My story- I began as a normal teenage girl by the age of sixteen, my doctor recommended my mom put me in birth control. I began taking the pill
and remained on it for several years.
Fast forward to 23 and two babies later, I realized I needed to be on some form of contraception. Being a busy mom of two I didn’t want to take the risk of accidentally forgetting to take my pill and having a bad experience with the IUD, and nuva ring the nexplanon seemed like a good option for me.
I have currently been on the nexplanon for four years and have decided to have it removed for good.
DISCLAIMER: this is my personal experience with hormonal birth control, every woman’s experience is different and we at Auria Moon encourage all women to talk with their healthcare provider when considering switching birth control.
Let’s get the first question out of the way, no I’m not coming off birth control because k want to get pregnant. It’s the opposite actually. My reasons for wanting to ditch the nexplanon were purely for health and ethical reasons.
I’m the first couple of years of being on it I didn’t really experience any “bad” symptoms I had spotting and cystic acne in the beginning but it went away until towards the end (now!)
The truth is, the reason I’ve stayed on my birth control for so long is I was dead scared of getting pregnant again!
Back to the side effects- I’ve dealt with numerous events in my life that I think would have been handled a lot better if I hadn’t been taking these hormones. I’ve struggled on and off with depression and anxiety and it seems that my mental health “episodes” well call them have only gotten worse since being on the implant.
Now, I hate to use the word “hormonal” to describe my moods as it’s almost as insulting as calling a woman “hysterical” but I have definitely been out of whack for some time.
The science behind all this has confirmed that there is a link between birth control use and mental health matters. Something, that is still a subject not taken serious enough in my opinion.
Hopefully, by sharing my story with others and the more women who are transparent about their experience the more this will be studied.
However, I’m not solely saying the implant causes mood swings, but maybe I could have avoided some of these experiences if I had been off of it and more “Me” we will never know.
Besides the crazy mood swings, my absolute worst side effect was cystic acne. Which reared it’s ugly head once more toward the last two years of being on the Nexplanon.
I think it was exacerbated by COVID-19 and mask use (I’m a healthcare worker so I’m a mask nearly all the time) but it definitely began before then.
Cystic acne is the most severe type of acne (boil like bumps deep in the skin) and require aggressive treatments. I’ve tried nearly all of them, getting regular facials and derm a planing from a trusted esthetician, expensive skin care regimens, benzoyl peroxide face wash, clindamyacin, several rounds of doxycycline, you name it…. I’ve just about tried it.
I never had acne as a teenager, a few break outs here and there, sure but nothing like this.
Several painful red bumps dotted my chin and lower cheeks they itched and burned I had the skin of a teenage boy. Makeup would cover the redness but not the bumps and I was so afraid of scarring as I take good care of my skin.
After a visit to the dermatologist, I was put on a regimen of Spironolactone and tretinoin cream. This helped, but the Spironolactone seemed to increase my estrogen so now I was more moody than ever, and my breasts grew about 2 cup sizes in a matter of a month. I know there are worst side effects out there but it is still alarming when it happens nearly overnight.
I decided enough was enough and it’s time to go hormone free.
I will be detailing my experience coming off of it (I have my removal appointment set!) some of the health benefits to women of ovulation (we don’t ovulate on birth control and the period we have isn’t a real period!) as well as my plan and experience cycle syncing.
Stay tuned!
