27 Women Reveal What They Wish They’d Asked Their Doctors Before Starting Birth Control

16.

“My hormonal IUD gave me some mild unwanted side-effects. I was getting a horrible rash all over my chest, and I suspected it was my birth control, but doctors didn’t seem to think so. I saw multiple dermatologists and tried multiple creams and antibiotics to treat it. It would clear up for a week or two just to come right back. Since I wasn’t getting a period though, it took me forever to realize it was cyclical. Turns out, after I started tracking it, it was just some really wicked body acne caused by hormone fluctuations, but it took multiple doctors to figure that out. When it was time to finally replace it, I talked to my doctor about switching to the copper IUD, a non-hormonal option to avoid the itchy intense body acne. I was tired of wearing turtlenecks all the time to cover the constellation of red bumps. Looking back, those side-effects seem like a walk in the park in comparison.”

“About five or six months after I had the copper IUD inserted, I started feeling really sick — like REALLY sick — all the time. This was during peak cold and flu season, so I thought I was just unlucky and had contracted back-to-back viruses. I kept testing for COVID, flu, etc., but nothing was coming up positive. Still, I was bedridden and having to call out of work for weeks at a time. My doctor ran blood work and a myriad of tests, but everything kept coming back normal. Over the course of the next two years, I saw multiple specialists, including an ENT for the constant facial pain and pressure, a neurologist for severe daily migraines, brain fog, and dizziness, a rheumatologist for muscle and joint pain, a sleep specialist, an allergist, and a pulmonary specialist, all just to try and get a diagnosis.

I ended up in the ER multiple times with intense migraines and dizzy spells and had multiple CT scans. Everything always came back normal. No one knew what was wrong with me. About two years into feeling like garbage, my primary care doctor asked me to start tracking my symptoms. Another doctor, the neurologist, discouraged tracking — he said I was already ‘overthinking’ and then suggested losing weight might help. Classic. Thankfully, I ignored that advice, and after a few months of tracking, I realized my worst symptoms were falling exactly 28 days apart. I searched online and found a bunch of other women who were describing exactly my set of symptoms on the copper IUD. You know that feeling when you wake up at 4 a.m. and have to use the bathroom, but you’re still half asleep and everything feels kind of heavy and distorted? That’s how I felt every day, all day, for two years.

Finally armed with data, I contacted my primary care doctor asking to remove the IUD. She agreed immediately and got me in that day. Within a week of getting it removed, I felt completely and totally normal. For the first time in YEARS, I felt like a human again. All that said, birth control is such an individual experience — what works great for someone might not work for someone else. I wouldn’t ever discourage anyone from getting the copper IUD. Just because I had a terrible experience with it doesn’t negate the fact that it’s a great non-hormonal option for some women. But, in the two years that I was chronically ill, not one doctor suggested that it might be my birth control. I’m still trying to find the right birth control for me. For now, I’m just using barrier methods as needed, trying to give my body a well-deserved break. Take care of yourselves. Ask questions. Trust your gut.”

—Anonymous, 36, US