I'm on Ortho-Tricyclen and i love it even though I have gained weight
My experience with cramps has been the same as most of you. Once I got off the pill the cramps and heavy bleeding came back just as bad or maybe even worse.
I
was on Alesse for awhile but it really messed with me emotionally. It made me really angry for some reason. I've also been on Nordette but my doc took me off of it due to weight gain.
If you don't need the pill for bc reasons then try the anaprox. I've heard that it works very well.