Please Help!
Hello everybody, I’ve never posted on here before, but I’m hoping somebody can help me out or maybe just give me some advice. I’m having a really hard time with everything that’s going on and I just don’t know what to do. I’m a 20-year-old female and right now. I’m taking just progesterone birth control pills to help regulate my period.
I’m first gonna start off with some background. The end of last year I stopped taking my estrogen and progesterone birth control due to acne and I was on it for five years so I thought maybe it was time to switch. I emailed my doctor about switching my birth control or discussing other options and she switched me to just estrogen pills.
I was taking the estrogen pills for four months. The first two months were fine but around month three I started to notice a slight increase in my anxiety and depressionz I thought maybe it was just stressed between college and work so I didn’t really think much about it. My family and my friends started to notice a lot of change in my behavior, but I told everyone that I wanted to wait one more month to see if it was good for me because I was told that getting adjusted to birth control could take 3 to 4 months
Around month 4 I finished up the rest of my pills for that month and I have a placebo week where I get my period. Now that week I experienced a really bad panic attack, which I didn’t know it was a panic attack at the time because I’ve never experienced one before. I quite literally thought that I was dying and I was freaking out because I didn’t know what was wrong and obviously that made it worse. So I ended up going to bed. My heart rate was high no matter how hard I tried to relax.
I ended up waking up with a really high heart rate, I was sweating. I had a fever and I was also dehydrated. I was really hysterical and between whatever was going on with my body and the lack of sleep, I just wasn’t feeling great. I told my dad that we needed to go to the ER. He assured me that I was fine. He gave me some medicine to help me sleep.
I drank some fluids and I spent the whole weekend in bed. I was trying to drink my fluids and eat. It was really hard for me to relax and sleep. I would just have these random panic attacks. I would start crying and hyperventilating. I truly felt like something was wrong and that I wasn’t going to be okay. I trusted my dad because he is a fight nurse and I really didn’t realize how badly hormones can affect you. We checked my blood pressure and everything was fine. My fever was also gone.
That weekend I ended up emailing. My doctor and I was telling her about the symptoms that I was experiencing coming off my birth control and that I think I need to switch because my body is just too reliant on the estrogen and it’s just really hard on me. Unfortunately it took a little bit to get a hold of her as well as getting my medication to the pharmacy to get me started on it.
It took like a week for my new birth control to come in. During that week, I was honestly a mess. I had really bad panic attacks, trouble sleeping. I was convinced that something was gonna happen to me. Everything hurt, everything felt sore. I thought that like my body was giving up on me and I honestly was just at a loss. My health anxiety was crazy and it was just a really overwhelming time for me. It was just frustrating because I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know who to see or who to talk to. I just wanted to go ahead and get started on this new birth control.
When my new birth control arrived, she had switched me to just progesterone so there’s no placebo week. I’ve been on it for about two weeks now and I am feeling a little bit better. My anxiety is not that bad. I still get a little anxious here and there but more specifically at night. I haven’t really had much panic attacks lately. I have found better ways to cope to help my mind in my body, but for the most part, I’m still very overwhelmed with everything.
Everything has just been hard on me physically and mentally and there’s just so many emotions going on in my head. I’m upset. I’m mad. I’m scared. I’m confused and quite frankly I don’t know what to do. I’m really hoping my body will adjust with my new birth control. I haven’t even been on it for a month so we’ll see.
I tried to get medication for anxiety, but my doctor suggested just over-the-counter supplements. I already have a hard time taking medication because I’m convinced that it makes me feel worse so I haven’t really taking anything for anxiety.
I made an appointment for the gynecologist because I just feel like my doctors isn’t making much effort to see me. I know it’s not her line of work so I understand. But I can’t get in until August so that’s another two months. I’ll have to try to convince myself that everything is okay.
I went to the ophthalmologist and he said everything was fine with my vision. I go to a psychologist and she pointed out that I didn’t start feeling this way until I switched my birth control. I thought about getting blood work done. I feel like maybe I have an iron deficiency. I have been bleeding for two weeks. It’s been off and on, but it’s still pretty annoying and such an inconvenience because one day I’ll be spotting and then the next day I’m bleeding and experiencing cramps. Somebody else also said that I could have PCOS.
I just feel like nobody really understands and I can’t get an answer on what’s wrong. I just wanna know if anybody has experienced the same thing as me or might be experiencing the same thing. It’s very scary and frustrating and I think I just need some advice and/or reassurance. I’m hoping everything will get better because I’m at the point in my life where I really need to feel normal again.
But my most recent symptoms have just been fatigue, nausea, I always feel sort of late and my appetite has been pretty increased so I’ve been trying to eat that way. I don’t feel so lightheaded and sick like I’m going to pass out. As of right now, my muscles are feeling a bit more relaxed and like normal. I haven’t had a lot of problems with heart, palpitations, or chest pain like I did before. It’s usually only if I’m experiencing some type of anxiety or panic.
Feel free to ask any questions!