Final Thoughts on Tri-Sprintec
I had mentioned this in a post a few weeks ago: I’m not longer taking Tri-Sprintec for my acne. July and August were my 5th and 6th “cycles” of Tri-Sprintec. At the end of August (and my last pack of birth control), I made the “executive decision” to stop taking birth control because I personally don’t think that it has really contributed to healing my acne. I’m won’t go as far as to say it’s worsened my acne but my acne never did really “clear up” during the 6 months that I was on Tri-Sprintec.
Overall, in terms of the birth control aspect of it, I think that Tri-Sprintec did it’s job and worked well for me. I never had any mood swings that I myself couldn’t justify and never experienced nausea, vomiting or headaches. Also, I was keeping pretty good track of myweight up until the end and I personally didn’t think that the pill caused me to gain any excessive weight. I was also making sure to diet and exercise and I actually had certain months where I lost up to almost 8lbs. I don’t think that losing the weight was any harder than if I hadn’t been on the pill either – ladies, we all know losing weight is difficult. But being on Tri-Sprintec didn’t seem to make me plateau or become “stuck” when I was actively trying to lose weight. I thankfully didn’t seem to suffer from any of the common side effects of the pill but I also didn’t really benefit from taking the pill either. My cycle was regular again and shorter, since the pill basically makes your body go through a “fake period” during the placebo week. I was thankful for that just because it made it easier for me to predict when I would need to have be prepared.
When I look back at my pictures, I definitely had good weeks and bad weeks with my skin. Take into consideration that I was also controlling my diet, testing out new regimens and using topical creams to help control the acne as well. So it’s really hard to distinguish from whether Tri-Sprintec itself was helping or worsening my acne. Or, just doing nothing at all. I personally just felt like if it wasn’t going to help clear up my skin (and keep it clear), it wasn’t really worth it to keep taking the pill.
I’m currently venturing back out into herbal medicines because I know that I’ve been clear before on them. It is difficult because my cycle won’t be regular after coming off the pill; I’m not a huge fan of irregularity again. If it doesn’t seem to correct itself, I may consider going back on birth control.
Lastly, I’m just going to state that Tri-Sprintec is the generic form of Ortho Tri Cyclen. I know several people have stated that Ortho Tri Cyclen has worked for them and is helping with acne. Many of the brand named oral contraceptives are known to work better than their generic counterparts. Nearly all of the reviews I’ve browsed through online have also claimed that the generic forms of Ortho Tri Cyclen have caused acne more-so than healed it.
I think if I figured out a way to obtain Ortho Tri Cyclen at a low cost, I wouldn’t be against giving birth control another try. However, I personally don’t think the genericform of it has done much in terms of decreasing my acne. For those of you who are beginning birth control, please don’t hesitate to let me know your experiences as well!
I’d be happy to answer as many questions as I can. I know it seems like I’m arbitrarily making the decision to stop Tri-Sprintec but something inside me just makes me think it isn’t doing anything for my skin. Who knows if this was a bad decision on my part. It just didn’t feel right, if that makes any sense?
