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When I was 15 years old I went on birth control, not because my parents thought I was having sex (maybe they did, I’m not sure) but because my cramps were so excruciating I remember having the full blown sweats and I thought I was going to die. To make it worse my blood gushed through the “S” Tampons with the regularity of an uncapped oil well. So for two days out of the month my high school experience was a complete and utter hell. It was embarrassing to have teachers call me out for putting my head down on the desk in the midst of a gut wrenching cramp or run out of “S” tampons and have to turn to your friends for help.
I made the choice to go off birth control when I was 23, thats SEVEN years of exogenous hormonal control. Seriously think about that for a second…SEVEN years of hormones going inside my body that weren’t mine.
At first, I was fine. I took the pill daily – I didn’t have weight gain, my cramps were 1000% better and my flow was considered normal. This lasted for quite a few years until I went to college and then the side effects started. They included weight gain, nausea, and mood swings a virtual roller coaster of mental and physical pain.
Then in January of 2016 I left the US for a study abroad and decided to get the Nexplanon implant so I didn’t have to worry about taking a pill while I was out of the country. The driving factor to switch to the implant were huge. I was like, “Hell ya!! I don’t have to take a pill every morning!” And according to the doctors, the implant was supposed to be better than the pill. A more efficient and even delivery system for hormones.
For the first 6 months, I didn’t have my period and the cramps were completely gone.However, after coming back to the USA though (after 6 months) my mood swings were so bad that I thought I was bipolar or was suffering from another mental disease. In desperation I had the Nexplanon implant removed from my arm and switched to the Nuva Ring.
The Nuva Ring was my absolute favorite because it was easy to use and seemed not to cause any adverse effects. But after 6 months of the ring, I started to feel a burning sensation in my vaginal area whenever my period was about to start. This concerned me enough that one morning I woke up and decided that I didn’t really want to be putting hormones into my body anymore so I took the ring out and stopped exogenous hormones altogether.
This is where the road gets long and crazy. I graduated college, moved back home, started my first job, and started living my adult life but my period and the period symptoms were lasting three weeks out of every month This went on for over a whole freaking year!
My step mom recommended that I see her gynecologist, so I made an appointment and hoped that I could finally solve this problem. Guess what the answer was? Eat healthy and workout. Oh, and here is a pamphlet for another form of birth control. Okay well I already workout four times a week and eat a healthy diet so what was I doing wrong?
I drove home, walked in the front door and started bawling my eyes out to my dad. He knew my frustrations because I tell him everything and he knew that this problem had been going on for so long, without being able to manage it. So he recommended that I give it some more time.
It wasn’t until a month or so later that my dad brought up the Keto diet because of my genetics. See he was diagnosed as prediabetes and he wanted me to become more aware of my body and how it could be affected by carbs. That night I threw everything out in my fridge, went to the store, and started Keto. It changed my life.
After I started Keto I lost weight, focused better, had more energy, and my period issues finally evened out. Years of frustration, anger, and zero control over my own body had led me to the keto diet and I finally felt like my body belonged to me again.