I have Crohn's disease and have been on birth control since befor...

I don't have a digestive disease of any kind, but after being on Nuvaring for 7 months, I had severe intestinal upset. For several weeks I experienced regular bouts of what I thought was an intestinal bug with debillitating nausea, intestinal cramping, nasty yellow diarrhea, weakness to the point of not getting off the couch without feeling like I was going to faint. I Honestly thought I was dying. This kept recurring at weekly and then biweekly and then at 3-4 day intervals until I also noticed a deep black depression come over me that I had never felt before in my life. I am never depressed.

I finally yanked the nuvaring out on Dec 14 of 2007 and it took about 4 months for my miserable depression and anxiety to clear up. The intestinal symptoms persisted for about 2-3 months with a complete and I mean total loss of appetite. I couldn't even watch the food channel. It grossed me out. I was afraid to step on the scale because every time I did, another pound was gone. I was at normal to start with and lost more than 10 lbs in a month. It was terrifying. I thought maybe I had a wasting cancer or something.

I finally went to a family practitioner who was baffled and ran some tests. Then I went to a gastroenterologist who put me through a battery of exams and blood work and other lab work and finally concluded that I was healthy. About the time her tests were complete, my symptoms finally started to abate.

My physicians don't necessarily agree with me that nuvaring was the cause even though they have no other explanation, but I am certain. I call what I experienced progestin poisoning. The synthetic progesterone in nuvaring and birth control pills is a toxin to my body. There are estrogen receptors everywhere including the brain and the intestines and in my case, progestin clogs them up and damages them. I will never, never put that stuff in my system again. I feel like I narrowly escaped serious injury to my digestive system and possibly even death.

I have been wondering about this for months, because when I started using the NuvaRing last November, I started to not feel well and decided to stop. In the months following, I have devloped Crohns disease - diagnosed just yesterday. Coincidence or not, being on the NuvaRing and IBD happened in the same timeframe.

I have Crohn's Disease and am just wondering about birth control pills. However, with just a few minutes of googling and research along with glancing and reading this website, I'm skeptical of going on any form of birth control. I was diagnosed when I was 11 and now am 23 years old. I never was on birth control prior to being diagnosed or symptoms beginning. Now, with all this out there, I am not sure if I want to risk a flare for the benefits of birth control.