Face of the earth symptoms and conditions

Prednisone has messed up my head. I had Bells Palsy (which is paralysis of one half of the face) and can be very scary. I have had some depression before but this stuff made me fall off the face of the earth. I went from someone in control and quite happy to the absolute pits. The depression was quite severe and sudden and I had no ability to stop the downward spiral. It has played havoc with my life. In its defense, it cleared the Bell's Palsy up very quickly but the grief it has caused me through my altered mind state wasn't worth it. Insomnia (eg - no sleep for 6 nights straight) was a trigger and then the mood swings took over and then bang....full blown depression and an inability to focus, work properly or function. I am now on the road to recovery but it has been a pretty turbulent 2 months. Be very careful with this drug....very, very careful.

This is a sad yet enlightening day for me. I can't believe the things Nuvaring has caused for me. I am so glad that I questioned it earlier and found this site as a result. I originally tried NR in February 06 and continued for about six months. I don't really remember side effects from that time. We had a newborn and I was finishing my last semester in college, so I wasn't exactly sleeping a lot. I will say that my libido fell off the face of the earth. It has taken a while to get it back even a little bit. Ever since then I have asked my doctor what could be done and she just would tell me it's normal to lose my sex drive after having a baby. So in May my doctor put me back on NR to help shrink an ovarian cyst that she is worried about. She had me stay on the NR for 6 weeks straight through. I just took it out last Saturday and I will be done with it forever.

Here is what I experienced during my six weeks:
- Libido- zip. zilch. non. nuf said.
- 2 migraine headaches
- Severe neck pain to where I was about a day away from calling a chiropractor
- Couldn't wear my contacts for the past month- my eyes got really dry and itchy
- EXTREME burning during and especially after sex- and if I had to pee, my husband would have to give me a wet towel to ease the burning pain.
- Lack of appetite
- Really bad mood swings/ depression- I am a really optimistic happy person and for the last month I feel so negative and down about everything. I want to cry a lot and the anger has been awful. My boss and I got into multiple arguments and I wanted to walk out of my job. My son has been on my last nerve for no reason, and don't get me started on my poor husband.
- Waking up multiple times in the night and having trouble falling back to sleep.

Once I removed the ring, I have felt lighter and happier. I even sent my husband a racy text message because I was thinking about sex! And my neck pain has disappeared. Unfortunately, for the last week I have woken every night at 3am and stayed up til around 4:30am. My cramps have been awful. Usually they were really bad the first two days of my period. This time, they have lasted for 4 days so far and don't seem to be stopping. I have gotten extremely constipated and this is something that doesn't happen- I usually go the other way. So my stomach has been a wreck of gas pains and cramping. I have been exhausted.

I just wanted to share my experiences. My husband and I were talking the other night trying to figure out what was going on with me, so I feel a bit more reassured that I am not a psycho after reading so many others' problems. I took my computer in to him and read some symptoms to him and he was as shocked as I that this may all be from the NR.

Omg......i thought i was loosing my mind, we have had some financial problems and i always find the way, we have been together for 11 years, and 1 month ago i started the nuvaring, i have been the biggest bitch on the face of the earth, the depression is killing me and all of the problems we have had are only getting worse, or i am making them worse, i cry all the time, i hate my life and i am thinking a lot of stupid things lately, i just took it off and it will be gone forever...thank you all for this blog!!!!!

Well, I have been on Loestrin 24 Fe for about a year now and let me tell you, the person who said their side effects increased with time is exactly right! I have been miserable lately. I have been beyond moody, I have no appetite, my husband hates me because I have ZERO sex drive...I mean ZERO. We'll go a month at a time without having sex. My attitude is miserable. I feel like the most depressed person on the planet and I have never ever experienced depression symptoms until being on this pill. Recently, I missed 5 of my pills while I was on vacation, and magically, my sex drive reappeared and I wanted to eat everything in sight. Seems to me, the pill is causing me grief now. Within the last 2 months, I've had crazy pregnancy symptoms too. I'm SO beyond over this pill, I'm finishing the pack and then it's back to condoms for us. I was on Yaz for a while too before Loe, and let me just say I was the biggest bitch on the face of the earth. I'm just guessing these pills aren't right for me. The only thing that DID work was a minipill that I was on when I was breastfeeding my daughter. My ob-gyn took me off because she said that the hormone levels weren't high enough when I stopped breastfeeding to prevent pregnancy. Gosh, I miss that pill. Oh well. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with these problems.

I'm 23 years old and I took Yasmin for about 4 or 5 years. I honestly loved it at the time, or so I thought. Basically, I got switched to Yaz because it was being pushed by my doctor's office and within 2 weeks I was the most miserable person on the face of the earth. Since I was going through a lot in my life I never even thought that my negative attitude was based on my birth control. I began to suffer from severe migraines, nausea, this strange rash on my face, and I gained a little over 20 pounds. I was on Yaz for 6 months when I finally realized that it was what was causing all my symptoms. The Sunday before my appointment, things got so bad that I was about 30 seconds away from killing myself or checking myself into an institution. I have since switched to Loestrin24Fe, and I can't say I'm in love with it, but I DO feel SO much better! Seems to have a few side effects of it's own, but as long as "killing myself" isn't one of them, sounds good to me! Despite thinking that Yasmin was great back then, I started to think back to when I felt my life had started to spiral out of control, and it's when I started the Yasmin. My migraines and over all aches, pains, and anxiety problems started then too! The 2 best years I had were 2 years I wasn't really actively using birth control. My last two relationships have ended in a fiery ball of flames due to the control Yasmin and Yaz have had over me. THIS PILL NEEDS TO BE OFF THE MARKET. It has ruined my life for the past 3 years especially and I can't believe that despite all of us screaming at the top of our lungs, no one is doing anything. All the drug reps keep saying "there's no "bad" pill everyone reacts differently" but HOW can you say that when so many women are this miserable on it? Do countless numbers of us need to die in order for this to be over?

Just to put my two cents in as well... I began NuvaRing three weeks ago and it crept into my life like a disease.
~ My co-workers thought I was constantly mad at them.
~ I had a look of 'disgust' on my face all the time.
~ I haven't smiled for the past three weeks.
~ I CAN sleep all day--> no question about it.
~ My sex drive is gone.
~ I was having extreme leg cramps.
~ I could eat everything on the face of the earth.
~ I feel fatter than ever before.
~ I felt constipated for three weeks...as soon as I took it out for 'the week
off' I had extreme, severe cramping diarrhea.
~ I have had the uncontrollable desire to drink alcohol excessively (??)
~ Yesterday I wanted to kill myself and the world--> It was best for all
mankind that I lock myself in my bedroom

Next month I am going to switch to a different kind of BC