Coming Off Birth Control as an Athlete… No One Told Me This

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]I came off birth control thinking it would improve my health, and 8 weeks later, I couldn't even walk. My training fell apart, my hormones were all over the place, and I generally thought I'd ruined everything.

[00:00:13]And the scary part is, no one talks about this, especially not for athletes.

[00:00:19]So, I want to share what actually happened coming off birth control as a runner.

[00:00:24]What it did to my training, my mood, my recovery, and what I wish someone had told me before I did it. Because if you're going through this right now, you're not crazy, and you're definitely not alone.

[00:00:38]When I decided to come off birth control, I thought I was doing something good for my body. I'd been on it for over 10 years, first the pill, and then a hormonal IUD for 5 years. So, I hadn't had a natural cycle in a really, really long time. And I kept reading about how important hormones are for recovery, performance, even just feeling like yourself. So, I thought this is going to make everything better.

[00:01:02]It didn't.

[00:01:06]Pretty quickly, I started feeling off. I ran a race that same week, and halfway through it, I just thought, what's the point?

[00:01:19]And that's never happened to me before.

[00:01:21]And it wasn't just racing, I started feeling really low, really unsure of myself, like I didn't know what I was doing anymore, with my training, with my work, even with my content, and it felt so real. And that's what made it so confusing.

[00:01:39]Training also just felt harder. Runs that used to feel easy felt heavy, and I was doing a lot less because I was trying to listen to my body, but nothing really made sense, and I kept thinking, am I overtrained? Am I under fueling? Am I doing something wrong? And I couldn't find a clear answer. I just love the energy I have. I love how I feel.

[00:02:03]And it's just really sucks not feeling that way these last 6 and 1/2 weeks. So, if you're not feeling good, put in the work because it's so worth it when you feel like a beast. Hopefully, soon for me.

[00:02:22]And then at about week eight, December 1st to 6th, I had a cortisone injection in both of my feet because, honestly, my plantar fasciitis had flared up like it never had before. And I couldn't move for 4 days and I felt awful physically, but also mentally. Just completely drained despite not doing any activity.

[00:02:44]It is now Tuesday and I have not exercised in 3 days, which for someone who usually runs 6 to 7 days per week and has really long, hard sessions, this is insane. I have never experienced anything like this.

[00:03:06]And I cannot wait to just get back to feeling my best again, doing hard workouts, but having my body respond to it.

[00:03:17]It's been probably one of the mentally toughest situations I've been in.

[00:03:25]And what confused me the most was that I thought rest was the answer. I had read so much about recovery and backing off, but the more I rested, the worse I felt.

[00:03:34]And that's when things started to really feel off.

[00:03:38]My Garmin says I'm strained with a low load, which is exactly how I feel.

[00:03:45]Could I try and sleep? I have work to do, but I'm so tired.

[00:03:53]Because I'm someone who loves structure.

[00:03:56]I like patterns, systems, understanding what's going on, and suddenly there was none. I woke up at 3:00.

[00:04:04]And my body battery is 58, and it's just funny because my body battery is like way higher when I'm running 85 miles a week.

[00:04:18]I'm just trying to be so kind to my body because I know it's trying its best.

[00:04:27]But, um it's quite the process. My mood was up and down. My energy made no sense. One moment I felt okay, and the next I was questioning everything. And I remember thinking, "Why can't I figure this out?"

[00:04:43]Even food became confusing. I was way more hungry even though I was barely training, and it didn't feel like normal hunger. It was more like this tired, never really satisfied feeling.

[00:04:55]Literally eating ice cream in bed watching a Christmas movie, and Oscar's eating wraps with lean [music] turkey and avocado. And the homemade sprouts.

[00:05:09]>> [laughter] >> There's no way I'm craving that, okay? I just I'm craving chocolate 24/7.

[00:05:16]So, hopefully I don't gain too much weight within all this.

[00:05:21]And I'll be honest, that was really hard mentally because I worked a lot on having good relationship with food, and suddenly I felt out of control. I gained weight, and I kept questioning why. But, at the same time I knew restricting wasn't the answer, so I kept eating. I focused on the quality of food, and I tried to trust the process even though it didn't feel easy.

[00:05:45]Every day I pray that I get my period.

[00:05:51]>> [laughter] >> You're also praying.

[00:05:55]I'm starting to think that something's wrong with me. Nothing's wrong with you.

[00:06:01]I just don't >> takes time. I just don't feel like myself. I know.

[00:06:06]Around 3 months in, I started regretting it. Not necessarily the desogestrel itself, but the timing. Because I was in really good shape right before I removed it, and I had a goal marathon coming up.

[00:06:19]And everything just felt like it was falling apart, and I kept thinking that I just ruined this for myself.

[00:06:27]That's when I started reading a lot, trying to understand what was happening.

[00:06:32]I'm not a doctor, by the way, so this is just my experience and what I've learned going through it. And what I learned is that when you come off birth control, your body basically has to relearn how to regulate itself. Your hormones drop, especially estrogen, and that can affect everything. We're talking your mood, your recovery, your energy, even injury risk. So, what I was feeling wasn't random. It actually did make sense, but that doesn't mean it felt easier when I was in it.

[00:07:04]It's now 8 weeks post IUD removal, and I've still not gotten my period back.

[00:07:12]My body is still just so weird.

[00:07:17]Definitely a lot of things have been happening. I've been having cramping.

[00:07:20]I've been like super hungry, even though I'm barely moving.

[00:07:26]But yeah, it's been very, very frustrating to be feeling the way I've been feeling.

[00:07:35]And not being able to run. Like, running is my therapy.

[00:07:39]It feels like everything has been coming at once, but I know that I'll get through this and I'll get through it stronger and I've learned so much about how much hormones play into your body.

[00:07:55]It took me 5 months to get my period back and even then it didn't look like a normal period. At first I thought it was just spotting, but then it came back again and that's when I realized that my body is slowly figuring things out. And even now, almost 8 months post removal, it's still not stable. And that is honestly one of the hardest parts because you expect it to follow a timeline, but it really doesn't. I was told it usually takes 1 to 3 months and that was definitely not the case for me.

[00:08:25]Despite backing off my training and focusing on eating enough and high-quality foods, especially focusing on carbohydrates and fat and already eating a very high-protein diet.

[00:08:38]Now, this is what I wish someone told me.

[00:08:42]Just because you feel off doesn't mean something is wrong. It probably just means that your body is recalibrating and that takes time and a lot more than you think.

[00:08:55]My advice if you're going through this right now is to not push harder, don't try to force your body back to where it was and don't compare yourself to how you felt before or to anyone else. This is a different phase and honestly [clears throat] one of the hardest parts is just not knowing. Even at 8 months post IUD removal, I'm still going through this right now. I still feel like it's complete chaos and I really just want to keep documenting everything because I really wish that I had this when I started. So in my next video, I'm going to show you exactly how I'm training right now while my hormones are still all over the place. And honestly, this whole experience is a big reason why I've started building more female specific training plans because training as female athletes, especially through phases like this, is just different. And I really wish that it's something as females we were more educated on. So, if you're going through something similar or just want to understand your body better, you can check that out below.

[00:09:55]And I'll see you in the next video.