I am taking estrogen/progesterone birth-control pills for idiopathic dysmenorrhea. Without them, I lose about two days out of my month because, unmedicated, I am unable to stand up without fainting or vomiting during my period. With them and a double dose of naproxen, I can sit up, walk around a little, and go to school or work if I take it easy.

It's been about six months now, my school attendance has really improved, and my mother is constantly on my case about stopping the birth control pills. She says that taking hormones long-term is dangerous and can be deadly. I think she's overly fearful. I know birth control pills can cause problems--I've read the medication sheets--but I also know they're a widely used medication with well-known effects, and taken safely by many women for quite a long time.

I am 25 now, and no doctor would agree to a hysterectomy no matter how much I insisted that I am asexual and do not want children; but I am actually considering this. Once I get into my thirties, it wouldn't be so hard to convince somebody to do it, and I wouldn't have to take hormone pills anymore. (Obviously it would be the sort that doesn't take the ovaries. Since my ovaries are physically normal, as is my uterus--which is why they throw up their hands and say "idiopathic"--there's no good reason to trigger menopause.)

Are there risks to long-term use? If so, what are they? And what's the best way to prevent those things, if that is possible?

Many women take the pill for their whole fertile life.
As long as you do follow ups and keep in touch with your dr and don't do any of the risk factors- lifestyle, smoking etc..

Maybe your mom just wonders if the pill has reset your body to a more normal place? That would be a question for your doctor to answer.

If dr isn't sure, maybe a trial for a month or so without to see if any changes or not.?? with drs OK of course.
Or maybe after a year on the pill then do a trial without to see what happens.

If it was me , I would want to try without the pill at least once a year - just to see if any "fix" happened.

Every individual is different, but I took the pill for 5 years with no major problems. The pill has its risks and benefits, but for the most part, as long as you don't have any conditions or habits-- (ei smoking,heavy drinking, etc ) that increase your chance of side effects and see your dr on a regular basis, its considered pretty safe.

Mothers will always be concerned--- thats their job , but only you and your dr know what is best for you and your situation.

L2L

The biggest risk to oral contraceptives has been on clotting.

Blood clots remain as serious. If you smoke, now is the time to quit if you choose to use BCs.

If you take them for cramping only, you might try what worked for me.

Over 10 yrs ago I started to fix an essential fatty acid deficiency our whole family (and much of America has) had.
I did this for other reasons, but one thing that improved was
the monthly cramping.

I had this very badly, because I also had PCOS.

This is how it works...
Our bodies make several types of internal signaling compounds called cytokines. The Cox-2 type are called inflammatory or stress/healing oriented. They come from our food containing Omega-6 fatty acids (from soybean oil, sunflower etc). The Cox-1 series come from Omega-3's found in flax oil, walnuts and canola oil.
Our bodies' need both, but work best with a certain ratio
1:1 or 1:5 max for Omega-3:Omega-6.

Typical American diets skew this ratio to more like 1:25. This was found to be the case for kids with ADHD, and now we know that by increasing Omega-3 for them, the ADHD, and their dry skin improves.
When I changed our foods and removed transfats from our diets, I, my son, and husband improved greatly from daily issues of discomforts/disorders.
My GERD went away, my asthma cleared up (now only on emergency basis) and my cramps minimized to almost nothing.

This is how Naproxen and Ibuprofen work for cramps. They are Cox inhibitors that block the action of cytokines on the uterus.

Here is a more detailed description of the system:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/62...scription.html

On that link is a suggestion that the amino acid histidine can help. This I don't have first hand knowledge about, but the chemistry described on the patent application is correct about the PGE2 series cytokines causing cramping.
I looked around in my favorite sites (ones I trust) and I could not find verification that histidine would help .. that is...no research papers yet.

But you may be able to change your diet enough to minimize cramping so you won't need the B/Cs. The advantages you would also realize in other health areas would be good for you too. So keep that in mind.

I kind of doubt that's the problem, as I haven't got a single allergy, have never had asthma, have never had any sort of autoimmune disease or inappropriate inflammatory response at all... I don't even have dry skin. A systemic problem would show itself in multiple sites, most likely.

I've never smoked and don't plan to start. I don't like the smell. They did ask me that when I got the birth control pills, since they say smoking is a risk factor for unacceptably high blood pressure and a resulting stroke. (That would be the aneurysm kind of stroke, not the clotting sort.)

Here is a FDA report on relative risk of blood clots, comparing
two different types of progestin:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00694.html
Even tho the date is 1995-- these two major brands of
B/C are still on the market, containing desogestrel. They would now be sold generically with different names.
This list of statistics does not clarify if smoking were including in the numbers.

Other brands with this progestin are:
Desogen
Mircette
Kariva
Ortho-Cept
Velivet
Cyclessa
One generic by Duramed
3 generics by Watson

After much searching I found this handy list. The number of products on the market is just amazing, and confusing as well:

http://www.wdxcyber.com/ncontr13.htm
The chart is really interesting to read.

There are some interesting explanations of androgenicity at the end.
All synthetic progestins have some. Provera too. The only progestin that is not androgenic is natural progesterone, and it is not in B/Cs.
The newest YAZ is not on the chart, it is a combo of Yasmin + estrogen.
Androgenicity is an issue for females with higher androgen levels, or who have PCOS. If you are suspected of having higher androgen levels, these can be tested for. If you do have them, you may also see a rise in blood pressure when using the pills.