Yasmin and sonogram

I have been on Yasmin for 4 years now and I only recently started to question if some of the things that I have been experiencing are related to this pill. After reading your comments here, I'm more convinced then ever! I am a relatively healthy 31 year right now but for over a year now I have had a terrible ongoing ache in the back of my right thigh, just above my knee. I went to a vein specialist who just wanted to inject me to reduce the vein and "hoped" that it would help resolve the pain. He said that I had reticular veins and that they can be painful but as I understand it, you can get pain in your deep veins, which can result in deep vein thrombosis and even pulmonary embolisms (very life threatening). I have also had terrible ongoing headaches that last me 3 days at least once per month. I've always suffered from migraines so I didn't necessarily connect these headaches to the pill. I have absolutely ZERO sex drive. It's like I have to force myself to do it and it fills me with anxiety to even "gear up" for it. I have vaginal dryness, which can be very frustrating during foreplay and painful during sex. I had previously always been pleased that Yasmin resolved my 10 + year battle with painful cystic back acne. I have beautiful, clear skin on my back since I started taking Yasmin. I have also experienced fairly normal periods (for me). I used to have debilitating cramps and periods so heavy that I would wear a tampon and double my pads (with wings) so that I could live through the first part of the day at work without completely breaking through and bleeding through my pants. They would last for 5 - 7 days but with the pill I have more normal periods, manageable cramps, minor bloating, and still a heavy flow but not nearly as bad as before. I have always had good cholesterol levels and low triglycerides until 4 years ago when I started the pill. Since then I have had 2 blood tests where my cholesterol has skyrocketed and my triglycerides are triple the "normal" range. I eat healthier now then ever before and I regularly exercise as well so I cannot explain my cholesterol change, nor can my doctor (after showing a food diary of mostly fruits, veggies, limited whole grains, lean meat and optimal water). He told me to "go on a low carb diet" and "stay away from "sugars". I can't explain it either, I am always thirsty. I drink almost a gallon of water a day. I have this constant craving for a beverage and dryness if I'm not consistently sipping on water. My eyes are always dry, so dry in fact that it makes me feel tired or like I just want to close them to give them a break. I just started using eye drops, which has helped. Also, I'm tired, very very tired. It's summer so my energy is better only because I force myself to go workout, which always makes me feel better. I must say though, all in all, I have some concerning symptoms that seem to be prevalent throughout the blog but I've also had some positive effects from Yasmin. My concerns and your comments however are enough to take myself off the pill (Yasmin and all others) to try and live with my natural hormones instead of the synthetic in the pill. I think the potential risks outweigh the rewards. Thank you all for sharing and helping me in my decision making process.

On 4.25.07 after four days of taking YAZ i found myself in the ER havinf a CT of my head, lungs, sonogram of both my legs, x-ray of my lungs, ekg of my heart, blood & urine samples taken. All in all I spent 11 hours being poked and examined only to be told to stop taking YAZ. My symptoms were: extreme dizziness, heart palpatations, headache, tingling in my legs, partial numbness in my left check, fatigue. They were concerned that I may have had a blood clot due to the pills and that's why they were looking at my legs & lungs. If I had developed a clot in my legs I would've had to taken blood thinners for 6 months and if it would've been in my lungs I would've been admitted into the hospital that day. Now a day later I am extremely tired, have a heart monitor attached to my chest. (They're having me wear this for 24 hrs.) I've had one dizzy spell and feel a little "out of it". If I had known that such a small little pill could create so much havoc I would've never taken it in the first place.

Hello,

I was on Yasmine for 2 years and I have been off of Yasmine for 4 weeks. I had a fast heartbeat while on it and it has become worse lately. I also feel nervous and exhausted, but can't sleep very well. My blood pressure is also elevated sometimes (never had high blood pressure before this pill).

I also had bad stomach aches while on it and started to react to certain things (like eggs) I had never ever had a problem with. All kinds of intestinal complaints but of course the doctor says it is IBS - I wonder if it is the progestin that messes me up so bad. It is so strange. I want to get healthy again but feel really crummy right now, don't want to stand up to long, but try to keep going and doing chores etc, feel like I will pass out and takes a long time to recover from it. Could it bring on the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue or problems with blood pressure on standing???

The fast heartbeat is bugging me. I had an EKG and a sonogram of my heart, stress test 3 years ago and everything was normal (for chest pain while on Ovcon 35).

I hate this and wish I could get well. I've tried magnesium and B vitamins, sometimes I feel more wired-exhausted. This is weird but when I used to get that weird gnawing/stomach hunger while on it I would use baking soda/water to calm down my stomach, this seemed to help some of the other symptoms too??? Maybe sodium is off???

This is really driving me crazy. I have a microbiology degree so I understand a bit about the medical side of this drug but I don't feel like it was researched/tested thoroughly before it was sent out for human consumption!

LilahK

I have been on yasmin for two years; I just quit a little over two weeks ago. I have been experiencing gradually thinning hair since 18 months ago(about 6 months into taking the yasmin.), and a slew of other problems such as blurry vision, severe depression, flaking skin, shooting pains in my head, twitching eye, (I had no idea this was related to the yasmin until I saw it posted here dozens of times!), diarrhea after eating, splitting nails, eyelash loss, increased facial hair growth (???- thought yasmin took care of that???), and scariest of all, over the past two months, sporadic leg cramps. One day it was so bad that my calf seized uo, and I ended up at the ER thinking I was having a clot; even with insurance, that ER visit and sonogram cost me nearly two hundred dollars. I feel that I've lost myself to this pill, adn I'm scared that I'll never return. It's been terrible all along, and I wish I quit sooner so badly. Doctors prescribe this crap thinking it's the miracle pill of the new millenium, and in reality, it is utter hell. My skineven began wrinkling (I'm only 32 and come from a family of very young looking women), and my hair has dried out and lost it's curl. I'm scared to death that I'm going to go bald over the next few months- (does everyone lose their hair when they go off? I looked at so many posts and not many women are complaining about thisside effect of quitting the pill.) In short, this pll is awful, and it took almost two years for the hell of it to kick in. I'd seriously tell everyone on it to get off, as soon as possible. I'm desperate to regain my old life, my old health, and my old looks. I feel like a fifty year old woman in a thirty three year old's body. I'm so sad.

I am a 35 y.o. mother of two. A year and a half after having my second child, I was diagnosed with PCOS (January of 2004) after telling my doctor that I was suffering from cystic acne, very irregular periods (if i got one at all), hair developing on my chin and upper lip, etc. My doctor ordered some blood tests and a sonogram and sure enough....cysts all over the place! Since I have had problems with hormone-induced birth control methods in the past, my GYN started me on Prometrium to help get my cycle regulated and to "ease" my body into taking the pill before starting me on Yasmin. I began taking Yasmin about 6 months later as my doc raved about this being an excellent treatment for women with my condition. HE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!!!! While Yasmin did away with my acne and regulated my periods, the side effects that I suffered far outweighed any positive affects it could have had and were far worse than any side effects I'd ever experienced on other forms of the pill. I suffered with depression, uncontrolled (not to mention untimely) bouts of anger/rage/crying, severe acid reflux, ZERO libido (much to both my and my husbands dismay), vaginal dryness, dry eyes and nasal membranes, severe night sweats, respiratory problems (I was drying out which was irritating my lungs and giving me false asthma symptoms and I've never had asthma), very dry skin, "phantom" abdominal cramping, unexplained memory loss, insomnia (aye yaye yaye! the sleepness nights), anxiety, severe headaches which increased in both frequency and intensity as time went on, frequent leg and back cramping, intermittent and unexplained bloating and water retention (isn't this supposed to be a diuretic?)....you name it, and I've pretty much experienced it over the past 6 months. I even went to see my regular doctor explaining my symptoms. He ordered a series of blood tests, potassium and calcium tests, liver enzymes, etc., etc., etc....everything came back NORMAL! I though I was going crazy! After on the first 3 months taking the pill I went back to see my GYN to tell him that something just wasn't quite right and that I think he should put me on something else. His response...."Give it time. Your hormones have to level out. This is one of the most successful pills out there for your problem...." blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. I listened (like an idiot) and stayed on it hoping to "level out" at some point, which never happened. My turning point was in January of this year, when in an uncontrolled bout of rage, I exited my car at a red light to confront a male driver who had been honking the horn behind me (apparently I was supposed to drive through it) and then proceeded to call me a stupid b*&%h out of his car window, at which point I ran over to his car window and dared him to get out and say it again!! He promptly rolled up his window and sped through the red light. I got back into my car, drove home and sat in my driveway and cried for nearly a half hour out of sheer exasperated frustration. I threw away the remaining pills, called my GYN and told him he was a quack and could kiss my a$$ and have never looked back. I've only been off the pill since mid-January, but I've already seen a drastic difference in the symptoms that I mentioned earlier and some have gone away all together. I'm still having problems with the anxiety and the anger/crying bouts, but not as often and not as severe in intensity. Ladies trust your bodies....if you feel that something is wrong, it is! No one knows your body like you do so don't be afraid to tell your doctor that you want something different.....they work for you, not the other way around. As far as a class action suit goes, someone please let me know as soon as one gets started and I am so there!!! This pill is a danger to women and needs to be taken off the market all together. Please feel free to email with any information on upcoming litigation or if you have any questions.

I started Yasmin about two years ago. My doctor put me on it to regulate my period. After I started taking Yasmin I started to get sharp stomach pains in my lower right side, loss of appetite, and nausea. I went back to my OB/GYN and he told me that it might be my appendix. I went to another doctor and he told me that it was not my appendix but I needed to go though some tests. I have been through upper and lower GI, colonoscopy, endoscopy, and many catscans. Now I am back to my OB/GYN and tonight I go for a sonogram to see if I need a histerectomy(please excuse my spelling). Something told me to check the side effects of Yasmin first and I'm glad I did.