Can BC cause depression?

  • I just started week 3 of my first month of birth control. So far, I've been pretty happy with it. However, suddenly, since thursday I've been feeling very depressed and moody. Could it be that since my body WANTS to be ovulating now (but the BC is preventing it), I'm having a hormone peak? Or is the BC giving me an unexpected side-effect?
  • Hey Kelly
    BC depending on the hormone mix and your hormones can cause depression. it's a trial and error situation
    Good Luck!
    KIerie
  • Yes, it absolutely can.
  • Talk to your doctor and tell him how your feeling Nothing is ever easy is it
  • My personal experience was not that BC made me depressed, but it made me "crazy." I mean raving homicidal *insert b-word*. So given how bad my mood swings were on some BC, I'd say it's very possible that it could make you depressed. If it doesn't go away, see if your doc will switch you to a different one. Mine did and it turns out I'm very sensitive to progesterone. Of course, I had to go off BC completely for other reasons (aggravates my eczema), but that's just me.
  • YES!!! AND you don't have to feel that way. Each kind of BC affects everyone differently. I've been on some that had me in tears for no reason. Like Zenor, I was crazy too. : )

    For me, Yasmin works very well. Tell your Dr. your symptoms and they can figure out what kind of BC might work best.

    Best wishes
  • OMG - I never knew that birth control could make you depressed.


    THAT MAKES SENCE. I re-started mine about a month ago, and since then my depression has been just horrible.

    I gotta talk to my doc asap.
  • Several different BC pills gave me all sorts of "crazy" symptoms, either very depressed, emotional, crying all the time or very raging angry and short tempered. One particular brand made me gain 20 lbs. in the course of five months! People forget that BC pills are medicine and that they control hormones with hormones and can have serious side effects. No one thinks about it because they are so common and doctors tend to play down the side effects.
    Finally I tried Yasmin-no more mood swings, little weight gain and it helped clear up my skin. It's a newer BC and they have another one now "Yaz"-everyone reacts differently but ask your doctor about maybe trying those.
  • oh yes, it can really mess you up.
    i took yasmin for 5 years and it really screwed me up. the scarey part was that the symptoms sneak up on you.

    I would never have known it was related to yasmin until i came across a site called yasminsurvivors.

    I wasn't so much depressed as just numb and unfeeling. Really angry and bitter and crazy like some others said. I think i would have been more depressed because i felt like such a 'bad' person, but i just felt kind of numb and empty.
    Totally caused a personality change in me.

    been off it one year and i feel almost like the old me.

    check out this like if you take yaz or yasmin and think you may be having side effects:
    http://www.createforum.com/yasminsid...asminsideeffec

    birth controll is not worth the risks for me.
  • My experience with BC pills has been that they all made me more depressed--something I definitely don't need! I finally switched to Mirena, an insertable that's replaced every 5 years or less, and I'm better now
  • Yes it can. After my 2nd was born I noticed the pill made my depression worse so I quit taking it. It was really bad and really noticable. Once I got off the pill I went back to normal.