"i switched over to portia because my previous birth control was making me highly emotional. portia was able to fix that. i felt like myself again and i wasn&#039;t crying over every little thing. however, the side effects i&#039;m facing are not worth it to me. the first one is that my cramping from my period is extreme. the main reason i got on birth control was to minimize the pain from my period. with portia, i&#039;m back to spending a week with a heating pad on my stomach and just hoping for the week would go quicker. the second side effect is the nightmares. i would get them every night the second week of the series. they are awful. i would wake up sobbing. these are just my experiences though."