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Stopped birth control pill after 5 years...losing hair...link?
I recently stopped taking birth control and for the past few weeks have noticed an increase in my hair falling out. I have naturally thin hair and thinning spots due to genes, but I am getting worried that too much hair is falling out. Does this have to do with my stopping the pill and if so, is this going to be a permanent problem?
Anything will help, Thanks!
Anything will help, Thanks!
Hello everyone.
I have had very similar experiences to all of you. In high school I had very long curly hair. I started taking birth control in college and switched several times between different brands, some made me feel crazy and others made my skin break out (alesse, orthotricyclene, loestrin).
So I decided after I graduated to get the depo shot. I was a poor college grad and it was a cheaper, longer lasting option than getting pills every month. First injection went without a hitch, but shortly before the second one I noticed that my hair was falling out more. It came out by the handful and gathered in a pile at the bottom of the bathtub. I had long hair at the time and it was looking scraggly and thin. It was only after the second injection that I noticed that my hair loss increased. It was so bad that my only option was to get it cut into a pixie cut. BUT! and a big but here, my hair did grow back. Having a shorter cut also eliminated the handfulls of hair in the shower and drain. It took a few months, but once it started growing in, it was much thicker. I was not expecting it to be like when I was in high school, because hair thinning happens to us all as we age (granted not in the huge handfulls that we are currently experiencing).
So, being ingnorant to all the time, effort and bad hair days that I had experienced, I went back on birth control when I went to grad school. I took Yasmin for 2 years, Yaz for a month before switching to Ocella for about 2 years (stopped taking it because of being irritable and my skin breaking out). Then I had to wait until I got my period (which took 3 months) before I started taking Beyaz (for 7 months). My hair really started falling out when I switched to Beyaz (and it could have started from stopping and then starting up pills too), which gradually got worse. I also had such tender breasts and sore underarm lymph nodes that I could not lay on my chest and moving my arm at certian angles was painful. (I do breast cancer research, so I know it was not anything more than hormones and thank goodness it has resolved).
I stopped taking everything. I am 29, healthy, thin, exercise and eat organic foods and a vegan diet (with supplementation, so vitamins are not a factor). Since stopping birth control my hair has been falling out like crazy. Handfulls in the shower, when drying my hair, when styling it, on my pillow and it has been very oily. It is an embarrassing thing. To see my white scalp and have hair all over the back of my lab coat at work is disheartening. But it does get better and it does grow back. These things just take time. I work with cancer patients daily who have lost all of their hair and it does grow back. Maybe not how it once was, but it grows back.
Keep your head up and as so many other people have said, try not to dwell on it.
I have had very similar experiences to all of you. In high school I had very long curly hair. I started taking birth control in college and switched several times between different brands, some made me feel crazy and others made my skin break out (alesse, orthotricyclene, loestrin).
So I decided after I graduated to get the depo shot. I was a poor college grad and it was a cheaper, longer lasting option than getting pills every month. First injection went without a hitch, but shortly before the second one I noticed that my hair was falling out more. It came out by the handful and gathered in a pile at the bottom of the bathtub. I had long hair at the time and it was looking scraggly and thin. It was only after the second injection that I noticed that my hair loss increased. It was so bad that my only option was to get it cut into a pixie cut. BUT! and a big but here, my hair did grow back. Having a shorter cut also eliminated the handfulls of hair in the shower and drain. It took a few months, but once it started growing in, it was much thicker. I was not expecting it to be like when I was in high school, because hair thinning happens to us all as we age (granted not in the huge handfulls that we are currently experiencing).
So, being ingnorant to all the time, effort and bad hair days that I had experienced, I went back on birth control when I went to grad school. I took Yasmin for 2 years, Yaz for a month before switching to Ocella for about 2 years (stopped taking it because of being irritable and my skin breaking out). Then I had to wait until I got my period (which took 3 months) before I started taking Beyaz (for 7 months). My hair really started falling out when I switched to Beyaz (and it could have started from stopping and then starting up pills too), which gradually got worse. I also had such tender breasts and sore underarm lymph nodes that I could not lay on my chest and moving my arm at certian angles was painful. (I do breast cancer research, so I know it was not anything more than hormones and thank goodness it has resolved).
I stopped taking everything. I am 29, healthy, thin, exercise and eat organic foods and a vegan diet (with supplementation, so vitamins are not a factor). Since stopping birth control my hair has been falling out like crazy. Handfulls in the shower, when drying my hair, when styling it, on my pillow and it has been very oily. It is an embarrassing thing. To see my white scalp and have hair all over the back of my lab coat at work is disheartening. But it does get better and it does grow back. These things just take time. I work with cancer patients daily who have lost all of their hair and it does grow back. Maybe not how it once was, but it grows back.
Keep your head up and as so many other people have said, try not to dwell on it.
Yes! My hair has been falling ever since I stopped taking the pill. I took it for 5 years. My blood work results are perfect. After I was pregnant, the hair loss went away. But after I gave birth it came back. Yes, stopping taking those contraceptive pills can cause women to lose their hair. I am one of them.
Yes! My hair has been falling ever since I stopped taking the pill. I took it for 5 years. My blood work results are perfect. After I was pregnant, the hair loss went away. But after I gave birth it came back. Yes, stopping taking those contraceptive pills can cause women to lose their hair. I am one of them.
Thanks for sharing your experience of what happened when you went back on. Most people have not reported their experience after going back on, which leaves us to wonder if it helped, made it worse, or just did not change things at all. So when you went back on, what was your shedding like compared to when you are off? I cannot remember how much hair I shed all the years I was on the pill. My husband says I have always shed my hair because he had to unclog our drain several times over the years, but honestly, I don't ever remember seeing hair everywhere like I do now. I have been shedding steadily at 150 - 200 per day every day the entire 3 years I have been off after losing 300 or more for a few weeks after first getting off *dread shed* It still seems like alot of hair to me to be losing daily now! I've heard the norm is around 50 - 100 daily. Which I am guessing what I was losing when I was on the pill for years. Also, is your thinning all over or mostly on top. Mine is mostly on top. Thanks for your reply.
HI, I had been opn the pill for almost 20 yrs - a grandma by comparrison to most of you. I have been off for about 5 months and just now have noticed that my hair is thinning in the front - I never used to be able to see my scalp. No baldness in my family and I am hypothyroid on meds (have been for some time). Hoping to repart my hair and wait out the shedding. I have a small head and don't really relish the thought of baldness - it won't be pretty. Much rather have a great head of beautiful silver/gray hair like my mom did.
Hi there, Here is my experience of stopping and restarting taking the pill. I am 36 and had been on it for 7 years when I first stopped the pill and my hair started falling out. I went through this cycle twice in the last 4 years. Each time, I restarted the pill it may have grown back a little, but the main thing it did was keep it from falling out. It never got back to what it had been before.
Last December (11 months ago) I stopped again (once and for all!!) with the intention of just riding out the hair loss. I figured my body would have to get back to normal at some point! It was pretty bad at about the 3 month period when it started coming out. I was worrying constantly and obsessing over it, and then it sort of stopped. I also started taking a 2mg Biotin supplement each day and began seeing those short new growth hairs around my hairline - THRILLING!! THis bliss lasted for about 4 months. I still have those shorties, but in the last 3 weeks I am back to a shower drain filled with hair, my hands filled with hair, my brush filled with hair, and my sink drain filled with hair. Something happened and I don't know what it is. I was actually feeling pretty good about my hair 3 weeks ago, thinking i was going to keep growing it, b/c it actually seemed thick enough to do so. And just like that, I am at my thinnest ever, ready to lop it off again because it is so scraggly.
So, I am almost at a year since stopping the pill and am still battling this. Its frustrating, but i am glad I stopped the pill once and for all and will never go back. It wont grow your hair back, it will only delay the inevitable.
Best of luck all. I am glad to know there are many of us in this together.
Try the Biotin supplement. I got mine at whole foods. new hairs seemed to appear in about 3 weeks...
Last December (11 months ago) I stopped again (once and for all!!) with the intention of just riding out the hair loss. I figured my body would have to get back to normal at some point! It was pretty bad at about the 3 month period when it started coming out. I was worrying constantly and obsessing over it, and then it sort of stopped. I also started taking a 2mg Biotin supplement each day and began seeing those short new growth hairs around my hairline - THRILLING!! THis bliss lasted for about 4 months. I still have those shorties, but in the last 3 weeks I am back to a shower drain filled with hair, my hands filled with hair, my brush filled with hair, and my sink drain filled with hair. Something happened and I don't know what it is. I was actually feeling pretty good about my hair 3 weeks ago, thinking i was going to keep growing it, b/c it actually seemed thick enough to do so. And just like that, I am at my thinnest ever, ready to lop it off again because it is so scraggly.
So, I am almost at a year since stopping the pill and am still battling this. Its frustrating, but i am glad I stopped the pill once and for all and will never go back. It wont grow your hair back, it will only delay the inevitable.
Best of luck all. I am glad to know there are many of us in this together.
Try the Biotin supplement. I got mine at whole foods. new hairs seemed to appear in about 3 weeks...
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