Birth Control.

I always had bad acne as a teenager and still into my years in college. I was on countless medications and topical treatments. I was even was on one medication in 2008 that was extremely strong and had horrible side effects from. I had massive migraines and it took time to realize that they were being caused by this medication. I went to the eye doctor and as soon as he looked in my eyes he was shocked. He asked me to get off my medication because my optic nerves were so swollen that if I were on the medication for even just another 2 weeks, he thinks I could have started to lose my vision. I was in disbelief. I now have permanent damage in my right eye from it and have to wear sunglasses when I go to the movies, as dark spaces with bright lights hurt my eyes and cause me bad headaches.

I had refused to take any other medication until I just couldn’t take the acne anymore and my doctor thought birth control would be a good option for me. I started taking a low dose birth control back in the summer of 2010 for my acne and to have less menstrual cramps. I loved knowing when my next period was coming and thoroughly enjoyed how my skin cleared up! I continued taking this for the next 6 years and had no side effects I was aware of. I did forget to take it once in and while and had to double up another day, but my skin was finally clear and I got my confidence back.

It wasn’t until I became a vegan in February of 2016, that I came across a YouTube video about birth control and why this woman doesn’t take it anymore. I never really thought about how it was harming the natural rhythm of my body. I never researched the pill prior to taking it. I just knew that so many other girls my age were on it that it was normal. The pill is far from normal. You never ovulate when you’re on the pill and its just dumping fake, synthetic hormones into your body to basically make your body think it’s always pregnant. As soon as I learned all of this, I went off of if immediately. I was scared to go off of it because I didn’t want my acne and horrible cramps to come back. I convinced myself that eating vegan maybe has helped my skin enough over the past 4 months that my skin cleared up naturally, or maybe my acne has gone away with age.

Back to Normal.

So far, so good. I have been off the pill for 2 months now and maybe get a little blemish here and there, but my skin is still gorgeous. I still feel fine going out in public with no makeup on and hope it continues to stay like this. My period has been random though which is a bit frustrating. My first period off the pill only lasted 3 days and was extremely light. My second period lasted about 4 days with lots of spotting prior and some cramps that were nothing I couldn’t handle.

I also picked up the book “Taking Charge of Your Fertility,” by Toni Weschler- the 20th anniversary edition. This book is huge! There is so much information on reproductive health, natural birth control and pregnancy achievement (for when the time comes). I highly recommend you get a copy of this book if you want to learn more about what goes on inside your body. I have found this book to be so informative. High schools should really touch on more of this in health class so females are more aware of what is going on inside their bodies. I wish I knew all of this when I was younger, however am glad I’ve started to learn about it now. Next task for me is getting rid of tampons…
If you want to purchase Toni’s book you can click below and get it on Amazon.com.

*I also bough ovulation strips that I use occasionally along with the App “Ovia Fertility” that I use to track my period and when I’m ovulating. I think the app gives me a good sense of when I’m ovulating, however it’s always good to have a back up to test it and give me a little more security!