Microgynon 30.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PILL.

After doing some extensive research on this pill, I've come to the conclusion that many women experience the same side effects that are less well documented in the leaflet and are actually side effects that are more damaging to everyday life than the ones that are listed.

Microgynon 30 is a contraceptive pill, like all contraceptive pills, they contain a fair amount of estrogen and progesterone (female hormones) to prevent ovulation every month, hence, preventing pregnancy. Side effects listed are things like weight changes, skin irritations, bloatedness, nausea, headaches, breast tenderness etc etc. Depression is sometimes listed but they really fail to highlight how damaging the depression can be.

Different women respond differently to medications but from a personal experience, microgynon made my life hell for 3 weeks. Within the 2nd week, I started to feel depressed, anxious and paranoid, the only thing distracting me from these feelings was exams. Nothing changed about my concentration but when nightfall came especially, I became a different person, I would doubt everyone and everything. My relationship became a little strained when it was comfortable before, I started doubting my boyfriend, questioning him for my own reassurance. I barely spoke to my parents, but they didn't suspect a thing because of exams, they thought I was working hard when in reality I was hiding away with my own depression and paranoia in my room. Things gradually got worse on my 3rd week, the pack was finishing anyway so I thought maybe symptoms might improve the longer I took the pill. I was wrong. I was inconsolable by the 3rd week, luckily I had done most of my revision the week before hence I didn't have a tonne of stress from exams but my relationship was stressing me out, I was only stressing myself out to be honest. I was paranoid, I had doubts about my feelings for my boyfriend, I felt like it hurt to be with him because of all these doubts I had. I cried about 3 times a day, I found myself crying to sleep every night during the week, I cried until I was too tired to cry anymore. I would wake up the next day, have some lunch then proceed to get back into bed, curl up and cry some more. My life was awful, a complete mess.

The pack ended on Thursday so after not taking a pill on Friday, I started to feel a little better. I took it upon myself to research about this pill and what led me into such bizzarre behaviour. I read about what different women had to say about microgynon 30 and I found pretty much the same responses in terms of depressive symptoms and paranoia. It was nothing like I'd ever experienced before - some reports even say that some women when assessed, had symptoms of clinical depression. I even heard that some women were turned away by their GP when they raised their concerns about feeling depressed, some even saying that it was "nothing to be worried about" and that these were all "normal" side effects associated with this type of pill. If my GP told me the same, I would demand to be switched onto a different brand at least, not turned away saying that it is normal.

So yeah, these are my experiences with Microgynon 30. Definitely not a contraceptive pill I would recommend or take again. If I were on this pill for longer, my life would be so different. The only benefits of this pill is that it cleared up my skin marginally and my breasts got bigger *shrugs* - definitely not benefits that I would put myself through that again for.