Goodbye Birth Control!

This week has been difficult for me. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. After serious thought, I have decided to stop taking birth control. Now unfortunately this doesn't mean that J and I have decided to start trying for a baby. Instead, I will be modifying my diet and starting a regular exercise routine.

I have just had it with these medications. Nothing seems to be helping and on top of that I've been having side effects. With Lo.estrin Fe I was getting a period every two weeks. With Nuva.ring I had pain in the back of my upper right leg that felt like someone had tied a rubber band around my thigh. I ended up in the ER to check for blood clots, which I didn't have, but the pain never fully went away until I stopped using it. Then with Season.ale I gained 15 lbs. in a month and began getting severe headaches. Currently I'm on Bal.ziva, a generic of Ov.ral-35, and I'm still getting the severe headaches. I feel a lot more emotional since starting birth control too. My moods are all over the place and I hate it. I cry at the littlest things. I told J I didn't want to call my doctor because I knew they would try to convince me to stick it out or try something else. The thing is, my only options left are upping the dose to Ov.ral-50, changing to the depo shot, or Lu.pron. I'm not interested in any of these.

Tomorrow is my last pill. Starting Sunday I will be beginning The Endometriosis Diet. It's not for the faint of heart. I will admit, it's going to be difficult for me. I'll go into further detail of the diet in a different post though. I will say that I already began to make a few changes to my diet about a month or two ago and I can see a difference with how I feel after I eat. I have almost completely cut dairy out of my diet, with the exception of an organic yogurt here or there. I don't expect to be able to follow the Diet 100% of the time, at best I'd say 80%. I'm going to try this Diet out for the next few months, at least until my yearly exam in October and see how it goes. If my symptoms improve I plan on refusing medication for as long as I can. The only reason I kept with the birth control was in an effort to prevent the endometriosis from coming back so that I could hopefully preserve whatever fertility I have, if any. Taking the birth control is no guarantee though. We'll have no idea if the disease has affected my fertility until we starting trying for a baby. At this point though I just feel like whatever happens, happens. If when we decided to have a baby we are able to get pregnant, great, and if we are not, well there is always adoption. Until then I'm just going to try and live a healthy, active life.