Journey Off Birth Control

The History

When I started breaking out a little too often in high school, I took Yaz for 4 months and went off to control my acne and it worked.

I had decent skin with occasional breakout around that time of the month until the dreadful 20.

The Dreadful 20s

When I was 20, I had a severe breakout that occurred out of nowhere. It was deep, red, inflamed, painful and un-poppable kind of acne that left scarring. I tried all kinds of treatments my dermatologist  prescribed including various "acne sets". I noticed that every time the acne seemed to subside, it would flareup again at that time of the month. I told my dermatologist this and she continue to give me different things to try. 

Utilizing google on my own, I self diagnosed myself with hormonal acne and the only way to fix it would be to target the problem, hormones. I started talking Yasmin and within 2 months my skin cleared up and the rest was history. Birth control is now a part of my life.

I continued to take Yasmin for the last 3 years religiously. During that time I experienced various symptoms which my doctor believe was not caused by the birth control.

• Loss of sex drive despite being a woman with high sex drive my whole life
• Hair loss to where I can see my scalp 
• Depression
• Cold 
• Muscle aches
• Fatique

All of the symptoms were tolerable if it meant I could have clear skin because I remember looking at myself in the mirror and crying all the time when I had the severe acne. I would post a picture but I go rid of all my pictures during that time because it was negative for me to even see myself. 

The side effects that became too much for me was the hair loss and depression. Hair loss is hard to reverse and depression just ruin your life.

During the last 2 years I attempted to come off the birth control a couple time but if a couple acne pops up I would hurry a pop a Yasmin in my mouth like a drug addict. I knew the hormones were not good for me. I knew I had to come off of it one day because I want to have a family. My gynecologist and I agreed that we would try to wean me off after college when there's less stress in my life. 

The Thyroid 

Depression got the best of me out of nowhere. It was months before I decided I need to talk to someone and sought out a therapist. I had a hard time keeping my appointment and on top of that, the therapist I formed a relationship with left. I didn't feel like talking to a new person so I stopped going completely. 

I started looking into what could cause the hair loss and being cold all the time. An aunt of mine was diagnosed with hypothyroid and after looking in the condition I though my symptoms fit. I saw a doctor and I had I full panel done to test for thyroid level as well as my other hormones. 

This is what I discovered

• I had cholesterol level that was out of this world and did not make sense with my diet.
• I was extremely deficient in Vitamin D which is common with people on birth control
• I was sub-clinal for hypothyroidism. It means I do not officially have hypothyroid but I have the symptoms at TSH = 3.8. 

I started taking amour thyroid, vitamin D and watched my diet a little more.

Started at 30 mg for the amour thyroid but because my TSH was still high it was increased to 60mg and thats where we saw result. I was also prescribed Zoloft but because I try to avoid solving problems with medication I quit after 2 weeks .

The Present

Recently I went on a vacation to Ohio and then from Ohio I went straight to Hawaii. During that time I kept skipping pills. Eventually I started spotting so I do what I always do, I allowed my self to bleed out my fake period completely and then I was going to start a brand new pack. 

However I decided I wasn't going to start a new pack. I was going to try not taking it for a few days and see how it goes. Days became weeks and weeks became a month. Guess what ? 28 days after my fake period I got me first real period.

I am 8 weeks off of birth control now and I only have on pimple so far on the side of my nose.

I'll continue to update my progress and include some pictures. 

Fingers crossed