Loestrin24Fe: Is it Good, Bad, or Worse?

Before taking the Loestrin24Fe I wanted to research it online, check blogs and forums, and read medical websites.

I am finding a plethora of negative posts regarding awful side effects including depression, extreme mood swings, weight gain, break-through bleeding, extended periods, sleep issues and decreased libido.

I have also found a few who say they experienced no side effects or didn't experience side effects until the 3rd month, the 5th month or the 12th month.

Does the benefit outweigh the negative side effects?

I am already overweight by 15 -20 pounds. Gaining weight now would not be a good thing.

When I am heavier, I have back problems and knee pain. Keeping my weight within reason keeps those pains at bay. I do not believe in taking pain medication when weight is the cause of the pain.

To me, you treat the cause of the symptoms, not treat the effect of the cause.

Back to this Loestrin24Fe: I haven't completely decided on whether or not to start taking it tonight*.

I will look on the web a bit more and see if I can find more positive comments about it. It's much more common for people to share something negative than to seeks blogs and forums to share something positive. Personally, I try to do both.

Of course, perhaps the reason there isn't that much positive info is because it's a relatively bad BCP.

* Why not wait until Sunday? Why do the instructions always say to start on "the Sunday after your period"? I searched the web high and low and the best answer I could find after reading through all the different opinions is that women are too dumb to remember what day of the week they started their pill so making the standard a Sunday, which is the first day of the week on a calendar, is the best way to ensure they don't miss a dose. Well, screw that. I'm an intelligent human being and if I decide to start my BCP on a Friday I am confident I will remember to take the proper dose. Besides, my doctor recommended to take the BCP continuously which means it doesn't matter which day I start taking it. Duh!