Androgen symptoms and conditions

Hi ladies. I had my Mirena put in just under 6 months ago because of heavy long periods, day 21 Oestrogen test showed I was heading for perimenopausal. Suffered acne on and off over the years but looking back it was manageble. I have 4 kids, youngest is 2 and GP refused a COCP because of my age(40). Persuaded me that the Mirena was the answer to my prayers so went ahead. Despite 4 full term pgs and 2 mc's insertion was very very painful. Anyway, just had the damn thing removed last week, drove to another town's family planning clinic to get it out as couldn't get seen at my GPs for 2 weeks and was desperate and just had to get it out of me.

Side effects: Zilch sex drive, mood swings, hot temper, overly emotional/crying, fuzzy head, tiredness,poor self esteem, bloated, joint pain, aching all over, painful breasts, symptoms of UTI/Cystitis, and the worst for me acne. My skin has never been so horrible. My pores have responded to the androgen's by going mad, producing too much sebum, blocking pores, causing nasty papules, pustules and the off cyst like spot. I have been depressed, not wanted to face anyone, even felt suicidal at times.

Spoke to the doc at the FPC and she agreed it's not for everyone, says she has told the Obstetricians at the local hospital(UK) that they shouldn't be putting so many in! Got the impression she saw loads of women with probs from it. Said she could see it was totally wrong for me. The nurse was lovely, took it out and told me it had been a pleasure to remove it for me!

Came away to give my body a break and think about perhaps Yasmin but after reading about that think I will just go without. Will say my withdrawal bleed from Mirena has been awful, heavy with huge clots and has been going on for 7 days and has again become heavy today. However I would rather have heavy periods than all those horrid side effects. 1 week on and I think my skin is starting to improve as well.

Wish I had found this site 6 months ago. Your doctor will tell you to give iyt longer and let it settle, but if like me you are sensitive to the Androgens then get it out!

I was on Yasmin for the last 6 months before this one. My doctor was out of the Yasmin and gave me Yaz to try. After being on Yaz I have finally realized something. While I was on Yasmin I could NOT stop eating. I would eat a full dinner and then ten minutes later, even though I knew that I was full.. would go into the fridge and eat something more.. and then an hour later.. and so on. I have gained about 30 lbs. I just thought it was some weird depression I was having since I am slightly depressive anyways. Well.. now that I am on the Yaz....I feel completely different.. I do not have the out of control urge to eat, eat, eat. Finally I feel normal again. I am also not bloated with my stomach sticking out like before.. so I don't feel so disgusting physically. The Yaz is having its own little side effects...but for now I am doing a "wait and see." This is because they put my on Yasmin to help me out because I have a high testosterone level and it is supposed to not increase that like the other pills do.. it uses a different kind of androgen.. I definitely do NOT want to go back to the normal testosterone pills since they cause my testosterone levels to surge over the "normal" limit. Sigh, hopefully Yaz will work.

Kim,
I know it is scary. I was on a different bcp before yasmin for 12 plus years and went through 2 pregnancies and NEVER have I ever felt anything this scary or nerve wracking before in my life! I know 3 weeks is not very long, but it is long enough for that stupid drug to wreak havoc. I started to feel the effects about 5 weeks of being on it, and could not figure out what was going on. It took me till month 3 to realize it was the yasmin. Yes I know about the anxiety, and I could not look in a mirror either, even though my family kept telling me I looked the same, I didnt. I lost fat in my cheeks and jaw area and my skin went from oily to dry. I felt like it drained the "life" out of my face. But it has gotten better, it takes several months for your body to balance your hormones again. Have you ever been on bcp before?
I can tell you what I think is going on. I think yasmin suppresses your testosterone and progesterone (the androgen hormones in your body) As testosterone falls or remains low I feel it causes a lot of anxiety in the body because these are the hormones that are responsible for overall sense of wellbeing, energy, muscle repair, the list goes on and on. If you want a good website to read up on these hormones, salivatest.com has good info under hormones 101, they also do saliva testing on this website which I have been doing every month since 3 months after I quit yasmin, and I have seen how out of whack my hormones are and how long it has taken to even get back to a near normal range, and it takes a while. Keep in mind though you are already almost 1 and 1 1/2 months into being off yasmin, the turn around time to when you start to feel better more days than bad is usually at 2-3 months. Remember you are not alone. The yasmin bottomed out your natural hormones to replace them with synthetic hormones and now that the synthetic hormones have stopped it is trying to replace all those "receptor sites" back with your natural hormones and that is pretty much why you are not feeling so good.
Try to eat organic (no pesticides, hormones)
Stay away from caffeine, lots of water
Take vitamins, B complex vitamins worked well for me
Rest and dont try to exercise too vigorously.
Take care and keep in touch. There are lots of caring women on this site.
Bitter RN

Hi all,
just reading the posts about acne. I suffered from this too after stopping the yasmin. I got spots around the side of my face and when my period was due they appeared around my jaw line.

I went to a dermatologist who prescribed me an antibiotic called tetralysal 300 and a gel called isotrexin. The gel is a milder form of Retin A. I cannot use retin A at all because it is a cream and it clogs my pores.I also have been using the skincare system called proactive. The best system i have ever used. You can order it online at proactive.com. My acne completely cleared up in about 8 weeks.

It is a very good combination. I had tried every other cream and lotion but they did not work. Or if they did not for long. My dermatologist told me that hormonal acne is one of the hardest to clear up but was confident that the treatment would work.

Flowerbabies about spironolactone.
It is recommended as a treatment for acne because it is an anti-androgen. I took it for about 6 weeks. I had to have blood tests regularly because it sometimes affects the liver. I started to feel very dizzy and tired. My doctor phoned me one day and told me to stop taking it immediately because of the blood test results. It had raised a level of something or other in my blood that was very dangerous. It probably doesnt affect everybody that way but be careful if you do start on it.

Because of all the problems yasmin caused me in the past few years i have done a lot of googling and asked a lot of questions. One thing i found out from my dermatologist was that hormonal acne is usually the result of low progesterone. That was the reason i was referred to a fertility specialist. After months of tracking my cycle to find out when i was definitely ovulating i then had my hormone levels measured at the correct times.
And as i wrote about last week i do have low levels of progesterone and estradiol which will be treated by hcg injections.

So maybe for any body here who is suffering from hormonal acne that is the way to go.

A gp will read results differently. To a gp and a fertility expert blood results have different meanings. My gp told me my results were normal but when i spoke to my fertility doctor he told me thay were very low.
So maybe it is best to go with the decision of the person who knows best.

I hope this is some help to those of you who are suffering from hormonal acne. It is very distressing and can make pms worse because of the anxiety it causes all by itself.
I think this post is very long and will take up almost an entire screen. Just thought i would share what i have learned over the last few months.
Good luck to all of you

Murph70

Yes,
This was also a side affect for me too. Almost finished my marriage because i was no longer interested in sex. It was my husband who first suggested to me that the yasmin might be causing my problems.

The progesterone used in yasmin is similar to an anti-androgen. Could this be the reason it affects some womens sex drive?
If anybody has any answers i would love to hear them.

One month i did not start my pack on the correct day so i decided not to take any at all that month. The difference that month in the way i felt was huge. The cyst in my breast was not so painful and i was not angry with everybody that month.

However i still took it the next month and i went back to being paranoid, unwell and completely disinterested in sex. Finally my husband told me that i was unbearable to live with while on this pill.

Believe me the difference i feel since i stopped taking it is unbelievable. I feel normal again after being on it for three years. No more paranoia, healthy interest in sex and i lost 10 pounds in the first pill free month. All of the extra weight had gone on around my tummy and was completly uncharacteristic for me as i am a vegetarian.

I think i have mentioned this before but yasmin worked great for me at first. After about one year i started to experience problems like anxiety and breast cysts among other problems. I was prescribed xanax to help with my anxiety but realised that was not the answer.
I also noticed that my once perfect vision was starting to deteriorate. It got so bad that i could barely read. When i had my eyes checked the optician told me that i needed glasses. I have recently had my eyes checked again and my vision is perfect.

Nobody can tell me that this is a coincidence.

My biggest guilt trip is that i told my sister how great it was and she also started to take it. She has been taking it for about a year and is now starting to have anxiety problems too as well as her skin breaking out in the pill free week. This is an exact pattern of what happened to me.

My best wishes go to any woman who is going through this at the moment because it takes a while before you actually realise there is a connection between your problems and the medication you are taking.
Of course, as suggested by the person who replied to my post on steadyhealth.com, it will not have these effects on every woman.
But the fact that it has these extreme effects on some of us should surely mean that more investigation needs to be done.
Good luck to you all.

Yasmin made my hair quit falling out (anti-androgen properties) BUT has given me gout, I believe, because of its diuretic properties. Now I can't decide which is worse...limping around or no hair.
I guess every "cure" for one thing is the cause of another.

ohmygosh, you girls are terrifying me!

i just started my second month on yasmin, and i really like it. i've been on allesse for years because it made me the least moody, but yasmin seems even better. i'm trying yasmin because of the anti-androgen affects (i have pcos).

when you talk about what happens when you stop taking it, though. wow! how scary! i don't want to go through that.

my natural personality is ocd enough as it is!

please someone tell me that this doesn't happen to everyone who takes it...