Loestrin 30 pill vs Rigevidon pill

Although taking it on time was a bit of a chore. It was the best method I ever used. After a couple of years it stopped my periods entirely which was great and any bleeding I did have whilst on this pill was very minimal and over in 3 days or less. It cleared up my skin beautifully and I never had any issues with it which was a relief as I had to try many different pills to find this one. I stopped taking it for a bit because although it had no negative impact on my mood I did feel like it dulled the highs and lows of my emotions a bit and I wanted to see what I would feel like off it. Sadly, while I was on that break they discontinued this pill. I am so sad about it. Currently back on the hunt for an alternative and it's not going well. Really wish they'd bring it back!

Context: I was put on Loestrin in 2014 as an attempt at controlling my endometriosis. I'd had a tubal ligation a few months prior so wasn't using it for birth control. Within a month of starting it I wound up in the ER with severe abdominal pain. When I say severe I mean it felt like a cross between gallstone attack and labor pain. A CT scan showed that my small intestine was severely inflamed and the docs said it looked like Crohn's disease. I was given antibiotics, steroids, potassium, and pain meds and it started to get better. Two weeks later I was back in the ER again with the same symptoms and was asked if I had recently made any changes to my diet or taken anything new that could have caused it. I never even suspected it could be the pill until I realized that was the only change I'd recently made. I stopped taking it and started researching and found that there is a link between hormonal birth control pills and intestinal issues and Crohn's. My gyno said it was a very rare side effect and agreed I shouldn't take it anymore. Lo and behold, I don't have Crohn's and haven't had any issues since, nor have I bothered with trying to control my endometriosis with any kind of hormonal birth control after such a miserable experience. It's just not worth it.

Overall I thought this pill worked really well for me however for years didn’t realise that my dwindling sex drive was due to it. This actually caused ongoing difficulty between myself and my partner as we slowly mis-matched in drives which could be upsetting and confusing for both of us. I’ve been with my partner over 8 years and knew it wasn’t because I wasn’t attracted to him. Coming off the pill has confirmed that as I’m nearly a year off and am very nearly back to what I was like pre-pill which is amazing. I had to stop taking it because of supply issue and moved to Yasmin as after researching a lot it seemed most similar. I reacted so badly to that one though it finally gave me to push to stop using contraceptives (apart from condoms) and I’m so glad!

Wanted to take the pill without a break, but on Rigevidon ended up with very light bleeding for weeks at a time.

Overall Rigevidon stopped my periods completely when running the packs back to back however the side effects I had were not worth it, over the 18 months I was taking Rigevidon I started to develop anxiety and this worsened and worsened over the time I was taking it and the last couple months I was suicidal. Prior to this I had not had any mental health concerns for around 4 years. Alongside this my acne started whilst taking another contraceptive pill but Rigevidon just made it 10x worse - it became cystic, inflammatory acne which felt impossible to clear.

I’ve found it reasonably good I’ve never tried anything else

Rigevidon was fine, but I stopped because I was getting headaches and breakthrough bleeding. My mood was okay-ish but not great.

I have been using it since I was about 16 as I had really painful periods, this is why it is difficult to determine if acne / mood changes were due to the pill or just part of growing up. I am now using it for the same reason and contraception, it has not failed me yet so that can only be a good thing!

Affected my mood terribly and felt so much better after coming off of it.

I had a very noticeable drop in mood, I felt very depressed all the time I was on the pill. I gained quite a bit of weight, which all came off quickly as I stopped the pill. The Dr said the pill very likely caused/contributed to development of blood clots, which resulted in a lengthy stay in hospital.

I took this pill as I was recommended it like most young girls (16) wanting to prevent pregnancy. I was on the pill for 3 years, at the start there was no change to anything that I noticed. Within 3 months I’d say I felt so much more anxiety in school and felt so insecure in my relationships with friend and my boyfriend at the time. The negative was my extreme moods during this pill. Which now I’m off it I feel like a different person all together. Positives are, no pregnancy, better skin. I don’t recommend this pill.

Towards the end of using this pill I was really depressed with low mood all of the time and had many suicidal thoughts, after coming off it I was almost immediately better. I’ve tried this pill since to retry it and got the same side effects pretty soon after. Did clear my skin up and made my periods a lot lighter, shorter and less painful though. Plus I didn’t get pregnant.

Helped my periods a lot, I could skip them which I liked. Went from lasting 8 days to 5, less painful and a lot lighter when they were usually very heavy. Did increase depression and anxiety, and I lost my sex drive almost completely/rarely got turned on. Made me eat more and I gained weight, and increased my vaginal discharge