I have much experience!

I was on bc pills for 6 years and took it perfectly every single day. Never got pregnant and we hardly ever used condoms. The only thing is that you have to remember to take it every single day! Set an alarm clock or take it when you know you'll be home. Or you can make it a part of your routine. I take mine at night when I know I'll be home and getting ready for bed. I didn't have any problems except over time my blood pressure was getting high. It was probably because I'm overweight, but then again it could have been both me and the pill working against me. Yeah...

I took minipills for about a year. They worked for a while but then they failed and I got pregnant. Perfect use too. I wouldn't recommend them long term. I don't know what the nurse was thinking when she put me on those. Maybe my weight was a factor too but I'm not certain about that. I wouldn't recommend minipills, they give them to nursing women or older women who can't handle the estrogen. The estrogen is what prevents you from ovulating in the first place so estrogen is good if you don't want to get pregnant. Mini pills don't always prevent you from ovulating, which is what happened to me.

Now I'm on a lower dose of combined pill that are more effective than mini pills but less potent as the pills I was taking before. It's supposed to be a happy medium but I've only been on them for a month so far. The dose is lower so it shouldn't negatively effect my blood pressure. We'll just have to see how it goes.... Sometimes bc pills are a trial and error thing. You just have to figure out what works best for you and it sucks. Every woman's body is different.

Just make sure to pay attention to how your body is reacting to it and if everything seems fine then you're fine! =] The good thing is that your period is lighter and more regular, it helps with acne, and keeps your from getting pregnant, woo! The hardest part is just remembering to take it. If you think you're responsible enough to remember it daly then go for it. If you want to ask me anything else you can send me a message.

I have been on it for a long time....7 years? I used the same pill the whole time until recently, and it was wonderful. I never had side-effects, barely worried about pregnancy (not to mention how great spontaneous sex is!), and my period dwindled from 5 days long to 2 extremely light days.

As with all stories, there is a downside. I recently had to change prescriptions because of a national shortage of my original pill, and this new one is harder to adjust to (breast pain, a missed period, and now breakthrough bleeding). But no pregnancy so it is doing it's job. So now I know both sides of the story! I am giving this new one a few more months, it seems likely I just have to adjust.

In short...I think the pill is a good option, as long as you are responsible about taking them on time! Set an alarm on your phone so you take it at the same time every day. The pill the dr gives you the first time may not be the one, so don't give up altogether if you have side effects.

Good luck!

i hated the pill. i use the nuvaring and love it

I am on the pill...have been for 10 years. I just put it with my daily vitamins in a pill container/divider so it is easy to remember to take it every day. I have never had any of the side-effects that the Dr. warned me about other than the occasional facial breakout. I still have the occasional excessively long periods but they are not as heavy as they use to be and come regularly.

I've tried two, so here's the rundown:
Ortho Novum: Severe nausea that kept me awake, sometimes waking up to puke in the middle of the night, which kept getting worse until I stopped. Mentally, I felt like a teenager again, and not in a good way. Didn't weigh myself at the time but I thickened up around the middle (water weight) that went away on the placebo week. Acne completely disappeared. Periods were lighter but I still got clots and the same amount of cramps (ie, not much.) Started to feel sexual numbing before I stopped it.

Nordette: I have not felt any different at all. I was seriously paranoid cause I felt no difference off the pill than on nordette, I love it. Same period effect as Ortho Novum. Except I've weighed myself for the first time in about 8 months and I've gained 10 lbs... may or may not be the pill's fault. Libido has lowered a bit, but that's not a problem for me.

Oh, and no pregnancies so that's always good.

ETA: I always like to throw around this link when talking about the pill because, even though the list is somewhat incomplete, it explains the different hormones and their side effects in different prescriptions. And although you might want to take the pill for acne, you might prefer one that's the most like your original body chemistry. I liked not having pimples on ON but I preferred not feeling like a nauseous grump all the time.

Ortho-Tri-Cyclen for some years - it worked best for me. Even with a family history of high blood pressure, I never had a problem with that. It reduced my heavy six day severely cramping periods to three very light painless periods. My adult acne finally abated. And I was actually more emotionally stable (in conjunction with anti-depressants). The only thing that bothered me is that it altered my scent (my smell and what I smelled of others). The "not getting pregnant" part was sort of a bonus to all that. I wouldn't mind going on them again, but I had a tubal and public health thinks that would be redundant.

I will just give a brief summary.
When I first started the pill at 16 everything was fine. No problem, no weight gain, no unwanted pregnancy and my acne didn't got past a few pimples on my chin.
After moving out of home and to a different city, a new GP prescribed a new pill and here a few problems I have had,
- Weight gain
- Extreme mood swings (to the point my husband told me to stop taking them)
- Unplanned pregnancy
- General feeling of it not sitting well in my body
- Weight gain.

My advice is this, the pill is based in hormones which effect a large part of how your body works. Take the time to get it right and if it doesn't feel right it probably isn't so let them know, and if they don't listen, change doctors and keep changing until you find someone that will.

I've been on the pill for about 17 years. Over that time I've been on many different formulations. Over all, it has been life changing for me, allowing me to live without being extremely ill 2 or 3 weeks a month.

Most recently, I've been on Seasonique - which is continuous pills for 3 months, giving me only 4 periods a year. I love it. My insurance switched me to a generic Amethia last year, which did not work out well for me. I had much heavier periods, really bad hormonal mood swings, bad cramps, all that jazz. Every other formulation I've been on has been wonderful, including Seasonique. No weight gain, no weird side effects, or anything of the sort.

Everyone's body is so different, I have heard many stories from women with not as good results. But I have only ever had good results with it, except for the Amethia.

Everyone, thank you so much for sharing your experiences and advice with me. Sorry it has taken so long to respond to you all and share my sincere thanks! I've actually decided to go to a dermatologist and find a solution for my acne there, but when I do need to go on the Pill for sexual reasons I will keep all of your responses in mind

Every woman is different and responds to the pill and other methods of birth control that affects hormones differently. There is no way of knowing how it will work out for you until you try it yourself, and you may have to try different methods until you find one that works for you. I've been on Ortho-novum for about ten years now, and I've no adverse side effects--I often skip my period on it (another perk of birth control, which is totally healthy and fine to do) and when I don't, I'm not doubled over with cramps for several days like I used to be. My period has been regulated, and I don't worry about getting pregnant at all. I've been luck that I haven't had to try different types over and over again like some women have. But you really don't know until you try it yourself.

I don't have much personal experience with the pill, but I just wanted to throw out that there are SO MANY varieties that there's bound to be the perfect pill for you! You might have to try a few to find it, but it's probably out there.

A main distinction is whether the pills have only progestin or progestin + estrogen, so you could start by seeing which hormones seem to work better for you

Well every pill is different, so just because one pill helped someone's acne doesn't mean a different pill will help yours, or even that that one will.

There are other options aside from the pill though, like the patch and nuvaring, that also help with making a cycle regular.

Personally, I do not recommend that people use hormonal birth control unless they are sexually active and/or they have severe health needs for it, like out of control painful periods, endometriosis, et cetera.

For every person who says birth control helped their acne, there's another who says it made it worse. choose wisely.