Noticed changes symptoms and conditions

I'm glad to have found this website posting as tonight I decided it's time to do further research on Singulair and check the issues I'm experiencing. I've decided tonight that I'm going off so I can do some testing and rule out whether they are causing the following side effects for me:

I've been on Singulair for almost 6 months. When I first started, I had a heck of a time getting through the drowsiness but it got easier each day and gradually after a month, I stopped being so "spacey". I started Singulair primarily to address my asthma issues and the tightness in my chest and as an added bonus, it helps my allergies so I went off the Claritin as well. Singulair has done wonders for my asthma and I have rarely had to use my inhaler or have asthma attacks. (I should note, I wanted to eliminate steroids in my life since it causes acne etc. etc.)

Meanwhile, I've noticed changes in myself. I'm more lazy, take naps on the weekends, less hyper (which is a good thing on my stressful job) but I've lost my "edge" where I should be quick on my feet and responses. Recently, I've noticed that I'm slurring my words and having speech problems. I have got lost a couple times in my train of thoughs. I also seem to experience being dyslexia - I frequently type letters and numbers jumbo'd around. Very unlike me!

I also have severe dry mouth almost like an infection. I tend to get itchy around my neck and arms for no reason - almost like a mild form of nerves twitching simulation. I've got more sinus infections but that could also be due to not using Claritin and perhaps, I need to be on it at the same time.

I've cut back to 5mg (I cut my pills in half) for a few months and felt less tired but my speech and other side effects are still present. Heck, it could be a sign of aging or other things occuring but I need to start somewhere. I am sad that it could be Singulair because it's the best drug for my asthma but I have concerns about the other impacts it might have on my health and well being. I'll post updates in a few weeks.

Feel free to email me to talk about anything offline - I'm eager to hear from others!

-S

I have noticed changes in my memory, and felt very fatigued when I first started the warfarin.The fatigue has tapered off after 5 months but I notice more changes in memory lately. I get off the med in one more month. I found the best way to control drug levels is to eat at least one frozen meal a day with a lot of vegetables, such as a Lean Cuisine that is advertised as having twice as many vegetables as a regular lean cuisine...then I eat dinner and limit leafy green vegetable intake. I'm also not positive of this, but sometimes it is harder to control when I drink a lot of green tea. Hope this helps someone.

Hello everyone,

I hope '1concernedboyfriend"s girlfriend will visit the site and see the light... I never had such sever side effects as the one you all have mentioned, and even so I am so glad to be off. My libido is returning and I just feel more normal. My husband does tell me that he felt I was getting very anxious and noticed changes in me that were concerning. I didn't notice them so much, but I trust his opinion. He's very intuitive and honest with me. I strongly believe oral contraceptives almost killed me, had I not had a sense that something was wrong and gone to the doctor a year ago, I KNOW I would have had a stroke because my blood pressure was 160/120.

Trust your instincts... you know your body better than anyone.

Let's see if i can get off of blood pressure medicine soon, I'll keep you posted.

ipj

Has anyone found a good birth control pil?????? Honestly when I first started taking yasmin i loved it. I felt great. But after being on it for nearly 2 years I have noticed changes. I am nervous more than normal and I just can't seem to beat it. I am not crazy and am nervous (naturally) about tring to explain to the doctor because I think he will think i am crazy. Now I am staring to sould crazy. I really would like to switch to a new pill but I do not know which one to switch to.

I began taking Yasmin Dec. 2004 on my ob-gyn's advice. (My previous pill, which I had been on for years before and between pregnancies, was making my breasts very tender and sore but otherwise was OK to be on.) Within one month, I noticed several changes in my health and mood that I initially thought might go away after my body "got used to" the new birth control pill. Unfortunately, the symptoms did not go away and other even worse symptoms appeared. These symptoms included the following:

1. feelings of chest constriction and tightening
2. heart pounding/racing for no reason
3. inability to sleep (and thus fatigue and tiredness all the time)
4. severe changes in skin texture (esp. facial)--leathery and sallow
5. excessive anxiety, worry, depression, and feelings of panic (NOT AT ALL my personality prior to taking Yasmin)
6. development of asthma-like symptoms that turned out to be symptoms of acid reflux disease (which I had NEVER had before in my life!)
7. a general and pervasive sense that I was just not the normal me--I know this is not very "clinical" but it was very very disturbing to me and my family--everyone noticed changes in me
8. a dangerous jump in my blood pressure--prior to Yasmin my blood pressure was never higher than 120/70 (which is about what it was in Dec. 2004 at the office visit where I got my first pack of Yasmin)--not even at any point in my two preganancies! Yet in Feb. 2005, my resting blood pressure was 160/90 and was even higher (180/100) at times!
9. From Dec. 2004 through March 2005 (which is when I got off of this terrible medication), I was sick virtually non-stop with some type of cold or flu every 2 weeks--yet no one else in my household was getting sick!
10. a near complete loss of sex drive

As I have read from women in other postings, both my GP and ob-gyn (both of whom are women incidently) also said these effects could NOT be because of Yasmin. The only doctor that indicated he believed there might be a link between my symptoms and Yasmin was the ear-nose-throat guy who diagnosed my reflux.

I am writing to tell other women that I do firmly believe these health problems were DIRECTLY related to taking Yasmin--I noticed improvement in my health in all areas within about 6 weeks of stopping Yasmin--now several months later, I have normal blood pressure once again and my reflux has resolved itself, I'm the old "me" again (my Dad especially was terribly bothered by how my outlook on life had changed in just a couple of months after starting this pill). I'm 41 years old and have never had any type of emotional or health problems prior to taking Yasmin.

I contacted the manufacturer of Yasmin (Berlex) and made a report about the adverse effects I believe were attributable to taking Yasmin--I urge anyone who feels this drug has impacted their lives in a negative way to also do so. I have also made clear statements to my docs about what I believe happened to me in the 3-4 months I was on this stuff.

I felt such a wave of relief when I first found this Web site--it was like reading 100s of e-mails that could have been written by me!! I actually called my Mom sobbing on the phone after reading several pages from this listing on Yasmin--everything that was happening to me had happened to other women also, and I stopped taking Yasmin immediately.

I wish anyone who has gone down this road the best of luck--while doctors are usually good, educated people who try to improve people's lives, they are NOT infallible--if you believe Yasmin or any drug is affecting you negatively, be proactive about your own health no matter what your doc says--there are always options. To this day, despite how dramatically different my health is compared to earlier this year, my docs still will not say that they feel Yasmin was the root cause of my problems. (I guess it is the price you pay when so many people are afraid of lawsuits and such.)
Connie

I first started taking Lexapro 10 mg about 2 years ago. I felt like it wasn't working for me anymore. I had sunk back into my deep depression and was having really bad social and non social anxiety. I went to the doctor and told him that I wanted to try Zoloft. He prescribed me Zoloft 50 mg. I have been on it for about 6 months. I noticed changes as soon as 2-3 weeks. I felt so good about myself and was not having any anxiety.

And then it began...

I noticed that as time went by I was dropping weight tremendously. I am 5'7 and at that time I weighed 150lbs. I completely lost my appetite and only ate once a day, if at all. I now weigh 120lbs. This is only the beginning...

In October of '04 I started using drugs i.e. Lortab, Lorcet, Percocet, Klonopin, Xanax. I have never been the one to use such drugs to get "high" from. I want to say I was on a self-destruct mode. Im only 21 so my mom noticed that I was not acting myself, losing so much weight, being angry, irritable, ect. My mom came home from work early one day and saw I was still sleeping at 2pm. Which is not like me at ALL. She looked in my purse because she had that motherly instinct that I was on drugs. She found all my pills, and took me to a detox program. I didnt care that I was hurting my family, friends, let alone myself. I didnt care about anything but getting messed up. Needless to say Im am now drug-free but there is more...

After I got clean from the pills, I started drinking...binge drinking. I only drank to get really drunk. Let me stress the word really in that last sentence. Once again, I was on self destruct mode. I did some research on Zoloft and I have found out that you can become self destructive/violent towards yourself when on this drug. I would like to consider that taking drugs and drinking to the extreme while knowing it could harm me/kill me would fall in the category of self destruction.

Also, I have really bad tremors from time to time and I will go from having an "I dont care" attitude to "please love me" attitude.

Some things are for some people. And this is not for me. I am now winging myself off of this crazy blue pill. I think Im ready to become myself again.

I also think that for some people it is all a mental thing. I have realized this for myself. That by taking my medicine everyday I feel comforted. When Im having a bad beginning to a day, I take my meds and for the rest of the day I tell myself that Ill be ok, because I have taking my medicine. I dont know if anyone else feels this way...

Hope this helps other people out if they are having some of these same reactions I am open to discuss.

******