Is it bad to be on birth control your whole life?

GRACE Lilith • Previously Lilith DV survivor

I got on birth control at 15 to control my heavy periods and help clear up cystic acne. I stayed on the pill until I was in my 20s and my period disappeared into thin air, so I took myself off. Never got a period other than every couple of months that would last 2 weeks at a time and would be literally horrific, stop for a week.. and come back again full force. The longest I went without a period was 6 months. I put myself on a different bc pill that helped induce my period (before as a teen I was mostly just on the bc that only let you have one every 3 mos but got on one that gave you one every month) which would only work sometimes. I thought something was wrong with me like maybe I wasn’t fully female. Finally at 23 I get health insurance and I am diagnosed with PCOS and endometriosis.

I am not ready for a baby at 23, so I got an IUD because they help control the symptoms of endometriosis. My doc put me on metformin to help me have periods everymonth and also control an insulin resistance, metformin is a fertility aid for PCOS so my doc recommended the IUD. I am now 27. I have had my IUD for..4 years now? And sometimes I have anxiety about the fact that I have pretty much been putting synthetic hormones in my body since I was a teenager and I already have all these reproductive disorders. I know the IUD changed my life when it came to my periods… they were REALLY bad before the IUD. But sometimes I wonder if it’s bad to have it for so long. It lasts 7 years.

I have a lot of bad health issues popping up, and I’m scared I am also destroying my fertility.

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