Mforum symptoms and conditions

I am a perfectly healthy, 24-year old young lady in excellent mental and physical health. I eat right, exercise regularly and I have no history of any health problems. In August of 2007 I started taking Yaz, it was prescribed by my gynecologist and I always got free samples, so I began taking it. In November of 2007 (almost 4-months after starting Yaz) I began having severely painful and scary gallbladder attacks. After multiple tests, I found out that at 22 years of age, my gallbladder was functioning at 0% and had to be removed immediately. I always thought that it was odd and my family did too because there is no history of gallbladder disease in my family at all and I was way too young and healthy to have my gallbladder fail. During the first few months of taking Yaz, I noticed that I was moody and tired beyond belief. I lost a few pounds though. For the first couple of months, my acne got worse, but then around the same time that I had my gallbladder removed, my acne started to improve pretty rapidly. A couple of months later I was diagnosed with IBS and have suffered digestive problems since.
I was in a relationship when I started taking Yaz and for no reason at all I lost all interest in sex and developed anxiety and an aversion to touch and in January of 2008 I broke things off with my boyfriend for no reason at all. In March of 2008 I started having severe anxiety and panic attacks. At times I even had thoughts of dying and thought that "at least I won't feel this way anymore."
To soothe those feelings I began drinking and partying and found that I felt better with the calming effects of alcohol. I drank at least 4 nights a week for about two months until I started gaining weight from the drinking. I don't have an addictive personality at all and so I just quit drinking cold turkey. It tasted horrible anyways.
In May 2008 I met the most wonderful man in the world, and yet, I was unable to ever really "feel" anything for him and I always felt emotionless and empty. My anxiety and panic attacks continued and I absolutely had no sex drive. We would have sex, but eventually my aversion to it took over and we began fighting for no reason at all and I became panicky and depressed again. In July 2008 I developed a severe allergic reaction to peanuts and had to be taken to the emergency room. I have never had any allergies and have enjoyed peanuts all throughout my life. In August of 2008 I developed an allergy to penicillin and broke out in hives. I had never been allergic to anything in my life, and all of a sudden, I had two allergies!!!
In September of 2008 my immune system went down the drain and I developed a severe and life-threatening MRSA infection. I was in and out of the emergency room for a week straight and didn't get better from it for over 3 weeks. The doctors thought I had to have some sort of AIDS or Cancer to be getting MRSA at such a young age....but all tests came back negative multiple times and they just shrugged me off as an exception to the rule.
In October of 2008 I got a severe intestinal infection called c. diff.
This took two weeks for me to get over and was absolutely horrible!!
What was happening to my body??
What was happening to my immune system??
In November I started having problems with my blood sugar and I always felt like I was on the verge of passing out unless I ate on a constant basis.
It was horrible!!!
By this time, my acne was gone, my periods were shorter...thanks Yaz.

But, I had
Migraines/Severe Headaches
Fluctuating Appetite with weird cravings for salty and sweet foods
Low Blood Sugar with light-headedness and weakness
Blurry Vision (even though my eye doctor has told me repeatedly that I have perfect vision)
Brain Fog
Severe Anxiety
Panic Attacks
Nervousness and Restlessness
Inability to pay attention
Moodiness/Snappiness
Depression
Long episodes of ataraxia where I just couldn't feel any kind of emotion
NO SEX DRIVE
An aversion to touch
Hot flashes
Body aches
Thinning hair
My gallbladder quit functioning
I had a very weak immune system
and I had developed allergies to things I had been in contact with all my life...
I had back aches and neck pains
And I had severe Insomnia in spite of the fact that I was exhausted all the time! And when I did sleep it was worth nothing....
In January of 2009 I quit my job and dumped my 'perfect' boyfriend.
In February I was unable to get a hold of any Yaz bc and therefore since I wasn't having sex, I skipped February. I felt better in February and never made any connection and so I got back on in March and since then I have never felt worse in my life!!!! I've been doing research on the effects that Yaz and other bc hormones have on our bodies and it is astonishing how much it can psychologically and physically damage our bodies. I have felt like I am going crazy and slowly dying for NO REASON AT ALL>
Yaz is a nightmare!!!
I have been off of it now for 2 days and even though I still have some of the same symptoms, I can slowly feel myself getting back to normal. I've been told that it can take up to 2-3 months to get bc completely out of your system and for your body to adjust so I'm coping and being hopeful.
During the last month or so, I have even considered taking anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications because my life is a nightmare, luckily I looked deeper into my situation and discovered the culprit b4 I put something else in my body...
Yaz is not worth it.
I will never recommend it to anyone.
The pharmaceutical companies don't give a crap about us!!!
They just want our money and don't give a shit what their chemicals do to our bodies!!!
When I have little girls of my own someday, I will never let them take b.c.
I have been letting all of my friends and family know.
I would love to participate in a class action suite or an anti-Yaz campaign....
Anything. If you know let me know because I don't ever want anyone to have to go through what I have gone through with Yaz.
Ladies....Please do significant research before you ever put anything into your bodies.

I had a horrible experience as well, but I found a wonderful site to help me recover. I encourage you to check it out. http://www.createforum.com/yasminsideeffec/viewforum.php?f=1&mforum=yasminsideeffec

I am telling the story of what has happened to my wife on YAZ....

My wife is a 23 year old female, previously in good health, 5'5", 120 lbs, and a non-smoker. In January 2008 she gave birth to our amazing daughter. She has rebounded back to the same shape as she was before birth. Well originally, she had the non-hormonal IUD implant for birth control. Her body rejected it and it had to be removed after about 2-3 months. After it being removed, the Doctor recommended she take this new birth control YAZ, because my wife had previous problems with hormonal birth controls.

Well, my wife started taking YAZ. Late summer 2008, my wife began complaining about feeling tired and weak all the time. She went to the doctor a few times about it and they could not determine the cause. Well, in December of 2008, while working her job as an EMT on an ambulance, my wife began feeling light headed and weak. They put her on the cardiac monitor and found her resting heart rate to be 160 BPM. They immediately rushed her to the ER.

The ER doctor immediately admitted my wife into the INTENSIVE CARE UNIT! After a couple days, they determined that she had micro pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs) that they believed were caused by YAZ. They informed her that they were a known side effect of YAZ. Well due to her heart trying so much harder to push the blood around the clots, he heart became weakend and began heart failure. Her Ejection Fraction was at 30%, which is about equal to a 70 year old in heart failure. A normal ejection fraction is 65%. The heart is a non-repairing muscle.

As a result of this condition, she was prevented from working by her doctor, she cant drive, and cannot be alone for fear that her heart will stop. Well, of course the FMLA has now run out (March 2009) and her work has informed her they don't intend on letting her come back and her Doctor will not allow her to go back. I am currently working overseas as a US Department of Defense security contractor just to try and make ends meet. Because of the current economy, I cant even come home to take care of my wife and daughter because we wont be able to afford to live.

I encourage everyone to avoid this medication. Please don't let your life get ruined by this birth control. My wife is 23, may need a heart transplant, or may die at anytime and I cant even come home to take care of her. This medication has ruined our lives.

Female 30, CA
Central Asian decent
I was on YAZ for a year, I just stopped taking it yesterday. While on Yaz I experienced the following: Sever anger, depression, fits of range, I hated everything, I'm a newlywed and could not figure out why all of sudden I hated life and took it all out on my hubby. Would pick fights with him for no reason, I experienced back lower back pain, went for several Chiro sessions and still have pain in my lumber area. Trouble breathing a times, tension in my shoulders and neck, nightmares. If I did sleep I woke up exhausted and tired and remained that way the whole day. I felt tired and drained all the time. I'm a healthy 30 year old I’m active and eat very healthy vegetarian diet, yet I put on 15 pounds and could not take it off.
Blurred vision and dizziness.

While I was on YAZ I could not figure out what was causing me to feel this way or what it could have been as I was not warned by my doctor and did not think that my birth control was the cause of it.
After doing some research and reading what other women had to say, I finally understood what it was, YAZ; which should be banned and the company sued. I called my doctor to tell her and she told me I should have told her sooner, I did not even know what it was, I trusted her "expert" guidance in putting me on it. I don’t think I will ever go on any meds without extensive research ever again. I strongly feel that Doctors push drugs on people for their own selfish and monetary reasons, pharmaceutical kick backs. While we the women are made to be their Guiney pigs in their experimental trials, lets prescribe and see what happens attitudes. I hope that I can reverse all this, I want to live and feel like myself again and learn to love life again.
I’m so upset with YAZ an Buyer that if anyone is a lawyer and willing to start a class lawsuit against Buyer and Yaz I sign up without a thought.

I AM NOT CRAZY!!!!! I literally started crying once I read the first post. I started taking YAZ 6 months ago after giving birth to my third son. I cannot believe that I have finally found an answer to my insanity. I haven't taken my pill today and I will never take birth control ever again. I cannot believe that so many woman are having life threatening side effects and doctors are still prescribing this medication! I have had horrible mood swings, no sex drive, headaches, back and neck pain, fatigue, low energy, irritability, depression, crying spells, anxiety, pain whenever I do have sex, loss of hair, and hot flashes. I truly am elated to know that finally the clouds will soon disappear and I will see the sun again.

Yaz was a nightmare for me.
I had been on birth control for several years, and had minor symptoms, but they were tolerable and mostly physical- ie, some bloating, headaches, etc. But Yaz came with more mental/emotional side effects than I ever thought possible.
The worst has been the depression/anxiety. I always considered myself happy and laid back... this pill made me an emotional train wreck. In the middle of the day, I would usually be fine, but in the mornings and at night, I felt much different- very sad, anxious, irritable. Nothing was triggering this- everything was going fine in my life, no reason to be depressed. Most mornings I would just wake up very sad and hopeless, wanting to cry, but not sure why. Then later in the day, I would think back and wonder "why was I so upset?". It was the strangest thing. I felt tired most of the time, loss of motivation, loss of "zest for life". The things that I usually LIKED to do, I had no interest in. It was tough.
In addition to the crazy mental nonsense, I also experienced hot flashes- especially at night and in the first couple hours of waking up. No weight changes that I noticed. Headaches often. Anxiety often.
Ugh. I stopped taking Yaz about 3 weeks ago, and I feel like my hormone levels are still out of whack.

I had been taking this pill for a month and a half, i'm 23 and my gp said it would be good for mood swings etc, in the first month i was constantly tearful with headaches, i felt better on my week break and then when i started back on it i got a rash covering my legs and the itching was unbearable, i also got pins and needles in my head and face, i stopped taking Yasmin at this point and the rash went straight away along with the pins and needles/anxiety,im sure it was because of the pill.

I have been taking BCP since I was 18. I started w/ Aleese, Yasmin, Orthotrycyclin-Lo, Ortho Evra and the last being Loestrin24Fe. The sad part is that I can't remember what/if any side effects I had while taking those prior to Loestrin24Fe. Unfortunately for me, I have managed to gain 30lbs in the last 5yrs and I cannot seem to get rid of it. Of course the gyno said it wouldn't have been the BCP, but I would like to believe I didn't make myself a fat ass. I was taking Loestrin24Fe for 2 years and can't say I noticed too big of a change while taking it other than the periods being shorter, but they were still very heavy. But my acne has started to get worse the past year. In May I went to the doctor for my migraine's and skin/hair (too oily). After running blood tests it showed my thyroid was pretty low and had room for improvement. I was prescribed Maxalt for my migraine's and 30mg of Armour (thyroid medicine). I went back at the end of June and we upped the Armour to 60mg because I haven't noticed a difference since taking it. She also suggested I switch my BCP to Yasmin as it's been known to help with acne problems. Today was my 2nd day on Yasmin....and obviously it's too soon to notice if/what side effects will bother me. I just wonder if maybe I should take a break from BCP all together and allow my body a chance to breathe. I really hate the thought of having that longer period again but I'm going to have it with Yasmin anyway unless I choose to start a new pack early every month (to keep same schedule as Loestrin24Fe). Advice would be helpful :)

Hey guys I posted my rant last night about Yasmin. Well my wife still can't see and I gave her , her nightly meds and she was having stroke like symptoms so I gave her an aspirin and called the on call doctor. He told me to stop the Yasmin he was very concerned by this.I stopped it last night. He only wants her to take her vitamin and ibuprofen no percocet for pain.But again he was very worried about the Yasmin. I will update again

When a class action lawsuit is filed, let me know....this drug should be taken of off the market immediately. We started all of this with an OB/GYN that prescribed this “miracle pill” and now have had to go not only to our primary doctor, but also a psychiatrist, gastrenologist, college campus counselors, psychologists, psychiatrist, and the campus medical doctors; All the while, accumulating enormous doctor bills. All the doctors say, "No, Yasmin won't cause those problems" (except the college campus doctors..wonder why? Hmm.. could it be that they are not in private practice?)....well, I beg to differ. Everyone needs to give this website to their doctor so the doctors can hear from the patients that have taken this drug, and not listen to the pharmaceutical companies that are pushing this drug to be the "miracle pill". Maybe if enough people complain and go to the media, we can get rid of this drug!
My daughter who is 18 was put on Yasmin because of irregular periods, hormonal imbalance, etc. We were told it was the new “miracle pill”. It will make you loose weight, regulate your periods, clear up acne, you name it, it will fix it. Yeah, right.
She started taking this pill in March 2007. She was off at college but called to tell me she was experiencing horrible headaches, behind the eyes. She complained about her stomach hurting, but we just figured it was the stress of freshman year at college. Then she said she got where she couldn’t eat when she went to a restaurant. When she came home in May for the summer, I noticed a total personality change. For example, she was always a neat freak, and now she wouldn’t clean her room. The first day when she drove home, she started crying she was so mad about the traffic. Yes, she has always had a little road rage, but this was ridiculous.
By June, not only could she not be in crowds, like at a restaurant, but now she is having full blown panic attacks and IBS. We called the OBGYN and they said, “Yasmin won’t cause this, go see your primary doctor”. I knew that the only thing that had changed with her was taking the YASMINE. I knew it had something to do with all of this so I “Googled Yasmin” and this website (http://www.medications.com/se/yasmin) was the first one I looked at. All of her symptoms matched everyone else’s! I am so glad we found this website, it explained everything and I had her to stop Yasmin immediately.
So we went to the primary doctor, explained about the Yasmin and how we thought it was the culprit of everything. Of course this doctor also says, “Yasmin won’t cause that”. We told him to look it up on the internet and see how there are over 3000 complaints on this drug, more than any of the other drugs on the market.
Besides the emotional problems she starting having, her pulse and blood pressure was sky high, so he puts her on medicine for that, and puts her on an anxiety medicine and sends her to a psychiatrist. She is very thirsty all the time, and develops IBS. She can’t eat without having pains in her stomach. So, now we’ve have gone from having just irregular periods, to all of the above, plus a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist doubles her medicine (and puts her Pamine for the IBS) because the panic attacks are gone, but she still is having a lot of nervousness, anxiety, can’t sleep at night, crazy thoughts, worrying all the time, etc. A month later he changes her medicine again, to Effexor. The first 2 weeks, she does okay, but the packet doubles the strength after 2 weeks. It takes 4 weeks for it to take full effect. Right after she doubles this medicine, it is like her senses are on hyper-mode. She can taste everything that is in her food (chili powder, seasonings, etc…), taste the metal in water, and she can hear someone’s phone vibrating, in another room.
Then she goes back to college at the end of August 2007, and it’s horrible. The Effexor is having bad, bad side effects. We called the psychiatrist that she was using at home and he doubled the dose. That was the worse thing they could’ve done. The side effects were worse than ever. I had her to immediately go to a psychiatrist on campus. She told him the whole story and he believed her! Needless to say we switched doctors. He then lowered her dose back down to ½ a dose and hopefully can slowly get her off of all this medicine.
The newest thing she has developed is being hypoglycemic. The campus psychiatrist sent her to a campus medical doctor and he told her that they would get to the bottom of this. He tested her for everything under the sun. Low blood sugar is the only thing they found. But, she hasn’t taken the Yasmin since May. No telling what the results would have came back like if it was done at the time she was taking Yasmin.
Thank goodness she has counselors and doctors there at the campus that believes that Yasmin can cause all of these problems, and are working with her. From what I have read from the people that have used this medicine, although most doctors do not agree, Yasmin takes like 6 months to get out of your system. I think I am going to believe the testimonials of the people who take this medicine, over a doctor who prescribes it.
If everyone goes to the media, their doctors, the FDA, congressmen, and make them aware of these horrible effects, surely we can get this drug off of the market! Does anyone know a class action lawyer that would pursue this? For my child to have to go through all of this is ridiculous, not to mention costly. What do we know of the long term effects this drug will have if it is doing all of this when you first start taking it?
If you have the same concerns as me about this drug, and would be interested in looking into a class action lawsuit, please email: ****** I would be interested to see how many would want to pursue this.