I've been on Ortho Tri-Cyclen since I was 15, so I don't know if it affected my sex drive or not. I have noticed that I feel more like having sex at certain points in my cycle, though.

aaaahhhh.. bc + smoking = really dangerous!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Yes, it is. My mom had a pulmonary embolism caused by smoking while being on the pill. She no longer smokes and went off the pill, but now she has to be extremely careful about bruising, because it could cause a clot to form. Also, she's not allowed to have any elective surgeries. Oh, and she was only 32 when it happened, so it's not something that only happens to older people.

i used to take ortho cyclin back in the day....i'm getting ready to go back on it just for the hell of it. i was a fan, but my boobs got even bigger on it, so that's the only thing that makes me nervous about getting back on it. i need bigger boobs like i need a bigger a$$. :p

and i would just like to put this out there: i have known 5 girls to get pregnant on the shot. my ex's sister, a girl i had class with in college, a chick i worked with (she had TWINS), my friend's cousin, and another ex's ex-wife. so......just be careful on the shot.

and remember, you can catch more than a baby on the pill/patch/shot....so wrap it up!

They misunderstood some of my medical history... and so did I.

When I was little, I thought my mom had a stroke. She actually just had some really bad fainting spells. But I remember my dad sitting over her telling her that she had a stroke. So what did I put on my med history... that my mom had a stroke. I tried to clear it up later saying I had misunderstood my mom but they weren't having it.

I also mentioned something about high cholestoral... which I don't have... it was just elevated slightly from my last testing.

They said if they had my endocronologist clear everything up I could go on the pill. But the whole point of me going to PP in the first place was to not go to Kaiser because then my parents would know and they didn't at the time.

It was a big mess so I just went on depo. I like not having periods at all... quite convinient. But the weight gain hasn't been worth it.

I started out on Alesse but it just didn't work with my body for some reason. Then I switched to Loestrin and now I am on Yasmin. I lost weight after I started taking Yasmin but I don't know if that's from the BC or because I graduated college and stopped drinking so much and eating late at night. Lately I feel like I've been getting extra hormonal (i.e. b*tchy) the week before. I've thought about talking to my Dr. about Ortho Lo because I thought that might help. Has anyone else heard of drs. not prescribing it because of the failure rates like DWAlphaGam said? Thanks for info, by the way.

My SIL can attest to this. She's due in February with their little surprise because the patch failed.

I'd been through Orthocyclin, LoOvral and Desogin before I quit taking BCP. Now we chart to avoid and use condoms when I'm at my peak fertile time. So so so happy to not have the extra hormones running around my body--I have enough as it is!

My aunt told me that this was often because people will get the shot ever 3 months instead of every 3 cycles (a cycle being 4 weeks). But it made her bleed for 2 months straight (did not make her happy) so she went off of it after three shots.

i started taking ortho tri cyclen years ago, then my dr put me on OTC-lo for a year or so

I just found out that OTC is available in generic form now
so i had him switch me back to it because 25/month sucks ass
now i pay 10/month yay!!

i take tri sprintec now -- i will have to wait and see what if any side effects occur

i started bc when i was in college. don't remember what my first one was, but i had a lot of breakthrough bleeding so i stopped that one and was put on ortho cyclen. that also gave me breakthrough bleeding so they stepped me up to ortho TRI cyclen and that worked well. i went off of that after college b/c i couldn't afford it (even at planned parenthood) and i wasn't sexually active so i found it pointless.

well about 6 months ago my ob/gyn put me on ortho tri cyclen low for ovarian cysts. it helped reduce their sizes (i have three). i've been on that for the last 6 months and it works fine.

when i do have sex i ALWAYS use a condom. like most of you have said, i don't want a lil surprise to happen. but more importantly, you don't want to end up with some disease you can't get rid of. if you are in a committed relationship (like a lot of you are on here) then get tested together (if you haven't already) and decide from there. if you are not in a committed relationship, don't play russian roulet with your life. not worth one night of sex to have a lifetime of illness.

shelley j
sigma k

ps - this has been a public service announcement from yours truly :D

I use Yasmin and I really like it.

Before that I used Ortho Tricyclen and Ortho Lo...both of them worked ok for awhile and then eventually they would make me so sick that I couldn't go a day without throwing up. So while my PMS kind of sucks with this Yasmin stuff at least I am not puking all the time. :)

Also, I don't know if this has been said already but even if it has it can stand to be repeated. I read that some of you don't use condoms b/c you're on birth control but that does NOT protect you from STD's!!!! I think it's fine if you're married to not use them, but even if you have a boyfriend just please guys be smart about it b/c you never know 100% what could happen.

/soapbox :)

I got switched to Tri-sprintec too, and now I pay $5 a month rather than $20!

My HMO just switched me from Ortho-tri to Tri-Sprintec and Tri-Sprintec has made me a hormonal b*tch. Plus I had really bad cramps with my last period and I never got cramps on Ortho-tri.

I'm going to talk to my doc about trying Seasonale or OrthoLo.

People have gotten pregnant from OTC-Lo? Freaky! That's what I'm on.

I'm thinking of switching to the Nuva-ring because I don't want to run the risk of forgetting pills anymore. Anybody else on it?

RE: IUDs. I was thinking about getting one, but you can't use Instead if you have one, and I'm far too attatched to those things.