Went to the doc about the fact that I was getting my period every other week while on my old pill (Microlite), which I'd been on for aaaaages and had been taking correctly the whole time.

Doctor: [Mess of crap about safe sex, STDs and going to the nurse who is really fucking incompetent so that she can stick instruments inside me to see if I have an STD even though it would be really fucking bizarre and/or impossible if I did; lecture about using condoms in conjunction with birth control in spite of the fact that the main reason I'm taking the pill is so that a) my periods are less intolerable and b) if I'm assaulted I won't get pregnant and not be able to have an abortion because Irish Catholic Church yaaaaay]

Me: Uh, sure. I'll make an appointment (but probably with someone else to do it because apparently that nurse is really inappropriate and I don't really like having people I don't trust touching my bits).
Doctor:I'll put you on Yasmin. It should help the irregularity. If you get a period before the end of the pack, just take pills through the week you would've had your period instead.

Me: Er, but I'm taking it through so that I don't get periods (because I fucking told you and the other doctor you work with that periods are painful and inconvenient and are not something I would ever like to have to go through again and it was agreed that I could use these types of pills to skip it).

Doctor: You shouldn't do that.

Me: ...

A week later I've reached the efficacy stage of Yasmin and wow, suddenly everything's terrible! Mood swings (to the point of actually contemplating self-harm, which hasn't been an issue in at least a year), generally 'feeling weird', stomach cramps, ZERO LIBIDO, heart flutters...

Needless to say I'm not taking Yasmin any more. I haven't had the chance to go in to talk to my doctor yet to get something else but fuck it if I was going to wait a month for the side effects to 'settle down' like everybody recommends. I think it's acceptable if someone who has a history of depression decides not to continue with medication that makes them depressed.

Ugh. Anyway, kind of at a loose end for what to do. Apparently there are progesterone-only pills that I haven't tried yet but I'm scared something like this will happen again. My friend recommended Implanon (the bar) but apparently that can cause wildly irregular periods for the first year (or, you know, for the entire duration) and I wouldn't want to get an implant if it gave me the same sort of side effects long-term. To cap it off I feel like my doctor doesn't listen to me half the time so I'm worried she won't actually take into account my susceptibility to symptoms and particular preferences before prescribing me with something.

It'd be so much easier if I didn't have a uterus -_-