Surprises symptoms and conditions

Hi! I am 23 with two kids. I got pregnant with both of them b/c we were just using condoms and slipped up a couple of times. I chose the Mirena IUC because i didn't want anymore surprises! I have had it for about 14 months, since Aug. of 2007. I had it inserted 7 weeks pp. I was informed by my doc that there would be some cramping that would minimize and probably be gone over time. I knew that there were some serious side effects also, but i was lead to believe that they were very very rare. So, ive had many things going on in my body that, as most of you did, i contributed it to being older and my body changing after having two kids (16m apart!). Some of my symptoms have been, sharp, piercing pains on either side of my pelvic region (i assume thats my ovaries), and also dull, cramping that comes on slowly and intensifies and radiates to my lower back. Almost as bad as labor pains. My stomach is always bloated, i too look like i am about 4 months pregnant. I am extremely fatigued all the time. I can't sleep at night. I wake up with night sweats and even when i do sleep i am still tired. I haven't gained any weight, but i haven't lost any, seeing as how i was only 7 weeks pp when i had it inserted i am still not back to my normal weight. I have gone to the gym every day for months and took up running which i hate, only to see no results! My hair is falling out in the shower and when i brush my hair. I thought this happened because i stopped my prenatal vitamin because it happened with my first son, but i'm still losing hair. I have terrible headaches. I probably get one or two a month. I use to have maybe one or two a year. I am very anxious and nervous all the time. Sometimes more than others. I have always been worried about germs but now i tend to go overboard. I know i'm doing it but i can't help myself. I have really bad mood swings and i realize it when they're coming too but its so overwhelming i just have outbursts! I have very frequent yeast infections and i had never had one before. For a long time i didn't know what was going on. I have a lot of discharge also very irritating! I have absolutely no libido. My poor husband begs me and then i cringe the whole time. I've never been like that before. Anyway, when i came across the website and read all of these posts that were exactly what i was going through i knew it was the Mirena! I called my doc. and i'm having it removed on the 26th! I cannot wait! I am so excited that i can look forward to feeling myself once again after thinking this was the way it was for so long. I am just sad that for 14 months i've lived my life in a fog, and not been as excited about life as i could have been. By the way, i know a lot of you guys are going to be looking for other birth control whenever you get this one taken out, but make sure you read some reviews on it too because i thought about yaz and nuvaring, but they seem to have reviews that are almost as bad. I want to be me! The way i felt when i was 19 before i ever had kids. I want to have fun! I say NO to any extra hormone running through my body. The condom will have to do for me, and my husband and i have vowed to use it the way we were suppose to be the other times we got pregnant. If i do get pregnant, its is what the Lord had planned for me and my family and i'll look at it as a blessing. Besides being pregnant is way better than feeling like this.

Hi girls! I just wanted to write and let you know I am a 27 year old female who started using the nuvaring about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I am taking the ring out tonight and am not recommending its use to any of my friends!

Since I have started using this product I have had severe pains in both my knees and have had discomfort and incredible irritation while trying to have intercourse (when I can find the mood which hasn't been very often in the past few weeks and being a Scorpio that just isn't like me!!!). My mood swings have been ridiculous and have put a damper on my birthday weekend in Montreal! I went from being a very friendly strong outgoing person to and irritable unsocial bitch that breaks down and cries for no reason at all! I cant believe the side effects have hit me so hard and so quickly and I couldn't imagine using this product for more than a month.

Im happy to have found this site and to find out I am not the only one dealing with these side effects! What surprises me is there is a commercial on Canadian television promoting this product when im not sure it should have made it to our markets to begin with! Nobody at the clinics I have been to nor the doctor I have talked to have informed me of these side effects either and I encourage us all to let our fellow female friends know this product does indeed come with some nasty side effects!

Thank you to everyone who has written a testimonial on this page I appreciate your input and hope mines has been even a little bit of help!

Just had mine inserted..it wasn't a pleasant experience at all as my cervix kept tightening up. I didn't feel well the rest of the day, cramping, bleeding, and fatigue. Better today. I hope I don't develop further problems/
What surprises me about this site is that many of the things you are describing are listed by the pharmaceutical company and the FDA as warnings and precautions as well as possible side effects. My doctor went through all of these step by step with me. I have a follow up appointment in 4 weeks and then another at 12 weeks then annually...all to check the device.
Yes, it is terrible that you had to go through these things, but this is a foreign device that is inserted in your body to deliver progesterone...if you are breast feeding, this will get to your infant; you are at risk for an infection; you are at risk for it to move/dislodge; it is a hormone and you may have adverse effects; it shouldn't be used if you have fibroids; immediate postpartum use is cautioned.
I am glad you are sharing your experiences, but I think it would be even more useful to report them to the FDA. Thanks.

I think it is interesting the symptoms that you mention here. I have been on birth control pills since the age of 19. I am now 28. Over the past year I have had similar symptoms. I have been on so many different BCP's that is is hard to keep count. They don't seem to work the way they claim to. The last BCP I was on was orthotryciclen. While taking these I began to experience severe heart palpitations. So bad that they would wake me up at night. Because I wasn't sure if it was an anxiety attack or just being in my head I decided to ignore it. Four months passed by and it seemed to get increasingly worse. I had enough and decided to go to my PCP. She wasn't really much help either. Although I was tested for Mitral Valve Prolapse, which I was told affects younger women my age. There was nothing found. What I thought was interesting is I really felt that it was the birth control pills, but I couldn't find it as a side affect on the information that was provided in the box. The tech who was doing my echocardiogram began to tell me she also experienced the same feelings and found out it was her BCP. Once she confirmed what I thought was right, decided to stop taking them. After three months the symptoms began to disappear. I figured it was just the particular brand. I began to take loestrin 24. I started to feel the same symptoms again, just not as severe. I would feel my heart beat when I would like down in my back and my stomach. My heart rate would reach 90 to 100 sometimes. I know this is not normal. When I visited my gyno yesterday she told me it was impossible that it was a result of the BCP. Maybe it was just anxiety and or perhaps I should get checked out by a cardiologist. That is serious stuff when you are talking to a young person about getting there heart check out. I think if there are any other women out there who are experiencing any similar symptoms should speak up. So these doctors won't keep telling us it is all in our heads and help to take care of this problem.

Our daughter spent her 21st birthday in ICU, Sunday the 13th. I took her to the ER with shortness of breath, chest pain and nausea on Saturday afternoon. She has been on Yaz since February with only the mild symptoms of: loss of apetite, mild nausea and some abdominal cramping. She was put on this BC to regulate her periods and relieve menstrual pain as well as excessive dark facial hair growth. All 3 of these were relieved by Yaz.
She has now spent 1 week in the hospital (2 days in ICU) and will be on coumadin for 3 to 6 months due to a very large pulmonary embolism (size of my knee cap) that was putting the right side of her heart in distress. She also has multiple clots in her right lung.
I am shocked to read through this website and see all that has happened to so many women. She can never take oral BC again in her life. There are no blood test results that indicate she was even predisposed to this type of reaction and is not family history.

Obviously a lot of the gals taking this hormonal formulation need to get a totally different one. What surprises me are all the first-time BC users whose doctors are putting them on a rather high-dose pill (not technically high dose, but it is the highest you can be under the "Low Dose" heading). I would think their doctors would've put them on something very very low and go from there.
Anyways, I was on BC pills for 8 years before we decided to start a family. However, ever since having my first child 4 years ago, I couldn't find a pill that could control my period. It seemed that when I was off the pill, I was fine, but as soon as I started a pill I would bleed 3 weeks out of 4. It was awful--plus insurance wouldn't pay for other methods besides permanent BC methods. I went through at least three different types of pills with no luck. Then we decided to have our second child...so off the pill and my periods were normal and regular up until I conceived. After my second child was born and I was done breast-feeding, my doctor put me on a pill (loestrin, I think?) and back to the same thing...3 weeks of heavy bleeding out of 4 and it made not only me, but my husband, crabby. I tried another pill, then finally got very firm and specific with the nurses and my doctor...they needed to put me on something completely different than the other formulations I'd been on and/or a higher dosage.
First month on Femcon FE and only 1 day of light spotting; lighter-than-normal period (thank goodness!); but I did have some weird abdominal pain in the upper right quadrant of my abdomen. Thankfully that pain went away after eating, particularly high-fiber meals or large meals. Since I had a stomach bug the week before I started the pills, I didn't think too much of it; figured the stomach virus had moved south and was just irritating my gut. It went away by the time I had my period...but it started again after 5 days on my next pill pack, though the pain is considerably less than last month. However, after seeing someone else's comment regarding estrogen's affect on the gallbladder (and that's about where my pain was), I'm going to at least talk to my doctor on Monday.
I have had no other side effects other than the abdominal pain and very very slight breast tenderness (although after pregnancy and breast-feeding, the breast tenderness is barely noticeable in comparison). So I'd like to stay on this as long as I'm not developing any gallstones, etc.

I've been taking Prilosec since late 2003 and it hasn't been until now that I've linked all the strange symptoms I've been having to taking Prilosec. I've been having anxiety, heart pulps, strange, stabbing headaches that come and go in a flash, occasional sensitivity to light, pain behind the eye, dizziness, fogginess, and fatigue. I've been to the doctor several times over the past few years hoping to find a cause. After many blood tests, x-rays, heart tests, etc, he couldn't find anything and just said anxiety and that I should try yoga. It surprises me that he wouldn't even suggest that I try coming off the Prilosec to see if that could do it since it appears that many people experience these strange symptoms.

I've stopped taking Prilosec today and I'm hopeful that all of this will clear up and I can get back to normal.

i've experienced the anxiety and rapid heart rates, but not as severely as most people are posting here. i would say they are mild. my sex drive hasn't decreased (which surprises me since everyone else seems to have). i've been on yasmin for 2 years now and want to stop. i'm afraid of weight gain after stopping. has anyone experienced any significant weight gain after stopping this pill?

i did notice that i was incredibly moody with this pill. recently broke up with my bf and wondering if yasmin had anything to do with it or am i just trying to blame my breakup on something else? my ex said that i was constantly up and down and needy, we argued every week. has anyone felt 'needy' while on yasmin? or is it just me and not the pill?

i also experienced the pains in the head and neck and also thought i was getting a brain tumor! i'm sure its not the case but i was paranoid for awhile about it. i'm always fatigued, even though i make myself go to the gym, i'm very reluctant to do it. no motivation to do anything with myself.

i'm stopping yasmin now, hoping i'll feel better soon!

It's funny you mentioned that b/c my feet, legs, hands & arms were swelling even before my face did at the beginning of my treatment,
2 weeks after starting Prednisone. It surprises me that this is
happening to you almost a year afterward......consider yourself lucky

It's funny you mentioned that b/c my feet, legs, hands & arms started were swelling even before my face did at the beginning of my treatment, 2 weeks after starting Prednisone. It surprises me that this is happening to you almost a year afterward......consider yourself lucky

I'm 49 years of age and have been taking 20mgs of Lisinopril for 5 years now, due to high blood pressure-It seems to have my blood pressure under control, but I have since been diagnosed with stage ll diabetes with slightly abnormal liver function tests, which surprises me since I know of no family history!-Has anyone else experienced anything similar? - Could this be a side effect?
Regards
Rick from Oz