Hi Sabrina, thanks for sharing your experience with birth control pills. I haven't gotten my prescription filled yet, but it for "Loestrin." I guess I'll have to be very vigilant and stop taking the pills at the first sign of trouble.

I feel that doctors don't warn patients adequately about the changes in mood and emotional state that BCPs can bring on. I have a friend whose daughter is on DepoProvera and it caused a lot of depression in her, and they never connected the dots. Instead, they got her on anti-depressants and mood stabilizers. All this just because you don't want to get an IUD or use a diaphragm? Sometimes it seems crazy to me.

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PS. I am curious as to why your doctor thinks it is necessary to give your ovaries a "vacation"?

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I have something funky going on with my right ovary (some kind of cyst or growth, probably very vascularized), and it gets aggravated every time I ovulate on that side. It is so painful. In a matter of seconds I can go from fine to moaning in pain and unable to function. I can handle pain really well, and this is just terrible! She said it is similar to appendicitis pain and some women with this end up spending a day or two in the hospital each month. When it happens, I really can't walk or talk and certainly not drive myself home (it has happened 3 times so far and twice was at work). Vicodin helps, but last time I didn't have this with me when it happened. So now I am carrying the painkillers at all time. My gyno said the pain is from the blood spilling into my abdomenal cavity and sitting there. The worst of the pain is gone within 24 hours, and I feel completely better after a week. I also can't urinate when this happens for about a half day, and so in addition to the severe pain I have this "can't go" discomfort. Anyway, she thinks my ovary keeps reinjuring itself each time I ovulate on that side, and it needs a vacation from ovulating so it can have a chance to heal. If it's still a problem after the vacation, she'll do surgery to either remove the growth or the ovary if the growth can't be excised easily. (I am done having babies--I have two wonderful girls.)