Hormonal Contraceptives and Depression

[PastaLaFeasta]

I've posted a couple of times asking about anti depressants. I've not had any success and have felt very hopeless. I had read about the potential for the mini pill to cause depression and conversely the combined pill having a protective effect. I changed a few months ago (from the Depo injection specifically) and suddenly realised a few weeks ago that I wasn't feeling so desperate and anxious. I'm still depressed and feeling "what's the point" but I'm so much calmer and it doesn't feeling like it's at the surface and about to boil over all the time.

Has anyone had a similar experience? If anyone is taking the mini pill, injection or implant I really recommend switching to another method to see if it helps. I know the combined pill can only be taken up to a certain age which makes it tricky so they prescribed it reluctantly. I also wonder if many post natal cases if depression could be linked as the mini pill is safe for breastfeeding, I suspect it kicked it off for me. But no doctor has ever picked this up and I've had months of therapy and tried three different anti depressants since going on this pill.

I hear you. I came off the combined pill many years ago and within two months felt different. Like a lightbulb had been switched on. I hadn't thought I was low while taking it but I felt so much better not taking it.

Years later I thought I'd try the mini pill. That was a complete disaster. I was low, anxious, couldn't sleep properly, felt out of control. Within a week of stopping it I was fine again.

The fact is that female hormones govern the female brain. The risky times in a woman's life for mental health issues are puberty, pregnancy, post natal and approaching menopause. Why? Because female hormones are in flux.
Hormonal contraception works well for many women but for many others it creates or exacerbates depression and anxiety. Doctors can be quick to fob off patients reporting these incidents so I do think any woman suffering any mental health issues should take themselves off hormonal contraception for a few months to at least rule it out as an aggressor to their moods.