The Cons of Longterm Mounjaro Use

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]So, apparently, being on Mounjaro is currently affecting my birth control, the absorption of my birth control. I've been on the birth control pill now for 15, 16, maybe 17 years at this point. I think I was 15, 16 when I first started the pill.

[00:00:16]I've not had any issues in the let's say 17 years I've been on said medication.

[00:00:23]Until now.

[00:00:26]>> [music] [music] >> Hey y'all, and welcome back to my channel. My name is Lex. If you are new here, and in today's video, we're going to talk about how Mounjaro, or Zepbound, or tirzepatide is affecting my body from absorbing my birth control pills.

[00:00:50]So, basically, over the last 7 months, I started noticing changes in my body.

[00:00:53]This started in October of 2025. I started bleeding for 8 weeks straight.

[00:01:00]Because I was bleeding for 8 weeks straight, at first it started as like spotting, then it was like on and off like an actual period for maybe a couple hours, and then it would stop one day, come back the next day, stop. It was very inconsistent, and it was very, very, very, very, very uncomfortable.

[00:01:19]This happened for 8 weeks straight. I bled. That triggered me to go to my OB/GYN. I scheduled an appointment, and then in December, I saw my OB/GYN, and she seemingly diagnosed me with fibroids. At that time, I was scared, alone, confused. I had no idea what was going on. I have heard of fibroids before, but had not done any research.

[00:01:43]When I was diagnosed with fibroids, my doctor directly correlated the bleeding to the fibroids. We took that, and we ran with it.

[00:01:52]Um I personally didn't feel like my doctor did too much research. She was just like, "Okay, yeah, this is normal.

[00:01:59]You have fibroids. You're going to stay on the birth control. We're going to see what happens in 3 months." I was like, um, "Okay."

[00:02:08]I thought the ble- For me, it didn't seem like the doctor was advocating for me. If I'm telling you that I'm bleeding and I've been bleeding for 8 weeks straight, your only solution, which wasn't a solution, was to continue your birth control. I personally felt like that was my health being mismanaged.

[00:02:30]There was no solution. There was no change. It was just like, "Okay, let's just reconvene in 3 months." Like, "Okay, you have fibroids. What's new?"

[00:02:37]It was kind of like, "Whoop-de-doo. You have fibroids."

[00:02:41]And for me, it was like, "Oh my god, I have fibroids. This explains a lot."

[00:02:46]So, that was back in December. I was diagnosed.

[00:02:52]SINCE DECEMBER, I've been bleeding. I've been burning in my pelvic area. It feels like my ovaries are on fire.

[00:03:04]Um, when I do produce a period, because let's just go a little bit further back.

[00:03:10]I have been on birth control since I was about 15 or 16, but since COVID, I started taking my birth control continuously. What that means, if you don't know, is some women have sugar pills at the end of their pack, which is that week of reminder pills, but that week you're supposed to get your period.

[00:03:30]I don't have those. I have a 21-day pack. My pack don't have no sugar pills.

[00:03:36]After 3 weeks of active pills, I start a new pack. So, I don't get a period. So, imagine my surprise when I'm bleeding and I shouldn't be having a period at all.

[00:03:46]I shouldn't be bleeding. I shouldn't be spotting. I shouldn't be cramping. I shouldn't have no burning. Okay? At first, I thought I had an STD.

[00:03:54]Okay.

[00:03:56]I continued to get STD tested, STD tested, STD tested. I'm not going to lie, I was going to the doctor like I was a crackhead, okay? I'm like, I need a STD test because maybe it just hasn't showed up yet. It just hasn't showed up on test this yet.

[00:04:10]The doctor's like, "Mhm, it's negative.

[00:04:12]It's negative. It's negative. It's I'm like, it can't be negative." At that point I was damn near begging for a STD.

[00:04:17]I'm like, "There's no way. There's no way the STD testing is negative. It's no way.

[00:04:24]I'm burning. I'm bleeding. I have discharge. Like I I never experienced this before."

[00:04:30]Again, the doctor just kept charging it to Again, the doctor just kept blaming it on fibroids. I'm not a doctor. I have no knowledge of fibroids. I have no true knowledge. I've not done any true research on fibroids. So, for me I'm like, "Okay, it's the fibroids."

[00:04:47]Cool.

[00:04:48]Then I continued to complain and complain and complain and complain and do some more complaining.

[00:04:56]Till finally about um maybe I went to the doctor in April, I want to say. I had a follow-up with the doctor and she actually said, "Mhm, you know, I think if you're still having this bleeding, we should switch you over to an IUD and do another ultrasound." And I was like, "Mhm, okay." We talked about it. I wasn't fully comfortable with getting an IUD. I told her I don't want to go through the pain. I don't want to all the negatives that you hear, I don't want to deal with that at all. I don't want to go through the pain. I don't want to go through the pain. I don't want to go through the pain. I don't want to go through the pain.

[00:05:36]Okay? My doctor was very good about giving me all my options. A few options were pain medicine prior to the IUD, um laughing gas prior to the IUD, um and she even offered some type of numbing injection into the cervix prior to the IUD, but she said that can be more painful than the actual IUD, just getting the injection prior to numbing.

[00:06:01]Um, she even went as far as offering to put me to sleep.

[00:06:05]Um, with that, you know, you have to pay for anesthesia. So, I was weighing my options. I seemingly decided I don't want an IUD. I am 33 years old and I'm not getting any younger, okay? I'm not getting any younger, my eggs aren't getting any younger, and an IUD, the one that we had spoke about, was to prevent pregnancy for 6 years. I personally have no desire to delay pregnancy any longer, if I'm being honest. Let's call a spade a spade.

[00:06:41]Um, and that's currently where I am.

[00:06:43]So, um, >> [sighs and gasps] >> my insu- not even my insurance, my job had made new rules where all employees have to now get their maintenance meds through the mail-order pharmacy. So, my birth control, um, my famotidine for acid reflux, my allergy medication, basically all the meds that I take, they're pretty much all maintenance meds, um, they now need to be delivered via the mail-order pharmacy.

[00:07:16]That was an inconvenience for me because I had ran out of birth control and I'm going to refill my birth control and I didn't find out until I was at the retail pharmacy and I'm like, "What do you mean? It has to go through the mail-order. That's going to take over a week. What do you mean?" So, in March, um, I paid for my birth control out of pocket.

[00:07:38]For whatever reason, if I remember correctly, I had to only get a 63-day worth of birth control because the birth control that the doctor had prescribed me was on back order. So, the pharmacist said, "Hey, you're going to need more birth control before day 84 because we're shorting your script because this is all we have, but we're going to give you something." I'm like, "Okay, cool."

[00:08:03]A few weeks ago, I was like, "Okay, I'm almost out of birth control. I've got one pack left. Let me order my birth control from the mail-order pharmacy."

[00:08:12]I order my birth control.

[00:08:14]Well, >> [clears throat] >> because I don't know how the mail order works, they don't call, they don't text, there's no notification sent, there's no nothing. I never got no birth control in the mail. Why? Because one, my memory is short now because of my sleeping meds. My memory shot, gone.

[00:08:31]But, where's the birth control? It never got delivered. So, on Sunday, I was supposed to start a new pack.

[00:08:39]I never started a new pack because I didn't have a new pack, okay?

[00:08:42]So, I'm like, "Oh my god, tomorrow is a holiday, Monday. No pack." Could not call the pharmacy. So, I had to wait until Tuesday until all stores reopen.

[00:08:54]And I'm calling the pharmacy. I'm like, "Hey, I just realized my birth control never got delivered a couple weeks ago.

[00:08:59]What's going on?"

[00:09:00]She didn't tell me what happened. She was just like, "The soonest I can get it to you is Thursday."

[00:09:05]Thursday? I'm like, "Okay."

[00:09:09]Um Like, do I just go pick it up and pay for it cash again? Like, I'm really trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do.

[00:09:18]Um That's not really an option for me.

[00:09:21]Like, I just don't feel like actually paying for birth control when birth control is supposed to be free. Birth control has been free for the 33 years that I've been on this earth. At least as long as I've been old enough to take it. Why am I paying for birth control now? I paid for it a couple months ago because I was like in an emergency situation, paid for it, and now I'm not paying for it again. So, because I had not been on my birth control from Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, so because I had ran out of my regular birth control, which apparently is the highest dose when all my life I've been on the lowest dose of birth control, apparently I'm on the highest dose of birth control. There's nowhere else up to go.

[00:10:07]This is news to me because I messaged my doctor. I'm like, "Hey, I'm spotting." It was a couple weeks ago. "Hey, I'm still spotting. Um can we change my birth control and you know, go up?" She's like, "You're on the highest dose, babe. We need to look into IUD.

[00:10:22]You have your appointment. Let's go ahead and do that." I think my IUD appointment is scheduled for like June or July. I think it's June. Like I think I scheduled it like right after my birthday.

[00:10:31]And I'm like, "I Babe, I don't want an IUD." So, I'm not going to get an IUD. So, because I had been switching back and forth between different birth controls, doctor wanted me to try this one, try this one, try this one, see which one was going to work better for me.

[00:10:47]Because we were trying different birth controls, [laughter] oh my god, I have so many birth control packs in my house. They're not exactly what I was currently taking, but it's birth control. So, in my mind I'm like, "It's birth control. It's going to still do the same job." Wrong. Wrong. While I'm waiting for the birth control to be delivered, while I'm waiting for it, right? While I'm waiting for it, I take a random birth control that I have in my house, the one that I took right before I switched to this current one. The current birth control that I take is like 1.0-35.

[00:11:23]And then the birth control that I had on hand was like 0.25 /35. So, I'm like, "Okay, it's pretty much the same thing." I asked the pharmacist, "What's the difference?" He said, "Not really any difference. One just has a little more progesterone than the other." Okay, cool. I took it because at the end of the day, I mean, technically, we're trying to prevent pregnancy, but we're also trying to stop the bleeding. So, I take it. Better to have some birth control my system than none, right? Wrong.

[00:11:52]I took that birth control from Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Tuesday, I was at work. I went back to work on Tuesday.

[00:12:00]Tuesday, I was bleeding through my clothes at work.

[00:12:06]Okay? So, that birth control went through my body like It like like nothing was there.

[00:12:12]Like nothing was there. That birth control went in my mouth and right out my system. Okay? I started bleeding like a mother sucker.

[00:12:23]I was at work like, "What the heck is going on? Oh my god."

[00:12:29]I messaged my doctor and she's like, "Oh my god, your Zepbound, Mounjaro, tirzepatide, is no longer allowing your birth control to absorb.

[00:12:41]It's no longer absorbing.

[00:12:44]What?

[00:12:46]Okay. Okay.

[00:12:48]That's crazy. Okay. So, literally, literally and actually, my birth control is no longer absorbing.

[00:12:59]Okay. When I started Mounjaro, Zepbound, tirzepatide, about 3 years, 4 years ago, we knew that the medication could affect birth control.

[00:13:10]But, I was not having any issues. So, I thought I was one of God's favorites.

[00:13:15]I am sadly mistaken. Or maybe God is like, "You know what, babe? You're turning 33 this year. Let's go ahead and get up off that birth control all together." Because guess what? I'm going to go ahead and get up off this birth control all together. If I'm bleeding anyway, why not?

[00:13:32]Y'all must just want me to have a baby.

[00:13:34]Okay, I don't I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I've always wanted to be a mommy.

[00:13:40]So, I don't know. But the thing is for me, every time I bleed, my fibroids flare.

[00:13:48]That's my problem. That's where the correlation is here. Every time I bleed and have a period, my fibroids flare, which means I'm in pain, which means I'm moody, which means my pelvic area is burning. Like I feel like my ovaries are on fire, okay? My back pain, excruciating. I literally sleep with a heater, like a little space heater, on for the first hour of my sleep because it's so much more comfortable than sleeping in a cold room. Sleeping in a cold room as I'm trying to go to sleep, can't sleep. Sorry, won't do it, can't do it. I just can't sleep. I go to sleep to warmth.

[00:14:23]It's actually a really great feeling.

[00:14:25]So, yeah, if you ask, I'm currently bleeding. I'm currently, I guess, technically on my period.

[00:14:30]Yeah. Um so, the pharmacy want the mail-order pharmacy, because I made such a big stink about it, was like, "Oh my god, I'm bleeding through my clothes. I need help. Somebody help me. Send help."

[00:14:42]Um the They made arrangements for me to be able to pick up an emergency override fill at my local pharmacy. 30 days.

[00:14:48]Well, technically 21 days cuz I don't have sugar pills.

[00:14:51]Um I picked that up and I started taking it immediately. Yes, yes, I'm still bleeding. I know.

[00:14:57]What is going on?

[00:15:02]What's going on? I don't know.

[00:15:05]But the good news is I'm back on said birth control, and if this bleeding does not stop, the plan is to just come off the birth control all together because it's between the Mounjaro and Zepbound and Zepbound's appetite, it's clearly affecting my body and I'm probably going to wind up planning on getting up off of the Zepbound, Zepbound, Mounjaro as well. Um I I don't really know what to do at this point. I'm not going to get an IUD. I don't want to do that.

[00:15:39]Um I've been trying to maintain my weight. I've actually been losing weight. I lost 4 lb since I don't know when the last time we got on the scale. I'm now under 200 lb. You know, I had gained what? 25 lb? I think I've since lost what? Four?

[00:15:57]Don't know, but I digress.

[00:15:59]I am not in the business of um wanting to be bleeding.

[00:16:06]So, um if I'm being honest, babe, it's just time to get up off of everything and let my body do what it wants to do. Clearly, my body doesn't want to be on Mounjaro, Zepbound, Zepbound.

[00:16:20]Clearly, my body doesn't want to be on birth control, either.

[00:16:23]Like, the birth control might be the key.

[00:16:28]And I'm going to start there because, of course, I don't want to gain weight back like crazy, of course.

[00:16:36]So, we're going to start with the birth control. We're going to come up off the birth control.

[00:16:39]I'm going to give it to the end of this year.

[00:16:43]Maybe September.

[00:16:45]We're going to give it to about September. We're going to come up off this birth control.

[00:16:50]And we're going to see how we feel.

[00:16:52]Um and of course, I'll continue to update and all of the things, but essentially, the Mounjaro, Zepbound, Zepbound is no longer allowing my birth control to work.

[00:17:04]And babe, I'm tired.

[00:17:06]I'm tired of bleeding. Like, the fact that I started bleeding and it was a massacre at work.

[00:17:15]>> [snorts] >> That just doesn't sit right with my spirit. Like I was so uncomfortable at work. I was I was actually miserable.

[00:17:23]Miserable, if I do say so myself. And I just don't want to That's just not the life I desire to have, so.

[00:17:33]Um I'm glad that we're kind of getting somewhere.

[00:17:39]Cuz I'm like these fibroids are about to take me out. Okay, babe?

[00:17:43]And I guess kind of knowing that it might not maybe be the fibroids right now, like the fibroids might not be affecting me, makes me feel as though I might I might be ready for a baby.

[00:18:04]I might If we can get these finances completely under control and our budgeting completely under control, we might be ready for a baby.

[00:18:13]Maybe.

[00:18:15]If you're on Mounjaro or any GLP-1 medication and you've experienced anything like this, please talk to your doctor. And don't back down.

[00:18:23]Don't be scared. Don't be hesitant. Ask questions. Continue to ask questions. I don't care if you feel like you're annoying the hell out of the doctor. Send that MyChart message. I was sending MyChart messages weekly because I'm like, I don't understand like what's going on. I'm still bleeding. Update, still bleeding. Update, still bleeding.

[00:18:43]And it took me pestering my doctor for I'm assuming maybe her to do more research or her to speak to more of her colleagues and be like, "Oh, you know what? The birth control's no longer absorbing due to the GLP-1 medication.

[00:18:59]We might just need to get off the GLP-1 medication and I might just need to maintain this weight on my own.

[00:19:06]If we eat 100% clean or close enough to it, I might be able to do this on my own.

[00:19:13]I am a little scared to try, but if it's between the birth control and the Zepbound, birth control and the Mounjaro, birth control and the tirzepatide, I do want kids.

[00:19:33]I also know you need to be off of your GLP-1 about 3 months prior to conceiving.

[00:19:40]So, we might just end up with a win-win situation and just stop both.

[00:19:49]You never know.

[00:19:50]But, until next time, don't miss me too much.

[00:20:00]Oh, and by the way, I have been on Mounjaro, Zepbound, or tirzepatide for almost 4 years now.

[00:20:06]Almost four four four four years. I know.

[00:20:11]It was bound to happen. Am I upset? No.

[00:20:15]Has this been frustrating? Yes. Am I going to get through it? Absolutely.

[00:20:22]I probably should take a pregnancy test.

[00:20:26]Make sure there's no baby in there already.

[00:20:28]Probably should do that. But, um yeah.

[00:20:33]Bye.

[00:20:35]>> [music] [music]