This is something I would love to collect more data on. Everything here is anecdotal and speculative.
The first pill I tried was Sprintec, a combination estradiol and norgestimate, and it caused at least 3x/week panic attacks for the entire 5 months I was on it. I would say do not recommend, but with any birth control YMMV.
Now I am taking Larissia, which is a small-dose estradiol and levonorgestrel combination. I think it has made me slightly more depressive (with slightly decreased productivity as a consequence), but it is FAR preferable to Sprintec and marginally preferable to no-pill.
Off the pill, I find my productivity above-average for about 1 week after my period (I have a very regular 28 day cycle), and frustratingly low for the other 3 weeks (especially the week I am actually on my period). While on the pill, I never get the high of that one post-period week, but I also don’t suffer the low before and during my period.
The reason I start Larissia is because I took a levonorgestrel emergency contraception (specifically Aftera), and I was expecting to spend the next few hours bedridden with nausea, but I actually found my mood lightened and my productivity increased, roughly to the level of my non-pill post-period high. Of course, this was just one time, and the Aftera tablet is 1.5 mg of hormone where Larissia is .02 mg. I’m considering switching to the slightly higher .05 mg levo-estra combination to see if I can alleviate some of my current depressiveness.
Hope this is helpful! Definitely a question I’ve wondered myself, and it’s good to know I’m not the only one.
Interesting! It’s good to hear that your energy levels off the pill roughly match mine.
Your experiences on the pill are also interesting to hear. I suppose to figure out what effects all of these hormones have on me I would have to sample different combinations for long enough time frames to notice effects (as you have been doing).
Do you think you are unusually prone to panic attacks / depression? I wonder whether the pill brings out specific fixed traits in people (like depression) or whether it exacerbates characteristics they were already unusually prone to.
I wonder this because in hindsight, maybe some of my previous issues were caused by the pill. I’ve been on two different pills (annoyingly it was long ago enough that I’m not sure which kinds of pill).
(Issue: I am prone to disordered eating) The first time was to kickstart my period after I stopped menstruating for 6 months due to rapid weight loss. On the pill I binge ate a lot and gained a lot of weight. No doubt some bingeing was due to my eating disorder but maybe the pill exacerbated things.
(Issue: I am prone to low libido) The second time was because I wanted to control PMS symptoms. It tanked my libido so I stopped after several months.
So for me, maybe the things I am prone to are “eating disorder behavior” and “low libido”, so those are the main things I should expect the pill to noticeably influence. (In particular, I have never shown many signs of depression / anxiety so maybe I shouldn’t expect a pill to cause those symptoms.) This feels somewhat related to the recent SSC (ACT?) posts about taxonometrics and dynamical systems.
I have generalized anxiety disorder, and in many ways the “panic attacks” i experienced on sprinctec were basically like my typical anxiety attacks, only more intense, so yeah in general i would say that’s something I’m more predisposed to.
I’m really not sure how “prone” i am to depression personally, since while I have experienced it to varying degrees throughout my life, it was always as a sort of side effect of other issues in my life and never The issue on its own. However, i have a genetic history of it, so I’m definitely predisposed to it in that sense.
This is something I would love to collect more data on. Everything here is anecdotal and speculative.
The first pill I tried was Sprintec, a combination estradiol and norgestimate, and it caused at least 3x/week panic attacks for the entire 5 months I was on it. I would say do not recommend, but with any birth control YMMV.
Now I am taking Larissia, which is a small-dose estradiol and levonorgestrel combination. I think it has made me slightly more depressive (with slightly decreased productivity as a consequence), but it is FAR preferable to Sprintec and marginally preferable to no-pill.
Off the pill, I find my productivity above-average for about 1 week after my period (I have a very regular 28 day cycle), and frustratingly low for the other 3 weeks (especially the week I am actually on my period). While on the pill, I never get the high of that one post-period week, but I also don’t suffer the low before and during my period.
The reason I start Larissia is because I took a levonorgestrel emergency contraception (specifically Aftera), and I was expecting to spend the next few hours bedridden with nausea, but I actually found my mood lightened and my productivity increased, roughly to the level of my non-pill post-period high. Of course, this was just one time, and the Aftera tablet is 1.5 mg of hormone where Larissia is .02 mg. I’m considering switching to the slightly higher .05 mg levo-estra combination to see if I can alleviate some of my current depressiveness.
Hope this is helpful! Definitely a question I’ve wondered myself, and it’s good to know I’m not the only one.
Interesting! It’s good to hear that your energy levels off the pill roughly match mine.
Your experiences on the pill are also interesting to hear. I suppose to figure out what effects all of these hormones have on me I would have to sample different combinations for long enough time frames to notice effects (as you have been doing).
Do you think you are unusually prone to panic attacks / depression? I wonder whether the pill brings out specific fixed traits in people (like depression) or whether it exacerbates characteristics they were already unusually prone to.
I wonder this because in hindsight, maybe some of my previous issues were caused by the pill. I’ve been on two different pills (annoyingly it was long ago enough that I’m not sure which kinds of pill).
(Issue: I am prone to disordered eating) The first time was to kickstart my period after I stopped menstruating for 6 months due to rapid weight loss. On the pill I binge ate a lot and gained a lot of weight. No doubt some bingeing was due to my eating disorder but maybe the pill exacerbated things.
(Issue: I am prone to low libido) The second time was because I wanted to control PMS symptoms. It tanked my libido so I stopped after several months.
So for me, maybe the things I am prone to are “eating disorder behavior” and “low libido”, so those are the main things I should expect the pill to noticeably influence. (In particular, I have never shown many signs of depression / anxiety so maybe I shouldn’t expect a pill to cause those symptoms.) This feels somewhat related to the recent SSC (ACT?) posts about taxonometrics and dynamical systems.
I have generalized anxiety disorder, and in many ways the “panic attacks” i experienced on sprinctec were basically like my typical anxiety attacks, only more intense, so yeah in general i would say that’s something I’m more predisposed to.
I’m really not sure how “prone” i am to depression personally, since while I have experienced it to varying degrees throughout my life, it was always as a sort of side effect of other issues in my life and never The issue on its own. However, i have a genetic history of it, so I’m definitely predisposed to it in that sense.