I had a miscarriage while I was on the pill

I’ll be perfectly honest about this. When I first started looking into long term contraceptive options, it wasn’t because I was out in first year sewing my wild oats. I’d had sex just the once – I’d lost my virginity and, typically, ended up needing the morning after pill. So after this first time ordeal, I settled into a relationship and decided the best option was to look into taking the pill – as in, the one I could take by choice and not because I’d been stupid.

I was only 18 when I started taking the standard pill, and to begin with, I thought it was great. No messy fumbling for condoms and no awkward issues with rubber – just a little pill the also helped ease up my periods. It all seemed pretty straightforward, and I’m a stickler for following the rules so for the first few months I had no issues with following the instructions on the pack. Take all month but skip a week to have a period. No problem.

But of course, I got a little older and less obedient. I was still in the same long term relationship so I was never worried about the risks of STD’s etc because I’d had the same partner for two years. When I got to into second year of Sixth Form and it was suddenly the norm to talk about these things with my girlfriends, I hadn’t realised how many of them opted for skipping a period altogether. It sounded really simple. So I obviously followed suit and left out the break. Bye Bye periods.

Now, since I’ve spoken about the pill after I came off it, I’ve been told what’s supposed to happen when it’s prescribed as a contraceptive in the UK: It’s issued initially in one month’s amount, after which you’re supposed to go in for a check-up and have your blood pressure taken to make sure it’s safe to be prescribed in larger amounts for longer lengths of time. I must stress this was never offered to me. I was never invited or told I should have my health monitored during the taking of the pill, and when I went to renew my prescription for six months’ worth of the drug no questions were asked.

That’s why I thought nothing was wrong.

I was visiting home one weekend when I needed to use the bathroom. I’d noticed that I’d still managed to have a pretty heavy period despite the fact I hadn’t used the week off that month – but given in hindsight I was absolutely clueless about the pill I thought nothing of it. When I went to change my towel, I noticed these huge, huge blood-black lumps that were there with the rest of my period – I’d never experienced anything like this even before I started taking the pill.

There isn’t a particularly nice way to describe what was happening: I was trying just to get clean but it felt like this flow would never end and I was particularly worried about the black clots that looked like they could be part of something serious. I eventually had to call my mum through because I had no idea what was happening, or what was coming out of me.

That was the point I thought it best to go to the doctors and get a very long overdue check-up where I explained what had happened. It’s needless to say they weren’t impressed and due to the fact I’d also picked up a bad habit of forgetting to take the pill, having sex and then having one after assuming the drug would still be in my system. As it turned out, I’d actually lost a very very small pregnancy due to the on-and-off nature of how I had been taking the pill – the pregnancy had had time to develop, and then time to stop too.

What shocked me the most about it at all was the sheer lack of knowledge that was given when I decided to take this pill. Along with the absolute lack of pain or discomfort which I’d always associated with miscarrying, I felt as though it was just treated as a side effect as opposed to a warning for girls as young as I was that the pill isn’t as easy as popping one a day and having it be a miracle safety blanket.

I use the implant now, and made sure I knew everything about the pros and cons of using a long term, internal contraception method.

@d_laurenrae