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Periods Make Me Suicidal, Will The Pill Do The Same?

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Frogs88

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Yeah, for the first day of my period and three days after I have a lot of problems with self harm and suicidal thoughts, and then it just starts to ease off. I've been given the mini pill but I am starting to worry that if I go on it I will have these kind of feelings through out the month.
 
I dont know for sure. Your question is so straight forward, ask a doctor, or google your question "Does mini-pill increase depression during first days of period?'

Naturopaths can be helpful with vitamins that help decrease symptoms related to the drop in prostaglandins-which is the timeframe you are speaking about. I had depression increased at this time.
 
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I'm not sure about the mini pill in particular but I know that hormonal birth control is often helpful in easing depression like that. I was on depo provera (aka the shot) for two years and nearly forgot how depressed I use to get.
 
I don't consider myself suicidal, and I'm not a ptsd sufferer, but I do have depression. My depression is always worse during my period and particularly bad in the winter. I've found that the pill helps tremendously. For me, the pill has helped keep my emotions very even, especially a monophasic one. (hormone levels that don't fluctuate through the pill cycle) I did notice however that sometimes during the week of placebo pills I'd have thoughts pop into my head, just for a second, that said things like "I should just kill myself now and get it over with". Then I'd ask myself why I just thought that, and realized it was during the week off the pills.

I would suggest talking it over with your doctors. Let them know about your depressive patterns and they may be able to prescribe a pill that can be helpful for you. Also keep in mind that there are many types of pills and what works well for some, may not work well for others. You can always try different brands until you find one that is helpful to you specifically.
 
I have bad reactions to estrogen so a progesterone only pill is the only option.

wait the mini pill doesn't include estrogen? When I got off the shot my doctor put me on the pill(portia) and i had a horrible reaction to the estrogen in it and my doc said that all other birth control but the shot contains estrogen. The shot works really really well but it completely stops your period(perhaps one reason it reduced my depression/moodiness so well) and mine has become really irregular since stopping it so it'd be nice if I could regulate it. Is it possible that my insurance wouldn't pay for a progesterone only pill? because I didn't know those existed. I thought mini pill meant a smaller dosage of estrogen, or that's what my doctor told me.
 
No the mini pill doesn't contain estrogen. The problem with it is that's it really needs to be taken the exact time everyday. Much more so than the regular pill.
 
The mini-pill is pretty crap as far as birth control for most people (always use backup methods), but it tends to be excellent at regulating hormones to a certain level.

Will that level be life changing, barely noticeable, or make things infinitely worse? Only taking it for a time will tell.

In my very limited understanding there is a tendency for
- People with menses linked depression to develop PostPartumDepression
- People with menses linked shazaam (increased sex drive, creativity, etc.) to develop AntePartumDepression.

Which means that the probability is that it will help lift/negate your depression... As the way birth control pills function is to trick your body into thinking you're already pregnant. Downside... Is that going off the pills can trigger PPD like symptoms, the same way as the preparing-for-pregnancy hormones getting cut off when you have your period are causing a sudden sharp mood change. Which is good to know ahead of time, so you can plan for it.

Hormones are wacky. I had a girlfriend for years and years who was (still is) severely bipolar. First time she got pregnant? Her world became normal for the first time since puberty. Off meds. She tried hormone replacement to very limited success, and decided to become a surrogate, instead. Her body & brain just looooove being pregnant (love her to pieces, the bitch, mine hate hate hates being pregnant :P). It resets everything just right for her. So she had a baby every 12-18 months (give or take) for 25 years.
 
Response to hormones is pretty individual. I can see a progesterone-only pill helping some women with premenstrual problems. I highly doubt it would be helpful for me, doesn't mean that's the same for you. My own experience- I have tried traditional cyclic BC and also loestrin- a low hormone pill, which was prescribed to give a more leveling effect in contrast to the ortho- but never the mini pill. Both were horrible, horrible, horrible for me. I was a miserable, anxious, bawling wreck.
Pregnancy was also Godawful. I could barely even keep a glass of water down for 7 months. I threw up con-stant-ly. My blood pressure sky rocketed. No sleep, etc, etc. My body was trying to shut down. Definitely no pregnant lady glow for me. I think I'm allergic to female sex hormones. That's only sort of a joke.
I think all you can do is give it a try. Good luck!
 
Agree with @ihateusernames that responses to hormones are really individual. I used to be pretty suicidal before my periods too. Regular birth control helped for a while but then I started getting migraines. Now I can't tolerate estrogen either. There are many options for progesterone and they are very different too. Mini pill for about 10 days before your period (like Provera) was very different than a different progesterone-only pill I took daily (noticed the daily one making me constantly depressed). I tried an IUD and my mood was okay but the cramping didn't stop (all of this is to try to manage assumed endometriosis...diagnostic laparoscopy as last resort, which would be soon if my hormones don't normalize).

So, a hormone could help or...it could not help. The important thing is to have a doctor you trust and also know your body and moods fairly well. It's good to give anything a shot...like wait a few months if tolerable, even if uncomfortable. I gave all of these 3-12 months (just none of them helped much, or created different problems for me).

Has your doctor talked to you about possibly having something like PMDD? There are anti-depressants you can take just during these really difficult hormone and mood shifts, but I believe they were SSRI-ish (don't work for me either).
 
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