Two cents symptoms and conditions

I have been reading all the side-effects women have been experiencing with the Mirena, and I just needed to add my two cents. I am a 28 year old woman, no children, very physically active, and I have had no problems with my mirena. I have had my Mirena in place for a year and a half. I have had no weight gain, no tenderness, no facial hair, no mood swings, nothing. The only side effects I have experienced are very light to non-existent periods. I have had my Mirena checked by my doctor regularly, just to be on the safe side. So, some women may experience negative side-effects, but others do not. I have been on several different types of birth control; the pill, the patch, the ring, natural planning, and now the Mirena and this is BY FAR the best method I have used. I feel for the women who have experienced negative side effects, but for me it's the one that works. Oh, and it did hurt having it put in since I have not had children. My cervix did not want to dilate, and it took two tries to get it in, but once in, I was good to go. Now my husband can be active any where at any time with no worries.

I have been taking Lyrica for about 4 months (200mg total taken over 2 intervals per day) and have been having a terrible time with insomnia: I fall asleep but only sleep for 3-4 hours, then I either don't sleep, barely doze, or sleep extremely lightly with many awakenings for the rest of the night. I came online to research whether insomnia was a possible side-effect of Lyrica, but the information I am finding suggests the drug is used to *treat* insomnia... I am not certain my insomnia is linked to Lyrica, but in case there are more people out there experiencing similar problems and it's an as-yet undocumented side-effect, I thought I should add my two-cents-worth to mathews1965's comment. (No nausea; definite depression, although it's a bit of a chicken and egg thing considering the prolonged lack of sleep.)

IN RESPONSE TO THE PREVIOUS POST:

STAND UP FOR FELLOW WOMEN

Because this is exactly the type of thing M.D.s will feed you as they're pushing pills. "I used it myself, it worked great for me... it must be something with your lifestyle change... it can't possibly be the hormones!"

Isn't it lovely, how even female doctors can so inadvertently seek to compartmentalize what should be a free-thinking, myriad of personalities and body types?

Here is my reply:

"you: "...I have not gained any weight...of course I diet & exercise about 5 days a week....do those of you who have experienced weight gain exercise regularly?..."

The NuvaRing does not cause weight gain. That's absurd. There's only one way to gain weight (as your self proclaimed fit self must agree) and that is to take in more calories than you burn.

But, the hormones in the NuvaRing, however, DO cause appetite change, and DO cause dizziness associated with these changes if the "food" (for lack of a better word) the hormones causes one to "crave" is not consumed. As you can imagine, this messes with a work out routine.

Which leads me to this, SWEETHEART... I DO exercise regularly. I'm a healthy size 6, 140 lbs, 5' 8" I am 21 years old and graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. I have helped my friends and family with diet and exercise plans since I made the goal to become fit (I was not a healthy weight in high school). I run a mile every week, and work out at the gym every other day with a trainer.

First of all, why are you even on the "side effects" page if you're so happy with the product? There are ongoing investigations as we speak concerning NuvaRing related stroke and death, and incident reports are on the rise. I have always been a stickler for healthy sex lives, hormonal birth control that works in conjunction with a woman's body, and safe sex practices. Let me just give you my two cents: I assure you, I am as in touch with my body as I am in touch with my inner self. And I will not hesitate to let you know... that I KNOW when something's off. NuvaRing was great for me for a while (we're talking a good 8 months... how long have you had yours?)... but then it took over my life. I am not young and naive, I am not unfit or unhealthy, I don't smoke or mess with drugs and rarely drink, I am a not mentally unstable, nor do I have any unmentioned medical conditions. I'm glad that the NuvaRing works for you, but to begin a post so cheeky as to assume that those of us who have posted here are unnecessarily blaming hormones for our own unhealthy lifestyles is infuriating. You think everyone here hasn't considered that it may be "something else"? Something eating at us?

you: "ALL birth control effects everyone differently. I'm not saying this for everyone, but sometimes a lot of people like to blame certain actions & physical changes on something & maybe this is the case...for some people. I've been on the pill before & I always got off it b/c of weight gain....well, it was b/c I wasn't eating properly or exercising. I liked to blame my mood swings on the pill as well, but once I thought about it, I still had those before & after taking the pill."

The above paragraph you have written may have redeemed the post, were it not for your still underhanded tone in relation to the "healthy lifestyle" aspect or - as it seems - "theme" of your post. And, yes, I too know and understand depression and anxiety as it has personally affected me through its looming presence in and around immediate family members. Hormones can affect seratonin reuptake and such and do very much affect the mood in many instances.

So, if you are so certain that "some" of the women here blame their sorry unexercised asses on hormones, I will return the favor and say that perhaps it may be a good idea for YOU to look into cases of depression and anxiety as you are so SURE that the nervous system of your brain has not in any way been affected by hormones.

Thank you for placing the women here in such a pigeon hole! This is so easily a perfect example of something I'd hoped our society would work on... All of us are built differently, of different ages and gene pools... how can one expect a mass-produced commercial drug to work "as directed" to a world of unknowns?

It might be a good idea to examine your female conscience. But, I suppose that might be hard to do from the point of view of the interior of your ass."

I cannot disagree with these negative postings more. I absolutely love the nuvaring. I have not gained any weight...of course I diet & exercise about 5 days a week....do those of you who have experienced weight gain exercise regularly? I have also had an INCREASE in my sex drive...I have been with my fiance for 5 years, and for the past 3 of those, I have had no sex drive whatsoever. I got on the ring & bam, it's there with a vengence...the only problem with that is that we're getting married in 2 weeks & I wanted to make it special & stop having sex a couple of months before the wedding...but I just can't get enough of it. I have dealt with depression & anxiety my entire 27 years of life, so if the nuvaring is causing that...it's not any worse than normal. The only side effects I've had is the discharge, (which yes, is very annoying) and tender breasts...but I can deal with that. Although I have noticed that I cry a bit easier...but I was always a crier as well. I cry when I'm mad, sad, happy...always have, so nope...guess that's not from the ring either. ALL birth control effects everyone differently. I'm not saying this for everyone, but sometimes a lot of people like to blame certain actions & physical changes on something & maybe this is the case...for some people. I've been on the pill before & I always got off it b/c of weight gain....well, it was b/c I wasn't eating properly or exercising. I liked to blame my mood swings on the pill as well, but once I thought about it, I still had those before & after taking the pill. The only reason I quit the pill was b/c it did give me acne. Anyway, just my thoughts....& I wanted to post something positive for the ring.

i am 14, and i have never use a nuvaring before but wanting to look for an easy to use contraceptive method, i had been doing it with the withdrawal method for 5 months now and wanting to consider using some sort of contraception... but i also want to know what food i can eat to reduce the risk of getting pregnant?

This is in response to Bachaman ~ Ok, everyone has a right to their two cents...even you. However, there are a couple of major differences between your OPINION, and what is happening to people with CHILDREN. We as adults all know how we feel when we take a med and feel differently from it. Children do not!!! And as adults, we do not know what our children are going through from certain meds. Myself along with many others have not even associated Singulair with our childrens behaviors. We always selected other avenues to take (ie: age, personality, changes made in their lives, etc) I am happy that Singulair works for you! But, you are an adult!!! There are certain drugs that should not be taken by people under 18 due to the body and brain still developing and they could be too much for their little bodies to handle. Look at ANY over the counter med and see the dosing instructions are very different for different ages and body weight. Everyone knows there are risks associated with taking any med. However, most of us trust our dr's, and don't question them when they prescribe things for us or or kids. Be glad you haven't had any problems, but don't sucker punch those of us that has! No amount of money in the world will change any past, so to call people ambulance chasers was a hit below the belt. From the sounds of it, you are not a parent. And if you are, your instincts aren't funtioning properly.

My daughter is 5 years old and has been on Singular for almost a year. My daughter luckily has not had major mood swings but I did notice that she was starting to have nightmares at night. It was to the point where she would wake up crying and refusing to go back to sleep or get back in her bed. Everynight she started to have nightmares and not want to go to sleep. I took my daughter in to see the doctor about an ear ache and mentioned that she was having nightmares at night and thought it might be the Singular. My doctor said that she had several pediatric patiences who were experiencing the same problems. She recommended that I switch it and give it to her in the morning. I am now afraid to give it to her at all with all the problems I am hearing about now. It's a no win situation because she needs it to control her asthma but I don't want my child to risk having suicidal thoughts.

My son is 8 y/o (almost 9). We love Singulair, he has been on it for years (at least 3 years). He can go about 4 days off of it and then his asthma flairs up again and we are up at night coughing. However after reading some of the posts I figure that I would throw in my two cents because some of these posts have been eye opening. We just recently went to an allergist and he was diagnoised with more severe ashtma then we expected so he was put on Allegra and Advair to go along with his Singulair and Albuterol (we dropped Claritan for the Allergra). In the last year my son has been experiancing horrible moods to the point that at 8 y/o I wonder if he knows what suicide is because the moods have brought him to a level that makes me very scared for him. We have recently decided to bring him to a therapist to talk about the moods and the behaviors he is experiancing at school and home. The negative attitude, the anger and frustration, the short temper, the night terrors, and night walking. He has also had over the last 6 months that 'stitch' in the side that another person was talking about. We took him to the ER once for it because we thought he was having an appendicitis attack. However he was not and we have had recent attacks like that. Like I said, I love Singulair, it was and sort of still is our dream drug however after reading this I wonder if it is not. My heart is crushed that a drug I thought was great for my son maybe the one thing that is hurting him. I am going to talk to his allergist about it and will try to take him off of it to see if it makes a improvement. Thank you so much for opening my eyes and maybe finding me a solution to it all.

Just to put my two cents in as well... I began NuvaRing three weeks ago and it crept into my life like a disease.
~ My co-workers thought I was constantly mad at them.
~ I had a look of 'disgust' on my face all the time.
~ I haven't smiled for the past three weeks.
~ I CAN sleep all day--> no question about it.
~ My sex drive is gone.
~ I was having extreme leg cramps.
~ I could eat everything on the face of the earth.
~ I feel fatter than ever before.
~ I felt constipated for three weeks...as soon as I took it out for 'the week
off' I had extreme, severe cramping diarrhea.
~ I have had the uncontrollable desire to drink alcohol excessively (??)
~ Yesterday I wanted to kill myself and the world--> It was best for all
mankind that I lock myself in my bedroom

Next month I am going to switch to a different kind of BC