Saliva testing symptoms and conditions

Hi everyone, I have been on Loestrin fe for 8 months and I am 45 years old - taking the pill again after a four year absence. I have found that all of the posted side effects are true - but are greatly minimized by taking the pill EXACTLY at the same time every day.... if you are off by even a half hour you WILL have breakthrough bleeding - sometimes with clots and with drawl-like headaches... my gyn says no way - but I actually tested my own theory this month - much to my regret - I am right... I am ready to quit as I am at the end of my rope. Fortunately for me my blood count has come back into the normal range after the last two years of horrific bleeding every 11-26 days without a break.

I am going to go off next month - and I may have RESET MY SYSTEM so to speak - if no I will take a hysterectomy please... straight up with a tummy tuck to match!!!!!!!!!!!! Please email me if you ever want to discuss - I am a nurse anesthetist and have a great deal of sympathy for all of you out there. I am not sure if this drug is a bad one - but I think it is so low dose that timing must be precise for it to work properly. I have stayed on it only to reduce the bleeding (perimenopausal/estrogen dominant I am sure) twice a month periods that last 7-8 days. It has worked for me in that regard - but the first 7 months were plagued by horrific (and I mean really bad) right sided headaches that scared me. I had relief from NSaids (Motrin) so I almost overdosed on that stuff. Not good. My next strategy is to do saliva testing for cyclic hormones OFF the pill to see what kind of hormonal swings I really am having - and to adapt a more natural approach - possible progesterone cream to alleviate the misery of it all....
Much Love, Ellen M

hi guys,

finding your posts so helpful.
i've been on yasmin for nearly 5 years and its only just dawned on me recently that my:
-anxiety/mood swings/erratic behaviour
-body hair growth
-weight gain
-increase in discharge etcetc
could actually be from the pill!!

i was always so bubbly and strong but i seem to cry now at silly things and i just don't feel myself. i initially went on the pill when i was 17 because my periods were so bad but i'm not sure what to do now... change pill or come off pills altogether?!

i'd love some feedback if any of you have been in a similar position, thanks so much

xxx

Kim,
I know it is scary. I was on a different bcp before yasmin for 12 plus years and went through 2 pregnancies and NEVER have I ever felt anything this scary or nerve wracking before in my life! I know 3 weeks is not very long, but it is long enough for that stupid drug to wreak havoc. I started to feel the effects about 5 weeks of being on it, and could not figure out what was going on. It took me till month 3 to realize it was the yasmin. Yes I know about the anxiety, and I could not look in a mirror either, even though my family kept telling me I looked the same, I didnt. I lost fat in my cheeks and jaw area and my skin went from oily to dry. I felt like it drained the "life" out of my face. But it has gotten better, it takes several months for your body to balance your hormones again. Have you ever been on bcp before?
I can tell you what I think is going on. I think yasmin suppresses your testosterone and progesterone (the androgen hormones in your body) As testosterone falls or remains low I feel it causes a lot of anxiety in the body because these are the hormones that are responsible for overall sense of wellbeing, energy, muscle repair, the list goes on and on. If you want a good website to read up on these hormones, salivatest.com has good info under hormones 101, they also do saliva testing on this website which I have been doing every month since 3 months after I quit yasmin, and I have seen how out of whack my hormones are and how long it has taken to even get back to a near normal range, and it takes a while. Keep in mind though you are already almost 1 and 1 1/2 months into being off yasmin, the turn around time to when you start to feel better more days than bad is usually at 2-3 months. Remember you are not alone. The yasmin bottomed out your natural hormones to replace them with synthetic hormones and now that the synthetic hormones have stopped it is trying to replace all those "receptor sites" back with your natural hormones and that is pretty much why you are not feeling so good.
Try to eat organic (no pesticides, hormones)
Stay away from caffeine, lots of water
Take vitamins, B complex vitamins worked well for me
Rest and dont try to exercise too vigorously.
Take care and keep in touch. There are lots of caring women on this site.
Bitter RN

Silke-
So glad to hear from you. I am just interested to know because I had lab tests done (blood) as well and mine came back "normal" low normal so I ordered a saliva test online for a hormone profile because I read that saliva tests are more accurate than blood tests for hormones and my labs came back that my testosterone is way low as well as some of my other hormones which were too low for a woman my age. ( By the way I have been off the yasmin since the end of Nov. 2005) So now I am looking into bio Identical hormone replacement, which is a natural hormone much like the hormones our bodies make already NOT the synthetic junk in BCP's. I think in my case that the yasmin supressed my androgens and testosterone which are the male hormones, guess what these hormones are responsible for? skin elasticity, mood, sleep balance, cholesterol levels, muscle integrity... among other things...hmm sound familiar? a lot of things we and other people on this site are complaining about. I am still looking into finding a good doctor for the BIH replacement but you can read up on this on www.salivatest.com click on 24 HOUR HORMONE HOTLINE on the bottom paragraph of the second box on the left hand side of your screen, then on the next screen scroll down to 630 ANDROGENS: Testosterone and DHEA listen to what the hormones are responsible for. 627 All about Hormones is very informative as well, actually if you click on a lot of the numbers there you can learn a lot, as well as about saliva testing and BIHR. You can order a saliva test by clicking on the home page you started out on, at the very top it says order test kit. I ordered HORMONE PROFILE I. That measures your estridiol, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol levels in the am. This will give you a basic idea of where your hormones are at. I would be curious to see where your levels really are as well. Let me know what you think. Bitter RN-

Hello Ladies,
I haven't been able to get my emails through for quite some time so I hope this one does! I went to see a NATUROPATHIC Endocrinologist the other day who said it's amazizng that I'm even able to get out of bed after the "Ill effects", as he calls them, of YASMIN. I had seen a "mainstream" endo and she said all of my hormone levels were normal. NOT! I HIGHLY suggest that anyone still suffering, like me(only on for 5mos and stopped mid-July) that you see such a doctor. They will likely do blood work and saliva testing to see where your hormone levels are. Apparently, once you become "estrogin dominant", it's really tough to turn around. This is an ill-effect of almost all b/c pills he tells me. The difference is the extent of the damage.

Good luck!

Rita