How to Actually Figure Out If Your Birth Control Is Causing Side Effects
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Loading... - Leo Cloutier
- 28 Oct 2022
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Birth control is a wonderful thing. It gives you autonomy over your reproductive health so you can choose to try to get pregnant (or not!) on your own terms. But birth control isn’t perfect, and anyone who has experienced side effects from their contraception of choice knows that all too well.
With that said, it can be difficult to figure out what’s a result of your birth control and what’s just a coincidence, since many of the potential side effects are nonspecific and could be caused by many other things happening in the body. By tracking your symptoms (or lack thereof) when you’re using your birth control, you can start to piece together the puzzle and suss out whether your pill, patch, ring, injection, vaginal gel, IUD, or implant is possibly to blame. But exactly how to track your symptoms, and what to take note of, may not be super intuitive.
First, let’s talk about what birth control side effects may look like.
Many people experience side effects when using hormonal contraception, which makes up a majority of your birth control options. For context, research suggests that about 63% of people who stopped taking birth control pills and about 65% of people who had their IUDs removed—two popular forms of contraception—said side effects were a leading reason they decided to make a change, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Anecdotally, people who use hormonal contraception tend to experience side effects when they first start using a new method. “Most side effects are temporary and resolve spontaneously,” Jonathan Schaffir, MD, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. He generally expects any potential side effects to last up to three cycles after someone starts using a new form of birth control. Read More...
