NuvaRing Birth Control Pills, Google Search, Whitish Discharge, Spermacide, Yeast Infection

I took out my NuvaRing about a week ago. My doctor first recommended that I try NuvaRing because I was experiencing side effects like weight gain and moodiness with Yaz and other low-hormone birth control pills. Since the Ring has the lowest hormone dose possible, I thought it was the perfect solution. I used the ring for about six months and have to say that at first, I didn't have any side effects. However, with every month that I used a new Ring the side effects started showing up and then became increasingly worse.

At the end (right before I took the Ring out) I was experiencing fatigue, diarrhea, gas, a lot of whitish discharge all the time (I was soaking through pantyliners several times a day), no sex drive and a slightly swollen and tender vagina. I actually thought I had a yeast infection at one point because of some of these symptoms and used a prescription medication (I am allergic to the active ingredients in Monistat) to try and "cure it." Needless to say it didn't help the symptoms.

After finding this website from a google search I read other people's comments and realized that the Ring was causing these crazy side effects. And only one day after taking the Ring out the discharge was gone, my vagina was not swollen or sore anymore, and my gas and diarrhea went away. My sex drive is back up and now I am back to my regular sleeping patterns and my energy level has returned.

It actually frightens me that I didn't see how all of these symptoms were interconnected until I'd been living with them for a few months. I have decided to return to condoms and spermacide for birth control because honestly, it is apparent that my body does not like being innundated with hormones and frankly, using the NuvaRing makes me never want to take a hormone ever again.