Feeling depressed after stopping the birth control pills?

Hi All,

I have been sitting here reading the postings that date back to 2007. It is amazing to me -- all the difficulties so many women have experienced going off the Pill. I am here to say that my experience has been no different.

I went off the Pill 2 months ago after taking it diligently for 13 years. I don't want to get pregnant, I was merely curious to see what my body is like in its "natural" state. It has been a very rough 2 months. I've experienced weight gain, severe back muscular pain, mental fuzziness, slight depression. Often I find myself watching TV or reading and I am in a completely different world. Not necessarily depressed, but completely distracted, not thinking about anything specific, just "out there"! As someone who has never been prone to depression or had attention issues, this has been very frustrating. At the start of each week, I have told myself that this would be the week I'll "get back on track" -- as an avid excerciser, I haven't run on a regular basis in over 2 months. I woke up a month ago and couldn't walk because my back had gone out on me. My doctor suspected that it was from going off the Pill -- she said she has seen so many patients come in with back problems after going off the Pill.

On the flip side of all of this, I wouldn't go back on the Pill in a million years to undo any of these negative side effects. I am confident that my body will find its way. I've been reading on this post that some of you have experienced symptoms for up to a year. I am willing to wait that long. Despite these difficult symptoms I'm experiencing, I also feel very natural. It doesn't feel forced, it feels like I'm really here, that I'm getting to know the real me. The last time I experienced my body without the Pill, I was 20 years old -- I want to know myself as an adult as I really am.

I want to thank all of you who have posted your experiences with such honesty -- this has been a huge comfort simply knowing that my experience really isn't bad, it's the reality of going off the Pill. I had no idea the day I decided not to start my new pack of Pills what I was embarking upon. And I can't wait to see how I turn out when my body has fully returned.

Wow this is a relief.....
i'am 18 years old..i have been on tri sprintec birthcontrol for two years...a month and a half ago i lost my pack in this middle of a pack...two weeks later when i had found my pack i had already began having the similiar symptoms you all have..i started breaking out bad...hard to sleep....faster heartbeat...panic attacks...i went to dr.s which all said its rare to have a horomonal imbalance but possible i went to the ER several time wore 24 hour heart monitor had blood enzyme test and all normal thank goodness..my dr.s told me to get back on them but to wait til after my first period which i did and i have now been back on them for a month...i can tell i difference between today and three weeks ago but it is still hard VERY hard...iam just hoping that it continues to get better how long should this last??
i have a 2 year old son who i love dearly and i just wanna get better,they tried to put me on anti depressants but i was skeptical of this my last dr said that my birthcontrol should even everything back out

Ok, I'm back to give you the latest update :)
July and August have had some major improvements. I spent a lot of July crying - I stopped the up and down mood swings apart from PMT time, but I found myself wanting to cry every day - only a little bit when I had too much time to think.

August was a big improvement, no more crying :) I can get very cranky during PMT time, but I would say I'm almost 100% back to normal. I actually feel happy and cheerful most of the time and I recognise myself as the person I was before all this c**p started.

So, timescales approx 9 months to get back to normal after 13 years on the pill. I will never, ever go back and have changed to a diaphragm for contraception. No hormones!

Good luck to the rest of you who are suffering, it will end and you will get back to your old self in time.


Guest wrote:

Guest wrote:

Guest wrote:

Ok, I thought I'd give an update on how things are going as one of the things I really want to know is how long this will last, but few people have posted updates..

Summary - 13 years on the pill constantly, stopped 18th Dec 08
January - I was a mess, lots of the physical symptoms such as tachycardia, high bp etc. Very foggy brain, very low concentration levels, found it difficult to complete a full day at work. Constant mood swings. Low appetite.

Mid/End of Feb - The physical symptoms suddenly disappeared. Felt a huge amount better as I could concentrate and could complete my days at work. Work colleagues commenting on the change in me. Still lots of mood symptoms.

March - Some gradual improvements in moods and mood swings. The mood swings were less severe, but still there. Also hightened emotional state, crying a lot at anything vaguely emotional. Worrying about things, sense of impending doom, euphoria.

Mid April - Gained control over emotions, able to think more clearly about things, able to not let things get to me, my mind is also quiet (it has been chuntering incessently for months). No feelings of impending doom, no euphoria, no constant worry.

Things still wrong - still lacking enthusiasm, my usual lust for life/enjoyment and don't have my old level of self-confidence.

There have been many days when I've thought I was going out of my mind. There have been many days when I've thought I was never going to get any better. There have been many days when I've considered just not trying to solve the problem and just going on anti-depressants in the hope it will make me feel better.

Re-reading this thread in its entirety helps because it reminds me that other people have gone through the same thing. Keeping a mood diary helps because I've felt like I'm not getting better but reading through the previous months diary, I could see improvements.

Hopefully the things I'm still missing will come back in the next month or so.

I hope this will provide some help to people going through the same thing.

Well its now the start of June. I would like to say I feel back to my old self, but unfortunately I feel far from it still.

I would say I have gained some enthusiasm for life back which is wonderful. There are things I can enjoy doing now, which I had no enthusiasm for before. With this came some of the self confidence I used to have and there are many days when I feel like me.

The down side - I still have some very bad days, but these seem to be less frequent. In some ways I think I find these harder to deal with now, because I'll have a week or so where I feel great, I feel like me and I'm certain I'm better and over all this rubbish. Then I'll be in a terrible depressive mood (usually lasts only an hour or so if that) and I feel incredibly frustrated and annoyed that I'm back in that place.

Overall, I feel that I'm quite often in a hightened emotional state. This means that little things can cause me to cry - its stupid stuff that doesn't make me sad, but the reaction is to cry :) It can be embarassing.
Lately I've wondered if the pill depressed/flattened my emotions for 13 years and part of this process is learning how to deal with real emotions?

The upside is I'm confident that I will get past this. It just won't remedy itself in my timescales that I want and patience has never been my strong point.

I hope this helps?

Ok, so now we are at the end of June and there have been big improvements. I'm almost back to my old self, and just seem to get the odd moments. PMT can see me getting pretty angry about nothing, but generally 95% of the depression type stuff has gone.
I think by the end of July I'll be pretty much over it all. It is a massive relief to be free of it, so 7/8 months seems to be the time scales for me to get over it.
Good luck to all of you :)

ps: to Lauren, I'm relieved that I didn't go down the anti-depressant route, but part of me does wonder if I would have made it easier on myself if I had. So I really don't know the answer to that question.

is anybody having a stomach cramped or gastric problem?

wow it took you 9 months for fully recovered. at that times do you have any problems such as stomach cramps or gastric problem?

I have been on the pill for the past 20 years. I decided to go off it b/c i was convinced it was why I was overweight.

It has been 3 months since stopping and it has been the worst 3 months of my life. I have GAINED weight despite diet/exercise. My sex drive has not gotten any better -- in fact, I think it has gotten WORSE. My skin looks horrible and I have zits, which I never got on the pill. I feel exhausted and overwhelmed all the time. And the worst of all are my moods. I have become completely irrational - I scream at my husband for no reason, I snap at people, I cry all the time -- my moods vary from hour to hour.

Atleast when I was ON the pill, my moods were steady. I am running back to Femcon as soon as my period comes -- obviously it wasn't the pill making me gain weight -- it was what I was putting in my mouth. I'm so thankful for an understanding husband -- we argued for 3 hours last night and argued again this morning and I was late for work. He wanted to end the argument but I kept pushing it and walking around after him yelling at him --- that is not me at all.

Can't wait to get back on the Pill.

I am so thankful to have found this sight too!!! I have been driving my poor boyfriend (who is a medical resident) crazy. About two weeks ago I decided to get off of Yasmin after taking it for almost two years. I was getting very scary hot flashes (I am only 33) and also had a family friend get diagnosed with blood clots that went to her lungs... that was enough to send me running. Right before I got off, I was also having dizzy spells and got diagnosed with a bad sinus infection. I took antibiotics which helped. However, now, two weeks off the pill, I am getting dizzy again, back of the head/neck headaches, and that foggy feeling that everyone was describing... and ready to cry at the drop of the hat at times. I was ready to go get an MRI to test for MS! Still probably will, but this site calmed me down and has given me hope. Either way, I am happy to be off of those pills!

I got off birth control last month after being on it for 5 years. My estrogen level is "extremely low" now according to my doctor. I am 22 and I'm having hot flashes every single day! My symptoms include: hot flashes, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and loss of appetite. I think this is all because of getting off the pill and having such low estrogen. I went to the endo and he said my estrogen level should be up to normal in 3 months...I really hope so because I am suffering so much. The hot flashes are the worse!

Has anybody else gotten hot flashes not related to menopause?

I am assuming that the hot flashes are definitely due to low estrogen which is why. I don't know anyone who has, but I know that it's normal for your situation. Does that help you at all?

Hey girls.
Great site.....looks like it ain't easy going off of the Pill....and it's probably more difficult the longer you've been on it. I haven't seen the following two things posted here, so i'll post them. But I advise that if you think about looking into one of the products that you do some research and assess whether it applies to you. I've recently come off birth control too....feeling dizzy, depressed...it's only been a month, so i may have more side effects to deal with in the near future. But one thing i'm thinking of trying is Chaste Berry (aka Vitex). It's a natural herb that apparently is good when withdrawing from the birth control pill. Either you can take it in tablet form or in tea or in a tincture. It needs to be taken consistently though for at least one month...and there are warnings of increased fertility when on it...As I said i haven't started taking it, but if i do i will post how i do with it. Check it out -- lots of information about Chaste Berry on google. The other thing that might help women is natural progesterone cream. This is also something i'm considering and haven't done as much research on it as i have about Chaste Berry. But i know that it has helped some women. So if you think that may help you, again, check it out. My experience is to educate myself about everything going into my body and not just to take one person's opinion (even a doctor).

I think that there are natural options to help stabilize our hormones as we endure this drastic change from "synthetic birth control pill" to "au natural". Good luck

I think that experiencing depression is fairly normal so I hope that everyone is doing okay with it. Has anyone got a story about how they're doing now after quitting that is positive? I would like to hear!

Hi all



Another update - i still get PMT, but I am getting a lot better at recognising that moodiness and can pull myself out of it. I would say there are elements of me that are completely different after having gone through this which is taking some adjustment.

I no longer get unhappy about things - I might get upset and cry over nothing now and then, but I don't get that feeling of pointlessness or overwhelming unhappiness anymore. I just cry for a minute then get over it. I'm thinking this will slowly fade away completely.



I've occasionally had ovary pain during or after my period which can be downright annoying and I can still have nausea during that time too. But its all relatively mild and bearable.



On a more positive note - I haven't had a single migraine since February. Ive only had about 2 headaches since then too. it might be completely unrelated, but I haven't had a single cold or flu in a year now.

Remember - things only get better :)

This was a great forum to find. I had the same problems described here. I have always been a very happy, easy go lucky person who never had any problems with depression. I was on birth control for 10 years and then went off of it because we were starting to think about having a family. About three weeks after going off of the pill I started suffering from extreme anxiety, depression, and panic attacks. I pretty much hated leaving the house and ANYTHING would set me off -even loud music. I then fell into extreme depression and was questioning life. My husband suggested I see my doctor, and they did blood tests and found nothing wrong with me and suggested anti-depressants. Knowing that we wanted to start a family I wanted to stay away from anti-depressants. I cut off all coffee, alcohol, sugars, etc and started eating all natural foods and doing yoga to calm down. It took about 3 months but I'm finally feeling myself again. I still feel not quite back to normal but I really did feel like I was going crazy and my life was spiraling out of control and there was nothing I could do to stop it. For anyone experiencing that now, just know that you can make it through it and your body will find its hormonal balance soon! Thanks for the posts!

I am new to the site, but it sounds like I have come to the right place. I feel so bad for all of you ladies because I know how bad it feels and how sometimes you feel like a total lunatic and nobody understands you. I stopped my BCP about 6 weeks ago (after taking it for 3.5 years), and the last 4 weeks have been a nightmare! Originally I was on Ortho-tri-cycline lo, but the last ten months I have been on Microgestin FE 1.5/30. The reason I quit is because the microgestin made me very emotional’ I use to describe it as, “I am not depressed or anything, I just want to cry sometimes”. I decided to take a break for a month before I see my gyno and try to switch to a different brand. After I stopped, the first 2 weeks were awesome (I was on cloud 9), but then I started to have some dizziness followed by severe chest pains/heart palpitations (as someone else described it), my arms would shake, I couldn’t sleep at night, and I couldn’t eat. The doc said there is nothing wrong with me, just an abnormal heart beat and a slightly leaky heart valve that I was born with…. However, things have been getting worse. Now I have lost 15 pounds unintentionally, I want to cry all the time, I can’t stop my thoughts from racing, I’ve had points were I’ve almost quit grad school, quit my job, and doubted my awesome relationship with my boyfriend of 4 years (he has been so kind thru all of this, but now I even feel like this craziness will lead me to quit him). I feel like I have lost my mind and I don’t know what to do anymore. I feel helpless, and I always just want to sleep all day so that my mind can rest. Needless to say, I will not be going back on BCP’s ever again! All of this is not worth it.

Per my mother’s advise, I start taking fish oils, vitamin B complex (stress formula), and primrose oil. I am not sure if it’s helping, but I will keep you posted. I went to the gym today for the first time and ran for 30 minutes, but I don’t think that helped any. I am contemplating if I should see a mental health specialist, but perhaps I can fight this on my own. Any advice on how to get through this? I tried reading a few books about keeping a positive attitude, and they work for about 30 minutes after, and then I start freaking out again. I don’t think my problem is with staying positive, I think it is the fact that I feel like I am loosing my mind. I can’t even watch tv anymore because the bad things I see on there start cycling in my head and I start to freak out.

to the guest who posted before me:

I went through the same exact things as you and all the others on this site. I stopped bc a year ago (oct 08) and honestly 99% of my symptoms have gone away but that 1% still keeps me from having the life I once had. I no longer have bad headaches, insomnia, or anxiety or feeling like I'm losing my mind...I gained back the 10 lbs I lost and overall am doing much better. However, my hair is an absolute disaster...a considerable amount has fallen out and what is remaining feels like "old lady hair" :-( its brittle, dry, wont take color, doesnt curl anymore, zero shine, etc...I could cry a mississippi river just talking about my hair because my friends used to say I had "goddess hair", thats how thick and shiny and healthy it was. My skin is also a mess...I've always had vibrant and particularly oily skin that I had to blot a few times a day with those oil blotters but now I find myself moisturizing with vaseline at night thats how DRY my skin is...I see more wrinkles around my eyes and overall see the aging process quicken due to the hormonal imbalance. Another thing (and I"m curious if anyone else has this) thats different is my eyes and vision. I constantly feel like my eyes are really strained and tired...no matter how much sleep I get, I wake up with this heavyness near my eyes...I am also very sensitive to sunlight now...I practically need sunglasses even if its cloudy or raining...I'm tired all the time and feel worn down. Its been a year since I got off the pill and I feel almost hopeless for the remaining 1% of myself to come back--I'm so afraid that I've damaged my body for good. I truly hope all of us get our lives back and our SELVES back from this horror...hang in there ladies, I have faith in us. In the meantime can someone let me know if they too are experiencing the vision, fatigue and hair issues?