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Quitting aldactone... ever confused on the BCP issueFrom: jodi (anonymous@obgyn.net)Tue, 29 May 2001 09:02:39 -0500 (CDT)
After nearly two months of deliberation, and only two weeks on the aldactone, I have made up my mind that I don't want to be on it. I was bleeding on it, despite being on birth control pills. Unfortunately, I was/am on a new sort of BCP concurrently, so I really can't say for sure if it was the aldactone or the BCP. However, the last time I had spotting with BCPs, whch was Mircette on the last cycle, it stared almost immediately (2-3 days) after I started taking the pills. On allesse, the new one for me, I had no problems with bleeding whatsoever until I had been on them + aldactone for 11 days or so. When I took aldactone by itself, I began bleeding 9 days later. Off of aldactone for 3 days now, the bleeding is subsiding... too bad the pill pack ends this friday so I'll be bleeding soon again anyway!!! I've gone through more maxi pads in the last two months to sop up bleeding caused by medication that is supposed to stop bleeding than I have used for my last 5 periods! heh. Of course while spotting on the Mircette, I had to restock on supplies... to find as usually that Always has again changed their packaging. Why must they keep doing this to me??? I have been menstruating more regularly than ever in the last year or so but this STILL keeps happening... Someone should smack those people around...) ANYWAY. Yeah, it's possible I could take the aldactone with a stronger BCP. Thing is, my hair problem seems to have been lessening since before I started the aldactone... So I don't really feel the need to be on it now anyway. Yeah, it would be divine to have a smooth chin all the time... but on the other hand, I have been able to get away with shaving my legs twice a week and put on shorts in the morning without thinking about it. Previously, I could have shaved twice a day, still had lousy results, and still kept my legs cozily hidden in jeans or under long skirts most of the time. Not a swell option, with my city's ungodly heat & humidity in the summer... And the bikini area half way down my thighs has been quite smooth for some time. Oh... my legs aren't perfect by any means. They are still red and spotty, some places worse than others... and they don't stay totally smooth with this twice weekly shaving... but I can get away with it, and that is good enough for someone like me who is so used to feeling like neanderthal woman. The hair under my belly button, as mentioned before, is drastically lessened. It's still there, but maybe only 40% as horrid as it was. I can't even remember when I waxed it last, and now there are just 2 or 3 really coarse hairs I pluck. There are still longish, fine hairs there... but that's NOTHING on the masses of coarse hair I used to deal with. My problem is, I have no idea what has caused this, as I have said before. It can't be the aldactone, so I am not at all in fear giving that up. (Well... other than I wonder how much of my weight loss has been aldactone dehydrating me... surely not more than a pound or two, or three... I hope!!) I don't know if it's the BCP... it could be, but it seems I noticed the hair lessening before going on them, or not very long afterwards. In the past, BCPs have done nothing for my hairiness... but who knows? Maybe with diet/exercise/met, now they stand a fighting chance against my body? Who knows? I find it funny that my doc suggested a month on BCP alone, then add the aldactone, so I would know which med was causing side effects... a very sensible suggestion, in my mind... but I have been on two totally different BCPs, and being on ANYTHING in combination really makes it hard to figure out which is working. I really wish I would have given the met a longer trial... I really feel like it has a lot to do with the hair growth. But I am not confident enough in this matter to think stopping the BCP won't result in a return to the gorilla kingdom. However, I suspect the BCP has stalled my weight loss. On BCPs, I feel FAT. Even if the scale hasn't gone up, I always feel fatter/bloated in my middle. When I feel this way, I don't go anywhere near the scale... So I have no idea now if my weight loss has stalled, or even worse, reversed... It just seems like, in spite of my best efforts, I feel fatter than ever on the BCP, and I don't like this feeling! As I have now been on a total of 6 BCPs that have made me feel this way, I find it unlikely that I will magically find one that does not. It seems like if I control the IR while on the BCP, I shouldn't have this problem, but there you have it... I still do. Part of me wants to kick the BCP to kick my weight loss back in. Progesterone is supposed to be a fat storing hormone, right? It's bad enough your body makes it for part of your cycle anyway if you're normal and not on BCPs. But on BCPs, you get a constant flow of it, 21 days out of 28. Am I imagining this stalled weight loss, or have others experienced this? I know sugarbusters says that it is harder to lose weight on BCPs... so I can't totally be imagining it... But, if I stop the BCP, what if it IS the BCP helping with the hair? Worse, what if I don't get periods? As much as I want to have normal, ovulatory cycles, I feel like it's nicer to have my head in the sand again, so to speak... In a way, I was happier before I had this diagnoses, ignorance being such bliss and all... BCPs are like a return to ignorance... but in a much more tormenting fashion... Before I gave in to going back on BCPs, I really wanted to just take metformin. I really wanted to give it a chance to work. Now that I am on it, I am afraid to stop! And yet, I want to stop, to see if this weight loss issue is all in my head... Good lord, this disease is such a case of "you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't." Do I want to lose more weight, and risk hairiness/no periods? Or do I want to stay smooth, not being totally sure of the cause, but not know how my body is functioning and not be able to lose more weight? Ha... it seemed like an easy choice yesterday, and I made up my mind to stop taking the Pill, and demand that my doctor order repeat hormone testing in a month or so so I can see where my hormones are as a result of diet/met/exercise alone, in order to actually make an informed decision... But then last night, when i realised that three days after shaving my legs, I still didn't NEED to... well, I wasn't so sure. What a dilemma... PCOS is a horrible disease for someone who has as much trouble making up their mind as I do. I can't even decide what to eat in a restauraunt easily!!! I'm the sort who takes forever to decide, then orders, then changes their mind after every one else orders. Half the time, I just always order the exact same thing so I don't have to think too hard. To take or not to take the BCP is a much more complex question... should be complex for ANY woman (and I am horrified at how many girls/women go on the Pill without really thinking about what it does to them)... It's even worse when the consequences involve not just "we'll have to use condoms" but "I might get hairy and I might not have periods at all, and then I'll know how messed up I am and have to face it again..." In the end... I have no idea what I am going to do. But if anyone is reading this and is new to treatment... I would highly suggest sticking with one medication for a ong enough time to see if its working, to save yourself such a ridiculous dilemma!!! - Jodi
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