Back On Birth Control

[Dizzy Dame]

Hi Guys,

When I started lyme treatment, I went off my birth control because my doctor told me the anibiotics would make it stop working. Even after going off the antibioitcs, I stayed off the birth control.

But the day before yesterday I re-started it, and OMG, I feel great! It's night and day! My seizures have stopped, I'm out of bed and able to walk around, fold laundry, even do some light cooking on my own (and after nearly 3 weeks in bed, that's a HUGE deal).

I have no idea why the BC is helping, but it definitly is. Within 24 hours of taking my first pill I was out of bed...there's no other thing that could have caused such a rapid improvement.

I never knew how much it helped me before because I've been on it since I was a teenager, and haven't had a break from it until recently, but it definitley makes a huge difference in my health/symptoms.

I just wanted to post this because if the BC is such a huge help for me, maybe others here would be helped by it!

-Lauren

[Rachel]

Lauren,

That is wonderful news! I'm so glad to hear that you are feeling better! I'm sure not perfect or normal, but that is great that you're able to get out of bed!!!

I've tried tons of meds, but birth control is one that I've never tried. Maybe I should. Is there a particular one that you found to be better than others?

Does your doctor have any idea why it makes such a difference? I know how it can help girls feel better because it alleviates the worsening of symptoms before/during a period. But I've never heard of it helping so much overall.

So glad to hear your good news!

Rachel

[Dizzy Dame]

Hey Rachel,

I'm on ortho-trycyclin low, but am thinking about switching to a higher hormone BC when I go back on antibiotics.

Also, I haven't talked to my doc yet about it, but I see her next week and will definitley bring it up. I honestly have no idea why the extra hormones are helping so much, but they are definitley helping!

I'd also give it a shot with the BC if you're thinking about it. The good thing about the pill is if you react badly to it, it'll be out of your system within 24 hours, so you really don't have much to lose.

Hugs,

Lauren

[Rachel]

Thanks for that info, Lauren. Also, if you don't mind sharing I'd be really interested to hear what your doctor has to say next week.

Has anyone else here felt dramatically better overall (not just once a month) while on birth control?

[pamyla]

Hi Lauren, That is great news that you are feeling better! I know lyme can really mess up your hormones, so maybe the BC is giving you something you need?

Thanks for sharing your success - I'm about to start taking some progesterone cream myself, and I've been a bit nervous about it. Here's hoping for more energy as well

Pam

[yogini]

Hi Lauren,

I am also on Orth Tri Cyclen Lo. I started it last year, and I think it helped a lot in my improvment. I made the mistake of stopping it in Nov because I think it was screwing up my sleep; it probably was, but the benefits outweigh the side effects for me anyway. I think it helped me to even out my hormones and also to retain water. I wasn't able to re-start until the end of Jan. I wish I was having as much luck as you - re-starting it has temporarily put me in an even deeper POTS hole. I started having crazy sypmtoms the day after I started taking it again. (Annoying, because I didn't really have any side effects the first time around.) I'm hanging in there because I think things will even out after another cycle or two. Glad to hear you're doing better, though!

-Rita

[bttrflyamby1981]

Glad you find BC such a big help!

[DancingLight]

Lauren,

That is good news. I have tried to stop the pill too and it was so bad, I went back on it. And, you know I just recently tried to have a period and it was HORRIBLE! The hormones definitely do something...maybe something we don't understand yet.

I feel strongly about this b/c so many folks on the board have taken the pill and seen such improvments.

You needed this bit of strength! Yeah!

Can you explain more about why you stopped the B/C? My lyme doctor never said anything about this to me? I'm not sexually active, so having 'protection' is not an issue (as I know abx can interfere with this part of the pill), but was he referring to it not being 'effective' in other ways? Like not getting the right amount of hormones?

Rachel,

So many of us have had a lot of relief with taking the pill. I'm heading to dinner, but maybe try a search? If you don't get anywhere, let me know and I'll see if I can find some old posts. This topic has come up a lot, so you might not get the level of responses you might like to make an informed decision. Try typing in as a topic search--oral contraceptives, birth control, the pill, period, 'that time of month'--see if it gets you anywhere. You can even try a post search under my name DancingLight for Alesse and see if it leads you to a thread on this topic....also, maybe just 'hormones' would bring up one of the discussions. Don't know if this will help. But I would say that soooo many of us do better on the pill.

Rita,

Sorry that re-starting the pill is so hard for you. One little 'trick' I learned in teaching about taking the pill is that sometimes just the time of day we take it can make a difference in side effects. Are you taking it in the morning or evening? Just switching this could possibly lessen something like nausea. See if perhaps this helps with it interferring with your sleep also? It's worth a shot.

Later alligators!

Emily

[Dizzy Dame]

I've been doing a bit of research myself and it turns out that estrogen (one of the main components in birth control) can act in a similar capacity as florinef, by helping trick the kidneys into retaining water and salt...who knew?

So that's probably why we feel better when we're on the pill.

Emily,

I'm glad the pill has helped you!

As for stopping BC, my doctor didn't tell me to, but I stopped it myself because I was having so much breakthrough bleeding. I'm going to try to find a BC that won't interact with my antibiotics in the future

Did your doctor say that antibiotics just affect the contraceptive part of the pill? And not the hormones? If that's true, maybe I should talk to my doctor about that.

[MomtoGiuliana]

Yes, I was going to say that the big benefit of BC pills is that it makes you retain fluid. That's why so many women with POTS feel better during pregnancy. For some reason this is not the case for everyone though. I cannot tolerate BCPs and I was quite sick in late pregnancy with POTS. I felt worse and worse as my pregnancy progressed. I seem to be highly sensitive to hormonal changes--it seems to trigger POTS for me.

Katherine

[flop]

re BC pill and antibiotics - a lot of antibiotics interfere with the oral contraceptive pill because they alter the bacteria in your gut and affect how you absorb the pill from your gut. (In the same way a lot of antibiotics give you diarrhoea - everything goes through you faster so you don't absorb things as well as usual).

As you are absorbing less of the pill you get less of the hormones in it - in some people this causes breakthrough bleeding. Drs should always warn you to use alternative contraception if you are sexually active.

Being on antibiotics does reduce the efficacy of the pill but you are probably still absorbing enough of the hormones to benefit from their fluid retaining side-effects.

Glad to hear that you've found something that is helping your symptoms.

Take care and keep standing,

flop

[yogini]

Hi Em,

I take the BCPs in the am. Would it be better to take them at night? I'm about to start a new pack tommorrow, although I'm wondering whether I should wait until next month to tinker with the time...only because right now I am playing aroud with meds, compression hose, etc. in an effort to get back on my feet.

Thanks for your suggestion, especially since you're in the hole these days too.

Rita

[DancingLight]

Rita,

I take mine after lunch...

I don't know what to tell you in terms of switching the time. For those who get nausea as a side effect they often do worse taking the pill in the morning.

There's no reason you have to switch now while messing with other stuff. I always, say, go with your gut and also try to keep the number of variables you are messing with at one time to a minimum so you know what's doing what!

You don't have to switch times at the beginning of a pack, you can do it any time. You can also just sort of gradually work on changing the time of day when you are ready. (i.e. when you are ready to see if time of day matters, try lunchtime, for a few days, then try dinner time...etc.)

Sorry I don't have a clearer answer...I'm going from just learning about this over the years not a lot of solid medical evidence. I just know that we taught the young girls at the clinic that sometimes mornings were harder in terms of nausea etc.

Lauren,

So funny...you just asked ME the exact questions I thought I was asking you but I must not have been clear! Sorry. That is what I was wondering....what you asked. B/c I don't care about pregnancy protection, I just care that I get the hormones. I do have much more breakthrough bleeding on the abx, but also b/c I suppress my periods.

If you get an answer let me know!

I wonder if the NuvaRing would be a better choice? Would that make us absorb the hormones better, if what flop said is true. B/c the NuvaRing doesn't go through the gut. My ANS doctor and I just talked about switching to it for a different reason (no milk in it) but he said he'd had mixed results from patients using it--but he didn't expand on that in his email, so I wanted to follow up with him more before making the switch.

Food for thought, I suppose...

Okay, MUST lie down.

Emily

P.S. WAIT...so are those of you talking about the pill acting like florinef saying that it has nothing to do with hormones for us????? I'm so confused.

[Dizzy Dame]

Em,

I was saying that estrogen can act a little like florinef with helping retain sodium and water, I've pasted the portion I read below that alerted me to this. I hope it anwers your question

"Estrogen in high doses is known to cause weight gain especially that due to fluid retention (1). The more estrogen there is in a pill, the more tendency to gain weight such that a 50 mcgm pill will result in more weight gain than a 35 mcgm pill (1).

The mechanism of action is probably direct stimulation by the estrogen in pills of kidney substances called renin-angiotensin that cause water retention. The water retention then causes sodium (salt) retention. A lower estrogen level pill, e.g., 20 mcgm, will help reduce weight gain due to fluid retention.This was confirmed in a more recent study with 30 mcgm pills in which there was essentially no difference in weight gain or weight loss between the placebo group and the oral contraceptive group (1). Again, however, 30% of these women had a weight gain of more than 1 lb but the net result was the same in the control group. Those who did have weight gain had increased fat but no difference in fluid retention amounts indicating that fluid weight gain may be less of a problem with the newer, lower estrogen pills."

PS. I got the above information at the following link http://www.wdxcyber.com/ncontr11.htm

[yogini]

Emily,

I think there are multiple benefits of BCPs - shorter periods, less bleeding, milder PMS, but the biggest thing for me is the increase in blood pressure. I think estrogen causes the kidneys to retain salt thus increasing blood volume and in turn BP - also causing some people to gain weight. I think this is also the reason why regular folks not on the pill get bloated around the time of their periods. I know florinef also causes the kidneys to retain salt - think this is the primary function of florinef, but more of a side effect of estrogen.

-Rita

[Rachel]

Em, I did a search and found some info. I'll still need more info, but I'll have to search more another day...it is bed time!

Thanks for the help,

Rachel

[flop]

Hi Emily,

the POTS help part of the pill is due to the hormones.

Many normal women (i.e. those that don't have POTS) get fluid retention with swollen ankles, waistbands too tight etc just before a period. In fact some women use diuretics (water pills) to get rid of the extra fluid at that time of the month.

I don't know what exactly about oestrogen and progestrogen causes the fluid retention but it can be a useful side-effect of the pill.

Florinef works with some of the hormones that affect the kidneys. It makes the kidneys reabsorb sodium from the "urine" and that pulls water back from the "urine" into the bloodstream.

Two different types of hormones that both end up causing useful water retention.

I hope that lot makes sense,

flop

Sorry I took so long typing my reply that there were three other posts in the meantime with much clearer info than mine. I haven't had time to do any research just typing what I can remember.

Stay standing,

flop

[lavender]

This is really encouraging that you are feeling some relief on the BC!!! It's crazy how changing your hormones can effect things so much, in one way or another. Has anyone had the opposite results from BC? I took it a few years ago for a short time, because I was sick and my periods had quit. It ended up making me so so much worse.

[DancingLight]

Lavender,

There are a few people on the board who have had your problem--not tolerating the pill or Depo. So, you are definitely not the only one who has had this experience.

Rachel,

Let us know what info you still need!

Emily