Julie, darlin, you're gonna drive yourself looney!!
First of all, I know that you want off BCP's. BCP's do affect those hormones, and it will take a little time to undo that. Honey, my fear for you at this point, or I should say, concern, is that you're looking to change so much at once, you may not be sure what is really helping you and what isn't. I think the fact that your AF came should be an indicator of things to come (again and again..hee hee). I know we keep harping on this, but give yourself some time. I know I'm not in your shoes, but I'll share this with you. When I was dxd, my blood pressure was sky high, and a lot of other things were a mess, along with my AF. To this day, I really appreciate the fact that my doc could have put me on tons of medication to counter all those things, but she didn't. She decided that we would take things one step at a time. She waited 6 months before she would look at adding any new meds, and thankfully, the met took care of all of it...my Bp and Af were normal, and we didn't need to do anything more except stay the course. This can be a complicated disorder...and I know the frustration. Julie, honey, take things one step at a time, and give yourself some credit...you have had some improvement in some areas already! I am acually jealous of you that you didn't have the side effects! But, Julie I will tell you this....my gastric side effects disappeared after two months, and I still went on to lose another 130 pounds on top of the first 20 I lost the first two months. Having the "runs" isn't what loses the weight...it's that diet you're doing!