Patch and heavier periods

First few months were GREAT- my skin and hair looked amazing, breasts looked the best they'd ever looked, periods were regular and only negative side effects I had were nausea and breast tenderness. Did not have big issues with the adhesive, even though I have sensitive skin, and was not bothered by the lint that stuck to the edges of the patch (I stuck it to my tummy or my bum so it was hidden by clothes anyway). Thought it was a blessing for the first 4 months on it. Started having issues further in, due to the high levels of oestrogen, where I began having extremely heavy and longer periods and went on to have daily pelvic pain after about 8 months on the patch... now on the waiting list to see if I have endometriosis. The patch itself did not negatively impact my sex drive and it did not worsen my anxiety (I did cry more and have some brain fog though). I only gained a small amount of weight and my body looked the best it ever has. Overall, it didn't work for me and has potentially worsened endometriosis (high oestrogen can feed endo), but it has prevented pregnancy and it is so convenient and harder to mess up than taking a pill every day.

I was prescribed this following the birth of my second child at 7 weeks pp. It seemed like a good option because taking a pill every day was difficult for me and it was discreet and easy to remove when we wanted to conceive again. I very quickly noticed a drop in supply of my breastmilk - I did contact the GP who told me this wasn’t related because I was more than 6 weeks post partum. I also rarely get spots or skin problems but I saw a large increase in spots around my chin and face. When I stopped using the patch my milk supply jumped back up almost immediately.

Honestly, it wasn’t bad while I was on it, I had pretty bad pain during periods but day-to-day felt pretty normal. Only after I came off of it did I realise I had gained over 10kgs and could literally feel my mental health improve within weeks.