Scared of starting birth control

Hi,

It's been awhile since I have posted on here. I'm happy to say that too as since my last time here, I did a lot of self-reflection and decided to start seeking out therapy. I also got a full-time job and started seeing someone! All three of these things has added such a lovely quality to my life as I find that I really don't focus on my health as much as I used to. I am also learning a healthy thought process to combat the negative thoughts I have whenever I do have any sort of anxiety about my health.

Of course though, things have not been perfect completely. There has been a thought here and there that has caused me to spiral. A lot of these thoughts lately have revolved around birth control. I am going to be starting it soon as I want to have that extra protection being sexually active with my partner. I have never been on birth control though so I have been doing some research on Google before my doctor's appointment. When I went onto Google, a lot of scary articles popped up regarding the side-effects of birth control. The scariest of all for me was the articles regarding the connection between blood clots and birth control. After reading some of these articles, my mind has now began to assume that I am going to have a blood clot following my first pill and that my cycle is going to become completely wacky.

I have my appointment tomorrow and I am making sure to bring along some questions that I had with me regarding birth control. I'm trying to go in tomorrow as an empty slate and trust my doctor. It's hard though to not go back to that cycle of catastrophizing and assuming the worst.

Hi there! It's true that nothing comes risk-free, not even birth control. Discuss with your doc, for sure, as they'll be well versed in you, your medical history, and formulations and dosages.

And, if it helps... I know someone who is middle aged and medically fragile who started off with a DVT that progressed to a PE, and they were walking around like that for over a WEEK before finally going to the hospital because they thought they had pneumonia.
They're 100% back to normal today. So even IF (and it's a big IF) you had a clot, it might not be the extremely rare catastrophe you've read about somewhere on the interwebs. :)

Good luck, best wishes to you and your partner, and keep on challenging the HA!!

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your issue.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Please also read this post:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=213239