Spent three symptoms and conditions

I have been on Mirena for a year and I just spent three days in the hospital taking care of an ectopic pregnancy with surgery. what a painful experience. I I know birth control is not 100% but now what do I do? i don't want anymore children but I don't want to have my tubes tied yet either.

My symptoms started with aches in my ankles and I thought I should stop wearing heals for a while. But then the tingling pain moved up into my lower legs and then my arms/wrists over a period of a few days. I felt like I was having constant shin-splints. I was heavy joint/muscle pains. Then the back of my head hurt really bad on the left side, just at the top of my neck/bottom of my head, and was also really sore to the touch. Then massive headaches. Probably migraines, although I have never had them before. My MD immediately put me on celebrex, which did nothing. I was eating Advil and Tylenol like candy and couldn’t sleep. So the doc put me on steroids (prednisone). That took the pain away. After a few days, while at work, the vision in my left eye went in and out (perfect vision to completely gone). I have never had any issue with my eyesight before - perfect vision. Then at one point (actually while I was in for my first MRI) my vision never came back. No one thought it was serious enough until I demanded to go to the hospital. I spent three days in the hospital, where they ran tests after tests (including MRI, Lumbar Puncture, blood work, neurological tests, echogardiogram, dobblers, etc). Upon leaving the hospital actually diagnosed me with Optic Neurosis, and gave me a 15% chance of getting MS later in life. We were all relieved it was not MS, like they originally suspected. After going to the Eye Dr, they told me that was not the case. This kind of eye stuff only happens to people in their 80’s! I will never regain my vision. If my diagnosis had been optic neurosis, it would not explain the joint pain. I have seen specialist after specialist over the last two months, and they still have no idea. Every test I have undergone has come back clear and I am perfectly healthy. My doc said we might have to go with the retinal specialists theory - which was a piece of cholesterol that clogged the artery in my eye. I just don’t get why a piece of cholesterol would have caused me so much pain over the rest of my body. After viewing this site and the Mirena pamphlet that I found online they give to the doctors, I really think it was the cause. The packet even notes, if you have symptoms like visual loss and headaches/migraines for the first time, to remove it immediately! I did not get mine removed until a month after my vision loss. Every doc I have seen I have asked if it was Mirena and not one of them thinks that could be the cause. But it is ironic, that when you see someone for the first time, the first question they ask is if you are on birth control or any other medications! I think I need to show them this site, so they can read other women’s symptoms. I did also have all the other symptoms as well - weight gain, irritable, oily skin, cramps, moodiness, vaginal odor, gross discharge, headaches, nausea, low sex drive, hot flashes, anxiety, restlessness at times, fatigue, and the list could really go on and on.

I had the Mirena put in in March or April (can't remember which one) of 2007. It was absolutely the worst pain I had felt in my life when it went in, but by the end of the day I was fine. (I had to walk home from the Planned Parenthood and could barely do it, the pain was so bad at the time.) I didn't notice any side effects, or at least nothing that I immediately linked to the Mirena. I read the list of side effects, but nothing was listed as "severe" and I had no idea that these side effects were so common and so intense.

By summer I was a wreck emotionally. I thought it was due to the stress of my senior year of college. I visited my boyfriend over winter break and snapped at him for every little thing he did or said. I actually threw rocks at him, punched him, etc., and yelled at him ALL THE TIME. I was also crying almost every day by that point. The acne was beginning but it wasn't too bad yet, just a few large cysts on my face, mostly on my chin, but I didn't think that it was connected to the IUD.

By the end of the summer that relationship was over due to my extreme moodiness (this was a long-term relationship and I had never been moody like that before), depression, lightning-quick temper, etc. The acne was still on my face and slowly but surely getting worse. I was still moody and cried all the time.

Fast-forward a year, and by fall 2008 the acne was taking over my face. I was embarrassed to go out. I spent three hundred dollars on makeup to try to cover it up. I think I still have scars on my chin, but it's hard to tell through the cysts that remain. Like many women who have posted here and elsewhere online, my acne was disgusting: giant, red, painful cysts that never came to a head and took weeks to go away. They didn't respond to any acne medication. I saw a dermatologist and she told me it was probably my toothpaste (my toothpaste causes acne on my forehead??) and told me to take antibiotics. Of course that didn't work. I was also a complete train wreck emotionally. I was in a new relationship but continued the same behaviors as in the previous relationship post-Mirena: short temper, yelling, overreacting to minor things, sometimes physical violence because I just got SO ANGRY with little or no provocation. There were a few months when I literally cried every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I thought it was due to the stressful things that were going on in my life and didn't even imagine it could be related to the Mirena.

A few days ago, on December 30, 2008, I was so fed up with the acne that I was googling, and I knew that sometimes acne can have hormonal causes. So I googled "Mirena acne" and came across this message board and many others, all of them basically saying the same thing. I showed my current boyfriend (who on several occasions almost broke up with me because of my moody, irrational behavior that I now know was caused by the Mirena!) what all of you and the women on the other boards had written, and I called to see how quickly I could get the thing taken out. On the phone with the insurance company, I started crying when she said I would probably have to wait three weeks to have it removed. I wept for a long time and then the next day I went straight into the urgent care center, where I again ended up crying. After much begging and looking completely pathetic, they finally agreed to take it out, and since then, I have felt five thousand million percent better. I haven't cried or felt like crying since I had it removed, and I haven't been moody or irritable or angry or quick-tempered. My boyfriend has said and done things that I know would have made me cry or want to punch him in the face, and I haven't reacted in either of those ways since the Mirena has been out of my body. I actually thought it would take a while for the hormones to get out of my body, but I feel SO MUCH BETTER already.

It took a long time for these symptoms to show up for me, and a long time for me to realize what was causing them. For anyone who is considering the Mirena, I would strongly encourage you to try the Paragard or one of the other non-hormonal methods. I actually had used the Nuvaring for a while too, and that one wasn't as bad as this. The Mirena has been HELL. The only positive side effect I had from it was that my periods got really light, to the point that I didn't have to use tampons or really much of anything beyond pantiliners. I'm scared to try the Paragard because it's supposed to make your periods much heavier, and also because the Mirena was such a hellish contraption. Other effects I've had that may or may not be due to the Mirena are: constipation, though this may have been due to the stress of living overseas; fatigue; dizziness, like I'm going to pass out and/or fall over if I stand up too quickly; inability to lose weight unless I am literally starving.

Last year I was prescribed Levaquin 750mg for pulmonary problems and spent three days with nausea before being switched to 500mg.

I was prescribed levaquin 500 for the same problem again three days ago and have spent each day with dizziness, nausea, and sleeplessness. Hence this posting at 2:35 a.m.

Tomorrow I'll call my doctor and ask for something else. This is not for me.

After reading your stories, I am terrified that I even let my doctor talk me into getting this. I have a 3 year old and a 4 month old. My husband and I weren't sure if we wanted more kids so I asked my doctor what she recommended.
We decided on Mirena so I had it put in back in December. It is now Jan.19. On Wednesday I went for my 5 week checkup to make sure it was still where it was suppose to be. Well, they couldn't find it. This was in the morning...I needed to get an ultrasound. They still couldn't find it so they did an internal ultrasound...still nothing. So my doctor ordered an x-ray.
Mind you I had my kids with me because I thought it would be quick. So they were both hunger at this point. By this point it was almost dinner time.
They finally found it back on the right side of my abdomen. NOT IN MY UTERUS!! I couldn't believe it. I now need surgery to remove it.
They will be doing a laparoscopic surgery...my doctor has never done this before. Do I let her or do I get someone else to do it? She said she has never perforated anyone's uterus before and that she would not charge me for the surgery but I would need to pay for the hospital stay. Is this right?
I don't think I should be paying for any of this.
Besides the fact that I've also been experiencing lots of cramping and pain. I 've gained 6-7 lbs., have muscle aches, crabbiness, headaches, dizziness, bloated all the time, bad gas pains in my stomach,...tired.
Was it worth it...NO!!!
I can't wait to get it out. My husband and I will stick with condoms for now until we want a more permanent solution. My husband said he would get the vasectomy at that point. I've gone through enough.
I am sure this is not a good form of bc. I'm sorry women have had to go through the same experience but hopefully more women will realize how bad it is and not get one.

When a class action lawsuit is filed, let me know....this drug should be taken of off the market immediately. We started all of this with an OB/GYN that prescribed this “miracle pill” and now have had to go not only to our primary doctor, but also a psychiatrist, gastrenologist, college campus counselors, psychologists, psychiatrist, and the campus medical doctors; All the while, accumulating enormous doctor bills. All the doctors say, "No, Yasmin won't cause those problems" (except the college campus doctors..wonder why? Hmm.. could it be that they are not in private practice?)....well, I beg to differ. Everyone needs to give this website to their doctor so the doctors can hear from the patients that have taken this drug, and not listen to the pharmaceutical companies that are pushing this drug to be the "miracle pill". Maybe if enough people complain and go to the media, we can get rid of this drug!
My daughter who is 18 was put on Yasmin because of irregular periods, hormonal imbalance, etc. We were told it was the new “miracle pill”. It will make you loose weight, regulate your periods, clear up acne, you name it, it will fix it. Yeah, right.
She started taking this pill in March 2007. She was off at college but called to tell me she was experiencing horrible headaches, behind the eyes. She complained about her stomach hurting, but we just figured it was the stress of freshman year at college. Then she said she got where she couldn’t eat when she went to a restaurant. When she came home in May for the summer, I noticed a total personality change. For example, she was always a neat freak, and now she wouldn’t clean her room. The first day when she drove home, she started crying she was so mad about the traffic. Yes, she has always had a little road rage, but this was ridiculous.
By June, not only could she not be in crowds, like at a restaurant, but now she is having full blown panic attacks and IBS. We called the OBGYN and they said, “Yasmin won’t cause this, go see your primary doctor”. I knew that the only thing that had changed with her was taking the YASMINE. I knew it had something to do with all of this so I “Googled Yasmin” and this website (http://www.medications.com/se/yasmin) was the first one I looked at. All of her symptoms matched everyone else’s! I am so glad we found this website, it explained everything and I had her to stop Yasmin immediately.
So we went to the primary doctor, explained about the Yasmin and how we thought it was the culprit of everything. Of course this doctor also says, “Yasmin won’t cause that”. We told him to look it up on the internet and see how there are over 3000 complaints on this drug, more than any of the other drugs on the market.
Besides the emotional problems she starting having, her pulse and blood pressure was sky high, so he puts her on medicine for that, and puts her on an anxiety medicine and sends her to a psychiatrist. She is very thirsty all the time, and develops IBS. She can’t eat without having pains in her stomach. So, now we’ve have gone from having just irregular periods, to all of the above, plus a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist doubles her medicine (and puts her Pamine for the IBS) because the panic attacks are gone, but she still is having a lot of nervousness, anxiety, can’t sleep at night, crazy thoughts, worrying all the time, etc. A month later he changes her medicine again, to Effexor. The first 2 weeks, she does okay, but the packet doubles the strength after 2 weeks. It takes 4 weeks for it to take full effect. Right after she doubles this medicine, it is like her senses are on hyper-mode. She can taste everything that is in her food (chili powder, seasonings, etc…), taste the metal in water, and she can hear someone’s phone vibrating, in another room.
Then she goes back to college at the end of August 2007, and it’s horrible. The Effexor is having bad, bad side effects. We called the psychiatrist that she was using at home and he doubled the dose. That was the worse thing they could’ve done. The side effects were worse than ever. I had her to immediately go to a psychiatrist on campus. She told him the whole story and he believed her! Needless to say we switched doctors. He then lowered her dose back down to ½ a dose and hopefully can slowly get her off of all this medicine.
The newest thing she has developed is being hypoglycemic. The campus psychiatrist sent her to a campus medical doctor and he told her that they would get to the bottom of this. He tested her for everything under the sun. Low blood sugar is the only thing they found. But, she hasn’t taken the Yasmin since May. No telling what the results would have came back like if it was done at the time she was taking Yasmin.
Thank goodness she has counselors and doctors there at the campus that believes that Yasmin can cause all of these problems, and are working with her. From what I have read from the people that have used this medicine, although most doctors do not agree, Yasmin takes like 6 months to get out of your system. I think I am going to believe the testimonials of the people who take this medicine, over a doctor who prescribes it.
If everyone goes to the media, their doctors, the FDA, congressmen, and make them aware of these horrible effects, surely we can get this drug off of the market! Does anyone know a class action lawyer that would pursue this? For my child to have to go through all of this is ridiculous, not to mention costly. What do we know of the long term effects this drug will have if it is doing all of this when you first start taking it?
If you have the same concerns as me about this drug, and would be interested in looking into a class action lawsuit, please email: ****** I would be interested to see how many would want to pursue this.