NuvaRing and hair loss

I am sooo glad I found this site; I have been thinking I am going crazy. For the last six months (since starting NuvaRing for the first time). I have had a mild case of depression (I am not one to struggle with depression , NO sex drive which is unusual for me, my boobs have gone up two sizes, I ma always tired and I am a fairly energetic person. My stomach is always bloated and I can not loose a single pound and I have been doing weight watchers and working out. I have one week left with the ring and I will NEVER use it again!!

I was on birth control pills for about 12 years when I decided to stop taking them about three months ago. For the past two weeks I have been experiencing some hair loss so I made an appointment w/my MD and she said that hair loss can occur when stopping hormones and she suggested Nuvaring. I didn't even have the thing in for 24 hours before I took it out! My head hurt so bad I thought I was going to die! I also got extremely queasy and sensitive to the smell of food so much that I couldn't be around my coworkers heating up their lunch. I had to give a presentation and felt the whole time that I might throw up in front of everyone. I also became extremely irritable and was ugly to a patient I saw that day and yelled at my husband for no good reason. My head felt like it was in an awful fog and I felt like I couldn't think clearly. I never experienced anything like that on BCP's. I will NEVER try Nuvaring again. It was awful. I'd rather keep losing my hair and go bald then take Nuvaring!

Eureka! My unexplained weight gain (10 lbs), moodiness, fatigue, acne, excessive white discharge, recurrent yeast infections, and clumpy periods are no longer such an enigma. I previously had some horrendous side effects from Depo Provera, to include severe depression, suicidal thoughts, and hair loss; I thought NuvaRing would work great for me due to the low dose of hormones. At first, the ring was fantastic....didn't have to remember to take a pill everyday and no downward spiral of depression. The first symptom I noticed was the excessive discharge and the clumpy periods. Next was the moodiness, anxiety, and bouts of crying during every week 3 (that the bf has patiently put up with!). I have been trying to ignore the fact that my jeans don't fit, I have turned into a TV watching zombie, and I have a burning sensation associated with my 2nd yeast infection in 3 months (ugh!!!!). I wish I would have found this website earlier; it would have helped me put two and two together, acknowledge the side effects, and quit the Ring much earlier (not 11 months later!). Yes, each woman's body reacts differently to hormonal birth control, but if you have undesirable side effects from the Pill or Depo, you'll most likely get them from the Ring plus a few fun extra ones:) The upside to this product: it is incredibly convenient and my small breasts filled out. So not worth it to me!!!!!

PUSS LIKE BUMPS/PIMPLES, HAIR LOSS, WEIGHT LOSS, DEPRESSION, NO ENERGY, NO SEX DRIVE, MOODY, HEADACHES, PAIN IN MY LEGS, VOMITTING, NIGHT SWEATS, CRYING AND CHANGE IN THE TEXTURE OF MY HAIR, CYSTS...

I am 41 and like another poster, I use the ring to help regulate my period as I am in perimenopause. I have had no sex drive, fatigue, extreme change in discharge and a lot of vaginal pain. This is my 4th ring to use, and I am considering taking it out and talking to my doctor about something else. Maybe I just need to deal with the side effect of extremely long amounts of time between periods, but it sure doesn't make me feel secure since I can still get pregnant!

I have hair loss from taking Nuvaring I have taken it out and I am now wondering when my hair will be back to normal?

I read your post about Nuvaring. I am only on my first ring. So far it seems okay and don't know if it is to blame for my hair that has been coming out non stop also. the hair loss started when I had the paraguard inserted into my cervix. I did some google research and a lot of women were complaining of the same thing. I immediately had it removed but the doc said it was non hormonal. I thought that perhaps my body just didn't agree with the copper that it is made from. she told me about the NuvaRing, so here I am trying it. the hair loss is still there and it has been going on for about 1 month now and I have lost a lot of it. I just gave birth to my second daughter 4 months ago, and don't know if my hair loss is postpardom or related to all these wacky methods of birth control. Has anyone else suffered hair loss from the NuvaRing or paraguard. Does anyone have recommendations on how I could improve my hair and stop it from falling out. when it is coming out the root tip is with every strand. I'm so scared over this...

I was on NuvaRing for 3 yrs. I lived with a CONSTANT headache, had MRIs and brain scans done, nothing was found. I finally googled tha ring and found out that headaches are a bigggg side effect. I also had 4 abnormal paps, 2 cryosurgeries, weight loss, hair loss, 9 yeast infections, vaginal itching, extreme moodiness, depression, pre-cancerous cells on ma cervix x 2 and almost anything else u can think of. NuvaRing is a nightmare!!!! the minute i decided i was done with it and popped it out, the headache went away, never had an abnormal pap since and every other thing that was wrong immediately righted itself. NEVER NEVER again!!

I started the NuvaRing in July and really liked the convenience of only inserting it in once a month. I would sometimes forget to take my pills and this was a good way of not worrying about forgetting my pills. Everything was fine at first,however, there were a few times where my periods were very irregular. One time I started my period 2 weeks early and it lasted 2 weeks long. My sex drive also decreased to the point where I just wasn't even thinking about sex. I thought the lack of sex drive was due to stress of planning a wedding, work, etc but I realized something was very wrong. I am only 30 years and yet I had no interest in sex. It wasn't my husband, I was just not wanting sex period. Then in Feb, I gained about 10lbs and now I can't get it off. I work out everyday religiously and eat really well and I cheat once a week and even then I watch what i eat. It's been a month and nothing gives. I did take the ring out 2 weeks ago and I don't plan on going back on it or any type of birth control. I am going to stick to the condom. This is the heaviest that I have weighed in the last 3-4 years, and the ironic thing is that I eat a lot better now than I did 3-4 years ago. Now my clothes don't fit and I feel like a cow. I also was experiencing hair loss I know losing 100 strands a day was normal but what I was losing wasn't normal. I also was getting really tired. Despite how tired I was, I still wake up at 4am mon-fri to work out. I am so frustrated, I can't wait till these hormones are out of my body completely. the last time I had this issue (not being able to get the weight off) was with Yasmin, luckily I wasn't on it for too long before I realized that brand wasn't working for me. Please let me know how long it has taken to get NuvaRing out of your system. I have been ring free for about 2 weeks and have yet to start my period, I think my body is screwed up..

hair loss anyone??????????

I want to thank all of the women who posted on this website ..this is how we found out what was wrong with our daughter. She was on the NuvaRing for 4 years..she was extremely sick,...severe back pain, day and night sweats, memory fog, extreme irritability, hand tremors, hair loss, uncoordinated, weight gain, breast enlargement..the list goes on. She was so sick she couldn't stay awake..we had to move her back home. finally, one night we read what other women were saying, we called her up at midnight and said TAKE THAT THING OUT! She did and now 4 months later she is back to normal!!! She does have liver tumors that we are having checked out. My advise: GET OFF OF IT NOW LADIES!

I have been using the ring since Jan 2007 with no problems, the worst part has been putting it in and taking it out. But since May 2007 I have been having problems with my hair breaking and thinning, my hair dresser thinks it is stress or hormones. Last month I cut my hair very short and I am still experiencing breakage. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced problems with their hair.

All I can say is thank you ladies for posting all of this. I was on Nuva ring for almost 2 years. my boyfriend complained I was getting worse and worse in terms of my anger and mood swings. He called me a monster. Then days after my 20th birthday I experienced lots of itchiness and pain after sex so I thought it was a yeast infection. When I did not respond to over the counter meds I went to the hospital to get testing for STDS. When all the test came back negative I went back to my regular doctor two weeks later. Again, I was tested and a month later tested again. No one could figure out why I was having burning and itchiness with no other symptoms and all my STD test negative. Finally I gave up the ring and have been symptom free now for nearly 6 months. To this day the situation plagued me because the doctor swore I couldn't experience this from the Nuva ring. I spent a whole summer in pain because of this. Now I am birth control free but my boyfriend of three years and I would love to add to our family.

I've been on the NuvaRing for about a year. And I'm quiting this week.
This has been the worse year of my life and did not know until this past week that it had to do with the NuvaRing. I started looking up side effects & reviews of the NR because I was getting worse and the Nuva Ring is the only medication I take. I'm glad I started looking stuff up. My side effects I have been having I can not live with any longer.
They are:
The day before and the first day of each period I always have the following symptoms - Sever leg aches that only heat can help ease (but not get rid of), a lot of pressure in my head, my eyes feeling very heavy, unable to get my words out right, and extreme exhaustion, I usually stay in bed for about 2 days.

I've gained 20 pounds this year,
Very bad depression.
Social Anxiety - (I've always been a people person, but while on the Nuva Ring I could not stand to be around people. It would make me so anxious and I wanted to scream. Thought I was going crazy)
Very Irritable
Frequent Constipation and gas (never had this problem before)
Brown spot on my face
Not able to sleep through the night
Breast increase by 1 cup size (but no soreness)
Lack of energy all of the time
NO SEX DRIVE, I've got the best husband in the world, but for some reason it makes me not even want to be touched.
My allergies/sinuses have been worse than ever since I've been on the Nuva Ring.
Hair loss

I just thought that my life had gone really bad and that I was losing my mind. Once I started looking up reviews of the Nuva Ring I found that a lot of woman are having these same symptoms.
I've read that some women have pain with sex..... the little my husband and I have had sex, it wasn't painful. At least that part was good. ha ha
I'm thankful to have an understanding husband that is standing by me and is taking care of me as I go off the ring.

I DO NOT recommend anyone to use the Nuva Ring.
The only thing it did good for me was make my periods a lot lighter.
I think I will go back to dealing with heavy periods and clotting. At least I'll be normal the rest of the month. (I'll just pray that my periods will be good)

I was on the ring for several years, and it was terrible!!!! Depression, no sex drive and hair loss. My husband thought I was nuts, but soon after I stopped using the ring I was a totally different person. I didn't think it was the birth control that made me angry and depressed, I thought it was just me until I went back on the ring about 2 months ago. And of course all of the symtoms came back, no sex drive, hair loss and depression. It is the worst birth control I have ever had in my life!!! This calls for a classaction lawsuit - I feel like I lost 3 years of my life and I am only 26!

hi, i've been on nuva for about 8 months and am stopping next week. i have been lightly depressed and have experienced A LOT of hair loss, but the worst for me have been the debilatating panic attacks. my advice: "waiting it out" is NOT the answer. there are plenty of other forms of birth control, including non-hormonal barrier methods.