Moral of the story symptoms and conditions

I have the Mirena IUD now. I had in inserted in August of '06, 3 months after I had my first daughter. All along I really liked the IUD. I did have some problems at first however, while having intercourse I had some discomfort. But all in all really liked the fact that my periods were lighter. However, for the past year or so I have noticed a huuge change in my sex drive, and hardly ever want to have intecourse. I am tired a lot, and even though I eat well, and exercise I have lost hardly ANY baby weight. After reading these comments, I am seriously thinking of having my IUD removed.

I was on Yasmin for 2 years and it was 2 years too long! I should have stopped taking it immediately. I experienced EXTREME HAIR LOSS!!!! It started to fall out as soon as I started taking the pill, but I was also coming off Depo Provera and thought it was the Depo causing the hair loss. This happened in 2 different cycles. The first time, A LOT of hair fell out and I was humiliated. After about 6 months, some hair grew back; but my hair was still extremely thin and you could see most if not all of my scalp in strong lighting (outdoors for example). About 8 months later, it fell out again...this time worse than ever because I had about half of the hair I used to. I think I was literally lost 3/4 of my hair this time. Most if the hair loss was on the top of my scalp and every doctor I saw had something different to say. In the beginning stages of the hair loss, they said it was stress. Then when they saw it progress and they realized how much hair I had lost on the top of my scalp, I was told I had female pattern baldness...only no female in my family had ever experienced this before. Finally, I went off the pill and WOW...I HAVE HAIR AGAIN and it is probably close to what I had before I ever lost any of it. Oddly enough, Yasmin is used to prevent hair loss; as it is prescribed for women who have higher testosterone levels...yet it caused me to lose mine. I also gained A LOT of weight on that pill!
I have been off of Yas for about 6 months now and my periods are definitely less than regular. I won't get my period for 3 months and all of a sudden I am getting it every 2 weeks. I also have cysts on my ovaries and I thought I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome which can also cause hair loss, but the doctors are quite positive that I don't have PCOS and that it is not what led to the hair loss.
Moral of the story...unless you have to go on a pill that is designed for lowering your testosterone levels (and I recommend Diane 35 if so), do not take Yas! If I ever go on the pill again, I am sticking to something like Alese that is low-dose.

i had the WORST experience with the nuvaring. first of all, after i finished grad school and could no longer get it for free at school, my health insurance was not covering it and i had to pay $58 a month for it. then the side effects where HORRIBLE. moodiness, TERRIBLE anxiety, absolutely no sex drive, and on top of it all, i got a vaginal infection from the ring which caused terrible pain whenever my husband and i had sex. it felt like this horrible stinging burning pain. my gyn stated infections are normal with the ring. one of the worst parts about the side effects was that i thought this was all stuff that was MY fault. i thought i was going crazy and being super anxious and moody and took it to my therapist, and i really thought it was all in my head that sex was so painful and that i rarely wanted to have it. i am so frustrated that this was my experience with the nuvaring and it caused me to second guess myself and blame myself for all of the side effects. moral of the story-- stay away from this, it sounds too good to be true because it IS.

My wife had Mirena inserted last year around May. Side effects were similar to those detailed here. Non-existent libido. Acne. Consistent with other's reports of joint pain, my wife experienced symptoms that were diagnosed and treated as Lyme disease. At the time we wondered how it could be Lyme disease when the doctor reported that several tests for Lyme disease came back negative. Now we wonder if the joint pain was actually the Mirena.

After reading the comments on this site, we had the Mirena removed in late May, despite a skeptical doctor. A week of uncomfortable heavy period, but not to bad. My wife's libido has returned, her face has cleared up, and I've gotten a vasectomy.

best wishes, Jim in VA

hi ladies,
yet another update! i have just been to visit my doctor to tell her about my recent revelation that i think yasmin caused all of my anxiety/panic attack/depression issues not to mention the huge list of physical symptoms, she hmmmm yes that can happen with contraceptive pills especially if you have hormone problems or thyroid problems..which i do! she is running some new thyroid tests to see what my levels are doing now i am off the yasmin as i became hypothyroid while taking them (i have hishimoto's disease but it has been under control for ages). she seems to think there is definately a link between poor thyroid function and contaceptive pill side effects because the tyroid controls your hormones as well as countless other processes in the body.She was totally behind my decision to stop taking yasmin and suggested a total detox from any chemicals and to eat well and drink loads of water as dehydration is also a major factor in anxiety/panic attacks and depression. rather than just dismiss my ideas she actually agreed with me!!! i was shocked as my male doctor looked at me like i was mad for making such a suggestion last year when i started to get all my problems,i was perfectly healthy before i took it! well there you go ladies that is my rant for the day! the moral of the story is...if you were fine before you started taking yasmin and you're not fine now maybe your birth control pill is the prime suspect!

sarah

I was prescribed Sulfameth/Trimethoprim 800/160 Tabs a little over a year ago for acne. Not long afterwards started getting bad headaches and dizziness spells, occasionally strong enough to cause vomiting and be temporarily debilitating, resembling vertigo-like symptoms. Began having very vivid dreams/nightmares and waking up exhausted from not getting any rest because of it. Then I started having major post-nasal drip and getting bad sinus/throat infections, a few of which were positively diagnosed as strep. One of the throat infections was bad enough to cause an abscess on my left tonsil which ruptured, causing me to have to go to the ER and get 5 stiches in my throat. At 3 am. Throughout this entire time I kept asking my doctors (dermatologist AND primary physician) if this drug could be causing any of this, they told me basically that it was impossible and even the suggestion of such a thing was ridiculous. I finally took it upon myself and discontinued the use of the drug when I started getting yet another sinus infection, and it cleared up on its own within a day or two, at which time I went back on the meds just for argument's sake if nothing else. Of course, the same symptoms eventually returned and I again stopped taking the meds, and again everything cleared right up. I repeated this process probably 4 or 5 times just to verify and every time was pretty much the exact same sequence of events. I began taking 1/2 the original dosage by breaking the big horse tabs in half and have been doing so ever since with no probs but great results as far as no acne.

Sorry for the long post but felt this could help a lot of people out there with similar situations. The moral of the story? Never doubt yourself and NEVER completely trust your doctors- they are just tools of the drug industry.

Last November I was hospitalized and the psychiatrist completely changed my previous meds, which included Neurontin, and started me on some new ones I had never taken before. With this change I noticed a decrease in my mobility and an increase in my Fibromyalgia symptoms. It became so bad that I could barely raise my arms to wash my hair. I was so depressed. I was like a jelly fish in pain. So I went on the Fibromyalgia network and searched for what psychiatric medications I might have been on that would have caused this dramatic change in me. Neurontin was the missing link. The health insurance I had changed it's policy while I was off of Neurontin and I had to get a prior approval for them to pay for the prescription. They wouldn't accept it. Day after day I sank deeper into depression as the pain and the weekness kept me from physically being there for my daughter or for my boyfriend. However, this time, my depression brought me to a happy ending, I became hospitalized and this time the insurance company approved the prescription due to the fact that I had "decompensated" since being off of Neurontin. I guess the moral of the story is, for pain and for illnesses like Fibromyalgia, Neurontin is highly beneficial. If you have something like Fibromyalgia, talk with your doctor. I didn't know how beneficial it has been to me these last three years until I was off of it. I probably has helped my moods for I am also bi-polar, but I notice it more for my Fibromyalgia. Good luck and I hope this has helped someone!!

Namaste