Serious question: Birth control, sex and LDRs

[kymckenna]

So a lot of us know the side effects of various birth controls and such.

I have been doing some research. I have noticed patterns in my mood changes and have been going through some depression and such. One of the side effects is that there is a "decrease in sexual desire". Which also makes a lot of sense to me because I have not been in that mood as much as I was before the pill.

Problem is I don't know whether to stop taking it or still take it till I can see a doctor and see what they say.

Depression and mood swings put a dent in an LDR. Both partners have to be confident in themselves and their relationships. I don't want us to go through that pain anymore, nor do I want my SO to feel like I don't want to do anything because I've lost that mood a majority of the time.

So in your opinion what do I do?
We have safe sex and are extremely careful. We have discussed it and neither of us really know.
Please anything would help. Thank you.

[snow_girl]

There are tons of pills out there that all have slightly different doses of hormones in them. Talk to your doc and tell them exactly what you said here that your sex drive is low and they can try giving you a different type or birth control. I had the same problem and my doc put me on something different and I was fine.

[Micah]

Talk to your doctor. Different birth control does different things. Your doctor can work with you to find out a pill, or other method, that won't affect your mood and sex drive as much.

[LadyMarchHare]

If you're experiencing severe side effects from the birth control I personally would stop taking it if you can't see your doctor or gynecologist within the next day or so to consult them. However you might want to consider if the side effects could be a result of anything else such as stress, any other medication you're on, and so on. But if your side effects are not that bad or the worst you've got is a decreased libido and you're not with your SO at the moment I would wait until you saw the doctor. I had a similar incident last year when my BC was worsening my depression and made me so sensitive to any amount of light I was even wearing sunglasses inside. I was able to get to my doctor pretty quickly after I ruled out all other possibilities and medications as the culprit and she said I could stop taking them immediately and either wait 2 or so months for it to be out of my system before trying again in case it wasn't the BC doing these things or she could prescribe me another brand to take after my next cycle. I chose the latter and have had no problems.

If you're taking one that's a high hormone dose you might want to see about getting put on low hormone ones and see if that doesn't take care of the desire aspect. I'm on the low ones and have never had that problem with either the first or current brand I'm taking.

[Dziubka]

I don't know if this is maybe more of an Lfadult-topic.
Anyway I can only speak for myself and as we all know it's different for everyone yadda yadda yadda...
I tried different pills, low dose, high dose everything and I still had the same side effects. I had really beautiful hair and skin with the high dose pill, but it made me terribly unmotivated and it always seemed too much hassle to me to get undressed for sex as in "oh yeah, it is fun, but not enough fun to go through the effort of undressing, so let's watch tv, k?".
It might seem insignificant or even advantageous for a long distance relationship, but it's the total opposite. If you haven't seen your man for a few weeks and you'd still rather lie in bed and watch tv with them, then something's wrong. It really puts a strand and your relationship because you only have this few days together. Chances are that the one or two times a month you actually feel like doing more than watching tv or reading, you're not with your SO. I always felt really bad about this, because I knew he was disappointed and so was I because I wanted to be in the mood really.
Long story short: I quit taking the pill two years ago and it was the best I could do. I've been feeling much better since, my hair and skin got worse at first, but are in control now and... suddenly books/tv aren't that interesting anymore when my boyfriend's around
(Oh and condoms are actually cheaper, too. Even for us and we see each other quite a lot, compared to other LDRs)