Circumstances symptoms and conditions

I have taking a generic for celexa, until recently I was satisfied with the results, but I had noticed weight gain. I called my doctor and asked to be put on something which would help with the weight gain. What a mistake, she put me on zoloft and now I have not only gained 5 lbs in the week I have taken it, but I cannot sleep, suffer from headaches, suffer from food cravings at night and taking clonazepam is not helping. Under normal circumstances taking 1/2 of a clonazepam would give me great rest. Last night I took, 1 and 3/4 and still could not sleep. Needless to say, I am going back to my other antidepressant. I am small boned and when I gain weight, My blood pressure goes up, which then requires me to take pills for that. I don't want to go on blood pressure meds just because of the weight gain. Hope this helps someone.

i have read all of your posts here and i have to ask.. is Loestrin the best birth control pill out there at the moment? Can you ladies mention other low-hormone, high success rate, high quality pills out there?
my girlfriend has been on it now for five weeks and she feels very depressed, moody, cries for no reason, has no desire to do anything, hates everything around her, feels fat, ugly and of course she has no sex drive whatsoever. our lives are upside down at the moment. she was told she had to take these pills for 3 months. i don't know what to do. for one i'm going to make an appointment with a gynecologist and ask about Loestrin and what other choices there are but first i'd rather have first hand experiences with other products from some of you. thank you.

I have been on Seroquel for about a month and a half.
When I first began to experience anxiety, I was given antidepressants starting with Celexa,(didn't work) Zoloft( made me feel worse), and Trazodone(same effects) , along with anti-anxiety medications.Nothing was working, and I ended up with Serotonin syndrome- HORRIBLE experience- did not sleep for a month, and it was as though my "fight or flight" response was on "hyperdrive".

Finally went to a Pdoc instead of a general practitioner,and he took me off what I was on . He put me on 50 mg. of Seroquel in the a.m., and 50 mg. in the p.m. before bedtime. I improved within several days, and have felt like myself for the most part ever since. I am thankful especially to be sleeping! Have gained some weight back, but since the serotonin syndrome caused me to lose 20 pounds in a month and a half, that is good. The first couple of weeks or so I had dry mouth, but that has gone away. There have been no sexual side effects like the ones caused by zoloft- that makes both my husband and myself happy.
Just hope if I continue to exercise and eat right that I won't experience the weight gain everyone is talking about.
My life is extremely stressful right now due to long-term circumstances beyond my control, and this medication is helping me to cope! Besides feeling some mild depression and grief due to those circumstances, I am just thankful to be functioning well again!

My 14 year old daughter who had the gardasil shot approximately 2 weeks ago, just came down with a urinary tract infection, yeast infection and sore throat. I took her to the doctor for this on Friday. She was sick all weekend with fever, throwing up. Today, (5/25/09), I looked down her throat, and her throat looked like the top of a snow mountain. I was certain she now had strep throat. I look her to urgent care. The doctor took a throat culture, and it came out negative for strep but positive for MONO. What the heck!~ Is this related to the Gardasil shot! If so, do I want to put my daughter threw the next shots. I have never seen my daughter so sick in 14 years. Please advise to your opinion.

Well I went to the doctors today and they gave me a regular pap after that they told me I could get up and get dressed I thought well you have not taken that Mirena out yet my doctor came back in to talk to me I told her my side effects she said it had nothing to do with the Mirena and that the people on this site didn't know what they were talking about! Ha I said well Im having all those symptoms and want to have it removed she almost yelled at me and said "WELL IF YOU WANT IT OUT GET UP ON THE TABLE RIGHT NOW AND I'LL TAKE IT OUT" I was almost scared to but I got up on the table and she came back in the room ALONE and got prepared I asked her if it was going to hurt she said no so she told me to take a deep breath and she yanked it out it felt like she pulled my fallopian tube with her it hurt so bad She said there it's out see I felt dizzy for about 10 seconds then started cramping some more but at least it's gone after that she handed me some birth control told me to start it today and walked out the room crazy right? Ill post again in a few months to fill in in how im doing anyone out there considering the Mirena please take a while to think about what you are doing I thought I knew but had no idea!!

I am 20 and have been on Wellbutrin XL for the past 3 months but two weeks ago my doc increased my dose to the max which is 450mg. Since then my life has been a mess because I am always nervous (the feeling you get before you do something you are not comfortable with like presentation or exam) and I have this feeling all day it initially started with episodes of this nervousness but this week I am noticing that I am always tense. Does anyone feel this way??

My head is spinning, I feel like this quite often (I am gonna try to explain this) as if your brain is shifting L to R and then everything around you starts spinning like for example I was writing an email earlier today and I started feeling like this I literally felt as if the words I was typing were moving back and forth. Does anyone feel anything close to this.

I was just curious if anyone else could relate to how I am feeling :(

This website had made me sane!!! I have recently become a crazy woman searching side effects of birth control like it was my job, it has taken up my entire head!.. I started nuvaring four months ago (first form of birth control ever) to help control my horrible pms and very irregular period, and it helped that out, HOWEVER, I have recently decided I would prefer the pms over these awful, AWFUL symptoms. Although little spurts occurred here and there, this month is the absolute worst. I have managed to gain 12 lbs in under a month ...(keep in mind I am a work-out freak and have made sure to burn as many calories as I take in each day simply because I just can't stop gaining the weight!) I don't fit into any of my clothes and I just do not like the way I look. It is as if my body has just gotten wider and larger. I used to love my body and now I cant stand looking in the mirror everyday. My eating habits are awful....I try to starve myself for periods of time because I simply cannot help myself when I enter the kitchen. I feel like a bulimic girl, without the puking afterward. My binges are DISGUSTING, I'm actually ashamed. The worst symptom of all, though, are the mood swings. I cry at the drop of a hat every single night, I'm 20 years old away at college, and last night I cried because all I wanted was my "mommy." That's embarrassing. Not to mention my boyfriend thinks I am absolutely nuts because I have "changed." When you tell a severely hormonal woman she has "changed" you better expect a shoe or the nearest object to fly at you, which is exactly what I did. I CAN'T HELP IT! I also have been having negative thoughts about life as a whole lately and have even entered the realm of slight suicidal thoughts, or at least thinking my life was worthless. I've been through too much with my cycle to stop it now (even though I feel like ripping this thing out ASAP) and have 2 weeks left before I can take it out FOR GOOD! If anyone has any feedback they want to share to keep me sane through these last 2 weeks PLEASE PLEASE share! Also, does anybody know how long it will take for me to get my life back?! =(

My gyn wants me to get the mirena. I am 28 and have a blood clotting disorder for which I take blood thinners. I had an embolism while on Nuvaring in March. Anyway, because of the blood thinners I bleed 25 days out of a 28 day cycle and there is nothing they can do about it...so the gyn suggested MIRENA. I'm a bit scared because I have not had any babies yet and I DO want to get pregnant within the next 5 years and start a family. The gyn assured me that I would not have any fertility problems and that Mirena was a wonderful device. I am still skeptical. What if I become depressed? What if the cramping is too much? It seems like a lot to go through ...the insertion, the risks etc. and what if I hate it? I am leaning towards asking for the mini-pill instead (progestrin only). The idea of having something inserted into my uterus frightens me.

Topamax makes things taste yucky!! things like soda, beer, etc. And I've typed a whole report before or listed something on ebay and only looked back later and called myself a STUPIDAS# because of all the misspelled words- should of used spell check- which if you take Topamax make sure your spellcheck is on! Don't know why but the med will slurr your speech and brain. I do still get the occasional migraines while taking it so I'll stop it, plus tired of the spelling probs I have while on it. But my doc says I should be persistent with it, just like everything else out there... there's always a price to pay! Other than that, no side effects like stomach pain or weight loss like I've heard in others. Oh but it will make you tired..especially at first..very tired!

I was prescribed Zocor for high cholesterol. Almost immediately I began to experience body aches -- some days more severe than others. I would take ibuprofen and it would help. Then, I started getting a pretty strong pain on my hip which radiated down my leg onto my foot. The pain was so severe, even the Motrin 800 mg. pills didn't help it. I am 53 years old, but I felt like a 90 year old. I had problems walking, especially after sitting for an hour or so. I had problems with stairs. Even laying down was painful. I tried heating pads, ointments, etc. When I told my doctor about it, she said that this was a typical side effect of statins, and that because I am diabetic, I need to continue taking Zocor to keep my cholesterol down. Just the other day, I stopped taking Zocor for 3 glorious days and guess what? NO pain!!! I resumed it because my doctor insists that I stay on it, but I wish there was something else I could take that wouldn't cause pain.

I have been taking Lamictal since October of 2007. I experienced some of the symptoms (muscle pain in the head and neck) before I started the medication. I have experienced panic attacks since July of 2005. I have had mild heart palpations since I was in my mid 20's (I'm 36 now). I have had what I would consider a below normal energy level since my mid 20's also. Ok so like everyone else I am thinking I'm a hypochondriac! However, I was diagnosed August 28th 2007 with having Lyme’s Disease and also Hyper-Thyroid (same time, same lab-work). Two weeks later I was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder (this is one thing I knew I was battling but didn't know how to handle it). My physiatrist started me on Lamictal and I did the standard ramp up to 200mg. I also was started on a 90 day treatment of Dyoxicycline for the Lyme’s and Methimazole for the Hyper-Thyroid. I was very very weak and was only able to stay awake for short periods of time (4 to 5 hours max). Just an fyi, I am not overweight, lazy or unmotivated. I have the physical appearance of perfect health. This, I think works against me as the Dr's seem to think I'm just whining. Mater of fact; my Primary Care Physician never tested me for Lyme’s. I went to an Urgent Care Center which tested me for Lyme’s disease and I came back positive (they also tested my Thyroid levels and found the problem with my THS levels) I told my Dr the results and he insisted I have same test done again. Guess what, new tests, same results.
My symptoms today are very similar to what I have seen posted many times. Muscle pain (entire body, some areas worse than others), heart arrhythmia, racing heartbeat, intense palpitations, nausea, foggy “un-plugged” mind, fatigue, weak muscles, muscle cramping (especially after repetitive motion, such as strumming a guitar), panic attacks (much more severe) and the latest addition to the group, Insomnia. Muscles pain in my head, fore-head, jaw, temple, neck (front and back), shoulders, is terrible to say the least. The pressure in my fore-head (right under my brow) makes me feel like I need to close my eyes or rest (resting does not relieve anything). The front of my neck is so tight at times it feels like my jaw is being pried down. I could go on and on.
On my quest to find out what else is going on with my body I have had 2 Echocardiogram’s on my heart and abdomen, 2Nuclear Stress Tests, blood work out the wa-zoo, MRI of my brain, 2 CT’s of my Head and Neck, Chest X-rays, Endoscopy, Colonoscopy, and all revealing nothing.
Most doctor’s I have encountered seem to want to treat the symptoms, not the problem/disease. I believe I know why; we (the ones who are there for solutions) tell them what the symptoms are (how we feel). We of course are thinking “this will help with a diagnosis of the problem/disease”, when in fact (I feel); the doctor’s thought process stops there. They don't know what’s wrong with you but they do know what your symptoms are so....bingo, let's treat the symptoms. Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I’m not saying, “Most doctor’s don’t know what they are doing” or “don’t take your meds”. I am saying you and I are one of the 20 to 30 patients most doctor’s see daily (100+ weekly). They may be caring and good people but they are just as human and fallible as you and I. My advice is this; (and I am taking my own advice) don’t always “pop” into your body what the doctor suggests/prescribes, without doing your own research. Heck most of us won’t buy a car or more importantly, send our kids off to a college with out doing your own research (we just don’t trust those shinny brochures). Your body and your health are worth you doing your own research. Just keep in mind, Pharmaceutical Reps are always at your Dr.’s office (sit in the waiting room for 10 minutes and I’m sure you will see one). Reps are paid to do one thing; encourage (push) the Dr.’s to promote use of the Pharmaceutical Companies drugs.
My wife and I have been doing our own research on Lamictal (after a year of taking this stuff) and the side effects associated with this drug. We have searched through many (many,many) web sites for information and we have talked with pharmacists and Dr’s for opinions. Although I’m am not thoroughly convinced that Lamictal is the cause of all of my symptoms, my wife and I have decided to lower my Lamictal slowly from 200mg to 100mg. I am now taking 150mg daily (three days now) and plan on staying at this level for a total of two weeks before lowering to 100mg. I do fear dropping the dosage to quickly (potential side effects) or lapsing into a mania. To help avoid a manic episode my wife and my immediate family are all “up-to-date” with my course of action. They are on “Red Alert” and have promised to keep a close eye on my behavior patterns and moods. (I don't want to put them through another hyper-mania episode, its much too devastating). I do want so badly to feel healthy and alive again and at this point I am rather frustrated with the Dr.'s ability to help me achieve this goal. Remember it is called “Practicing” Medicine. So now I’m going to practice a little, very carefully and cautiously.
As a foot note; I have recently (past two weeks) been re-tested for Lyme's with a negative response. I am keeping in mind Lyme's test are very inaccurate (still hoping this one is accurate). My thyroid is under control and normal, so.... let's see if dropping below 150mg of Lamictal will eliminate some of these other symptoms. I will keep you posted.
Erik

WoW! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I found this website!

I had been taking Lisinopril HCTZ 10-12.5 once daily since April of this year. I was on Labetalol 200mg/2x's daily as I developed Hypertension during my pregnancy. Once I delivered my baby I was then switched to Lisinopril HCTZ by my primary care physician.

The Lisinopril did wonders for my blood pressure but by mid-June I started having side effects. I went to my doctor numerous times and then to the ER since I thought I was having a heart attack. The ER doctor suggested that I was having panic attacks or just symptoms from the cold I had. So, I went to my primary doctor and she immediately jumped and gave me Prozac. Never once did either doctor ever link the symptoms to the Lisinopril.

My symptoms included:

*Light Headed
*Dizziness
*COUGH COUGH COUGH!!!!!!!!
*EXTREME DIARRHEA - Everything I ate or drank came out like water almost immediately!
*Chest Pain and pain down into my left arm and fingers
*Chills
*Blurred Vision
*Rapid Heartbeat
*Cold/Sweaty Feet
*Sweating
*Bloated Feeling
*Tight/Itchy Skin
*Rash on chest 2x's
*Nausea
*****Panic attacks and feeling like I was going crazy!!!!!******

Upon finding this website Friday, August, 22nd, I went to my doctor and told her NO MORE was I taking this medication! It's POISON! I am now taking Ziac 5/6.25 once daily. Ziac like Labetalol is a Beta Blocker rather than an ACE Inhibitor and may not be as effective but I sure would rather this than Lisinopril.

I am still experiencing some of the side effects of the Lisinopril but I am hoping that they will deminish soon. PLEASE!!

I, like a lot of others have mentioned on this website felt like I was loosing my mind. I felt like I couldn't explain all the things I was feeling because some of the feelings just didn't come out right and did make me sound crazy. At one point my doctor told me it was "all between my ears!" Okay?!?!?

I hope this has helped others and I plan on making a complaint on the FDA website, this medication needs to be removed from the pharmacies! It's poison!

If anyone knows how long the side effects last after stopping this medication I would surely appreciate the info!

This site has made me realize that I am not crazy. Well, now I am... But not for long, I have had my Mirena since 2/2005 after the birth of my daughter. Yes, there was a lot of cramping at first and the insertion was awful. The Dr. reassured me that I would begin to feel better and gave me time frames as to when cramping and bleeding should stop and may even stop completely. Wow, this is great! I thought... I nursed my first year and at the 6 month mark my production slowed. I've heard this was normal. I was proud that I had gotten down to the pre-baby weight. No credit to Mirena. This was strictly due to nursing and some exercise. At the year mark I became more and more irritable, per my husband. I was Forgetful or should I say had difficulty holding conversations due to forgetting simple words... I was depressed and just plain mean... He was right. I didn't notice until he said it, I was angry all of the time. I was reluctant to go on any pills; I feared I would be labeled as crazy. So, instead of meds we ended up needing to see a marriage counselor. Yep, after 5 months of babbling about my childhood and bringing about a normal conversation with my husband again, I end up taking medication. I had been convinced this was simply a little postpartum and everybody is depressed after a baby so I was put on some generic version of Prozac (temporarily). Had some dizzy spells at work (very embarrassing). In the summer of 2006 I started have pain during sex. I could tell it was coming from the ovary. It was on my left side. Of course, my husband had to deal to with the constant feeling of rejection. I was thinking I'm just constipated and the added pressure is well... you get the idea... Hurting everything else. After a few months of this I made an appointment with my OB doctor. I had a 5 cm cyst! I was told this could burst or possibly twist. Then I am restricted to no sex and light exercise. Within 3 months that cyst burst it sent a burning sensation through my abdomen to my upper thighs. I have a lot of abdominal pain and bloating. I went in several times later but was never diagnosed with having anything wrong. Suggested to see an Oncologist (never went). Now to the current year of the Mirena... I mentioned earlier that I had lost all of my weight back to 114 pounds (I'm petite). Within the last 4 months I have put on 17pound and still climbing. I am having some horrible pains on the right side now which I know is the return of another one of those cysts. It must be a dozy, this one really hurts. And having acne breakouts of a teenager. So let’s review... From this post I have experienced the depression, cyst, weight gain, acne, forgetfulness, dizziness, stomach pains, bloating. I want it out I had scheduled to get it done on 7/17. My husband freaked and now has scheduled to get a vasectomy. He has asked me to wait until his procedure has been done before I go through with it. So, I am waiting but am interested to hear how soon we become normal again when all foreign objects and medications has been removed.

Question for you all. I have been on levaquin for 6 days 750 mg. For the last 3 to 4 days my hands have been killing me and it is getting worse, my knees, and shoulders hurt now. After reading your remarks I am calling doc first thing in the morning. Please let me know if you have any advice for me.

I've been taking Osteo Bi-flex with MSM Advanced for about a month and the only significant and serious problem is that I bleed deep red blood from the slightest injury and have a hard time getting the bleeding to stop. I have never had an issue of this type before and cannot afford blood loss because I get radio frequency treatments in my back and bleeding is the most serious issue of the treatment. I am due for one now but I would be terrified at this point nor would my Pain management doctor touch me under the circumstances. Has anyone else out there ever experienced a bleeding problem while taking Osteo Bi-flex with MSM Advanced?
by MSB

I am posting the metabolism profile for montelukast. Maybe someone here has chemist friends who might know if it is possible that the dicarboxylic acid major metabolite could also have been derived from quinolinic acid under metabolic circumstances less than ideal. The quinoline ring, is a benzene-pyridine. Quinolinic acid, a dicarboxylic acid with a pyridine is produced by the oxidation of quinoline possibly by acid hydrogen peroxide. So the only structural difference between the dicarboxylic acid mentioned in the study as the major metabolite and quinolinic acid is nitrogen. Fascinating drug Singulair. Macrophages (immune cells) make quinolinic acid and release nitric oxide in order to kill micro-organisms. Quinolinic acid a neurotoxin.

Unless you are someone who plans to get help from experts, I would ignore this post. In my opinion, the only way that real answers will come from the investigation is that there is a provable chemical reason that the brain is affected by Singulair. I just post what I find and hope that eventually there will be experts who can explain why people are having such problems. I am unable to draw any conclusions from the report below.

dmd.aspetjournals.org/.../1/1996&journalcode=dmd

My daughter has had a very difficult year, with many of the symptoms described in postings related to Yasmin. Please will everyone who has experienced the negative effects of this drug go to the website: www.FDA.gov and file a report. They do not ask for personal identification, but you can describe your symptoms, tests, hospitalizations, etc in great detail. You can also file a report with the drug manufacturer, but this will carry greater weight if your doctor files it on your behalf. Under certain circumstances, related to the severity of your adverse reaction, I believe the manufacturer is required to follow up with the FDA, and respond to your complaint.

Here's a way out theory about my unique and to me mystifying medical situation....

I recently read where Singulair, an asthma medicine, is suspected of causing suicides, obviously an effect on the brain function. The FDA notes that over the past year, Merck has updated Singulair's prescribing information and patient information to include the following post marketing adverse events: TREMOR (March 2007), (April 2007), suicidally (October 2007), and anxiousness (February 2008). (the tremor highlight is mine since this is a major symptom of Parkinson's )

Well, I took Singulair from 1998 to 2004 and I wonder if maybe, just maybe Singulair could be a contributing factor to my strange Parkinson's but not Parkinson's problems that is
gait,
balance,
freezing of gait problems

Any thoughts or ideas on how I might follow up on my hypothesis?

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.

My 2 year old son has only been on Singulair asthma for 4 days(since Friday March 28th), but he will not be taking it anymore. We have noticed a HUGE change in him in those 4 days. He is having mood swings like you wouldn't believe. One minute he's ok, then the smallest thing will trigger a terrible tantrum, then he has his clinging moments like he's seeking security where he just clings to me. This is totally not normal for him. My parents also noticed a changed over the weekend. He is normally the perfect angel for them, yet threw tantrum after tantrum while they had him. I'm so glad that I thought about his actions being a side effect of the meds and found this website. I'm horrified at all of the circumstances I've read about on here and I hope that all these children who have been on it for years have no long term side effects from the meds. I am currently awaiting a call from the doctor to find out what medicine they recommend to replace it with.

Our 7 year old son has been old singulair since he was about 3. I can't even describe in words how I feel as a parent knowing now what my son has been going through. He (just like the others) has been very emotional and become very timid and has had a couple of panic attacks. I really began noticing it when his doctor bumped up his dose several months ago. He began talking about death and morbid things quite frequently. His doctor also has diagnosed him with ADHD. Over the past several months I took him to the doctor for extreme leg pain and once to the emergency room for crippling abdominal pain. They couldn't find anything wrong with him. We've taken him OFF of singulair forever and few days ago and him bright and positive personality seems like is beginning to come back. I just hope that he has suffered long-term damage from taking this medicine. At this point, we can only hope and pray that everything will be fine.

wow where do I begin. I took the first dose and my kidneys hurt like I had been on a drinking binge for weeks. I cried for three days straight and I started having pain in my bones this was only a warning for what was to come. I suddenly had a weird heartbeat I mean it was a really long weird heartbeat so I call my doctor she tells me to stop taking it and if anything worse happens between the time I had called about 3pm and the next day at 9 am then i need to go to the E.R so i just relax and hope nothing happens but the next day when I am supposed to take the drug (its a 24 hour pill) my brain squeezed in on itself and my dad informed me I was going through withdrawals but I was like how I only took it a few days he said those were DT's. The coming days I had to re learn how to walk and talk and just do simple tasks. Well its been over a year now and I now need to go get my heart checked because I am still having trouble with weird palpitations and beats its very strange. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANYONE TAKE THIS MEDICATION!

Hi,

I took Levaquin for one day, the first pill out of a pack of five.
Next day I had severe pain in legs back, shoulders and across my chest,
I thought I'd had a heart attack. I immediately suspected the medication
because it was the only one I had taken.
The pain is still with me but it only three days out, am hoping that it
will go away. Recently today I have begun to notice knee pain.
Anyway I have warned everyone I know not to take Levaquin under any circumstances.

I was so glad to see this website and see that I was not alone. My Dr told me to take the Doxy with lots of liquid (not milk) before breakfast and dinner and said I had to eat. He said under no circumstances take it before bed. So he must have known about some of the problems. But like so many others I had heartburn real bad and a couple times burped up burning liquid. I've had constant pain just below my rib cage and in my back at the same location and real bad migraines. I thought maybe it was a sinus infection and thats why I looked it up to see if this antibiotic treated sinus infections to rule this out to decide if it was migraines or not. Usually if I get a migraine its for two days max and this has been a week. Oh and I also had swollen feet, ankles, and calfs but thought I maybe just ate too much salt or something. I've been feeling miserable with all this going on. After reading these entries on this wonderful site and seeing that all these symptoms fit as side effects I stopped taking it right then and there. It's been 3 days and my head, stomach, and back are still killing me but the swelling is gone and heartburn much better. I sure hope this gets out of my system soon. No depression or mood issues here.

I've had my Mirena for about 15 and a half months and I am having it removed today at 2 o'clock. At first I had sharp pains when I would sit down and I felt like the cords were poking me and irritating me. My OB/GYN requires patients to come back one month after having it put in so he can check it and make sure it is still in place. At this visit he also trimmed the cords although he acted like he didn't believe me when I told him that I could feel them poking me when I sat down and that it hurt. At first I didn't notice any bad side effects, but I did have one good one: my periods stopped, but I still had occasional and sporadic spotting. I didn't think to look for any bad side effects because I got the device under the impression that it had no bad side effects. I thought it only had a rare complication of perforating the uterus, but since mine was in place at the one month check, I didn't think about anymore until I started thinking about having another baby recently. I went online to see if I had to have a doctor remove the Mirena or if I could do it myself, and I found out that it's best done by a professional because bad things can happen and then you'd have to go to the doctor anyway. Plus, I didn't want to hurt my chances of having another baby. While online I discovered this whole world of message boards where women were having a lot of the same problems I'd been having in recent months and they all blamed their Mirenas. Some claimed that their problems had gone away since having it removed. I never thought to link my circumstances to the Mirena, but when I saw how many women are having the exact same problems as me I knew that I needed to go ahead and get mine out ASAP. Here is a list of my side effects, and I've found other women have had them as well with Mirena: weight gain, bloated stomach, depression, short temper with husband and daughter, acne, low sex drive, spotting, cramps, constipation, and back pain. There may be more, but I can't remember them all right now. Some of them may not even be related to the device, but I've read of so many women with Mirena who are having or have had the same issues, so I suspect a link between my problems and Mirena. I hope this helps someone out there looking for answers. God Bless!