I stumbled on this site while doing research on DVT's. I am a nur...

I am glad to hear you are receiving treatments for your DVTs. I wish you well as you recover. I post here to warn people about the risks of blood clots while taking Yasmin. My daughter died in her third month on it - of Pulmonary Emboli. She had NO DVT symptoms first - which is more typical. Her complaints were shortness of breath and "funny little bloody noses". Diagnosis given was anxiety - three days later she was dead in the ER.

Are you familiar with Factor V Leiden? It is a fairly common (about 1 out of 20 people) blood clotting disorder. I would suggest that you be tested for this since you have had so many DVT's - there is a screening test available now. Do you have children? It would be important information for them to know. My daughter had an uncle with it but it was not seriously considered when she went on Yasmin. It should have been. It turned out that my husband also had Factor V Leiden and therefore my daughter had a 50/50 chance of inheriting it - which we assume she did. Having Factor V increases the chance of blood clots with birth control pills from about 4 per 1000 per year to about 30 per 1000 per year.

My strong opinion is that women placed on birth control pills need to receive more education about the SYMPTOMS of blood clots. If she or I had been more knowledgable about the urgency of shortness of breath while on birth control pills my daughter would still be alive. Yasmin buried the symptoms in the middle of the brochure in very small type size. Her gynecologist never mentioned the possibility - "blood clots" was buried in a paragraph about risks in a hastily signed consent form. Since my daughter died I have been told by many in the medical profession that Pulmonary Emboli are "the great imposter." They are frequently misdiagnosed as "anxiety." One woman in my town was sent home from the ER three times with this diagnosis until her personal physician (who had heard my daughter's sad story) insisted she be tested for blood clots.

I would be very interested in hearing from you with your reactions to my comments. Take care.

I took Yaz for 3 months and got to the point that I could not walk across the room without having to sit down due to lack of oxygen. I went through about $10K in test on my lungs, heart they ckecked the veins in my legs for blood clots etc. I was actually on oxygen!!!! I ask my GYN dr if it could be the Yaz -he said he had never heard of such a thing. I stopped the Yaz myself and in a few days I was okay!

My daughter recovered in a few days from the palpitations and chest pain. Pretty much as soon as her pulmonary embolism melted. Your doctor needs to know that yours did not go away. My daughter has OCCASIONAL issues with palpitations but she has a very mild case of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia. You can find a description of this type of autonomic instability at reflux org in the Reading Room toward the bottom.

i was hospitalized in nov 2008 with multiple pulmonary emboli after going to dr. after dr. for over a month to figure out why i was tired and short of breath. typically, from what i have learned from the hemotologist, these clots in the lungs take 6-8 weeks to be fully absorbed by your body, with an anticoagulant. i had another CT scan on my lungs mid-january and not all of them were gone yet. glad you stopped the yaz! make sure you find a very good hematologist who will test for all possibilities. my dr. stated that generally women who get clots while on birth control pills have an underlying risk-factor. it is hard to test for them while on medication, but a good dr. will probably make sure you are clot free for several months before taking you off the anti-coagulant and then run the tests on your blood again. i have been told by many of my drs that it is amazing that i am still alive. you are very blessed to not have any major clots that have traveled to your lungs.