[Sparkly Blonde]

Hi everybody,
I'm Sparkly, but not a blonde anymore! A gal at a local high end salon ruined my hair and I had the local beauty school dye it dark chocolate brown to cover the orange. I love it! I've never had so many compliments in my life Anyway, I had lost weight in HS but after going on birth control gained it all back and quickly. For the past five years I've been on so many different BC pills I can't remember them all. Steadily gaining weight the entire time. My DH was snipped about three years back and I finally decided why the heck should I be on this, so I stopped. My mood is excellent and I'm not hungry like I used to be. In fact, I found out that BC can cause glucose intolerance! I am feeling quite discouraged about the fact that I have gained so much weight, the BC kept my blood pressure low I found out (it was 110/70 and has now shot up to 140/90), and my hair is falling out! Another side effect from BC I have also learned. I am currently a size 26/28 which is the largest I've ever been. Right now my only forms of exercise are the stairs at work (I am terrified of elevators) which I have to do 4x, lots of bedroom fun and gardening. I'm hoping to find a dance class that I can join to help with loosing the weight. I love music, have three pets (Milo and Taz - miniature pinschers and Aldwin, my pastel ball python), been married for 5 1/2 years and will be child free by choice. I'm excited to join this positive community and look forward to making weight loss buddy/friends

[fitbyforty]

Hi Sparkly,
As a long term user of the pill I have never seen anything written about BCP keeping BP low.I looked and cannot find anything about hair falling out as a side effect.In my case when I started the pill I gained a couple pounds but it wasn't a continuing thing.Have you had your thyroid checked? Continuing weight gain and hair loss are both symptoms to a sluggish thyroid.

[Sparkly Blonde]

I have two full blood panels every year. My insurance pays for one and my work pays for one so I take advantage of them both. The only strange things in the past that keep coming up is that glucose level is low even though I've never fasted before one of the tests. The blood pressure could just be a coincidence with going off the birth control and losing out on a promotion to a colleague who is known to our department to be a snappy worker who doesn't follow regulations. When I spoke with my OBGYN he stated what I was mentioning were quite possible side effects. I take doctors advice with a grain of salt as they've steered me the wrong direction too many times. I'll have to look into the thyroid again...