Update: 3 Weeks Off Birth Control

Welcome back to the blog! If you didn’t catch my post about going off birth control a few weeks back, I’m making the transition of being off the pill after being on it for five years to prepare for our future when we decide to grow our family. I was anxious to start this transition in fear of what the side effects may be (such as a spike in my chronic migraines and inrease of ovarian cysts), but today’s post is an update on that!

First, click to read my post about going off birth control.

Alright guys, here’s how things have been three weeks in…

I have been EMOTIONAL. Maybe the most emotional I’ve ever been in my life. I can confirm though that some events currently going on in my life are a driving force in this and I may have been this emotional regardless of birth control being a factor, but I still wanted to mention it since it’s been part of my experience. For real, I don’t go too many days in a row without crying. It’s gotten better over time and the last few days have probably been the best so far, but I’m not going to lie, it’s been an overall pretty rough month. Needless to say, mood swings are an accurate symptom for me.

As for other symptoms, I haven’t had too many other than headaches during my first week, which I’ve been tracking in my Clue app. It’s early of course, but no spotting or signs of my period starting yet. I do feel like my boobs have shrunk a little bit, but that could be in my head. Part of me wishes I would have taken measurements or something because this is all so fascinating to me. 😂 According to my cycle when on the pill, I would normally start my period tomorrow. I’m really interested to see if it happens, and if it does, if it’s anything like my periods have been the past five years. I’m anticipating an increase in cramps for sure, but who knows.

Even with all the emotional turmoil (lol), I’m so happy to be going through this transition. Knowing that I’m preparing myself for our future, whenever that may be, gives me so much peace and excitement for what’s to come. I’ll be jumping for joy the day I get my period, so let’s just hope it doesn’t come with any crazy symptoms that birth control may have been keeping at bay all these years. I don’t know why I’m nervous about my period not coming back right away, but I just feel like that may be the case. We’ll see, I guess!

Additionally, I’ve decided to wean myself off my preventative migraine medication as well. I talked to my neurologist and she said most OBGYNs are fine with the particular medication I take, but she advised I talk to my own doctor about it. She said if I do decide to go off of it, that I should take it every other day instead of every single day for two weeks, then stop. I’m on day 7 now and I have seen/felt zero differences! I want my internal body to be as pure and drug-free as possible for when we try to have a baby, so I’m eliminating pretty much everything and it’s a huge relief so far that I haven’t had any bad symptoms.

Side note — I read about women starting to take prenatal vitamins (and other specific vitamins) before they start trying for a baby and during, and I was really curious what you guys know/think about this. If you’ve done this, how soon before you started trying did you begin taking prenatals? Or did you wait until you started trying? Are there any other vitamins/supplements you recommend taking during this time? I have no plans of doing this anytime soon, but I’m curious what you all have done!

Lastly, I’ve read/heard about women getting exams from their OBGYN specifically before trying to conceive. I always go to my regularly scheduled yearly appointments and what not, but I’m curious what value you may have gotten (if any) from one of these “preconceiving” appointments — especially if you’re not trying to rush the process on a specific timelime. Let me know!

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Well, that’s it for this personal update on my health and transition out of five years of birth control. I’m sharing all these details for people planning to go through the same thing or already have, and I’d love to hear about your experience — we’re in this together! Thanks so much for your time here on my blog and for kind of going through this journey with me. I always want my blog to reflect my life and what I’m going through, and this is one of those new chapters. Anyway, see you in my next post!