Body chemistry symptoms and conditions

I haven't finished taking the medicine yet because I'm only on day 4, but I must say that it's clearing up the staph in my right armpit. My left armpit is still swollen and hurts like hell. My mother is an RN, and she's been trying to drain the pus and blood from the wound. It hurts so bad that I'm ready to just drive up to the local ER and have them lance it. How long does it usually take for Bactrim to clear up the infection? I'm taking 2 pills once a day for 10 days.

And another thing, I think why people are having nasty side effects to the medicine is because it's not mixing well with their body chemistry. My sister took Bactrim last year for MRSA, and she cleared up beautifully without any horrible side effects.

Thanks guys!

I have just started lyrica and read on different sites and its main site before i decided for myself to take it since im in constant pain from multiple accidents i have fbro- and lumbar and disc back problems etc, yo get anyway i have tried a lot of different meds for pain yo name it almost tried it, i found the best thing that worked for me was one vicodin es plus one 75mg lyrica, my pain subsides for hours by at least 50% i can actually do a lot more since i have started it and even lost four pounds since last week. I read a lot of people gain weight, get swollen feet,feel drunkish all that, the only time i feel like that is when i take the lyrica with my xxnax i have anxiety disorder as well very bad. ADHD . If i dint have to take pills believe me i wouldn't..But as all pills narcotic and narcotic they only mask the pain, my brother informed me since i can do more take it a little slow baby steps cause if you over exert your self your pain is 6 times worst.I have lost 89 pounds so far HOORAH! Just 40 more to go, baby steps..lol..anyhow i could talk all day, i try to keep a positive attitude which helps, god and prayer help, and try to walk around without a chip on my shoulder because i don't feel because if im miserable everyone else shouldn't be, ya know ..Its not rgt. Cripe if i was rich i would be waited on hand and foot but unfortunately im not rich and could never afford that unless i won and played the lotto.lol..i had to even get samples from a different doctor other than my regular doctor cause he girls were messing up in the office or Michigan State was, which lately they are changing all there systems and messing alot of low income people up, and that blows too..I will continue will lyrica...It works better than neurontin which gave me headaches, and weigh gain and nausea. I actually on neutrontin gained 10 pounds in 5 days, i quit NEURONTIN! Lyrica is really good, everyones body chemistry is different so, give it a try it might just work as good as it does for me. Thanks for listening and feel free to write me anytime here, thanks! Skully725

I've been searching for answers on LONG TERM side effects of Lupron hoping that it could give me answers as to what's going on in my body now!
23 yrs ago my fertility dr. gave me Lupron to inject MYSELF EVERY DAY (experimental back then). I had SEVERE endo since the age of 16 and was fighting that as well as trying to get pregnant thru invetro. I was 26. At 29 I had an emergency hysto. Now at 48plus I have chronic tendonitis where the tendons will shred off of the joints. I have been diagnosed with C spine and T spine disease, osteoarthritis and a mystery that I'm going to have to go to the Mayo to figure out (hopefully). I have tumors that are growing in my lower back...growing around nerves, tendons and bone, They aren't sure why they are there, why they are growing, or even what they are. Surgery removed 2 of them...but pathology shows foreign matter other than tissue/bone. All they DO know is that it is not cancer. One year ago I started losing weight (25 pds) for no reason. I'm now holding my own at 112 and hoping to figure all of this out. I can't help but wonder if Lupron or any other experimental drugs I was on has something to do with this. Is there anyone out there that used this drug so long ago??

I was on 5/10 lotrel, a mild dose over 3 months. I took myself off of the drug and learned to relax more, and have a better diet and exercise more. I felt weird where I could not focus on my priorities, and the way the medication made me feel made me think of it more than I wanted to rather than life. I am normally a no headache person. While on the medication, i had horrible headaches where I had to take Excedrin migraine to get over it. My skin after taking it for awhile became dry and itchy. I had dark circles under my eyes, which was new. My knees and feet and hands became ice cold. I think it is because I believe that my blood pressure the way it was, was what my body needed, and maybe there was not enough circulation with the very low 117/60. My normal and feel good blood pressure is about 140/85. I am happy with that and will keep it. Also wild at normal 140/85 my blood sugar is normal. when I took the medication and it dropped to 117/60, my blood glucose rose. My body was releasing glucose because it was saying, hey something is not okay here. I think the drugs are bad, and now I eat organic vegetables, no coffee, no sugar, protein meats, and soy milk, unsweetened almond milk, walnuts, blueberries, whole grains. No white bread, no sugar, no soda, no fried food, no white potatoes, no white rice. My range is now 120/70 to 140/85 when i am rushing around. That is normal. I think medications change your body chemistry. When my skin became itchy and my extremities cold, and my body started shaking and freezing and sweating, it was from the pills. if you want to know you readings, don't go to the doctor. Buy a self test BP machine, Glucose reader, cholesterol meter. My doctors cholesterol count was 100 over another text i had at a free clinic. Maybe they cheat the numbers, who knows, to make you think you are sick and bring you back. take care of yourself, and get away from the fear and panic the doctors put you in. you are way better to see a natural nutritionist if you need help. Break a sweat every day!...that will help.

For me having the Mirena removed just last Thursday was the right decision. I was not using it for birth control but as hormone therapy for heavy, crampy periods. I had it inserted in July 2008 and bled every single day for the entire time, I had it removed last week and now I am bleeding very heavily but hopefully that will stop once all those hormones are out of my body.
While on Mirena I lost all sex drive, I became severely anemic and with that fatigued terribly, and moody, crying at nothing and screaming at my kids or husband for stupid reasons, I felt bloated and gassy and didn't have those problems before.
I am 42 years old and I hate my heavy bleeding in fact I want a hysterectomy, but not sure now what I will do.

For those of you who had the Mirena removed, how long did it take to stop bleeding afterwards? This is draining every last ounce of energy for me and I am taking iron supplements.

What sucks is the cost of this, Even with insurance I ended up paying a lot out of pocket to get this thing and then all the Dr. visits due to bleeding and side affects in the 4 months it was in and now the removal of it. I am wondering if there is any way that we can get a Class action lawsuit against Bayer for this horrible thing they are trying to sell to women.
I know there are some out there who have not suffered all these horrible side effects at least not yet or that they are aware of, but I truly believe that there is nothing good about this IUD and those of us and there are a lot of us who have suffered with this should be reimbursed or compensated for the pain and loss of parts of our lives and expenses with this. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

I have been on the Nuvaring for nine days now. As my doctor instructed, I put it in the day I started my period. I am still bleeding with no signs of stopping. It's not heavy, but I am a bit worried. I have been feeling a little depressed lately and I feel like I want to cry for no reason. I'm not putting the Nuvaring down, I'm just worried about the length of my period. This is my first time using any kind of birth control so this is all new to me. If anyone has any information for me, that would be great.

I started taking Yaz about a year and a half ago. I'm no longer continuing this pill after this month's pack is finished. I have to say that at first, it was a really great pill. The first month was hell. I bled for a month straight, and I was so irritable, and emotional, and my bf would talk about silly shit, like beached whales and I would start bawling. I spent four months living overseas after starting the pill so I didn't notice the loss of sex drive and sensitivity at first. But when I came back I started to notice all the little things that were becoming huge issues. My sex drive is more or less gone. I actually fell asleep last night while my boyfriend was trying to get me aroused. That's awful. I always feel tired lately. I get a lot of headaches. I read that this pill increase your potassium, and my mother's told me she has a lot of potassium so when she eats bananas she gets splitting headaches, and I'm the same way, so I'm starting to realize where all these headaches are coming from. Sometimes they are so bad that Advil does nothing at all and I end up having to rub between my thumb and forefinger while trying to fell asleep to make the pain stop. I've become extremely moody. My moods change so often now. I'm irritable. I am coming off of two really tough years of my life, and things are really great for me right now, and I don't feel great. I never want to have sex. Foreplay doesn't feel as good as it used to. I don't get aroused quickly, and I have a lot of trouble climaxing. I smoke weed and was smoking mixed spliffs with my bf for some time not even thinking about it, and the reaction the tobacco had with the pill was horrible. I'm certain that if I didn't stop I would have ended up in the ER. I would experience fainting spells, momentary blindness!!, I'd go really pale after getting very hot. I nearly passed out on at least four occasions before discovering the link. After I stopped, I felt much better. But now I can feel all the emotional side effects. I've also been sleepless for a long time, and I think that has to do with the pill, too. Lately I've been getting very nauseated if I eat shortly after taking the pill. And it doesn't matter what I eat. I'm constantly burping like I have a nervous stomach, but I've been calming my mind lately so there's really no reason for it. I've got a lot going on with life and whatnot, but I'm usually able to handle a lot of pressure and stress without breaking down, and this pill has made me almost incapable to dealing with the slightest bit of stress. It's horrible. And I don't want any part in it, or in the pharmaceutical business. I'm going to try tracking my own ovulation. At least I won't have some crazy hormones messing up my system.

Oh. I also had a fibroadenoma (breast cyst) this summer that I had to have a biopsy on (which was really fun, let me tell you...), and I can't say that the pill caused it, but I've never had cysts in my breasts before... The pill did inflate them an extra cup size, and during the third week of pills they are so tender I can't even let my boyfriend touch them or hug me tightly because they hurt so badly. And I live in NYC and there are a lot of stairs to bounce down and it's painful.

I see all the same symptoms with everyone who takes this pill and has a bad experience, and I've decided that it's not for me. The man can wear a condom for a while, while I try to regain my normal self again.

I am taking Wellbutrin and it has helped my depression and desire for drugs every day. I have bad ringing in my ears all the time but I can deal with that compared to the good it has done.. The problem is I'm a engineer which requires a lot of concentration that I have lost since I've been on Wellbutrin. I also have memory loss. I can't remember peoples names 2 minutes after they told me. I am a support engineer so I have to tallk to many people every day as well as typing cause and solution. I find myself having to read everything I type over again because I leave out words and sometimes what I type makes no sense at all. Wellbutrin has helped me so much but I think I will have to stop or lose my job. What a choice. Before I started taking Wellbutrin I never felt like I was in tune with the world. Smoking pot worked for me but we all know what the long term effect of that is. Codine also made me feel like I fit in. So Wellbutrin has fixed all those needs and feelings but I just hate the loss of memory, concentration, and ringing in my ears.

My 3 year old son was having trouble with aggressive behavior in his daycare. The head teacher asked if he was on singulair. When he said he was, she said that that might be the cause of his aggressive behavior.

My wife went with my son to Chile for a month. The singulair prescription ran out while they were there, but because it had not been a month before the last refill before they left, they could not refill the prescription before leaving for Chile. The singulair ran out after their third day in Chile. So my son went a month without taking singulair.

And interestingly, his behavior did not change. He aggression was about the same as before. It is only recently, now that he has been developing more language skills and has also been potty training, that his aggressive behavior is for the most part under control. So in our case, it does not seem that there has been a cause-effect relationship between taking singulair and our child's aggressive behavior. He still takes singulair every day and is doing fine. Also, he never experienced any of the problems sleeping that others reported.

I have been reading all of these posts and have another question. I hope that someone can help. My daughter, 8 years old, has been on Singulair since she was 4. She is normally a very happy girl with a wonderful disposition. For the last year or so, she has been having trouble getting herself to sleep at night. She says that she hears things in her head such as ringing or "noises". A few hours before she knows it's bedtime, she cries and when we ask her why she's crying, she can't give us a reason. We initially thought that she was crying for no reason because she didn't want to go to sleep. I remember reading about the side effects of Singulair causing mood swings, etc., but her's are not violent mood swings. Just very emotional and has a hard time coming down from the "episode". I'm at a loss...I have not talked to her doctor yet about it, but have told her that we will make an appointment this week to discuss it with him. My husband suggested that maybe it sounded like she was having a panic attack or anxiety attack. I hate to label her as that at such a young age. My mind now goes back to the side effects of Singulair and maybe this is to blame. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Concerned Mom

I was just put on the nuvaring and I am not so sure I like it. I suffer from mild depression, now that I am on this I am even more so... I am angry, agitated and yell at my kids often. I don't like this. I have also started to spot and feel crampy and bloated. My periods weren't bad before but is this a sign of bad times to come? I don't like feeling like this and my doctors says stay on it and to go on a antidepressant, not what I really want to do.

I am 25 years old. A mother of 2, and i have now been on the NuvaRing for 5 years. I got on the NuvaRing the day of my postpartum check up after i had my second child.. I loved the NuvaRing at first thought it was the best thing in the entire world, hell all you had to do was put it in leave it for 21 days days leave it out for 7. Go on your period and other then that everything was great. About 2 months into using the Nuvaring i started having HORRIBLE HEADACHES that would last 3-5 days at a time without letting up. I could not stand to be around noise, light or anything that had a strong smell or it would get my head pounding to where i just could not take it anymore. So i called my doctor and told him about the horrible headaches that i have had. Explained to him that before a bad headache would come on i would have this horrible burning sensation in my head that would make you want to die.. And the doctor told me just hang in there and give the Ring time to work, so i did and then as time went on i started having other side effects along with the headaches.. Such as BAD ACNE that scars after clearing up which has made my completion not so good. Breakouts on arms, back ,chest. So i got some neutrogena soap to help with that and it has worked.. But then i got more side effects such as BREAK THREW BLEEDING right after my period was suppose to be over and after intercourse.. Then i totally HAD NO SEX DRIVE which caused lots of problems in my marriage cause my husband began to think i wasn't sexually attracted to him anymore.. And i began to think that also. Cause i had lost my sex drive didn't want to do it, the thought of it made me cringe. After being on the NuvaRing after so long you began to develop this THICK DISCHARGE that is annoying then as time goes on you get another type of discharge that is thin WATERY DISCHARGE that is aggravating cause it almost feels as if you have peed your pants a bit almost feels like a yeast infection with out the smell. Which brings me to my next awful side effect which is the Yeast INFECTIONS and the number of UTI's i have had while being on the NuvaRing never had a UTI or a yeast infection before the nuvaring. Not having a sex drive because you cant because intercourse is too PAINFUL sex it hurts like FRICTION and STABBING because of the DRYNESS the Nuva Ring causes. So i called the doctor he told me that i would have dryness at first and to just use lube so i tried that. Didn't work still had pain from the dryness so i called the doctor again and told him about the pain so he wrote me a prescription for a numbing jelly that you use right before intercourse and that was suppose to help with the pain.But that didn't work either just made everything numb till where you couldn't feel rather anything was out or in so i quit using that and hoped to god that my body would adjust to the Nuvaring. Still today after intercourse it causes STOMACH CRAMPS similar to the ones when your on your menstrual cycle,and PRESSURE similar to the pressure you have when your 8-9 months pregnant. Going to the bathroom after intercourse is a total NIGHTMARE i have had times it has burned so bad that i have pinched my stomach as i peed to take some of the PAIN AND BURNING away.Dont always work! Another side effect that i have had is DEPRESSION i have noticed that i have been unhappy and just got to where a lot of times i don't care about things that matter to me because i don't feel that i have the energy to do so.. I also have ANXIETY ATTACKS which i have never had until i got on this NuvaRing. CHEST PAINS that i thought the first time i was having a heart attack it hurt so bad. I had to take little breaths to breathe which would then lead into a PANIC ATTACK cause i felt like i was unable to breathe like i am suppose to.. So yet again called the doctor who told me that i need to be on prozac to handle this. Never got on the prozac just delt with it hoping that it was just a little side effect and that my body would adjust to the NuvaRing, but guess what NO never did.. Another side effect that i always hate is getting SICK AND THROWING UP caused by a medication, guess what i still have this after 5 years i get to cramping so bad and headaches tied onto being MISERABLE and BLOATING and DIARRHEA and DRY MOUTH so bad that you cant stand it seems no matter what you drink to get rid of dry mouth nothing can quench your thirst and this is all hours of the day. So i would take Midol which would only help for a few hours and then i was right back to square one with the B.S caused by the NuvaRing. So i call the doctor and get told "well you will have that." the side effects will be less obvious the longer your on the NuvaRing." So stupid me stays on the NuvaRing hoping this is true! Which i have found out is not. The only good thing that i have noticed is the NuvaRing is easy to use and you don't have to remember take a pill everyday! I never had any weight gain or loss while on this dang thing. Pretty well maintained the same weight as i have always been. I have tried to get off the ring several times, but always get back on it, Because while the ring is out for 7 days i am miserable mostly with a headache that last 3-5 days untop of the TERRIBLE MOOD SWINGS that i get. i truly think that my body has been on this hormone so long that i have HORMONAL WITHDRAWALS when i don't have the ring in. Cause i am fine after the ring is inserted again. People can say what they want and say that this is a issue and that they haven't had problems and that is understandable and different people adjust to hormones in different ways but the time that i have my ring out i always get my sex drive back 1-2 days before i start my period. I am not asking anyone to believe me about any of this and if the ring works for you then great, i thought that it was going to work for me also but it didn't. . I have taken the nuvaring out this last past Sunday and have no intentions on putting another ring back in.. Yet again i have had 3 days of a SEVERE HEADACHES some thing that i believe is HOT FLASHES or NIGHT SWEATS,BLOATING,DEPRESSION,CHEST PAINS,ANXIETY ATTACKS,YEAST INFECTIONS, and BAD MOOD SWINGS and i am hoping that all this will pass and my body will go back to the way it was before the NuvaRing came along... I would not suggest anyone to get this as a form of birth control i would actually tell then that the pill is better off to have in the long run.. This has caused me nothing but a miserable life that i have tried to deal with and i am just not going to do it anymore. I hope to see in the near future the NuvaRing go off the markets and not able to sale anymore.. The only reason that i was put on the nuvaring is because my doctor had a hard time finding a birth control method that my body would accept I was on Ortho- Tri- Cyclin and got pregnant and had a girl... My postpartum check up with her i was given the Orthra- Evra patch and i got pregnant with my son. Tried IUD and my body rejected it. So the doctor says" lets try this new birth control"you insert yourself leave in for 21 days leave out for 7 and have your period," the longer your on this NuvaRing the lighter your period will become and the side effects which aren't many will fade also.". "So how bout it." Well i thought this NuvaRing was a dream come true, BUT IT WAS A NIGHTMARE WAITING TO HAPPEN..

The first time I went on Wellbutrin, I had a really bad reaction to it. I had insomnia, horrible tremors, apathy, I felt like I was walking around in a cloud. I went on to try other medications. Now I'm taking a combination of Prozac and Wellbutrin and it seems to be working. My depression is under control. I don't have the apathy or zombie feeling anymore, but I do still have the tremors, though they aren't as bad. I get some mild insomnia, but taking it in the morning helped with that, and lately I've found that a little bit of coffee in the morning (not too much, don't need to be MORE shaky) helps with a lot of my side effects. I do have the confusion and concentration issues too. It hasn't caused any severe problems, it only seems to really happen in casual conversation, where I'll completely forget what I wanted to say. It's annoying, but way better than depression, and not severe enough for me to stop.
To those people who are telling others to stay away from this drug, or any drug for that matter, don't forget that there is a reason there are so many different kinds of anti-depressants. Everybody's body chemistry is different, so their gonna react in different ways. Also, the people who don't have issues with side effects rarely go looking for sites like this....
Just something to think about.

HEY..WELL HERE IS MY EXPERIENCE...I STARTED LOESTRIN 24 ALMOST 3 MONTHS AGO..I HAVEN'T GOTTEN ONE PERIOD YET...I SPOTTED THE FIRST WEEK I WAS ON IT, BUT OTHER THEN THAT IT NOTHING. I TOOK 2 PREGO TESTS BOTH SAY NEGATIVE...I AM SO MOODY, MY POOR HUSBAND DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ME..THE HEADACHES ARE SO UNBEARABLE I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO MY DOCTOR ON WEDNESDAY TO BE SWITCHED AND HE ALSO WANTS TO MAKE SURE I AM NOT PREGNANT. NO HAIR LOSS FOR ME OR WEIGHT GAIN YET, BUT I GUESS ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN IF I STAY ON IT, I JUST CAN NOT STAND WONDERING IF I AM PREGNANT EVERY MONTH. I AM SO HAPPY I FOUND THIS SIGHT, I AM GOING TO ASK MY DOCTOR A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT LOESTRIN AND HOW MANY PEOPLE HE HAS HAD COME IN WITH PROBLEMS WITH THIS PILL..DOES ANYONE HAVE SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT PILL TO ACTUALLY SWITCH TO?

I have been on femcon for about a year and a half and prior to that i was on ovcon for 4 years. The only side effect I have had with taking femcon is headaches. However, for the past week, I've been experiencing breast tenderness. I take Femcon everyday and I use condoms as a backup plan to be extra safe. Does anyone know all of a sudden why a person may experience new side effects despite being on Femcon for a year?? is this normal?

I have to say this after reviewing two major areas:

1. the brain
2. mast cell homeostasis

I desperately wanted to be POLITICALLY CORRECT and say that side effects can be confined to the minority. God, how do you fight Merck?

In this case, it would seem that the real benefit of this drug is to those with the extreme type immune responses whose body chemistry has been altered by being hyper-sensitive to some type of "invader. Extreme can be defined as just not the average or beyond that.

So, if the truth comes out that essentially normal immune systems don't need Singular at all, then I have come clean. I certainly have doubts whether essentially normal systems need this at all.

what happens when you take children off this drug cold turkey? my doctor said it was ok to do that. but this am my son (he's 4) woke up (day 2 off drug) and started screaming that the lights were hurting his eyes...and ran around turning all the lights off. i sat up and watched him sleep all night. I'm flipping out. what has this drug done to him and thousands of other children? will it go away now that they are off? anyone else have withdrawal issues?

I am on my third month of Aviane and I must say that I find it okay. It is the first oral contraceptive that I have ever taken. The first month I was on it was terrible at some points due to the break through bleeding (spotting a week before my period and my period lasted a week after that and was rather heavy), including cramps, occasional headaches, etc. However, I stuck with it and gave my body time to adjust to the medication. By the end of my second month on it most of my symptoms dissipated. I HAVE NOT experienced any unusual weight gain, however, I do find that I tend to be more moody and/or emotional sometimes. My skin has cleared up since I went on the pill, which is a plus, (except for the occasional pimple during my time of the month.) Also, I've gone up a cup size, but my breasts are also a bit tender. I haven't found that it 'dries' me out down there, and my sex drive is somewhat still the same.

To people who are new to the medicine and reading all these other people's symptoms and experiences, I advise them to stick with the pill for the recommended 3 months before changing brands, and also to consider how long most of these people writing have been on Aviane. Your body needs time to adjust to any type of hormonal medication and also, everyone's body chemistry is unique.

Help!! I need some advice. I'm 47 and have been diagnosed with HBP. I'm 6'2", 250 lbs. My Dr. has prescribed Lisinopril, which I'm suppose to pick up today. I've never been on any prescription medicine before. Don't have any known allergies. My BP averages 138/90 in the am and 170/117 in the evening. My fear is once I start taking this medication, am I on it forever? The side-effect described on this board are frightening. Any advice??

I was fine when I first started taking Geodon but when my doctor increased the dosage I started getting really anxious and was sleeping for so long on the weekends My body chemistry didn't work well with Geodon so my doctor said to stop taking it. Only take it if your body' s chemistry works with it. I feel a little better now but it's not totally out of my system. Anxiety can be a side effect too for those researching the medication.

I am 28 and this is my first time taking BC pills. Loestrin 24 FE has been okay for me. My side effects include slight nausea (which went away after the first few packs), bloating, occasional breast tenderness, and light headed/anxious at times. I also have had some breakthrough bleeding for a few days during the middle of the packs (which is to be expected for the first few months), but am going to try one more pack before switching to something else. Cramps have definitely been much less, and my periods have lasted for a mere 3 days. I take the pill at night before I go to bed, so perhaps that is why the nausea wasn't so bad.

For those people who don't like this pill -remember that not all pills work for everyone. (I tried Yaz once for 2 days and thought I was going to die!) We all have different body chemistry -so give this one a chance. If it doesn't work for you then try something else. My doctor gave me a sample of Femcon to try after my next pack of Loestrin. She thinks that Femcon will stop my breakthrough bleeding...guess I will find out soon...

Good Luck!

Wow - so many of you with the same symptoms and side-effects I'm experiencing. I was on Ortho Tri Cyclen years ago with minimal side effects beyond slight weight gain during the first few months. With this pill, I feel like I've become a monster. I'm bloated and I've been bleeding for 9 days now (I started the pills the day my period ended, on the advice of my doctor. I began bleeding a week later and have not stopped.). I'm normally a very happy person, but in the 2.5 weeks I've been on this medication, my moods change faster than the weather - I go from happy to despondent over the smallest, most insignificant things and cannot be cheered up. I have constant anxiety. I've cried more in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last year. I get angry over nothing, and I feel lazy all the time. My normally above-average libido is in the toilet. Fortunately, my boyfriend is incredibly understanding and knows that the changes I'm experiencing are due to this new medication changing my body chemistry.

I don't want to be like this, though. I don't want to be angry, sad, anxious, lazy, or uninterested in sex. I don't want a month-long period for 3 months while my body adjusts. I'm not in the physical condition to be able to shrug off an extra 10 pound due to bloating, and I'm tired of popping Advil to deal with my cramps. Before I found this site, I thought maybe the symptoms would go away in the next week or so, but I've now decided I'm not waiting this one out - I'm calling my doctor and finding a different alternative. This is simply unacceptable.

Also, I know it has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the medication, but their website disgusts me. "Cammie's Story"? If they spent half that advertising budget on research to eliminate the horrible side effects of their product, perhaps the pill would sell itself.

The ladies who are bashing this are obviously uneducated on BC pills. There are so many different types of bodies and so many types of BC pills. It just all depends on how your body works and deals with certain BC pills. And when you find it you'll know. Don't bash on it just because it doesn't work for you DOESN'T mean that it isn't gonna work for other people! OH and also I don't know why people say that you can gain weight from BC pills? I talked to my doc and she said that stuff is NOT true. Unless she is wrong but I personally don't believe BC pills do that to a womans body.

Thank you Ladies! I was up in the middle of the night last night researching YAZ because I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I woke up shaky, heart racing, sweating. It just wouldn't go away. Almost got my daughter and husband up to take me to ER. Then I read all the entries in this blog and was convinced it was the BCP. I got into see a doc in the am. She wasn't my normal doctor, so all I wanted was an overall check. She did EKG, blood and just an overall check -Normal. However, I did have a high pulse. That fluctuates throughout the day anyway, but again it was fast even at rest into the next day. I asked her if YAZ was the cause for this and she said probably not because I was only on it for 1 week. I had switched from being on OrthoTriCyclen. I switched because of depression, long periods, bloating, cramping... I might as well had been on no BCP than OTC. The strange thing was I had been on OTC for 5 years prior to having my first child (3 years ago) and loved it! Which makes me think your body chemistry is always changing. Anyway, my first week on Yaz was MISERABLE! I had constipation, dry mouth, exessive urnation, deydrated eventhough drinking 8 glasses of H2O a day, shaky muscles, muscle fatigue, muscle cramping, low libido, sweating, hot at night, loss of appetite, feeling cloudy in the head- like I hadn't slept for a couple of days, but not tired and then finally the heart issue. I went off of it and I slept like a champ last night. I think I still must have some residual hormones in my body but am convinced it will go away in the next week or so. I wanted to mention at the doc's office when I asked her about the potassium increase that could happen with YAZ, she had no idea that was a side effect. So, she wanted to find out more and had a little book, like a mini phone book, full of all the drugs and their side effects. She got to the page and was astounded by the number of side effects for a BCP. It took up a whole page of the book. She told me she had not seen so many side effects for a BCP ever! I got my potassium checked and it turned out fine. But, if you do have muscle issues go get that checked, b/c potassium is a big component to muscle health. What is odd is sister is on YASMIN and loves it! as well as many of her friends. She told me I would have really sore breasts the first couple of months, but that was about it.

I started taking Wellbutrin three weeks ago. I had been taking Zoloft for four years and it had been working fine except my insurance company tripled the cost and I was beginning to have to take more to get the same results. I thought Wellbutrin might be good alternative after doing some research and my doctor thought it would be good for me to try out. Well, since I have been taking Wellbutrin I have become emotional (wanting to cry at things I would never cry at before), more irritable, my husband says "I am not the same person", dizzy, two sips of a beer gave me a horriable headache which lasted until the next morning, I had to sit down on a bench at the mall because I felt like I was going to faint, and worse of all my brain became very "fuzzy" feeling. It was like my short term memory was damaged. I am taking a Spanish class and was doing well (A's). After I started taking Wellbutrin I could not concentrate enough in class to learn, even saying to my professor, "please skip me, I am not feeling well". It was humiliating. I have maintained a 4.0 in every class I have taken since 1999 and completed a masters degree last year. So, all in all-this was my experience. Maybe if I had taken it longer, it would have been different, but it was like torture for me. One positive note....I felt absolutely no internal depression after a week of taking it (other than being upset about the other symptoms). It worked really well in that area.....so, maybe if others do not have all the symptoms I experienced, it would be a very good drug to take for depression-just not for me!