awful and made me so emotional but I'm so glad I'm off it. We don't have or want children so DH is looking at a vasectomy. I'm just sorry I didn't stop taking it sooner

Yes! With microgynon.

And every other hormone related contraceptive.

I didn't know it was the cause though, but I was basically a bitchy depressed suicidal psychotic nightmare.

I wish I'd known it would do that to me. I would have made more of an effort with condoms.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/03/pill-linked-depression-doctors-hormonal-contraceptives

Link above is regarding a study that links it with depression.

Just a note, if you do tell your GP about the side effects, make sure you ask them to read back their notes from your appointment before you leave. So that you can be sure they’ve listened and included everything you’ve said. I had to pay £20 for a print out of my medical records, including notes from my appointments. It was very revealing. There won’t be improvements with contraception if we aren’t giving detailed feedback about the problems we currently have, or if our doctors aren’t recording what we’ve told them. I told my GP and he just sat there and said ‘ we know this isn’t a side effect, there’s been studies’. I looked at some studies on the pill I was on, Yasmin. They had been carried out by Bayer. The manufacturer.

Yes. I'm sure the reason it prevented pregnancy was because I hated everyone whilst I was on it. The RAGE! I really wanted to batter anyone who came near me. There was no chance of sex.
So i came off it in 2005 aged 32 in September and accidentally dell pg in December. I never planned a family, but there you go.
So I lost one set of mh issues and replaced them with many, many more.

It’s really interesting that so many people had issues on microgynon - I was on Logynon quite happily pre-DC, then my GP said was the same thing... when it turned me into a depressed, angry mess, she said it was my age (at the time, 38)