Birth Control, Hormones, And Lipedema - My Symptoms After I Quit The Pill

We often hear that lipedema gets worse during puberty, pregnancy, menopause, and other time of hormonal change. Anecdotally, some women report that birth control pills made their lipedema worse. Is there a connection between lipedema and estrogen or other hormones? Rebekah discusses her experience taking the pill for ten years and what happened with her lipedema when she was forced to stop and why she decided not to get an IUD.

She hopes that by sharing her experience with lipedema and birth control pills, other women will have access to more information than she did when she was trying to decide what to do. Is there a connect with Lipedema and hormones? Can the pill cause lipedema? I don't remember mine getting worse when I started, but some women say that it was a trigger for theirs. Share your experiences (good and bad) in the comments to help other women who are struggling with decisions around both control and lipedema.

Articles that helped with my decision-making:

The Lipedema Standard of Care (2021) has a mention of oral contraceptives on page 785:

Body weight can influence the effectiveness of hormonal birth control! For example, Plan B is deemed ineffective for women with a BMI over 30. No one tells you that when you walk into a drugstore and buy it off the shelf! Read more about body size and birth control here:

#lipedema #lymphedema #birthcontrolpills

[BClancy]

I’m 26 years old. I’ve had a feeling that I have lipedema for a few years now. I’ve lost 40 pounds this year, but my arms and legs are the exact same size. I’m feeling so sad, scared, and discouraged. But I’m going to spend a lot of time tonight watching your videos. They’re super helpful, I’m really glad I found your channel. Thank you for making these videos ❤

I’m so glad I coincidentally got my iud removed last week. I didn’t realize how crazy, depressed, and anxious it made me. I just thoughts that’s who I was. It’s insane how different I feel after getting it removed. I feel like for so long I’ve been depressed because I couldn’t live up to version of myself I had in my head, when in reality, that version of myself was just locked away, trapped inside myself. And taking the iud out unleashed her. I’m not sure that any of that relates to lipedema, but that’s just my personal experience with iud’s. I’m so against hormonal birth control now, I will never go back or recommend it to anyone.

[olgaanatoliivna]

Does anyone know how HRT affects lipedema?

[katem]

Thanks for doing this. I was on BC pills for around 15 years. Different types, some didn't seem to do much other than keep me from getting pregnant. A few other types caused my legs to get so heavy/fat that I stopped using them in the first month. Of course, the doctors and pharmacists just told me to stop eating so much /eyeroll
So I went off BC and eventually was persuaded to get a Mirena IUD. The IUD was fine for a few years (and no periods was great, though the lipedema slowly got worse), but then I noticed that my sex drive was zero (huge change from my normal) and it seemed to cause some pelvic floor/vaginally atrophy. I told my doctor I wanted it out and she wouldn't remove it "because my insurance had paid a lot of money for it". I asked if she'd take it out if I wanted to get pregnant, and she said "oh of course! But we both know you don't want to get pregnant!" So I had to find someone else to do it. I can not recommend avoiding any IUD enough - you're at the mercy of a doc to believe your symptoms and agreeing to remove it.
Since stopping hormonal BC my lipedema seems to be stable and with excersize, it actually beating it back. I've also done a lot of pelvic floor therapy and gotten the atrophy issues cleared up, and my sex drive is back to normal for me - although that took over a year.

[boblemons]

My lipedema started during puberty when I was 10 and I started taking birth control when I was 16. I really don't think it made any changes to it and BC has been so helpful with my emotions, skin, and being able to completely skip periods is amazing. I'm only 21 and I doubt I would be able to get my tubes tied and an IUD with my low pain tolerance and trauma isn't going to happen. The most noticeable change with my lipdema and when I really started to notice it was after starting a new antidepressant and gaining about 60 pounds in 3 months and all that weight went straight to my legs and arms. I really would like to know if antidepressants could worsen lipedema but I really can't find much. It was the only change I made during that time.

[anitacarmon-crawford]

Howdy,
I’ve got adenomyosis.

I had to come off birth control in 2018 after a migraine.

Things have been very difficult since then.

Thankfully, the migraine was most probably linked to lead poisoning.

I was given the green light to go back onto Zoely in May. It stops ovulation.

I think it’s improving things but I’ll know for sure in a couple of months.

Thank you for all that you are doing.

X

[Manduhhlynn]

I have been struggling for years with endometriosis and started birth control at 17. Im now 33 and stage 1 and i am strongly considering getting off because of this.

[Navita-cd]

I have pcos . Not sure how to regulate periods.

[MegSherrard-hlym]

paraguard IUD is no hormones. Copper makes your uterus inhospitable