What really happens when you go on hormonal birth control
Picture this: I was a junior in high school and taking AP classes for the first time. I had just dyed my hair completely blonde and broken up with my long-term boyfriend. I was going through quite a few changes, to say the least. I was working out almost every day and becoming a young woman. December of 2019 hit and I started getting acne again. Not very characteristic of a young woman, I thought, especially since I hadn’t changed my skincare routine in over two years. Boys flowed in and out of my life and I experienced a lot of emotions for many different reasons, but I brushed all of this off since I was, after all, a teenage girl who was only just starting to grow up. Eventually, I realized something strange: I was getting my period two times per month. After a few doctor’s visits, I was put on the pill in March of 2020.
2020: I dyed my hair brown, and I couldn’t see my friends or go to the gym as much. I cried a lot. Once again, I blamed the crying on being a teenage girl and going through the pandemic, which were, in part, contributors. Eventually, things started going back to somewhat normal and summer came along so I could see my friends more. The gym opened up again, but I couldn’t get back into my old routine. I could go maybe once a week, but that was all. Also, during the summer, I started having cravings for unhealthy foods—many of which I’d refused to eat for the previous two years. In response to this, I developed unhealthy eating patterns, but at the time, I didn’t notice any changes resulting from them. The rest of 2020 was filled with more crying still.
2021: I went back to in-person school and life finally felt like it was returning to normal. This renewed sense of normalcy, as well as my Snapchat Flashback memories, allowed me to reflect on the past year, where I was met with the hard truth: I was depressed. The regular crying and hormonal episodes were not just part of my teenage girl routine. I had developed self-destructive tendencies to temporarily make myself feel better. Physically, too, I was a different person. When I look back at pictures of myself from that time, I only see a round face and boobs that were three cup sizes larger than they are now. The worst thing is that during this time, I never realized how many times my body changed. Now, however, I am basically back to normal—no acne and no depression. Birth control brought forth more hormonal chaos than control in that year, all of which still shocks me to this day.
I am still on the pill, and would recommend it if you have some sort of health risk, such as nutritional deficiencies like me, but it’s important to hold yourself accountable and understand the many risks that come with hormonal birth control.