NuvaRing and stress

I have been on the nuvaring for about 5 years and I seriously thought it was the best thing ever. I think i just started getting side effects that were bad enough to notice. I kept trying to place them with other reasons like stress. The vaginal dryness,the burning, the itching the spotting and that brown discharge. I have been steadily getting more depressed and anxious, i feel sad constantly and FREAK out on my boyfriend. I also want to sleep, i just feel wore down that could also be contributed to the depression. I did gain about 15 lbs when i first started taking it but have since then lost it. I started when i was 16 and now im 21. My boyfriend thinks i like someone else or im with someone else cause i just don't seem very turned on by him. It sucks. I am very certian switching is a great idea for me, it just sucks cause i can be very unsteady with pills. your not going crazy. ha. i need suggestions on a good pill.

Hello. My fiance was on nuvaring for nearly 2 years and gradually began experiencing many of the side effects listed here. The last 6 months were the worst in that the mood swings, anxiety and depression seemed to get out of control. She recently stopped using the ring about 6 weeks ago but it seems like the symptoms are still persistent. Does anyone have any experience with coming off of the ring and whether or not it could take longer than 2 months to get back to normal?

I had started the nuvaring 4 years ago and had loved it! I had no side effects except tender, larger breasts. I am a natural 36 D so it is a pain for me to go up to a 36 DD. I stopped taking the nuvaring a year ago since I was not in a serious relationship anymore and I wanted to give my body a break from hormones. I just started nuvaring again almost 2 weeks ago. I find myself crying for no reason. I am moodier than I usually am. I find myself crying then laughing then being frustrated. I find myself not motivated to do anything but watch tv. As I do so, I find my thoughts wandering to pulling a trigger to my head. I have no stress or worries in my life, why would I feel this way? I just don't understand why nuvaring used to be the best birth control and now it is a nightmare.

I actually LOVED the convenience of the NuvaRing. However, I felt that over time, my sex drive had deteriated, I was getting more moody and irritable, and tired all the time. After talking to my Dr., she suggested that I try a low dose pill for a while and see if that helps. Regardless to taking any form of birth control, she told me, the female body will still have hormone changes and other body changes that are not controlled by or a side affect of your form of BC. It could very well have been that my body was changing on it's own, and due to that, I needed a BC change as well. I see some of you blame the Ring for some symptoms that could just be natural to your own specific body type. Talk to your Dr. to see if a switch would be the right thing for you. There may be other factors like stress, depression, anxiety and anemia that make your symptoms worse, not your NuvaRing.

Hello,
Just thought I would add some pro nuvaring commentary to the chorus of horror stories here. I've been on the nuvaring for about two years now and so far I have no babies (yay!) and no side effects I could confidently link to the ring. Like most women I get headaches (about once a week or so), experience pms, and my sex drive is not what it was in the first few weeks of my relationship but I'm unwilling to ascribe any of these 'side effects' soley to the ring. In particular I find it difficult to believe as some of your postings indicate that the side effects of the ring seem to be worse than the pill- depression, weight gain (in one post 40-50 lbs!), headaches, etc. when the dosage or hormones is lower. So I guess simply put, I am satisfied with the ring and although it's not my place to criticize another woman's choice of birth control, I wouldn't let these posts scare you away from what is, in my experience, the best form of hormonal birth control based on its user-friendliness and lower dosage of hormones.

I've decided to go off NuvaRing because I don't want to be on birth control if I don't have to be (no longer with the man I was dating). I decided to see if there were any side effects to coming off of the ring and after reading these comments SO MANY THINGS MAKE SENSE!

I've only been on it for two months, but I have been a lot more emotional and depressed. I get bouts of depression here and there and since I'm a college student I figure it's been stress, but it's been WORSE than normal! I cry ten times more often and I HAVE NO SEX DRIVE anymore. I literally have not had any desire to have sex as of lately. Also, I've been getting acne which I rarely do--only a zit here or there when I'm about to get my period.

After reading these comments, when I go back on birth control, I'm definitely thinking twice about going back to the ring.

Hello, I've never been on birth control before, but i recently had an abortion and decided I really need to get on some kind of birth control. I am 27, married, and I am a NON-SMOKER. Nuvaring seemed to be the best option for me, easiest, effective and practical. I'm only on my first ring, it comes out for the week break in few days. So far I have NOT had any irritability or headaches, or anything like that. I have gotten a little "spotting" which to me can still be linked to the abortion or even sex. What I DID notice, however, is that I had a few sharp chest pains here and there, quick and not consistent, my husband thinks that could be from stress. I also noticed what I thought to be a pulled muscle in my lower calf could be a sign of a blood clot, which totally scares me. A persistent issue I HAVE had so far, is that I have that numb "pins and needles" feeling in my limbs a bit more often than usual. I do sit odd and my limbs tend to fall asleep more than the average person, but I actually notice it happening more frequently, like my blood circulation isn't as good as it was. I have NOT had high blood pressure. I ALSO noticed I wake sometimes with severe leg pain (cramping) that reminds me of those "growing pains" one would get as a child. I haven't had those since I was a child, wondering if it could be due to the NuvaRing. If anyone has felt similar pains let me know. I am visiting the clinic tomorrow to discuss these things and to see what could be a safer method of BC 4 me!

I have been on NuvaRing for about 9 months now. I really love the convenience of it. I have had no complaints until now. About two months ago I was having some issues with insomnia. I tried a prescription sleeping pill (rozerem, I'm not sure how to spell it) for about a week and after I got off of it I was back to my usual sleeping habits. It didn't even cross my mind that it could be the ring. I thought it was just stress from school. I might have been that and not the ring.

I have put on about 15 pounds but again I attribute that to my eating habits, not the ring. However, the past month and a half I have been on a strict diet and meeting with a personal trainer 2-3 times a week. On top of meeting with the trainer I go to the gym for a least an hour everyday. In spite of all this, I gained 3 pounds (on top of the 15). My doctor said it could be my thyroid but I just got the results of my blood test and my thyroid is normal. So I think it must be the ring.

The problem is that I really like the ring and I don’t want to get off it. Has anyone gained weight from the ring but been able to lose it while staying on the ring?

I started using NuvaRing last year in June. I have two girls age 5 and 3. I am 34 years old and dont want any children. The NuvaRing is actually my first time using birth control. My period was normal and no weight gain. But I notice that I am very moody, tired and very forgetful. I would black out for 5 seconds. My sex drive is normal. I should remove the ring this friday but starting last week I started to have brown spotting and feeling cramps. I am still cramping and spotting but not bleeding. Does anyone know what is wrong? I called the doctors office and they said I maybe going under a lot of stress and probably due to my age. I started my new job and I am under alot of stress. I work full-time and I take care of my kids after work. Can anyone tell me if this is normal?

I posted a few weeks ago and have since been back to see my doctor. I now need an ultrasound of my heart because my heart is still working under stress. Like I said before I can't say for sure that this side effect is due to the NuvaRing but my heart was fine until I started using it so you do the math.

I started the NuvaRing in October of 2007 and I have had some very interesting side effects. While I can't say for sure that all of my side effects are directly related to the NuvaRing after reading all the comments on this website I took it out last night. In November I started having trouble breathing and it felt like I couldn't get enough air into my lungs. I called my doctor and although I have never had a history of Asthma he felt I was having an acute Asthma attack. He gave me an inhaler to use three times a day until I felt better. But I never got better. I went back to the doctor and he started me on Spiriva and sent me for a chest x-ray. My chest x-ray showed walking pneumonia so antibiotics were the course of action now. I felt better for a bit but about three weeks later I was right back where I started. I was very weak and tired all the time. I would become winded just by walking up the stairs. Nothing I did seemed to work. A few weeks later I went back to the doctor for the forth time with a cough I could not control. It was hard to breath but I didn't feel sick. No cold or flu symptoms just a nonproductive cough. So now this is late January and I finally get a diagnosis from my doctor - full blown pneumonia but he did not do a second chest x-ray. So I take the antibiotics and for a few weeks I'm feeling pretty good. But last week I started up again with the shortness of breath and coughing but this time it's accompanied with headaches and a fever of at least 102.5. I went to the emergency room and found out that my heart is working harder than it should and I may have been throwing blood clots from my legs. The ER doctor did a chest x-ray which was normal although all my symptoms were exactly the same as a few weeks before when I was diagnosed with pneumonia. My lab work showed that my white blood cell count was normal so I don't think I had pneumonia at all. Signs of blood clots can present themselves like signs of pneumonia. I was told to look for pain or swelling in my legs and so far so good. I have a follow-up appointment in two weeks so it will be interesting to see if my heart is back to normal. I'll post back to let you all know but please ladies think twice before taking this BC. For me it was not worth the risk.

I've also experienced many of the same side effects. I was on NuvaRing for 3 years and on the pill for 5 years before that. For me I found the changes very subtle. My sex drive was not effected right away, but it just kept getting lower and lower. I was doing grad school so I was getting more and more stressed and thought that that had something to do with it, so I ignored it. I was also much more anxious, depressed, short tempered, unmotivated, fatigued and oh, did I mention depressed! I honestly thought it was all due to the stress I was experiencing in grad school, but I did feel like something may be up. A lot of my symptoms were similar to hypothyroidism (oh yeah, I also gained 30 lbs after switching from the pill to NuvaRing) so I got tested, but my thyroid was fine. I had heard about the increased risk of blood clots for the patch, so I wanted to find out if the risk was also heightened for NuvaRing, so I googled a bit and came across some other sites like this one and saw how similar other peoples situations were to mine. I went off it 3 weeks ago (after only having a new ring in for one week) and I got a really long and heavy period right away. Since then I've been having mild cramps until today where they are the worst I've ever had. On the bright side, everyone has noticed how much happier I am - I really feel like my old self again. I haven't been depressed or stressed since I've been off NuvaRing!! It's so awesome. We've switched to non-hormonal contraceptive methods - I wanted to give my body a break and I may be trying for babies in the next year. Anyway - for those of you considering going off - TRY IT!! It can't hurt (except maybe for some cramping :D) If you don't start to feel better you can always go back on. It has made a huge difference in my life. I too was considering suicide at 26 when I'm normally a really happy person. My mom has also noticed that my moods are much more stable - apparently I was going a bit bipolar before!

I'm five months postpartum and quit the mini-pill a few days ago and started NuvaRing as soon as the bleeding started (yesterday morning). I have never felt so aggressive in my life! Perhaps it the combination of getting off one BC method and onto another, but this is awful! I feel angry toward my baby and my husband. Do I need a break or a new BC? Before I got pregnant, the pill made me feel even worse, crying all the time. Now I just feel volatile and mean.

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.

Where do I begin?

I can’t tell you all how appreciative I am to find this site! I have been on the NuvaRing for nearly three years and was ignorant enough to never attribute my increasing problems to this terrible medication. In all fairness, I must admit that the initial reason I decided to use the ring was because I had even worse results with three different types of pills. My doctor then prescribed the ring, telling me that it would have the very least amount of hormones of any birth control. What she didn’t tell me and may not even know is that some women can not physically handle any type of added hormones at all in their body and must use a non-hormonal method. Why don’t they warn us of this?!

I come from a generally nervous and careful family. You could say they take life very seriously and perhaps too much at times. However, I myself have always been very social, productive, and had a passion for life. I used to love to write. I was good at it. When I started taking birth control, I was busy planning my wedding and so I just figured all the stress and business of life was taking all the fun out of everything. When I did get married, my sex drive tapered drastically (with the exception of my “free week” when it’s at its highest all month long, but still not what it used to be). I stated suffering from severe abdominal pain at certain yet random times of the month. One month, it got bad and was associated with a mild fever. The doctors did an emergency appendectomy on me just as a precaution. It turned out my appendix was fine and never needed to be pulled! Since the beginning, I’ve suffered the same pain almost every month. Not a month goes by that I don’t have weird things happening to me physically. About a year ago, I started suffering terrible panic attacks! I get extremely dizzy in stores, in traffic, while eating, lying in bed and it happens completely randomly. I suffer terrible leg cramps at night during the week of my period. They’ve gotten so bad that I wake up crying sometimes. I never used to grind my teeth and now I have TMJ! I’ve become overly paranoid and find that at certain times of the month I have more courage to do things I know I shouldn’t ( I have crazy thoughts), while at other times, usually right before my period, I’m afraid to do anything at all. I become obsessed with the thought that I’m dying and I suffer from extreme panic attacks for no good reason at random moments. Rarely, but on occasion, I feel completely normal and just wish I could stay in those moments for good. I suffer from: night sweats, bouts of intense emotion and sadness at the start of my free week, nausea upon insertion of the ring, lethargy and the feeling that my body is held down by weights. My appetite fluctuates greatly from day to day. One day, I’ll eat very little, and the next I’ll want to eat everything. Also since I’ve been on birth control, I’ve developed what you could call an eating disorder. I argue that I don’t have an eating disorder simply because I know that I am not myself on birth control. I haven’t always been this way, and I look forward to the day when I’ll be back to normal. I’ve grown so neurotic that everything in my life is just one big disorder! Doctors can only seem to diagnose what they can see, and so naturally they label me anorexic at 5’7 and around 90llbs. Two and a half years ago, I was a thin, normal girl at 105lbs. The pill made me gain about ten pounds, and since I’ve been on the ring, I’ve lost more and more weight as I’ve grown weird about everything in my life including food. I don’t use laxatives or throw up my food; I’m just a strict eater, disciplined to a fault and with more self control than one should be allowed to posses. I hate my life now. I’m terrified of having an attack in front of people and my daily life has become unpredictable and daunting. I want to be normal. I don’t want to have another dizzy spell ever. I hate it! I feel for women everywhere who are put on such drugs. I did decide to contact NuvaRing first, even before I found this site. I figured they could provide the best answers. Since it’s the only form of medication I take continually, (I’ve decided NOT to follow doctors orders to take the three different anti-depressant meds they’ve prescribed to me in the past two and a half years) I started to wonder if this was the cause of my problems. A representative of the drug told me that there have been no known reports of dizziness, my main complaint. This made me feel alone in my frustration. Now, either she was out right lying to me or the company hasn’t been notified by patients like us who suffer everyday from the adverse reactions to the hormones unnatural to our varying bodies. Regardless, this will be my last month on the ring. I’m pray that I can go back to life as I knew it. I don’t know if that’s even possible. Right now, that just seems like a dream.

I'm not one to contribute to open forums, but in this case I feel there is a need. I have been on the NuvaRing for roughly one year. I decided to start the ring due to my inability to correctly take the pill (my schedule was too hectic). I encountered a few issues in the beginning to include nausea and headache, but I had anticipated that. These symptoms gradually subsided within a month or two. (Speaking in hindsight) Very gradually I began to develop more of a need to be independent....I had started a new relationship and really cared for him, but found myself progressively wanting to spend time away from him. I also became far more irritable and to combat that, I would spend more time alone. During the past year I have had some significant transitions in my life and I always would attribute these emotions to stress, but the transitions were all positive. Recently, within the previous two months my irritability and need for isolation have truly spun out of control. Furthermore, I developed a yeast infection for the first time in my life (28 years old). I have never considered consulting a mental health specialist in the past, but I have contemplated it recently. Fortunately, I consider myself a logical person and would try to pick apart why I felt the way that I did and finally I couldn't attribute lashing out on everyone close to me to 'temporary depression' or transition and I couldn't justify giving up activities that once were of great interest to me or deciding that it would be 'easier' to break it off with anyone close to me in order to save myself from feeling remorse for treating them badly.
One aspect that contributed to my realization of what was causing this was that I knew that I was far more interested in intimacy when I was on my period, which led me to that it was possible that my symptoms were related to the NuvaRing.
I removed the NuvaRing 6 days ago and with each day I feel exponentially better. I've even had comments from those that are close to me. I have been far more motivated and in touch with my feelings in the very short period of time that I have been without the ring.
I am very happy that I was able to piece this together before my destructive behavior did more permanent damage, but I am also upset, because there was a short period of time where I thought the ring was the answer. Although I am thrilled that I feel like myself again I am concerned about being able to find a contraceptive method that is effective and does not provide such side-effects.
The worst part about this experience was that these side-effects really do creep up on you. It is not obvious at all.

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 thought my premenstrual rage and lack of sex drive was because of stress and depression. I really couldn't stand myself anymore. Then, I forgot to fill my perscription last month, and rather than start a new cycle, I thought I'd sit one out and start fresh the next month. I can't believe the difference! I've been on the ring for 4 years and never made the connection between my "issues" and the ring. After this month, I started looking into the side effects of the nuvaring, and found this website. I'm so glad I'm not insane!

Been on Nuva Ring for about 1.5 years...just now starting to realize the potentially bad effects its having on me. 3 months ago i started having wierd issues going on with my body. Nervousness, shakes, racing heart, trouble breathing, FATIGUE, constant "floating" feeling/dizziness. I am in good/normal shape, exercise about 2 days a week, but have had no energy. I went to a dr and had some blood tests done. My Thyroid numbers came back unusually high. My Dr recommended an Endocronologist to check out the possibility of Hyperthyroidism (the Thyroid controls the metabolism and hormones in your body). Went to the Endocronologist and am waiting for test results to get back. She said that it is a big possiblity that Nuva Ring could be the cause but wanted me to do further blood tests. I am being opened minded to what the real reason to my symptoms are, but i know that putting any extra hormones in your body has an effect on you, regardless. I took the ring out about 45 min ago and i'm hoping for no bad side effects...cant be worse than what i've already had. I have a boyfriend and he was totally ok with it (encouraged me to take out the ring to see if it helps)....he doesn't like the thought of using condoms, but its a small price to pay to see if birth control with hormones (NR) are causing all these horrible symptoms. I'm going to look for other non-hormonal contraceptives to use!

when i have sex with the ring in, it eventually comes out, and hurts if i dont take it out... i havent had any side effects or any pain at all and im getting ready to be on my 4th ring. i love how easy it is and you cant even feel it. oh and for the first time in my life i have an actual REGULAR period. i dont have to worry and stress if its coming or not!! and you can take it out for up to 3 hours without worrying!! yay! =]

i recommend it bc im scared of needles(the Shot), i kept forgetting the Pill and i dont trust the patch... honestly im VERY happy with it.

I started NR about 2 months ago and was amazed at the ease of it.! I thought no pill to remeber how great! Without really thinking about it, me and my sons father started fighting all the time, I was so moody, my sex drive was gone, I was feeling tired all the time,and I would start crying for no reason. I just thought it was because of all the stress of having a toddler, plus being a full time respiratory student. After another one of our fights (because I didnt want sex) I started to think something isnt right. I did a search on the web and found this site. I was amazed to read comment after commen "no sex drive", "moody", "crying for no reason". So glad it was just NR and not something far worse. I just hope others arre able to find the same great info I did.

Finally! I knew it. I got on NR when my baby was 9 months old. My libido went from high to zero, literally. I was already on medicine for anxiety/depression, but it seemed to stop working, and I got really bad. I went to the DR. He changed my anxiety medication. I was an emotional mess and told him about the sex drive thing. He said it was due to stress or a problem in the marriage...Now my baby is over two years old, and the sex drive is still non-existent. I know that it started at the exact time I started the Nuva Ring. The DR swears there is no way it is caused by the NR. But I knew that was all it could be. This has had a bad effect on my marriage and my whole life. Thank God I found this site. I gotta get off this thing and get my life back!

My wife has been on N.R. since Nov. 06. Like other people here, her first side affect was a lost sex drive. Before she started it, she wanted sex close to every other night, shortly after starting N.R. it slowly decreased to once a week if I was lucky. Her and I both blamed it on the stress of planning and paying for our wedding. However after the wedding it only got worse. Her sex drive was gone, and her periods started to go away. Over the course of 3 months her periods went from a full week to no period at all. We took several preg. tests, and all of them were negitive. We tried calling Nuva Ring, to talk to them about the problems, but they were so sure of their product, that they told my wife she was pregnant. Well we finaly decided to just take the ring out (only 3 days after inserting a new one) and see when happened. About one week later, her period returned and her sex drive is slowly incresing. - a happy husband

I was on the Nuvaring for 3 years. I had similar experiences to everyone else here. They came on so gradually I seriously thought it was something else. I had night sweats almost everynight some nights so bad I had to change clothing and bedding in the middle of the night. I thought I had cancer! And then the migraines came on a couple times per month, and headaches every evening some lasted until morning. . I never had a migraine before but I attributed it to stress. I also had chronic swollen glands in my head and neck that were sore. I kept asking my doctor she just did blood tests and said I was fine. All of these would cycle so you thought it wouldn't happen again and then it did. I loved the convenience of it so I stayed on it too long. I just got married so I went off it 2 weeks ago and I haven't felt so good in years!

I've been on NuvaRing for almost a year now and am I realizing my low sex drive and depression is the cause of the Ring.

Since starting the ring I've had the following symptoms:
- low sex drive
- leg cramp (restless leg)
- depression/moodiness
- lack of energy/sleepy
- breast/nipple tenderness

I also have a microscopic amount of blood in my urine and I'm being tested next week- but this could be unrelated.

The depression thing just hit me when I visited this site- for months I've been detached and in an emotional slump. I don't want to talk to anyone at work, and I'm dying to get home at the end of the day just to lock myself in my room and not answer the phone if anyone calls.

I also feel completely uninterested in my boyfriend of 8 years emotionally and sexually - this is unusual since our relationship has been getting better over time - because of the Ring I feel detached from him and sometimes feel like I could care less if I go weeks without seeing or talking to him which is very unusual for me.

I've also had about a 15 lb. weight gain in the past 5 years from using birth control- I'm nervous to stop NuvaRing because I've heard it actually helps with weightloss.

I just pulled the ring out tonight in the middle of my 3 weeks because it finally hit me!!! The light bulb just came on for me. I had been feeling incredibly sad and depressed for the last 6 months since I have been on the ring. I thought it was not like me, but I thought it was job stress. I was moody with everyone around me all month long...very irritated and not wanting to be bothered. I am a teacher and even my students noticed my moods. I had no desire to enjoy the things I use to enjoy. I walked into my school 2 days in a row and had sharp pains in my chest. I thought I was having a heart attack or something, but then it went away. I am on summer break now with a lot of time to think. Something told me to check out the side effects of the ring. Maybe it was divine intervention. I was shocked and almost cried when I found out that I was not alone. I even saw one person report swollen and red eyes. I had this also and thought it was allergies or pink eye, but now I understand that it was probably the ring since I have never had this reaction before. I enjoyed the freedom of not remembering the pill, but I don't think I will ever use the ring again. It definitely affected my personality and judgement.

Hi,

I am on my 16th day of using NR. I am also on the sixteenth day of my period. It is not the brown discharge described here, but defintely blood. I am holidays at the moment and so have difficulty in accessing a doctor. I am thinking I should remove it, but I'm not sure. Has anyone else noticed a similar symptom and if so, did it just go away?

I haven't had any other bad effects yet and to tell the truth it's been a very difficult few weeks for me, I've lost my job etc. So, I don't think it's having an emotional effect. Perhaps this stress lately could explain my proloinged period though? Any advice???

Thanks.

I've been using the NR for about a week or two now. I wasn't given a pamplet or even directions. Instead I recieved a sample from my GYN with little to no side effect information. I should have asked, but I was already asking a lot of questions about possibly losing it or having it fall out.
Well, I was dealing with heavy stress, constant crying over little things or nothing at all, total bi-polar syndrom or something! And when I cry, sometimes I cry hard enough to feel like I have asma or something. I can't breathe, and trying to do so makes me uncomfortably dizzy. I've been gaining weight, too! I was 115, now I'm 123. Though it's not much, looking at that extra weight in the mirror only causes more depression. Also, I've been feeling like I've had a yeast infection for a few days. But I KNEW it couldn't be. The symptoms were off. My discharge is as it should be, but the itching is intolerable. Then, the burning, painful sensation after sex was enough to drive any woman crazy! Now I'm too afraid to have sex, and I'm a very sexual person. My boyfriend is in complete disarray through it all and he has no idea what the hell is going on! I thought all this was simply results of moving out on my own for the first time, bills, not enough pay at my current job, hardly any food in the refridgerator, hardly seeing my family anymore. You know...the usual stress when you first leave the safety of your family and their money.
Then, I decided to check up online for the side effects or allergic reactions. I was sick and tired of not having the answers and waisting all the fluids I have on tears. I ran into this site, read most of the complaints and totally mirrored by all the same effects! Everything you all said sounded like I was reading something I had already felt and done. It's a real burden off my shoulders.
At this point, I can't handle more stress and hormonal inbalances. I already have too much on my plate. If side effects are truely supposed to stop in three months, I will continue on until I can't continue for that three month period. If nothing changes, I'm going to freaking rip this damn thing out of me and ask for another form of birth control! This is ridiculous! Thank you, all of you for finding the time to write out your symptoms. It's helped me out a lot!

I used NuvaRing for my last semester (~5 months) in college, so when I was looking for birth control (besides condoms) again I told the doctor I was not as interested in the NR due to previous experience. I told her that I had felt depressed overall, and I spent at least a week crying in bed when I first started it back then. She told me that those side effects were not common, stated the low-dose of estrogen, etc etc. I thought maybe it was the stress from college, and agreed to give it a second try. I wanted something more convenient than the pill and the low-dose appealed to me.

After trying it again, I know I was not being crazy the first time. This website also helped me realize that this is a lot more common than I thought. I put in my new ring two weeks ago. I didn't spend those two weeks severely depressed, but after about a week or so I began to get very high-strung and irritated by small things. Minor incidents left me in tears, I felt restless and insecure, paranoid, and generally unhappy. When I was visitting family for a weekend my father claimed that I seemed a lot more paranoid and unsettled than he had ever seen me, and I played it off for lack of sleep and the stress from travelling. Nothing changed over the next week, though.

This past weekend I had oddly severe lower back pain, which I never suffer from. I spent a few hours in bed crying. My boyfriend asked me what was the matter and all I could say was "I'm not happy." Later in the weekend I said "Why have I been so unhappy for the past two weeks?" and he urged me to take out the ring. When we got home I took it out and it was a breath of fresh air. I felt better immediately... I felt more at peace and my entire body felt relaxed.

A health consultant told me that reactions to hormone based birth control can depend on the "type" of estrogen used in the dose. It would be interesting to find out how the chemicals in NR compare to those in combined oral contraceptive pills. At any rate, no more NuvaRing for me!

I'm so glad I found this sight!! I knew the ring wasn't for me, but my OB said I was crazy, and that my experiences were more stress based rather than birth control based. My sex drive has diminished, I experience pain during intercourse, I've had 5 UTIs this year, I have extreme mood swings - especially the week before my period, and I can not lose any weight - no matter how much I exercise or how healthy I eat.

I KNOW that the Nuva Ring is the cause of this and I won't stay on for another month. I will be giving up convenience, but my marriage and family is more important.

I've been on the NuvaRing for 18 mos. The NuvaRing has made my periods lighter; however I have frequent headaches. I thought they were stress related. But, after I went through times of low stress, the headaches persisted. I also have lost my sex drive. I'm going off of it next week.