Who has not heard about the wonders of birth control? It is this magical pill that is supposed to help eliminate cramps, decrease or eliminate your menstruation, and prevent babies! But do you know what else this pill can do? Well, I did not know all of the effects that birth control can have when women take them, and it is something that everyone should know. If women are expected to take contraceptives to prevent pregnancies, the world should know what women are going through. All of the effects that I experienced are as follows: mood swings, nausea, cramps, a longer menstruation cycle, tiredness, and a change in tastes.

Normally I have a relatively hard time with my moods switching relatively easily, especially when I am a few days away from having my period. But with that tiny little pill, I became an emotional mess. Maybe it was my hormones being unbalanced, but what would be the reason that they still seem to be creating an emotional mess within me? I see a puppy and I want to smile and then I get sad because it is so cute. Or I eat a cookie and then I am upset because it tastes different than how it used to because now everything tastes different.

At the beginning, I felt really sick a lot of the time. I never threw up but I equated this to "morning sickness" like pregnant women. Face it: the pill tells your body that your pregnant, so why would it not react like you are pregnant? Great insight though into what it would be like if I woke up wanting to puke every morning. Also a great deterrent for pregnancy.

I usually have cramps for about a week before my period and then during my period (do not even get me started about when I am stressed and my period gets delayed--that can be up to three weeks of cramps). After starting the pill, I had cramps for the majority of the days in the cycle. Yes, my cramps lessened during my period, but they were still very painful and I did not enjoy feeling like my uterus was being rung out almost every day.

Everyone has a different menstrual cycle. They last different amounts of days, start on different days, and have different flows. Well, mine became messed up. I should have waited to start the pills until after my period because it shifted everything by a week and a half and made it longer. I am lucky and usually only suffer for about three or four days. Yet with the pill, my period has spanned six days. Fun times really.

When I first started popping the pills, I was just exhausted the entire time. Pop a pill at night; refuse to get up the next morning. My days were spent being cranky and wanting to just pass out. It felt as those I was sleeping on a few hours at night even though I was probably sleeping like nine or ten.

For those of you who do not know, food is my life and I have very selective tastes. But my taste buds definitely became modified because while I normally hate spinach, I saw an omelet bar with spinach and my stomach was shouting, "YOU WANT THIS" even though my brain was screaming back, "SPINACH TASTES SO WEIRD." Honestly, my brain was not lying, but I ate it anyway. So many foods that I just hated before became instant cravings for me and it was really weird.

Overall, if these side effects--plus all of the others that can seriously affect your health such as blood clots, high blood pressure, depression, weight gain, loss of fertility, and many others--do not seem like a deterrent, get yourself a form of hormonal birth control. There are plenty of ways to prevent pregnancies that will have fewer side effects such as condoms, diaphragms, female condoms, sterilization, cervical caps, spermicide, or even a copper IUD. Ladies, you have many other options!