Talk to your doctor. I'm assuming that you're a young woman who is interested in taking charge of your sexual health- good for you! First off, ASK A BUNCH OF QUESTIONS about BC when you go talk to your doctor. What will the side effects be? How strong is the hormone and how does it affect me? What happens if I take a pill late/early? What happens if I forget to take a pill? What are the warning signs of having a reaction to the birth control?
Also, check out this site:
The National Women's Health Information Center. It has lots and lots of side-by-side info on a lot of different birth control methods.
As for side effects, they can range from none to a lot. My personal expierence with hormonal birth control was a very bad one. I was allergic to some kinds, and took Ortho Tri-Cyclen for a while, which I think I was OK on (I can't comment on the mood swings during the time because of other factors in my life). When Martel and I got married, I went on the Nuvra Ring, and got TERRIBLE mood swings, absloutely NO libido, and was generally an emotional wreck the entire time I was on it. As soon as I went off of it, I felt better, and eventually I got an
IUD, which was the best decision EVER.
Bottom line- this is YOUR body, this is YOUR sexuality, you need to step up and take responsibility in educating yourself about all the different options that are avaliable to you. If you start taking one birth control, and don't like it, go back to the doctor and get put on another kind. Every woman is different, and every woman will react differently to birth control.
Also, I Highly Highly recommend
The Guide to Getting it ON! by Paul Joannides. It's a human sexuality book that deals with just about every part of having sex there is, and is full of accurate, detailed information that I found absloutely INVALUABLE when I was educating myself about sex. There's a lot of colleges that use it as a textbook in Human Sexuality courses.
