Negative experiences symptoms and conditions

I am so sorry to read about the bad experiences with Mirena. For myself I was put on it to keep hyperplasia and the beginnings of an oestrogen dependent cancer at bay. I was very hesitant at the thought of having something in me but oral progesterone had left me bloated, with awful migraines and terrible mood swings.

Once the Mirena had been inserted, It took a few months for all the bleeding I had been having to calm down and eventually stop altogether, but the most wonderful thing to me about Mirena were the side effects it had on me. My monthly migraines completely disappeared, so did my terrible depressive PMT, and best of all, the severe almost disabling pain from endometriosis was completely gone! I began to be one of those blessed women who hardly know they are having a period.

Five years later and a repeat one was put in last week. I have an extremely gentle and skilled gynae and a lot of the problems I am reading about seem to be related to incorrect insertion that is leading to terrible pain afterwards, because the darn thing is to low in the uterus and is sticking into the poor woman.

I quite understand those for whom is just seems not to be suitable, but for me I wish I had known about it's wonderful effect on endometriosis, migraines and PMT years ago. I would have taken it for that alone 20 years ago. And it is keeping me cancer free. My sex drive has also not diminished on it at all.

So I post this just to balance the negative experiences. Above all get a skilled and gentle Gynae.......that is the secret of skilled, speedy, and gentle insertion of an IUD.

While I do agree that research and public awareness of the possible side-effects should be done, there are some of us that take Singulair without negative side-effects. I have been taking it for eight years, since I was 16 and have never had any of these side-effects. There was a couple of months that I did not take it because of financial issues, and the only thing that I noticed was that my asthma and allergies were horribly worse. These were both relieved dramatically when I resumed taking it. Without it, I would spend my days in an allergy/anti-histamine fog not being able to breathe while still taking my inhaler 4+ times a day and several during the night. That is just the beauty and flawed nature of medicine: they work perfectly for some but for others the negative side effects outweigh the benefits. I am sorry that so many have had negative experiences with it themselves or in their family, but please have an objective attitude toward it. Some people need it to live normal lives.

Hi: My doctor has suggested me lupron depot 3.75mg for three months before doing supracervical laparoscopy. I did ask the doctor about the side effects and she said that you might get hot flashes and mood swings. Thats all she said about the side effects. My first shot is on Tuesday April 15/08. After reading all these experiences i am so scared to take them and planning to talk to the doctor again and looking into the abdominal hystrectomy instead of supracervical laparoscopy. Do you guys think that because it is 3.75mg and not 7 or more mg it might not have that many side effects.
God, I am so confused now, please help me out here.

This is the beginning of day four with no Singulair. I can still breathe, but I switched from one puff of Advair per day to two. I decided to look Advair up as well and was dismayed to find similar negative experiences with THAT drug. Hopefully for me eliminating one is enough, because I know that I need something to be able to breathe. So far yesterday was the best day emotionally, I felt a sense of calm several times throughout the day, and didn't need to be occupied with busywork to distract myself from my own thoughts. I don't have stomach pains anymore, which like most of the other symptoms I never attributed to Singulair, my head and heart just feel much "lighter" if that makes any sense. I don't feel sad, or anxious, or suicidal. I feel like I have some focus back, not completely, but a lot more than last week! I also feel like I am better equipped to handle upsetting information instead of feeling overwhelmingly sad about everything. I had my boyfriend read some of these posts yesterday, because he has been trying to accomodate my behavior for a while now, and he pointed out not only some of the obvious side effects, but there was a post about hand and joint pain, and I was constantly asking him rub my hands. I hope that sharing will help others if they are feeling anything similar, and if it's possible to stop Singulair and still breathe okay that they should try it. It is a synthetic chemical and none of us really know exactly what the short-term and long-term effects of any of these medications really are. I mean, Thalidomide was great for pregnant women who suffered from morning sickness in the '50's. Vioxx I'm sure helped many people with painful arthritis. It's only later do we find out the negatives to taking these drugs. I hate that illegal drugs are so very frowned upon in this society but "medicine" from your "doctor"is okay. Doctors nowadays I think are overwhelmed with their caseload and they read the same pamphlets that are handled out to us, laypeople, and recommend these pills to us. Drug company representatives spend a trememdous amount of money on free lunches and mugs and mouse pads and of course, if it's passed by the FDA it must be a-ok! so why not? Many patients come in ASKING for a particular drug because it is advertised on TV!!! Hard alcohol and cigarette commercials are banned, right? So how it is ok to peddle pills to us? I so many times wanted to ask my doctor about Lunesta because I couldn't sleep, and Cymbalta because "depression hurts everywhere AND everyone" and I was in so much psychological and physical pain but something told me that I didn't want to keep adding to the list, I wanted to be healthy enough someday to take some medications away! So I suffered with insomnia and debilitating depression hoping someday I could get better on my own. I wonder how many other people out there on medications who have complete faith in our healthcare system are doing more harm to themselves than good?

There are a lot of negative experiences on here, so I thought I should share my positive one. I have been on birth control off and on for about 6 years. I was on orthotricyclin for the majority of the time-off and on. After getting horrible near migraine headaches on orthotricylin every Friday before my period for about 5 months in a row my doctor and I decided to try a different pill. I was on trilevelin (sp) for 4 months and gained a few pounds and felt easily irritated and emotionally different-just cried easily and not myself. I've been on Yasmin for a month and have had a great experience. I lost the water weight I'd gained and just verified with my boyfriend that my PMS was hardly even there. Everyone is different and has different hormone levels, but so far I am very happy with Yasmin. I've been migraine free tthe whole month!

My 56 year old son. Jim, is Bipolar. He was taking three medications, one of them being Topamax. The Dr. that prescribed this medication died and the new Drs. thought Jim was doing fine so they continued on with the same medication. Jim became fecal incontinent. We did numerous medical tests to see if this had any basis. None was found. Over a years period (Jim's third year using Topamax) Jim began losing his memory. This doesn't sound too horrific unless you know that Jim has 160 IQ and total recall memory. He never had to read anything more than once and he could quote verbatim almost anything from any page. Total recall of phone numbers and names, etc. At first the Drs said this was early onset of Alzheimer’s. He was being cared for by this time with a battery of Drs. Neurologists, medical, psychiatrists and doing some very extensive testing. Finally it was judged that no, Jim does not have Alzheimer’s. However he continued to quickly decline. He by now was both urinary and fecal incontinent. His speech was slurred and he was unable to bath himself. He required around the clock help. He would ask me questions like, did I go to school? Did we live as so and so town? Then he asked, is my name Jim? This was hard to hear but then he quit talking altogether, was staggering and would respond to telling him walk this way or sit here but little else. Finally the Neurologist told me he was almost certain that Jim had a rare brain disease and it was always fatal within a year. He determined that Jim was in the advanced stages and probably had 2 to 6 weeks to live. I was devastated! Jim was sitting in the office when the Dr. said this and he made no recognition that he heard or understood anything.

I started talking to friends about this and one of them said call her friend a paralegal nurse practioner. I did and she asked me "Why is Jim taking Topamax"? My answer I consider rather stupid now but then it was the truth, I answered "because the Dr. prescribed it". She said, titrate him off Topamax and then call me. I went to his Dr. at the time and the Dr. was most reluctant to take Jim off this medication. He accused me of "playing Dr" and was most insulting. I persisted and said if he wouldn't I would change Drs. Later I understand he took Jim off much too fast and we did have really serious side affects. We halved his dosage every two days and in 6 days he was off Topamax. Jim went into a catatonic state for several hours at a time about four times. There was about 4 days and nights that neither of us got any sleep. He had repetitive thoughts that nearly drove him crazy (His words). The sixth day Jim started talking but then would go into these catatonic states for hours. When he came out of them he would talk and explain some things, then he would quit talking again and he later explained the thoughts were going so fast in his head this was the only way he could preserve his sanity was to just "blank out".
After about two weeks of this intense illness and no help from his Dr. and Jim refused to go into the hospital, in his talking moments he said they would just fill him with sedative drugs and he wanted to get as clear as possible from these. To make a very long story short this was one year ago, three Doctors ago and Jim was relieved from his repetitive thoughts by Fluvoxamine, but that spiked him into a manic phase and eventually he went into the hospital. He is on a complete new regime of meds now but we always research any new med BEFORE taking it. It will never be just "because the Dr. prescribed it" again. By the way, Jim was taking lithium at the time Topamax was originally prescribed and gaining a lot of weight. His original RX was for weight control~! It didn't work but it nearly killed him. I called the paralegal back to thank her but she had left the law firm and no one can locate her. Our Guardian Angel????

Reading through these postings, I am surprised that so many women out there have had negative experiences with Desogen. I have had an extremely positive experience with Solia (the generic). It got rid of my preexisting, extremely painful premenstrual cramps, lightened my flow, didn't cause weight gain or bloating, cleared up my skin tone, and the melasma that is known to occur with high dosage pills didn't even happen to me. Conversely, I tried Yasmin about a year ago for about 5 months and it drove me bloody mad - intense food cravings, cramps came back, increased irritability - you name it, I had it. My advice to all the women out there is you really just have to try various pills until you find one that works for you. It's unfortunate and inconvenient, but if the side effects are significant enough to motivate you to research them online, then you owe it to yourself to switch pills.

I'm sorry so many are having negative effects from Yasmin. I guess there's always the possibilities of side effects from any drug taken. I'm here to say that I've had positive effects from it and have never had any complications. I've been on it for over 2 years now. I hope all of you out there who's had negative experiences will find new meds and new hope.

I have been on Topamax for three weeks now. I have a genetic brain abnormality that causes severe and frequent migraines. Before being put on Topamax, I was experiencing at least one migraine a week lasting for NINE hours. They were unbearable. I am still working up to my full dosage of Topamax, but it seems to be working. My head is clearer than it has been in some time. At this point, I am experiencing some side effects including decreased appetite (though nothing that I couldn't afford to lose) and tingling in the toes and fingers. Of course these pale in comparison to the migraines that I have been rid of since I have been on the medication. I will repost later if I begin to have negative experiences.

I haven't had this confirmed yet, but I think this itchy, swollen skin in the perineum area is from the Ring. I've been using it since July of 2005 and honestly didn't notice any problems at first. I am loving the short menstruation time, actually. Then this past spring I noticed this severe itching in the groin area and the doctor actually said she didn't know what it was!

Just wondered if anybody else had had something like this. I know its not a yeast infection or any other type of infection (the doctor tested for that stuff).I haven't had any other negative experiences with the ring.

I'm 27 yrs old, fairly healthy female and just was given Levaquin on Monday, Sept. 18th for an upper respiratory infection. I was given a 5 day regimen of 750mg pills. I took the first pill Monday night between 7-8pm. By 9-10pm I was very ill, my whole body was in pain, I had nausea and started vomiting like crazy. I ended up having to go to the ER that night. I was told at the ER that I had a bad virus in addition to the upper respiratory infection and was told to keep taking the Levaquin. The next day I went home and slowly started to feel better - so by late evening I'm thinking this Levaquin must really be working, so I took the second pill at about 8pm. I will sum up all the symptoms I had starting at about 10pm that night...nausea, horrible insomnia -- every time I would try to drift off to sleep my body would "jump" out of sleep. My mind started racing thinking about a million different things, I started hearing cracking noises, my knees became very weak, I got so hot that I had to turn the AC down to 60. My legs and feet started tingling...you name it, it was happening. I thought I was going crazy. So at 4am I decided to go online and look up the side effects of this medicine -- I was shocked/relieved when I found this website. I was shocked that so many others have had negative experiences with Levaquin -- many worst than mine but I was also relieved to see that Iwas not just imagining all this. I only took 2 pills of Levaquin and it had this effect on me --- right now my right knee is so sore that is hurts to walk up and down stairs. I believe it was the Levaquin and not a virus that sent me to the ER Monday night! I have contacted my Doctor but all she said is yes, this is what could happen and offered me another antibotic --- I'm not trusting any prescription medicine at this time! Good Luck to all and I will file a complaint about this pill as all you should, so that it can be taken off the market!

Oops, I am new to posting, although I have been reading this sight since January 06. I felt a tremendous sense of relief when I found it, because I thought I was losing my mind only into the second pill pack! I quit the same night I read the posts. Thank you so much for your shared experiences. I have been off since Jan. and feel much better, but still have difficulty sleeping and some chest sensations like heaviness. But, there seems to be hope. I have called Berlex and the FDA, and enourage others to report negative experiences. This just cannot be a coincidence.

I am 24 years old and was on Yasmin for two months. I have had negative experiences with BCPs in the past (tried Mircette, Alesse, Ortho-Tri, Desogen) but nothing was as bad as my experience with Yasmin. I stopped taking Yasmin almost two months ago d/t experiencing the listed side effects:
-severe anxiety attacks
-depression
-crazy mood swings (I cry for no reason at all sometimes)
-joint aches
-weight gain
-blurred vision
-diarrhea
-nausea/dry heaving
-paranoia
-dizzy spells
-constant worrying and self doubt
-headaches
and there's more...
After being off Yasmin for almost two months, I expected things to be back to normal, but I'm not quite there yet. I still experience anxiety attacks, depression, mood swings, nausea, and this strange sense of self doubt. I have never felt this bad in my entire life and I totally regret taking this pill. I want to be my old self again and feel normal because this sucks and it has caused a strain on my ability to do my job as well as a strain on my personal relationships with my boyfriend and friends. E-mail me if any of you are experiencing the same side effects (especially the anxiey, depression, and mood swings) so I know I'm not just going crazy for no reason. Best wishes to you all.

I just wanted to add to the few positive experiences here.

Recently, I had an intense cough which one night led to some kind of injury to my rib. I decided to go to an Urgent Care doctor who ordered x-rays. A radiologist discovered what appeared to be a small infiltrate in my lower left lung. Suspecting that I may have actually had a mild case of pneumonia, the doctor put me on a seven-day course of 500mg Levaquin to rule out the possibility of something more serious.

I am four days and four doses into the course and have experienced only mild side effects. It feels as thought the Levaquin deminishes my energy levels a bit, slight difficulty in mental focus within the first few hours after dosage and a couple of mild night sweats have been noted. Other than that, there have been no ill effects to speak of. I suspect that this site has become a collecting pool of negative experiences. There are no doubt many, many others like myself who experience little to no side effects.