I was plagued by stabbing pains all over my body for 18 years – no one told me it could be the Pill
WHEN I suffered painful joints throughout my late teens and 20s, I visited multiple different doctors in a bid to find out what was wrong.
I experienced stabbing pains, aches and stiffness around my body, including in my shoulders, back, knees, hips and wrists.
But although I tried every treatment I was offered – from acupuncture to strong medications with horrible side effects – none of the doctors I saw ever mentioned that the Pill could be behind my problems.
It was 15 years before I finally got the right diagnosis – and 18 years before I discovered by chance that my contraception could have been making my health worse all along.
New documentary, Davina McCall’s Pill Revolution, has highlighted how 85 per cent of the 3.1 million women using hormonal contraception experience side effects, such as mood swings and loss of sex drive.
I took the Pill from the age of 17 to 27, when I stopped taking hormonal contraception as I was fed-up of the side effects I experienced, including headaches and weight gain.
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But during the time I was on it, I’d also really struggled with joint pain, which limited my ability to exercise and socialise with my friends.
MISSING OUT
For years, I regularly had to take time off work, as some days I woke up and could hardly move, and because I had so many medical appointments.
I felt like an old lady in a young person’s body. I resented feeling unable to keep up with my friends’ social lives and worried I was missing out on progressing in my career as a journalist.
The various medications I was prescribed to control the pain made me feel zombie-like and some had awful side effects, including night sweats, nightmares and rapid weight gain.
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At one point I was even told to take antidepressants, which did nothing to help.
Eventually, I stopped taking all the drugs as I felt the benefits weren’t worth the side effects.
Then in 2016, aged 29, I made lifestyle changes to improve my health, including moving out of London, quitting a stressful job to work freelance and spending more time with friends and family.
Although my pain was still there, it was much easier to manage - I assumed that was down to the changes I had made.
But in 2020, when I was 32, my pelvis dislocated and I was finally diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome – a genetic hypermobility disorder affecting around one in 500 people.
Although Ehlers-Danlos is a rare type, hypermobility is common and affects around one in five people in the UK.
Hypermobility is a group of conditions where problems with the collagen in connective tissues means joints are weakened, loose, stretchy and can be easily dislocated or strained.
The condition is more common in women than men, but women are less likely to be diagnosed correctly.
In fact, of British patients found women were diagnosed on average 8.5 years later than men.
So it’s no surprise it had taken 15 years from me first experiencing joint pain to get the correct diagnosis.
Earlier this year, now aged 35, I had another surprise discovery when I decided to try the Pill again for the first time in eight years.
PILL PROBLEM
Within a week of being on the contraception, I was shocked to find my joints were really wobbly and sore again, so much so that I strained my wrist by simply pushing my bike along a road.
I instantly felt as awful as I had in my 20s - and the penny dropped that there might be a connection between the Pill and hypermobility.
Hormone-based contraception, including the Pill and mini pill, injection and Mirena coil, contains progestogens; hormones that stop ovulation.
‘Combined’ contraceptives, like the Pill, also contain a form of oestrogen, the other main menstrual cycle hormone.
Research shows that, in women with hypermobility, oestrogen helps stabilise joints but progesterone can loosen them.
This is why many women with hypermobility struggle with their symptoms in the days running up to their period, when progesterone levels peak.
And when some women like me with hypermobility use progestogen-based contraception, it can significantly aggravate their symptoms.
The UK’s Hypermobility Syndromes Association says: “It is surprising how frequently hypermobility, which was only slightly worse at the time of normal unmodified menstruation, becomes significantly worse with certain contraceptive pills.”
But it warns that many doctors are unaware of the link.
“They will be well versed in other side effects resulting from hormones, but not necessarily with the effect these have on your ligaments,” it adds.
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That’s certainly true in my case, where not a single doctor who reviewed my medical history in a decade pointed out a possible connection between the Pill and my symptoms, even though both started around the same time.
With so few GPs aware of this damaging side effect, it means millions of women with hypermobility who take hormonal contraception could be struggling with their symptoms - without realising there is a connection between the two.
