What happened to my face AND body when I got off Birth Control!

Those of you who have been keeping up with my blog posts for some time now, know that a few months ago I posted about the decision I made regarding my Birth Control. I wanted to get off of my Birth Control because I felt like I was experiencing a lot of unpleasant symptoms from the medication. I had been on birth control for over seven years and felt like it was time to give my body a break. When I did my research about what women can expect to experience when coming off of Birth Control, I found many different articles stating similar things.

Some women coming off Birth Control experienced extreme mood swings, hair loss, weight loss, and around month 2-3 experienced severe hormonal acne break outs even if they’ve never had acne in their life. If you think about it, it makes sense why your body would freak out. If your body has been relying on artificial hormones to keep itself regulated for years then you just remove those cold turkey, it’s bound to cause some craziness. I’ll be the first to say I completely underestimated the shit storm that could / would come from me getting off of Birth Control.

The first month off Birth Control I did not notice too much. One major thing I did notice though was my mood had drastically improved. I woke up feeling happier every day. I also wouldn’t get any headaches for entire weeks at a time (which was a huge deal). My skin remained clear, my weight remained the same, life was good.

THEN…. I hit month THREE of being off Birth Control.

Now, this is where shit got really crazy for me. I was losing weight pretty rapidly. I’ve always been slim but when I got on Birth Control I really started developing my “Grown Woman Body” as I like to call it lol. Weight gain is a huge side effect of Birth Control for many women, myself included. For me, weight gain was a blessing because I had always been so thin so I embraced that change. However, Once I hit month three off Birth Control I started dropping weight, fast. I never weighed myself at that point because I didn’t want to become obsessed with the number on the scale, but I’m pretty sure I lost at least 8 pounds. Which when you’re my size you can’t afford to lose that. I was not happy, to say the least. OHHH but the best was yet to come…

My face started breaking out HORRIBLY in Cystic Pimples. When I tell you every inch of my face was COVERED in acne, I’m not lying. Places I’ve never broken out in my life started to be taken over by huge deep painful pimples. It even started moving down to my neck and body (Which I’ve never had body acne in my life). It was clear I was experiencing the horrid three month hormonal shift that everyone was talking about when your hormones are all out of wack and going ape shit.

I had never felt more insecure, in my entire life. Yes, it sounds vain..but until you’ve had bright red PAINFUL cystic pimples covering your entire face please don’t tell someone how to feel about their skin. My face hurt to even touch. I could see people staring at my face all the time. It really took a toll on my emotions, paired with my weight loss, I really just wasn’t feeling beautiful.

I got with my Dermatologist and she recommended that I go back on the pill but this time try to slowly ween myself off instead of going cold turkey and sending my body into shock. At this point my acne had gotten so bad that I’m not going to lie, I would have rather taken the side effects from the pill. So, I got back on the pill and decided to take it consistently until the acne went away and then I would plan to slowly wean off. Now my acne is gone, my face is clear but full of scars, which I’ll take over pimples. I plan to begin the process of weaning off of the Birth Control soon but this time I’ll be prepared. My Derm’ is on standby, ready to help me combat any new friends that decide they want to make an appearance on my face.

My weight is slowly but surely picking back up, but I know I’ll just have to deal with the fact that I’m a Slim Jim forever and that’s okay lol. If any of you want to see my updated skincare routine now that my face is back clear to see how I’m healing my acne scars let me know and I’ll make a post for that. If you plan on getting off of Birth Control PLEASE do your research and be prepared for anything. I think even though I did my research I went into it a little more naive then I’d like to admit. Just know, it may not be an easy ride. Your emotions may be everywhere, your weight may be everywhere, and you are likely going to experience the worst acne of your life. It’s up to you how you want to handle it from there, and you only. If you decide that your life is much better on the pill then do that. We’ve got to stop judging women for what they choose to do with their bodies and their health and focus on our own!

As always, Thanks for reading <3 Don’t forget to subscribe, like, comment & share!

XoXo

SheisPoetryyy