Sick with worry - quit birth control

[readingismycardio]

Hi, everyone! Hope you are all having a fantastic evening!

I hope this is the right topic to ask my question in, I didn't want to put it in AIBU, to not get flamed!!

Long story short: I was on birth control pills from 21 until now, 28, 7 years. I finally got the courage to stop. I had my withdrawal bleed on the 15th of January and nothing this month. I'm super worried, tbh!

My main concern is acne! I've read so many horror stories about acne and hair loss that I can't even count. Basically I'm worried that with the first menstrual cycle hell will break loose.

When I first got on birth control pills I was diagnosed with micro policystic ovaries - I hardly doubt that, I'm not overweight, don't have unwanted hair, and had some acne before which I believe it was due to some hormonal imbalance caused by a high protein diet. My skin is not perfect, but definitely manageable.

To make matter worse, I'm crap at tracking my period as before bc I was too young and during I didn't have to!

In my opinion I am doing the best I can: decent eating, exercise, primrose oil and zinc supplements, not sure what else I can do...

Please advise and share your wisdom, kind mumsnetters! Please don't judge me too harshly!

Matters*, sorry

It’s not unusual for it to take a pretty long time for your cycles to settle down after you’ve been on the pill - I was told to expect 6 months but be prepared for up to 12. You’ll probably find it’s a bit random for a while. Mine came back pretty instantly in November, but my hormone levels haven’t quite been strong enough to conceive yet... bit stronger each month, though!

I have no direct experience of PCOS but I understand it can have different symptoms and is difficult to get diagnosed, so if you’ve got a diagnosis of that, it might be worth chatting to your GP, if they’re doing telephone appointments.

Best of luck! It’s a learning curve for all of us

@SendMeHome

It’s not unusual for it to take a pretty long time for your cycles to settle down after you’ve been on the pill - I was told to expect 6 months but be prepared for up to 12. You’ll probably find it’s a bit random for a while. Mine came back pretty instantly in November, but my hormone levels haven’t quite been strong enough to conceive yet... bit stronger each month, though!

I have no direct experience of PCOS but I understand it can have different symptoms and is difficult to get diagnosed, so if you’ve got a diagnosis of that, it might be worth chatting to your GP, if they’re doing telephone appointments.

Best of luck! It’s a learning curve for all of us

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

I will do another ob gyn ultra sound in 3 months but no cysts so far! My current ob gyn thinks it wasn't PCOS but rather the common small cysts that every woman may have.

Did you experience any side effects such as acne/hair loss,

Forgot to mention not in the UK, here you can go to the drs with no problems, we're not in lockdown!

I had acne and hair loss but it's common for it not to kick in until 4-6 months after coming off the pill. It was pretty darn annoying but no one other than myself and my husband actually noticed if that makes sense?

So from memory mine kicked in around the 6 month mark and didn't fully recover for another 10 months after that maybe. But from what I gather that's unusual!

@Juno231

I had acne and hair loss but it's common for it not to kick in until 4-6 months after coming off the pill. It was pretty darn annoying but no one other than myself and my husband actually noticed if that makes sense?

So from memory mine kicked in around the 6 month mark and didn't fully recover for another 10 months after that maybe. But from what I gather that's unusual!

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!

How quick did your cycle come back?

Was your acne/hair loss really bad or just annoying/stubborn? I'm tempted to believe it wasn't really bad if no one really noticed!

@Juno231 why do you say it's unusual? From all the horror stories I read everyone and their mother had acne after birth control

No acne for me, very slight amount of hair loss. My skins been absolutely fine.

Sorry, I missed that you’d seen an ob gyn, they’ll know what they’re talking about!

@SendMeHome

No acne for me, very slight amount of hair loss. My skins been absolutely fine.

Sorry, I missed that you’d seen an ob gyn, they’ll know what they’re talking about!

Thanks again for replying to me! I do feel a tiny bit better! Probably I shouldn't ve read allllll the horror stories on google?!🙄