But there is also a demographic of women who feel comfortable, healthy and happy on the pill, only to find their world turned upside down after coming off it. Jessie Willis is one of them. Willis, 33, an Irish content creator living in Dubai, went on the pill in her teens and stayed on it for around 15 years.
When she finally decided to stop, she expected the transition so many other women describe—a body rebalancing itself, a sense of relief, a natural, organic moving forward. "I just felt it was the right time for me to come off it after being on it for so long," Willis told Newsweek. "I wanted to see what my body and natural cycle were like without hormonal contraception.
"I had heard many stories about women feeling great after and I truly believed I would feel the same, but, honestly, it was much harder than I expected." What followed was a cascade of changes she had not braced for. The science is more nuanced than the idea that coming off the pill "causes" PCOS. The combined pill suppresses ovulation and can make periods more predictable while also reducing androgen-related symptoms such as acne, so stopping it can reveal a menstrual or hormonal pattern that was previously being controlled.
As Cleveland Clinic Ob/Gyn Salena Zanotti, MD, said: "The pill can override your natural menstrual pattern. Once you stop taking it, that old pattern can return." That may help explain why some women experience irregular cycles or acne after stopping, particularly if they had an underlying predisposition to PCOS, although the pill itself does not cause the condition. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists notes that PCOS can involve irregular periods, elevated androgens and acne, while combined hormonal contraception can itself be used to regulate periods and reduce acne and excess hair growth.
In other words, what feels like a sudden onset of PCOS symptoms after coming off the pill may, in some cases, be the return or recognition of symptoms that hormonal contraception had been suppressing rather than a new condition created by stopping it. "After coming off the pill my skin became the worst it had ever been, my periods became really irregular and I was eventually diagnosed with PCOS," she said. "Looking back, it's possible the pill had been masking symptoms I didn't know I had, but at the time it felt like everything changed overnight." The physical symptoms are only part of Willis' ongoing ordeal.
"What really affected me was how much it knocked my confidence," Willis said. "My skin had such a huge impact on my self-esteem, and I genuinely struggled to recognize myself at times. "I came off the pill, and I never hated myself more…One of my main struggles has been acne, and I'd never suffered from it before.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
