I was on the patch for a year. The first 4 months, no side effects. Then they switched me from Xulane to Zafemy. (Zafemy is a whole separate issue and made me very ill. I know they say it’s an equivalent but there’s no way). I did go back on Xulane after 3 months or so but my body never reacted the same. After that it slowly went downhill, description as follows:

I have always been thin, and I changed nothing about my lifestyle other than bc and gained 50 pounds in the last 8 months. I have stretch marks on my stomach now. Plus bloating like crazy.

My already 32DDD breasts grew enormously more, I can only wear sports bras

No sex drive. At all.

Headaches. Headaches. And foggy brain all the time.

Anxiety that was previously manageable, skyrocketed.

I developed ovarian cysts. No personal or family history. No PCOS, just the cysts.

More negatives

- Cannot swim with a patch, it will come off

- Lint around boarders (never bothered me but it could be bothersome to some)

- Can cause blood clots due to higher estrogen levels

I made the decision last week to get off and start manually tracking my cycle. I used the patch as my only form of birth control and it was always effective for me- but I never wish to use it ever again. I will list the positives though

+ Xulane sticks very well (Zafemy does not!)

+ Easy method, only have to remember to change it once per week

+ I do not suggest this, but if you happen to keep the patch on an extra day because you forget to change don’t sweat it. My cycle would always be delayed by a day when I did it, so I assume there was still some medication diffusing

+ Cleared my acne

+ Way less heavy periods + cramps