Nexplanon

The worst birth control I’ve ever had. The implant failed to shut down my ovaries, and so I ended up with huge amounts of both etonogestrel AND estrogen in my system, causing liver toxicity that made me gain 70 lbs of water weight and almost killing me. I had to have emergency surgery to have it removed–it had been implanted wrong and was embedded in my muscle, resulting in the most painful experience of my life due to the fact that the doctor could not give a numbing injection into the muscle without risking swelling that would make it more difficult to remove; I passed out on the table after about 10 minutes of him digging in my arm. Almost 8 months after I got the implant removed, I have lost 50 of the 70 lbs I gained and have only just begun to have regular periods again; it took months for the pain in my vagina, ovaries, and breasts to go away, and to kick a bad yeast infection caused by the excess estrogen in my system. For months, my blood pressure went from 90/60 to 140/90, and I was considered obese (I went from 120 lbs at 5’6″ to 190 lbs, and the severe pain in my breasts (which went from a 32C to a 34G in 3 months) made exercise impossible, even though I eat a mostly vegan diet and continued, despite the pain and water retention, to go running. I stopped about a month before the removal because I literally could not breathe, even when I was simply walking. In short, this implant almost cost me my life; it has certainly cost me a year of my life, and the anxiety I got from the withdrawal from the hormones made me suicidal. I feel lucky to still be alive. It will probably take me another 3-6 months to recover from this nightmare.