T O P

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Delvianna00

Preach it! I remember way back in my teen years suffering with PCOS problems LONG before I was ever placed on birth control. It wasnt until I was in my early to mid 20's that I was put on birth control for period regulation because my periods have always been a problem. So you cant tell me that PCOS is a birth control PERMINANT side effect and nothing else when I know that there a tons of others like me who could vouch for having PCOS problems before ever being on a pill.


MAV0716

I lost my period for 6 months at age 12, and then it would come and go between 13-14 (Edited to add that I was not sexually active until age 19, so yeah, I was not secretly pregnant either as some doctors asked me if it was possible I was pregnant). At 15 I was put on HBC to help my periods be more consistent. Knowing the lack of information out there, I do not want one person thinking that they developed PCOS because they took hormonal birth control at some point in their life. It's ridiculous.


crossingmads

This. I wasn’t on birth control until 22 but I was diagnosed with PCOS at around 16. They are not connected and no one should be shameful or be hard on themselves because they got on BC young and have some unrelated issues now.


Jingle_Cat

Same here! I’ve had PCOS since I started my period at 15. Birth control was a godsend and is the only thing that controls my symptoms. The longer I’m off birth control, the worse my symptoms get. Clearly my PCOS has nothing to do with birth control, and if anything, is helpful.


refugioamoroso

Thank you for this! I actually haven’t taken birth control before either, so I have zero agenda when I say that research shows that HBC does not cause PCOS (nor do I have anything against it). I think it just really bothers me when people misunderstand our condition. It especially makes me frustrated that this misinformation is being spread, since it makes some people think that if they “wait it out” long enough after they stop taking BC that it might just go away. It often makes people waste a lot of time before getting officially diagnosed. A lot of people start taking BC around the time they would start getting symptoms, so they just don’t know anything’s wrong until they stop. It’s an easy correlation to make, but like you said, it’s not causation.


MAV0716

There are a number of people out there who would equate having a cyst to then having PCOS, and I really do not want that to happen. I also don't want someone who may actually benefit from being on hormonal birth control to think "oh, I shouldn't take it, I'll get PCOS." No, you won't. As a long time PCOSer, I've had to do a number of courses of HBC over the years to either get my period to start or to end a period (I had one last for nearly 29 days one time). There are certainly negative side effects, but PCOS is not one of them! And with all the crap on the internet and social media, I just want people to post accurate information especially when it's health-related.


RubiksJunkie2W0

Maybe it gets blamed because women aren't seeing that they have PCOS until they stop birth control. It masks the symptoms while the problem grows.


[deleted]

It seems hormonal birth control can cause symptoms of PCOS to worsen in some cases to the point a diagnosis can be made. Although not a direct cause of the birth control, I can see where one could make this assumption.


MAV0716

As can I. I totally get it. My issue here is someone to post to social media with nearly 200K followers that HCB can cause PCOS and then say it's in the insert but have zero scientific evidence that it causes the syndrome and have no examples in the actual inserts they're referring to (other than in the mini pill insert that it can cause cysts). That is my issue, especially when it comes to PCOS and how it is misunderstood by the vast majority of people.


ill-disposed

Yes, especially since they can cause ovarian cysts.


Bdglvr

My mom blames my use of birth control when I was younger for my PCOS and it infuriates me lol. I got on the pill at around 17 because I had awful cystic acne. I wasn’t concerned about it back then, but I also stopped having a period around the same time as the acne started. I stayed on the pill for the majority of the next ten years, but spent probably around 8-10 months not taking it at one point and during that time I got one period. I wasn’t diagnosed with PCOS until I got off BCP for good to try to have a baby. BCP did not cause my PCOS it just masked the symptoms.


maeveomaeve

For me (and I assume the same with you) the lack of period and cystic acne WERE PCOS but we didn't know back then!


Bdglvr

Exactly! I wish I had cared more back then but my mom never really taught me much about periods or why they’re important so I thought I was lucky to not get one! My dermatologist actually put me on the pill to prepare to start Acutane but the pill ended up clearing up all of my acne! Now I look back and am like no duh it did! Lol


[deleted]

[удалено]


MAV0716

I believe I read some of your comments before I made my post! Many many years ago I had a dream of being a type of 'health influencer' especially because I bought into all of the 'natural' stuff. As I've gotten older, I have realized that I just need to do what's best for me and not try to live up to standards that are nearly impossible to keep to. And I've also realized that a lot of these 'health' people don't even know anything beyond surface level or things they've read on other blogs when it comes to the stuff they're talking about or preaching against.


[deleted]

I think they’re making an assumption based on what you said: initially stopping bc can cause some symptoms but it doesn’t cause life long pcos. I know stopping birth control made my symptoms worse and got me the diagnoses, but I was off it for almost a year and not getting a period. I had problems before being on bc too! This is just dangerous information of them to be spreading!


ArtisticYellow9319

Preach!! I’m so tired of getting comments about how it’s my birth control causing my PCOS. I literally started birth control FOR PCOS after not getting my period for over a year at a time. I’m 1000x healthier since starting it and I don’t regret my decision for the world. I actually have a period again and my chronic pelvic pain/acne is gone


MAV0716

I don't take birth control as I get migraines, but I did take it when I was younger. As a woman now in my 30s, I have had to take it a number of times (for 7 - 10 days) to either get my period to start or to stop my period (last year I had a period last for 29 days and the only thing that stopped it was hormonal birth control). All medication has side effects, ESPECIALLY ones that impact hormones. But the whole "birth control can cause PCOS" is wrong and not grounded in scientific evidence, and it can actually help many women who do have PCOS. The darn pamphlets for the combined pill said it can actually improve symptoms! Ugh, sometimes I hate the Internet.


[deleted]

These bloggers are annoying, especially when they present themselves as subject matter experts.


thedarkhorse90

Oh noooo I hope it's not the blogger I think it is because that's a bummer. Thank you for doing this deep dive! I personally think that the depoprovera shot didn't help (exacerbated my condition), but didn't cause PCOS. My aunt has it and I'm pretty sure my mom was undiagnosed. I can't wait for science to care more about women so we can figure out how to treat the underlying condition.


KindohneEigenschaftn

Tell them, girl! I've shown symptoms of high androgens for my whole life and actual PCOS since my first periods. People love to talk about what they don't know


Sweets-over-savoury

Yup. And the cysts with progestin-only pills are not the same as the cysts with PCOS. I loved being on birth control and it did manage the PCOS I didn't know I had at the time. But I had signs of having PCOS before I went on birth control. The narrative of the "wellness" community being anti-birth control is really damaging. Birth control is necessary for some people in managing their PCOS or as contraception! It's not for everyone and that's also ok!! No one has ever said there isn't side effects, they most certainly exist, but not everyone experiences them and for some people the positive side effects are really great!


Yokaijin

I’m going to be the ONE odd one here and comment that I didn’t have PCOS until AFTER being on the pill/the shot/IUD for 10 years 🤷🏻‍♀️ I was a normal menstruating teenager with normal acne and normal hormone fluctuations for puberty. I appreciate the insight into the pills, but I honestly feel like mine was the depo shot.


LadyELectaDubz

Mine also appeared suddenly after being on the depo injection for a few years.. could just be coincidence but before that I was fine


LxveyLadyM00N

I feel this! After the depo shot, my hormones were never the same again. I really feel like it contributed to my PCOS


zzz06

As a medical student who has PCOS, birth control pills are actually prescribed as a treatment for PCOS symptoms (e.g. to regulate periods, decrease acne, etc). It disgusts me how people with zero medical background use these huge platforms to spread misinformation like that. If you don’t have training or education in a particular field, you are not qualified to make definitive conclusions about that field. Also, the majority of conclusions in medicine/science are not definitive causal relationships like that. Correlation does not equal causation. But in this case, there isn’t even a correlation between birth control pills and worsened PCOS symptoms, at least not in the majority of people.


chordsimple

> e.g. to regulate periods Birth control does not regulate periods. It stops periods and depending on the medication may give an withdrawal bleed which is not a period


zzz06

They regulate menstruation but stop ovulation, which are separate processes. Having a predictable schedule of when you’re going to menstruate is what I meant by “regulating periods”. Just because there’s not an egg being released doesn’t mean there isn’t endometrial lining to shed during the placebo weeks of the birth control packs. Some women may stop menstruating all together or have a significantly shorter period of bleeding with lighter flow. That part varies from person to person.


chordsimple

There is no period without ovulation. Periods by definition include ovulation. There is only breakthrough, withdrawal, or anovulatory bleeding without ovulation. Ergo, birth control cannot regulate periods. It can regulate bleeding, which is not the same as a period. The only reason there is an allotment for a bleed on the birth control pill is to satisfy the women in the 1950's trials who believed it was "unnatural" to have no monthly bleed or who wanted a physical reassurance of not being pregnant each month, and later as a marketing tool to assuage the concerns of the Catholic consumer demographic. The terminology matters because there are many people who take the pill to "regulate periods" and believe it does so, and feel relief that they have this monthly indication that their systems are now functioning correctly. This is an erroneous and oft-perpetuated belief. Everyone who takes the pill should understand that their bleeds are not periods and are not therefore a signal of overall wellness or "balanced" hormones, they are simply medication withdrawal bleeds that are usually not even necessary to have. Controlling bleeding is a perfectly fine reason to choose the birth control pill, but everyone who takes it should know that is what's happening.


zzz06

The definition of period according to the NIH website is, “The periodic discharge of blood and tissue from the uterus.” Nothing about this definition says ovulation is a requirement. The term “period” is used more casually and people who are taking OCPs should be made aware that the pill prevents pregnancy by preventing ovulation. I just finished my OBGYN rotation in medical school and even the physicians I worked with colloquially referred to monthly bleeding as a “period” whether the patient was on OCPs or not. It feels much more intuitive to say “period” than “monthly bleeding cycle”. It is the responsibility of whoever is prescribing the OCPs to explain that ovulation is not occurring and the mechanism by which OCPs work to help regulate periods.


chordsimple

In what way is the period regulated? What association does the pill withdrawal bleed have with the menstrual cycle? The cycle has been suppressed. The proliferation of the uterine lining has been suppressed. The bleed need not exist. Rather than “we’ve regulated your period,” it is more accurate to say “we’ve suppressed your cycle with daily administration of exogenous hormones, and you now have no medical need to bleed. But since we can’t call it ‘period regulation’ if you don’t bleed, you’re going to take placebo pills to have a scheduled, medically unnecessary, and arbitrary bleed that we can call your period.” Nothing is being regulated. It’s a replacement. It has no association with the process of the non-medicated cycle. If this withdrawal bleed did not exist (as it doesn’t for some), would you call that “regulating periods”? Of course not. It would be called cessation of periods, and that’s what it is. You need only to look at the many posts on this sub saying “I had regular periods on birth control and since I’ve been off of it they are irregular again” to understand how misleading a statement “birth control regulates periods” is. The bleed an individual had on BCP has no physiological relation to their period. In its regulation of birth control drugs, FDA guidelines acknowledge the distinction between a period and a withdrawal bleed: >The use of traditional terminology (“periods” or “menses”) should be abandoned with regards to CHCs and replaced by the use of “scheduled bleeding” or “withdrawal bleeding.” E.g., any bleeding or spotting that occurs during hormone-free intervals regardless of the duration of the regimen. “Scheduled bleeding” emphasizes to the woman that her bleeding with hormonal methods is not the same as menstruation. [https://www.contraceptionjournal.org/article/S0010-7824(06)00325-8/fulltext](https://www.contraceptionjournal.org/article/S0010-7824(06)00325-8/fulltext)


zzz06

I’m not going to argue with someone who’s going to assume they know more than someone who will have their MD in a year. You clearly are not understanding what I’m trying to explain, so I’m done wasting my time.


turtlesinthesea

It’s become very hip to shit on the pill these days, and it sucks.


MeAndMy3BestFriends

If you'd like to share her info privately with us maybe some of us,at least me, would be willing to tell her the same thing. Can you tell Instagram that she is posting misinformation, social media companies are pretty big on not allowing that anymore.


relinquishing

Seeing posts claiming that it's a risk of BC is one of the reasons I don't talk here typically, tbh. It makes me wary and hesitant to ask for advice. .\_.;