The Truth About The Pill

[MaxAloysius]

Alrighty, well I'm very new here, and have spent the last few days trawling through the threads, and what I've seen a lot of is people saying they wouldn't touch the pill with a ten foot pole. Well, I'm here to try and shed some light on something I think a lot of you have been gravely misinformed of

I started getting my monthlies when I was eleven, and has a really bad time with them. I would have them for sixteen to twenty days with eight days of blessed cleanliness inbetween, and excruciating agony. As such I was put on the pill, for the purposes of regulation, which when fixed to the right dose did the trick.

Skip to five years down the track when I decided I would no longer stand to be female, I researched just what the pill was doing to me, and whether it was a good idea to stop. What I found out is something I'm not sure many of you know. Yes the pill is filled with eostrogen, but what that does is stop the bodies production of it. The body registers that eostrogen is coming in from somewhere, and the factory shuts down, feeling that it is no longer necessary. What this actually results in is slightly LOWER than regular eostrogen levels. That's right, it LOWERS the level of eostrogen in your body.

Not only that, but when asking my doctor if there was anything I could take to stop my period, she told me to simply stop taking the sugar pills. I was told this by a qualified doctor! Her advice for me was that I simply skip the sugar pills not for one month here and there, but all of the time. She warned me that every five to six months I may get breakthrough, at which point I was to let the monthlies take their course, before returning to the sugar pill-free diet. I have been following her advice for almost a year now, and in that time have had one regular cycle. I've gone MONTHS without having the monthlies, and it's safe and won't cause any problems.

She told me there was no proof that anything bad could be caused by this, and that as I would be having my inards removed eventually there was no need to worry anyway.

I would recomend going on the pill to any transguy who wants freedom from the monthlies because it's so safe and liberating, it's amazing!

HOWEVER! I will state this so that there can be no confusion! If you are very young, when you first take the pill it can make your chest a little larger, and your face a little rounder. All of which will be cleared up with T and a binder later in life anyway, but if I don't say it someone may point the finger.

I hope I helped, and haven't somehow reposted something that's already been said!

Thanks guys

[Fie]

I have a question. I too take the pill (forget which brands, starts with an M I think) it's the one that has sugar pills in it. Now I never take them anyways. I Find them useless lol so I just start taking the pill against after the Red Death passes. Im a bit confused about what you said, did your doctor say to, after you finish the pills and hit the sugar pills, immediately start taking the pill again? So in other words, take the pill every day with no break where the sugar pills would be? If you could answer this for me i'd be super thrilled =)

[MaxAloysius]

Yes Sebastian, that's what I meant I take the pill every single day, with no breaks or sugar pills inbetween.

And to Kvall, you raised excellent points. I'm about to go to school, so I don't have the time right this second, but I know when I was doing my research on this that I found a very good source. When I have the time I will look it up again and let you know. And I understand what you're saying about the breast growth, but I've known a lot of people who experience none, or very little, and I've never met anyone who gained more than a slight, and I mean SLIGHT increase. Most of what you hear is extreme cases. But still a very good point

If it's a concern for anyone, then of course there is no need to take the pill. But I've known trans guys who were so concerned with their monthlies that they became suicidal and were trying to get hold of drugs without a doctors guidance. I'm simply posing that the pill is an excellent and SAFE option for stopping the monthlies, for any who find they simply can't stand it, or for those who like me may have already been on it

[Sharky]

From 15 to 21 I took birth control non stop without taking the sugar pills. Every few months I would have break through bleeding and stop to have a period. Which was a lot better then before. Like the OP I started getting them at 11 and pretty much had them most of the time. I think birth control certainly does affect your hormone levels. I had naturally high T before starting them. While I was on them my doctor wouldn't test my levels she said you can't get an accurate reading. At first going on them was great. But for the last 3 years my head hurt all the time and I got migraines every week. A few months ago I decided to stop taking birth control. Now I don't get headaches nearly as much. I don't know if it's just my natural T levels climbing or what, but I have noticed a strength increase. An hour a go I was carrying 2 bags of soil at a time like it was nothing. They weighed 40-50lbs each. So thats 80-100lbs a go.

[insideontheoutside]

The "truth" about the pill is most likely that it's different for everyone - just like every other drug that the legal pushers come out with. I do have a very different viewpoint on pharmaceuticals, but besides that, there's a lot of reasons to not go on the pill as well. If you're having some legit issue with the reproductive area then it needs to be addressed somehow, but telling everyone to just get on the pill because some doctor says there's, "no proof that anything bad could be caused by this," (when there's evidence to the contrary) isn't very sound advice. And I'd personally trust most medical doctors about as far as I could pick them up and throw them.

There are a LOT of reasons why women since the 70's have been told to take the pill - or have wanted to take it on their own. I've know a number of women who have been on them long term and continued to have problems. They continue taking them in the hope the problems will eventually go away. That kind of "logic" just boggles my mind. If something isn't working for you, why do you keep taking it? Two friends of mine were on birth control to actually prevent birth and guess what happened to them? They got pregnant. Still a couple more tried taking birth control and one ended up with a serious blood clot she was hospitalized for 3 days for (doctor determination was that it was caused by her bc pills - one of the side effects was blood clot) and the other experienced a rapid decline in overall health, which luckily reversed once she stopped taking them. Come to think of it I know one female friend who takes birth control and says she has no problems with it. Could be a fluke that I just seem to know a lot of people who have had problems.

Yes, there can be a lot of side effects (from small annoyances to stroke and death). There's currently a class action lawsuits against some brands of birth control because of higher side effects and risks than were stated. Doctors have also been preaching for years that taking the pill lowers some cancer risks. Yet everyone I know who's had or died from breast or female reproductive cancers (and there have been 8 people to date) took the pill for more than 10 years. So much for that. My opinion is that a lot of the statistics are not accurate.   

There's conflicting research both for and against. So my opinion is that no, the pill is not ALWAYS safe and there's clear evidence to back that.

[Fie]

Thankyou for the clarification =)

Also thought i'd put in my two cents on the breast growth thing. I started the pill maybe a year ago? I have experienced no growth in my breasts. I do have very large breasts anyways but I can safely safe i've noticed no increase and if anything the possibility of slightly increased estrogen doesn't bug me to much because by being on the pill, I no longer have to spend a week, once a month in so much pain and disgust that I can't go to work or school.

[ilanthefirst]

I figure this is a relevant place to put this information, but the deal with combined hormonal birth control (containing estrogen and progestin) is that each brand name is a different type of progestin.  Of course everyone reacts differently to each type, but if you're aiming to get some of the effects of testosterone, here's a site that rates each type of progestin on its androgenic activity: http://www.wdxcyber.com/ncontr13.htm.  It's a little outdated and doesn't contain some brands that only came out recently, and the brand names are how they're marketed in the US, with different names in other countries, but it might be helpful to those trying to "game" hormonal birth control.

More on topic, the idea that the total level of estrogen is lower on combined hormonal birth control than off seems extremely suspect.  Estrogen is what increases the chances of serious health risks on the pill, namely blood clots.  If it weren't increased on the pill, then taking the pill would decrease that risk.  (For those considering taking the pill for any reason, unless you have a history of blood clot or a condition that increases your risk for it, I wouldn't be too concerned about the increase, as with most brands, it's a very small increase compared to the rest of the population.)

insideontheoutside, nothing's 100% effective; either your friends were part of the 0.3% for whom the pill doesn't work or they were part of the 8% that take it imperfectly and lose at roulette. . .  Also, the data on cancers show the pill is mostly a wash.  Because the pill decreases the amount of uterine lining that's built up and keeps the ovaries from ovulating, it decreases the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancers.  But the increased estrogen in the body ups the risk of liver and breast cancer.  Like any medication, people should do take into account the risks and benefits that will be specific to them!

[Bahzi]

I agree with insideontheoutside, the pill works differently for different individuals, but I would be VERY cautious about getting on it simply to get rid of menstruation, because it won't even have that effect for everyone, even if you skip the sugar pills.  I was given various BC pills recently to attempt to lessen my endometriosis symptoms, but I actually bled worse and longer on the combo estrogen and progesterone pills than my normal heavy periods, and then when I was prescribed the pill form of the birth control shot, Provera (the strongest progesterone, medroxyprogesterone), I bled heavily off and on for 20 days out of the month, as well as swelled up a cup size in the chest and had the worst acne of my life. 

I'm sure a lot of bad things could be said about any synthetic hormone, including testosterone, but I figure if I'm going to put any of them into my body, it's not going to be the ones that have caused me so much pain and misery thus far in life and that could be counter-productive to my eventual goals.

If other guys want to try it so as to not bleed every month, that's totally at their discretion, and I understand how dysphoria inducing menstruation is, but if I hadn't been in so much pain, I never would have subjected myself to it.

[Shang]

The pill stopped my period, but I bloated unbelievably on it and I gained a good amount of weight (which I'm just now starting to get rid of).
I'm now on Implanon, which has progesterone (etonogestrel) only and it cut back my acne and has made my periods nearly vanish (though I still get cramps from hell--just not as bad of a hell as the periods before any birth control--before and during my period should I have it [which I've only had twice in 6 months and each one only lasted a couple of days]).  I did get very hungry on it, but because I had to start anti-depressants for other reasons my appetite has stabilized towards normal again. I also haven't bloated as much as I did on the pill, and my weight is finally stabilizing and I'm actually starting to lose weight now that I've started to exercise.

So far, I'd only recommend Implanon for anyone (but I'm biased--it's the only thing that works for me) though I acknowledge that everyone is different and will have different reactions to things.

[MaxAloysius]

I guess I probably should have title this something like 'My Experience on the Pill' instead of what it's called, so sorry about that And wow! I've known so many women on the pill, and never ever seen or heard of anyone experiencing even a minor side effect! So I find it so surprising that so many of you have heard or experienced such terrible things! I guess everyone reacts differently to drugs.

I suppose I was just trying to say it's not all bad My own experiences with it have been great! But still, I can understand why so many of you choose to err on the side of caution

[Zelane]

Just avoid generalizations and you'll be ok.

[kyril]

I've tried the pill and I've tried Depo. Both made me suicidal - Depo triggered a psychotic depressive episode (hallucinations/delusions). This is while I was not out to myself and didn't really give a second thought to the hormonal content - I just wanted birth control. (didn't work for that, btw, I got pregnant at 7 months on Depo...yeah, I'm the 0.2%)

Be very careful with hormonal birth control if you have a history of depression, as many of us do. Worsening depression is a well-known side effect. For me, progesterone may as well be poison.

[Farm Boy]

My experience was similar to Kyril's.  I can bleed from anywhere between a couple of days and 3 months straight, so I went on it a few years back (when I was about 17) to try to "regulate" it.  Within a month or two I felt horrible and like I wanted to die, and then I noticed that my chest was growing, which was so disturbing and depressing that I stopped immediately.  I can still get quite upset about that if I think about it, because before that they were easier to hide.  There's nothing you could do to make me take it again.

Also, I don't know about it lowering your estrogen.  Everything I've heard suggests that it raises it because it 'tricks' your body into thinking it's pregnant (which would cause chest growth, bloating, etc.), which is why you stop bleeding.

[ilanthefirst]

Also, I don't know about it lowering your estrogen.  Everything I've heard suggests that it raises it because it 'tricks' your body into thinking it's pregnant (which would cause chest growth, bloating, etc.), which is why you stop bleeding.

Hormonal birth control with estrogen _does not_ trick the body into thinking it's pregnant; hormonal birth control with estrogen _does_ trick the body into thinking it has already ovulated and thus doesn't need to.  That's why its side effects overlap significantly with common PMS symptoms like bloating and moodiness.  The reason you don't bleed is that natural menstruation is triggered by a hormone drop, and hormone levels are constant on hormonal birth control taken correctly or without a break.  You can learn more about how it works here: http://www.vaginapagina.com/index.php?title=Hormonal_Birth_Control.