Six months symptoms and conditions

I haven't found Mirena to be very invasive so far. I got it put in after my daughter was born and since then my periods have been few and far between, but I attribute some of that to breastfeeding the first six months. I have had the Mirena in for almost a year and the only thing I notice is that sometimes I feel moody and hungry and lethargic like I'm about to menstruate but then nothing happens. I haven't had weight gain problems and I do fight off some acne on my chin and sides of my face but I don't know if that has to do with the Mirena- I haven't always had the greatest skin to begin with. I got pregnant because I wasn't on the pill or anything, everything else before this has made me psychotic. Any contraceptive you use will have its drawbacks because you are messing with your physiology and biology and everything. This is the best thing I've tried- so far it hasn't been problematic enough to consider taking it out. I think I am a case of very mild side effects with this method. It sounds like some people's bodies are more sensitive and attack the device as a foreign object in their system. My body is less fussy apparently

Extreme tiredness, ache behind my eyes. I have been on Lisinopril for about six months (10 mg). I wake at 7 a.m. and by 11 a.m. am so tired and feel so bad that I have to lie down and nap. Finally I decided to take it a night rather than in the morning since it was making me tired. That seems to be working. I started the new regime about a week ago and am functioning much better during the day. I didn't run across this comment in the testimonials so thought it might help someone. This is my own idea, not my doctor's.

I am 39 years old and work for an interventional cardiology medical device company in Tokyo, and so know the importance of controling one's cholesterol, keeping the LDL's low and the HDL's high. About two years ago, my doctor put me on 10 mg of Lipitor. Several months later I herniated a disc in my neck between C6&C7. From that point onward, I attributed all of my neck and back pain, and newly acquired total body muscle and joint pain, to the herniated disc, it made the most sense. Over the last seven months, I have really worked on my diet and began to exercise more (even though quite painful) and was able to lower my cholesterol. This resulted in my doctor lowering my Lipitor prescription from 10 mg to 5 mg. I noticed a slight alleviation of the pain I felt in my hip joints and calves. About two weeks ago I took myself off Lipitor completely and found further improvements in my total body muscle and joint pain. It's still there but greatly improved. In retrospect, I now believe the Lipitor may have been the culprit (or at least a contributing factor) to my herniated disc due to muscle degeneration in the neck, and all of the subsequent muscle pain, especially in my hips and calves. I fully understand I am not going to die from calf-pain, but may from heart disease. However, I have found my quality of life has improved tremendously over the last few weeks. Less irritability, better sleep, less pain, clearer head. I feel like I have lost two years of my life on Lipitor via personal suffering and lack of ability to do much of anything with my wife and two young daughters. We all need to take charge of our own health and therefore I encourage anyone who feels completely different after taking Lipitor to engage your physician, and make sure its the right option for you. If damage has been done to my musculature I hope I can reverse it. It is evident to me that some serious clinical studies should be done to investigate Lipitor's effect on muscle degradation and hope others will consider carefully whether or not do go on this drug. If you do, monitor yourself closely.

iVE POSTED BEFORE ABOUT THE CHRONIC HEADACHES I GET WITH THE MIRENA, I ALSO GET PRETTY MUCH EVERY OTHER SYMPTOM EVERYONE ELSE SEEMS TO BE COMPLAINING ABOUT BESIDES THE WEIGHT GAIN I ACTUALLY LOST A LOT OF WEIGHT INSTEAD, WHICH I WAS ALREADY A PETITE PERSON WHEN I GOT THIS THING INSERTED I WEIGHED AROUND 118 AND IT DROPPED ME DOWN TO 100. SCARY....IVE HAD TO EAT THE EQUIVALENT OF LIKE TWO GROWN MEN JUST TO GET BACK UP TO 110!! I AM DESPERATE TO GET THIS THING OUT BEFORE IT TEARS MY RELATIONSHIP APART MORE THAN IT ALREADY HAS, CAN ANYONE PLEASE RECOMMEND A GOOD BIRTH CONTROL, THAT COULD POSSIBLY CAUSE ME TO GAIN WEIGHT!!!???
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND HONESTY LADIES IM SO RELIEVED I AM NOT CRAZY AND JUST THINKING UP ALL THIS IN MY HEAD!!!

I am decreasing my topamax meds now after taking it for 6 horrible months..
topamax? rather call it dopamax..
I took 100 mg daily
now i'm building of the topamax I can allready feel the difference..
I hope I become the joyful smart person again I once was before..
I lost weight during this six months, wonder if i'll gain it back.. but don't care. I must get rid of this drug.. I'm so sick and tired of the side effects!!
For me it wasn't a good solution for my migraines
They didn't stop.. the first month i took topamax, my god i could bounce my head against the wall due to the outstanding headaches i got; even worse then my normal migraine seizures..
i'm not gonna look for a replacer for topamax, i'll just take my migraine as i did my whole 22 years long.. That's life and I want MY life back
good luck to you all!!

I am so glad i found this.. i have experienced a lot of the things that everyone else has.. i have been on lisinopril for six months and i am only 26 years old. I frequently have tingling in arms and legs and am usually kind of nauseous or dizzy. Mentally, i have never felt so down before and i thought it was just normal to question things in my life at 26, but i think it may be because of this drug.. i have a doctor's appt in three days and i am going to try and get off of this drug.

In addition to all I mentioned in my posting before, I am now having burning skin feeling and my shirt can't touch my skin sometimes without it burning, hurting.

Has anyone heard if this drug leaves your system or not???

The worst thing for me has been finding birth control that I think works wonderfully only to find a few months later that I feel like a completely different person. It doesn't help that I have migraines all the time and they last for days (up to five) on end. They say you shouldn't take the ring if you have migraines but for some reason no one told me and I just kept getting them thinking it had nothing to do with the ring.

I had been on Seasonale in the past and it made me crazy. It took about six months to get the full effect but I was in a wonderful relationship that I was over the moon about, and then one day I just woke up questioning everything we had. It was ridiculous and completely unwarranted. And it didn't go away, it left me still questioning. So I got off of it, and this was about three years ago. I thought I would return to normal but it did too much damage. I still question my relationship, with or without birth control. It's awful. It's like the pill put all those ideas in my head that I wouldn't otherwise have and now I can't stop thinking about it.
I took Nuvaring thinking that would help me out, but instead I am back to square one. I have been trying to hang in there but I just can't anymore. Not only do I have headaches all the time but I feel so exhausted that it doesn't matter if I were to sleep two hours or fifteen, I would still be too tired to do anything. I feel fatigued and lethargic and don't want to do anything that I enjoy. I seriously don't even have the energy to read, and I absolutely love to read (And it takes almost zero energy). I am questioning my relationship again and I never want to have sex. The worse part is that he wants to have sex everyday and I never want it. I seriously feel that if I never had sex again that would be fine with me, but I feel so badly for my fiance but at the same time I get so annoyed that he won't just leave me alone. I want to be left completely alone. I don't want to be around anyone because everyone gets on my nerves nowadays. I have no patience for anyone and I feel so depressed. I just wonder what else I could be doing with my life, and I feel in a rut and instead of being happy with what I have, I have the Nuvaring, which takes all my problems and magnifies it. I hate hormonal birth control. I wish I could have some luck with any of them but I have tried almost all of them and they have all affected me like this. I just want my sex drive back, I want to stop hating my life and getting annoyed by everyone (Seriously I hear one mouth noise from my fiance and I want to bite his head off) and I just want to be me. I was hoping to wait until Sunday to take it out the ring since that is when I have to anyway but I don't think I can wait. Have people felt back to normal once they took this thing out? I need some hope!

I just began doing research on Yaz because I just got married and my sex drive is completely, totally, unequivocally GONE. I'm 25, and I've been on it for about six months. How depressing! My body will not lubricate at ALL or respond to ANY kind of touch. My husband has developed a complex, thinking it's him. :(
After a while I began to think it was the Yaz. I've developed urinary tract infections out of nowhere; I never used to get them.
I'm getting off this pill ASAP because what's the point of birth control if you don't have sex anyway??
I feel really terrible for all of you women with mental side effects, because I know exactly how you feel. However, I've had an opposite experience. Positively, it increased my breast size and cleared up my skin. However, I was already suffering from mental illness previous to starting Yaz. I have Bipolar disorder with added anxiety issues. I was on a regimen of daily Lamictal with occasional use of Xanax for anxiety. My attacks had gotten so bad that I had to go to the emergency room. After a time, I leveled out and decided to stop taking medication because it made me feel flat. I began feeling anxious again, and it was around that time that I started taking Yaz. For me, someone who was ALREADY suffering, Yaz completely turned me around. I have never felt happier, more secure, and more normal mentally in my entire life. My moods are fantastic, I have a huge amount of energy, and I feel like nothing can stop me. It's not mania, though, as I have none of the pathological side effects. I'm just really really happy. I will miss the mental benefits of not taking Yaz, but to me, losing the intimacy with my new husband has just not been worth it.

This can be a great benefit to someone who is perhaps bipolar, but I think if you're healthy mentally to begin with, it can have the opposite effect.

I felt I should share my story, even though it is quite lengthy, since it is similar, and every story helps those who are still unsure.

I went on birth control at the age of 15. I tried several kinds, but all of them made me nauseous. I was on Mircette the longest, and seemed to be doing fine. Then around '03/'04 I started seeing a new ob-gyn, who told me that my problem was that I had a low tolerance for estrogen, and that was what was making me feel so nauseous. She said there was a new type of pill specifically for women like me called Yasmin that had very low doses of hormones. I was excited about starting the new pill, and did right away.

I continued taking Yasmin until about a year ago, when I switched to the generic of Yasmin, Ocella, due to the fact that my insurance didn't cover Yasmin and it was becoming expensive. On the Ocella, which I took for two months, I felt bloated like I had a basketball in my stomach, constipation, and other issues. I was told by the pharmacist that I was probably allergic to the additives that are sometimes in generic pills. So I decided to find out which birth control was covered under my prescription plan, call my gyno, and switch.

My gyno called in Loestrin Fe, but they filled it with the generic, Microgestin. I took this for approximately 3-4 months, and felt absolutely terrible, with panic attacks, crying, sleeping problems- the whole bit. So I thought that I should go back on Yasmin, no matter what the cost, and attempt to regulate again.

I went back on Yasmin six months ago, and though some of my symptoms have improved over how I felt on Microgestin, I am still a mess at times. I have moments when I am anxious and moments when I am absolutely joyful. I get really angry over little stuff, irritable and snappy. Then I get weepy and feel terrible about being snappy. Then I'm happy again. It's an emotional rollercoaster. I was never like this before- my moods were even, and I handled stress well. And I was always pretty happy-go-lucky.

Physically, I have ear fluttering/clogging/pressure/popping/pain. I'm getting fairly frequent migraines, which I never had before more than once a year. I, too, have numbness on the right side of my face in which it feels like my eyelid is swelling, neck stiffness and pain, and numbness of fingers and arm. I went to the ER a while back because I thought something was severely wrong due to symptoms of dizziness (vertigo) and right-sided numbness. I have severe TMJ and jaw pain, which I didn't have before, and allergies, which I also never had before. I have heart palipitations and sometimes random chest pain under or to the side of my breast. All of these symptoms have started to occur in the last six months after going back on Yasmin.

I went to an internist, who did blood tests, checking for thyroid issues and checking hormone levels. My thyroid was temporarily hyper, but my hormones were, according to the test, normal. But when the blood test was done, I wasn't experiencing any symptoms, so I'm not sure if it's accurate.

My yearly exam with my gyno is coming up in November, and I'm going to discuss these things with her, but I'm afraid she'll look at me strange for thinking that these symptoms are related to Yasmin...

Ironically, the only time it seems that I'm feeling pretty good is when I have my period! Which I guess would be when I have no hormones in me whatsoever! I feel happier and my sex drive goes back up, and my moods even out.

I am now considering, after reading these posts with all of you that were kind enough to share your stories, going off of Yasmin for good. I'm not sure what, if anything, my gyno is going to recommend, but I was considering trying an IUD instead...

Thank God I'm not alone. I have been on NuvaRing for ten days and life is aweful, I'm exhausted all the time, which I thought was due to having an 18month old. I wake up in the middle of the night with my heart racing, but so tired I can't fall back asleep, I want to nap during the day but my body wants to keep going but I'm so tired, plus I have severe mood swings. I yell at my son and take it out on my husband life in my house is terrible right, now and after I scream and yell, I cry. I had severe depression in life before and this is what it felt like, I never wanted to be in this state again, and here I am with a family like this and my poor family is taking it all. I called my doctor to see what to do and they told me this is actually supposed to have reverse effects because its low hormone and to stick to it for another month. I'm just scared that the depression will get worse or I will lose control.

I had mirena put in in Oct 08. My symptoms are: dizziness, sweating, nausea, (these symptoms can be mild and brief (seconds); or last a few minutes. I had severe dizziness in May and June of 2009. I also get acne on my shoulders, neck, face, and my T zone is very oily (especially my forehead). I am using good acne products to try to combat this problem, but I continue to have a problem. Some of my acne is like welts and I even have this going on on my scalp. I wrecked my car in December 2008. At that time I was very foggy headed. I blamed the foggy headedness on being stressed and overworked. I am 40 years old. My children are 10 and 13, therefore I know my symptoms are not post pregnancy. Today, I questioned if I wasn't going through early menopause. My doctor said this mirena would be wonderful and that after six months I would not have a period anymore. I have a period every two weeks. My periods are very light, but I still have them every two weeks, and they last for two weeks. I have been wondering if my body will adjust, and if I will eventually get to this heavenly place of now periods and bliss?

ABNORMAL PAPSMEAR I have never had one in my life me and my husband get tested regularly and we both practice safe sex which is no sex really since having our daughter (she is six months). I got on the Nuvaring three months ago and found it uncomfortable, I would bleed, cramp, mood swing and eat i am a very active person right after i had my daughter i was back in the gym but as soon as i got the ring i hated the word gym. With the ring in i never wanted to have sex because penis dry walls and round spring that doesn't stay in place never quite turned me on lol i told my doctor and she said my body was just adjusting i also told her about the bumps on my cervix and she said i didn't know what i was talking about, now i have to have a colscopy to figure out why my papsmear is abnormal. I honestly think it was the ring. I take yaz now I like it

First of all, I am so happy and relieved to have found this site. Thank you so much to all of the woman who have posted their experiences with the mirena. I have been so scared over the past few months that I have literally been going CRAZY. Here is my experience:

I had the mirena inserted at my 6 week check-up after giving birth to my son. I chose the mirena because my doctor recommended it. Anyways, ever since I have had my son (being my first child) have been severely stressed out (of course). Although I have had several different stressful situations go on (my sister becoming very sick, my parents getting a divorce, moving out for the first time, ex troubles) I have been feeling not only stressed, but major anxiety, and I suspect depression. Anyhow, I never contributed any of this to my birth control because I assumed that this is what stress feels like (seeing as though I am lucky to say that I have never really had serious problems to deal with). Well this is where it all came to a head..yesterday.

Since giving birth to my son six months ago, I have since become a H-U-G-E hypochondriac, extremely anxious, depressed, dizzy spells, terrible mood swings, almost daily brain fog (which I find to be the scariest), I just do not feel like the same person. I feel like I am trapped inside my head (thats the best I can describe it). I have no energy and I do not feel like doing anything and when I do all I can think about is how not right I feel. I have started questioning how I feel almost constantly. I have trouble concentrating, have headaches (which I NEVER had before) and now find it difficult to wear my contact lenses. WELL, yesterday I was at work, which also happened to be my birthday, and had such a horrible dizzy spell that I instantly became sick to my stomach, and my heart started to pound. I was so scared by this I instantly started to cry and asked to go home. My mom, who is a psych nurse (for 15 years), was at her home. I rushed over there and cried to her that something was wrong with me and demanded her to tell me if I was crazy. I have been so obsessed with feeling ill that it has consumed me and the bad part is that I know it is all in my head, I just can't overcome it. That is when she asked me if I thought that it may be my birth control? *DING DING* I haven't been on birth control for so long that I forgot how madly I have reacted to it in the past. I then remembered why I had quit taking the birth control patch 5 years ago!

That is when I looked up the side effects and found this blog! I feel so much better now. I now have hope after reading everyone else's experiences which are so similar to mine. I have already made an appointment to get it taken out tomorrow. I have also made an appointment with my family doctor to talk about my anxiety and depression symptoms and see what he suggests (since I am not usually a down or anxious person). I will definitely keep you all posted! Thank you all for posting, I think it has changed my life!

I am 22 and had Mirena inserted in June. Since then I have been losing hair dramatically, my marriage has suffered due to the horrible, horrible mood swings, I am tired all the time and can barely care for my child which sucks since my husband is on a boat six months out of the year, and I haven't stopped bleeding since it was inserted which has been two months! I have gone several times to try to fix it since it stabs my husband and no matter what they do it continues to do so. I have had a non-stop headache since I got it and even tried anti-depressants thinking I was crazy. I have recently stopped the pills and am going to get Mirena removed as soon as possible. I would warn anyone thinking about this BC method to think twice or their relationships and sanity might be in danger as well.

I was on Yaz for two years, and gained a total of 17 pounds from the day I went on it, to the day I went off of it. I'm sure some of the weight gain can be attributed to other factors, but I didn't really change my diet or exercise regime at all and the piles still packed on. I also always looked really swollen, almost pregnant, like you could see the water retention in my tissues. I had issues with my hair falling out, too. The plus was that my moods did feel more leveled out, but then the weight gain and hair loss caused other emotional issues so it was a no win situation.

I went off of it about a year ago, I've lost 15 pounds of the weight and my hair loss has pretty much subsided. But now I have very short periods, lasting three days tops. I worry that Yaz did something to my body that may affect my ability to get pregnant long term, as it seems my hormone levels have seriously depleted...

I was using the Nuvaring for about six months and It started to make my vagina sore, so I took it out for about two months. After my second period ending without having it in, I put in a new one; it has been two weeks and I am potting and getting terrible cramps. I don't know what is really going on and it concerns me because every symptom list I have looked at claims they are pregnancy symptoms or ovarian cancer. ah!

I have lost an ovary to ovarian cysts and was put reluctantly on Yasmin to save the other ovary.

Since going on Yasmin my hair loss, PMS, skin have all improved and I get no more large cysts but still a lot of pain in the ovary which radiates down the leg and across my back.

However, today I went to my GP regarding a bill payment and he just routinely took my blood pressure which was 160/98, I've been sent home with a heart monitoring machine and given urine and blood tests (still awaiting results). Six months ago, just before going on Yasmin it was fine. I now have a suspected issue with my kidneys and have very dark urine, hot flashes and fluid retention.

I'm now officially off this drug as from today but the doctors are pushing Yasmin and claim it's the only drug that will work for my hormone imbalance. If there is an alternative to Yasmin (combined pill) for my hormone imbalance I would be only to glad to know about it as doctors keep telling me how wonderful Yasmin is.

I am 26 years old and I've had the Mirena for two years. I ended up getting it because my doctor told me it was so much more convenient than taking the pill and more affordable. In the beginning, I felt okay but after awhile, I started feeling nauseous and sick all the time. Six months ago, I started bleeding for a couple of weeks straight, but I figured that it was due Mirena and the effects of it with menstrual cycles. Just to be safe, I took a pregnancy test and it came out positive and I was planning on going setting an appointment to see my doctor, only to have to rush to the E.R. later that night with killer cramps. I found out I had an ectopic pregnancy (I never had an ectopic pregnancy nor has any of my family members) and had to go in for a laparoscopy. I asked the doctor in the E.R. if Mirena should be removed and he simply replied that there was no need to. I had severe depression for a couple of weeks afterwards. I thought I felt awful with my usual symptoms of Mirena, but then the symptoms got even worse. I began experiencing dizziness, irregular cycles, a total weight gain of 20 pounds (I've never had a weight problem and my diet never changed), and extreme moodiness. After all the things I've experienced and now having to worry that Mirena will only increase my chances of having another ectopic pregnancy, I really look forward to my appointment in getting Mirena removed!

My 8 year old daughter started Lupron about six months ago due to precocious puberty. She started her period about eight months ago so we saw an Endocrinologist who told me there were NO SIDE EFFECTS. With the second shot, I noticed mood swings and tearfulness that I had never seen before. With the third shot, she had a rash for one day that was relieved by Benadryl. She no longer has mood swings and has not had a rash again but she has gained 8 pounds and I have noticed hair loss. The front of her hair is twice as long as the back. Her doctor has recommended that she stay on the shots until she is 11. Now that she is 9, I have decided to stop the shots and we will just have to deal with her having a cycle so young. It was a difficult decision for me to start her on the injections, but I made the decision believing that there were no side effects. This may be true in some patients, but it was not true for us. I just hope she can lose the weight and that the hair loss is not permanent.

I had Mirena put in about six months ago. My experience with Mirena was not well. I finally had it taken out today after finally feeling like I wasn't in full control of my body. The sickness, headaches (which I've never had headaches before), bleeding for long periods of time, dizziness, tightness in my chest, sever anxiety (I never had this issue before), weight gain (never an issue before), lack of energy, etc. The list could go on. I've always been an upward looking type gal, always happy, always looking for the silver lining. The last few months have gotten worse with depression. I didn't realize it until a few days ago I just couldn't breath at work, I wanted to cry over nothing and I felt hopeless. I've always been emotionally strong and mentally strong. It wasn't until I felt completely down and out over nothing that I started realizing the small changes that had been happening over the last few months. Lets hope life gets back to normal. I drinking lots of water the next few days to get all the chemicals out of my body. I have five kids. I'll have five more before I allow a drug to invade my body like this one did again.

I find it extremely annoying and offensive that people have the nerve to comment things like: You are all complaining or whining, read the side affects before you use it. why do any of you think that you are more educated or better than any of us? of course we all knew the side affects but people react to medicines (etc) differently. i find it very hard to believe that all of these symptoms are coincidence. 99% of us have given birth and raised children which is the hardest, most challenging, emotional roller coaster and im sure we are all able to deal with a headache now and then and mild cramps but that is not the case with us. its a problem when you wake up every morning with migraines and back pains. it is also a problem when women are so depressed and tired that they aren't able to take care of their children and husband. we all have one thing in common. We are suffering from these side affects. I appreciate everyone who has opened up and told their experience and i will not let someone comment about any of us and tell us we are making this up in our heads or that we are whining. if you feel any of those no one is making you read these stories.. so GET LOST!!!
for those of you that have had a great experience with Mirena why are you even on this site?? you are no help to those who actually need help and those that are suffering.
bottom line is no one is right or wrong but this forum is made for those who want help not someone adding their input to make us feel even worse.

I had the Mirena inserted 4.5 years ago. I had lost over 100 pounds and thought it would be a better option than taking the pill. I had few problems with spotting. I quickly gained back 80 pounds of the weight in the next six months with no variation in diet or exercise. I haven't been able to lose it. Five months ago my perfectly clear skin began to turn into an acne nightmare. I have lower abdominal pain and as of late a incredibly sensitive breasts. Have never experienced the amount of uncontrolled rage and anger that I have been going through. I have one child, I am 41 years old, and I plan to have it removed and do not plan to replace it. I too was very intimidated by my doctor. I hope she'll listen this time and help me. Some of us tend to be too submissive when we put our trust in medical professionals. Thank you for the voice of women who have had this experience. My friend has had no problems with it, inserted six months ago, and I hope she doesn't.

I have been taking Levoxyl for six months since a thyroidectomy in December 2008. Started on 137mcg, reduced to 125mcg, reduced to 100mcg, and now on 88mcg. I take it every morning on an empty stomach with plenty of water. I feel great and have not gained weight. I continue to eat healthy but probably don't exercise as much as I should. I consider myself a very lucky 54 year old woman.

I had the Mirena put in 2 1/2 years ago. About six months after having my first child. At first I bleed for a month straight. It was painful to have it put in but I'm usually a wimp with that type of stuff. After the first month my periods become lighter and then not at all. At first it seemed virtually unnoticeable. But my boyfriend starting saying he could feel something poking him during sex. I also do have the worst back pain that seemed to start after having the Mirena put in. I also have acne, stomach flutters, and nausea.I also experienced anxiety and panic attacks. However, I think they were associated with my job because once I left that job my anxiety decreased. I don't know if any of these symptoms have to do with Mirena but they aren't really that bothersome. Well the back is but it's mostly in the upper back and neck area and I think it has to do with stress. I do fight with my boyfriend a lot. But unlike many others have said I don't experience rage or yell at him for no good reason. We fight cause he is a lazy jerk and that's that. LOL So all in all my experience has been pleasant but have something foreign inside of me scares me. Like many others have said, I think it's important to take all factors into account. We all get a little crazy and stressed out. :)