"i have been on alesse for almost 11 months. my first time using birth control. for the first 6 months i was fairly happy with it and did not experience any side effects that i noticed at the time. now i am considering going off the pill because for the last few months i have had a very low sex drive and gained 30 pounds since starting alesse. my job has been very stressful and i have stopped working out regularly so those things are a part of it, but i think going off the pill would be beneficial for me and could help with losing the weight."