Marvelon pill vs Rigevidon pill

I was recommended “marvellous” Marvelon by an NHS women’s health nurse when I was 23 and looking for a pill that would t leave me moody with breakthrough bleeding. 36 years later (!!) I’m still taking it. I now run it on every month so zero bleeding. Every few months I’ll skip a day to see if I still ovulate (and I do). After 10 years (age 33) I stopped it to conceive. Ovulated the first month (I get distinct ov pain) and resumed regular cycles immediately. I conceived 2 months later. After my second baby I had a Mirena which was fine but couldn’t get the little wire sitting there out of my head so had it removed and went back on Marvelon. So all up about 5 years off. Hairdresser noticed my hair thickened up (after loosing lots postnatal).again I noticed no side effects apart from no ov pain. I’m planning to stay on it until my early 50s or so and will then consider HRT options. So I’m very happy with my oestrogen topped up! I’ve had zero negative symptoms and am a very well, fit, optimistic and thriving GenXer!! Marvellous.

As someone who has never got along with hormonal contraception, I’ve tried many pills over the years and Marvelon is definitely one of the best. Sadly I have to come off this pill due to depression (which was non-existent before starting) but the other side effects were more manageable and gradual: tender breasts, nausea, acne. Really gutted it’s caused such low mood as I would have happily continued otherwise.

I was on Marvelon from the age of 14 until 30 when my GP took me off it. I really didn't want to to cover off it but as a smoker I had no choice. I was so lucky that the first pill I tried was perfect for me, no side effects except bad headaches for the first six months.

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