Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo Compared to Alternatives

For Birth Control: Been on Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo 28 day for 1.5 years & it’s been great! Not a single pregnancy scare, decreased cramps, no nausea, barely any mood swings, overall excellent! HOWEVER, just recently got switched to the GENERIC version, Tricira lo, which was fine for the first 3 months, but as of a month ago, I’ve been recently having terrible brand new symptoms! Never missed a pill and take it at generally the same time every night like I always have! A month ago I started having terrible cramps and got my period a week early (during the active pills) which lasted for two weeks! I have had various panic attacks and find my anxiety to be 10x worse than it was before, not to mention I’ve been feeling nothing like myself lately! Extremely sensitive, crying all the time, very short tempered. A month later, I get my period today, once again during my ACTIVE pills, already accompanied by terrible cramps! Terrible! 7 stars because the real brand generic version is good! BUT THE GENERIC I S rubbish!

For Birth Control: I have not had really any problems. EXCEPT. I feel nauseous all the dang time. It's terrible. Besides that I have had clear skin and I use to have 7 day period. And it slimmed down to 5 which is no problem. But being nauseous all the time is terrible.

For Amenorrhea: It does what it's supposed to, at least for me it did. I'm prescribed to take 10 days of 100mg Provera every night before bed every 60 days (or every two months I don't have a cycle). It makes me feel awful though. The first month I was prescribed Provera I took all 10 pills. I'm on the smaller side and I really think 100mg is just too much for my body. I have horrific constipation & gas after about 2 days on it, absolutely zero energy, and my face tends to breakout (only 1-2 small, it's always clear otherwise), it also makes me starving 24/7. It works though.

For Amenorrhea: I was prescribed Provera (10 mg/ 10 days) due to not having a period for several years and so my husband and I can have a baby. Works like a charm. Started period 4 days after taking last pill. 1st day was mild flow and all subsequent days were extremely heavy. It's now day 6 of having a period, which is not normal for me even when I had periods, and continue to have extremely heavy flow. I will be calling my doctors office today as I do not want this to continue. The upside is I did not experience any side effects while taking the medicine.

For Birth Control: I had the Mirena inserted after using Paraguard (which was a nightmare). Pro: as a birth control, little to no period. My regular periods before this weren't very heavy and I've never had terrible cramps. I will occasionally have back aches and cramping but not unbearable. Cons: insertion is fairly painful, I got lightheaded during insertion and it feels like the worst cramping you could imagine. Also and the biggest thing for me is the weight gain. I had stayed around 151-157 for about the last 10 years. Since getting the Mirena I have steadily gained weight. I'm now around 167. I used to just be able to clean up my eating and lay off the junk food when I noticed I was putting in a few pounds and be back to normal. Not anymore. I'm really considering having it removed. I feel fat and bloated pretty much all the time.

For Birth Control: I had Mirena for about a year and a half. For the first 6 months I spotted every day but had no periods/pain. After 6 months I had zero symptoms!!! It felt so perfect. I didn’t get my period until about a year in. At this time, I had my period 3 months in a row, very light and virtually painless. After that though it stopped. I still had bloating/cramps/ mood swings. Then the worst part. I had cramps every day randomly for about 2 months. I just recently had it removed because I couldn’t take it anymore. Altogether though, Mirena worked for me really well for about a year.