jtw226

Let me just say that I feel your frustration. I was on Ortho-tri-cyclen for about a year and a half, but started having breakthrough bleeding after a few months, my doc suggested Ortho Cyclen as it is the same pill, not the phasic type that the pills differ in hormone dosages. The breakthrough bleeding stopped. I need to say also that I have always had perfect 'china-doll' skin. No makeup, no bumps.. not even random ones. I started breaking out very rarely on both bc pills, my husband and I discussed whether or not bc pills were for us because my sex drive got shot down ... each month it steadily decreased. We researched and got info on natural family planning, which is not the doomed calender method. This nfp method makes you pay attention to your body's own natural cycle, by paying attention to your monthly discharge, temp changes you can predict when you're ovulating and when you're not. You either abstain during fertile times or use a condom. Which let me tell you after about a month of observing it was completely obvious when I was fertile and when I was not. .....WELL After being on bc pills for a total of 2 years and then coming off of them completely my face BLEW UP. Constant acne, deep painful ones and just all around clogged pores. I figured that after my body adjusted to being bc hormone free it would regulate. Well it hasn't I realized also that after I discontinued bc pills I'd gained a wopping 30 pounds. I was always thin... probably too thin and tried to gain weight all the way through college. I didn't realize that over the next 2 years my body was blowing up. I'm only 5 foot 3 and small boned so going from 105 to 135 was way obvious when looking back on photos. I almost gagged. SOOOO long story short, NFP worked great for me we've been doing that for a year and no babies! I have lost all but 10 pounds of the bcpill weight and my face is still horrid. I'm looking into getting on yasmin, haven't heard much bad from it other than major mood swings, i need to lose weight and clear up acne which people have said it does. nfp is perfect for us all except I can no longer stand going out in public with my face looking like it does. I'm majorly concerned about gaining weight and I already have 34 b cup which in my opinion is too big for me. huge boobs run in my family. Ortho also made me gain a whole 2 cup sizes, I went from a A to a C, now back to a B after a few months off. All I know is that ortho sucked for me, made my hormones all out of wack turned me into a blimp and wrecked my face. Ortho and ortho-tri had i believe 35 mcg of estro. yasmin has 30 and ortho-lo has 25. Good luck and I hope you get the info you're looking for!