Yasmin and aching

I have been off Yasmin for almost 2 weeks and the panic attacks are gone!!! I feel much better. I decided not to use another form of birth control "with hormones" until my hormones are balanced! The only thing is I am having HORRIBLE headaches, the muscles in my legs and arms are still aching and my mood swings are still there. I hope this ends SOON!! Right now I am taking vitamin B complex to see if that helps any.

Man! OKay, first I came on this website to look for the awful side effects I experience with Nuvaring birth control...after reading a hundred comments of girls who had the same problems with it as me! I am definitely dropping it! So I think, what about Yasmin?? maybe this one will be good, and I come to this comment page, and everyone has OTHER identical bad side effects!
Looks like Nuvaring makes you insanely anxious and on edge and KILLS your sex drive 100%. And now I see Yasmin...gives you horrible aching pains in your legs at night.... and ups your heart rate and gives you mummurs!

Is there no hope for us? Does anyone know a BC that is actually good?? Help!

Hi, I have been on Yasmin for 2 years now. I have ALWAYS been a very confident and outgoing person. For the past year i have had panic attacks regularly. I am very hot at night, I have trouble sleeping, yet my period pains are at a minimun and I have few symptons of PMT. (Mind you it is still bad enough to take codeine and paracetamol on the first day of bleeding).

Other side effects that I thought would clear up but which haven't are:- dark patches on my forehead and above my lip (doc said they would go, but seem to 'come' and go) and a very sore throat accompanied by swollen glands, sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left side of my neck. My fingers are tingly and my joints are swollen. The Chest pains could be related to anxiety. I get a migraine 24-72 hours before I bleed, regular as clockwork now.

The worst is the mood swings and the depression, I just really don't recognise myself, tired and teezy all the time.

I was very happy for the first 3-6 months that I took Yasmin, but after that I have known I haven't been 'right', but my anxiety and depression have made me unable to make a decision or be focused why.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed on the site, it's great to know I'm not the only one.

My gyn told me that yaz is a "great" drug. I started this pack of pills 4 days ago and have not slept for two nights. My legs are so sore. They burn, ache, and feel swollen. Worse at the knees. I will not be taking this pill today or any other day. I would rather gain five pounds or be moody on my regular pill than deal with this hell. I don't take any other meds aside from the occasional Tylenol and have no medical problems. Nothing relieves my legs except for walking the floors at 2:00 AM. As soon as I lay down, they start aching again.

I started taking Yasmin about 10 days ago. On the first day I was at my computer and noticed that I suddenly couldnt focus on my screen. My vision became blurry. I also felt sharp shooting pains behind my legs.I took it for 7 days. During that time I became extremely tired, lethargic, fatigued, my eyes hurt. I slept for longer hours, and just felt generally drained. This was highly noticeable to me since I go to the gym everyday, and I didn't even have the zeal or energy to do that. My breasts became very sore and sensitive. The shooting pains moved from the back of my legs to random parts of my body. I stopped taking it after the 7th day and noticed an immediate improvement in my energy level the next day. I didnt need as much sleep, my eyes felt much better, not grainy and painful like I had to close them all the time. Now, the 11th day, my breasts are no longer tender, and all the other symptoms are gone. These are just the facts. I personally WILL NEVER take this pill again!!

I am 20 years old and I've been on Yasmin for almost 2 years and off for about 2 weeks. Yasmin gave me an irregular heartbeat, vision problems, severe fatigue, muscle spasms and aching in my joints, and constant cramping in my lower tummy but these have started to slowly die down. My current side effects include severe allergies to foods (milk, wheat, tomatoes, eggs), antihistamines, and chemical sensitivities (perfume, soaps, detergents, cigarrette smoke). Also, I have been struggling to swallow food for 11 weeks now and found out that it may be a nuerological side effect from yasmin. The doctors where I am from don't seem to believe me and they all think I'm crazy so I just don't know how I am going to get help for this. One doctor even told me that I was doing this to myself and that I was anorexic. I'm obviously trying to get help or I wouldn't have been there asking him. I just wish I knew how long it takes to get back to normal or if I am ever going to be normal again.

I have experienced a lot of muscle spasms, cramping in my calves while on yasmin (14 months). Has anyone

To flowerbabies,

thanks for your response. the pain I felt was more like all-over tremendous pain so much that even the shower water on them was painful and so much pain that I wish I could have removed them. It has since desisted though I haven't gone back to the shower but it was following two last days of this terrible aching/pain under my left breast -and while it feels like it is coming from my heart (under my left breast), I don't have a diagnosis for that?

"left atrial abnormality,incomplete right bundle block..... i have no idea what all that means,came across something that mentioned heart disease and also another report that mentionion arrythmia"...

I am absolutely confused about how so many of the Doctors are advising these physical results are all caused from Anxiety? Is that possible? How is it then that the Doctor doesn't explain more to you about what it means? What was the test that they conducted?

Would someone be willing to provide an overview of what the Linden Method offers?

@guest 34715:

Please check out my post from about 2 - 3 days ago. It was a very long post where I nearly told my story again completely. The most frightening side effects again here:

anxiety
uncontrollable panic attacks (day and night), and during taking yasmin always about 8 hours after taking it (about 5 am within my sleep!! not necessary to mention that these have stopped nearly immediately after getting off!!)!!
muscle hurting
muscle weakness
dizziness
tiredness to the point where I thought I'd pass out
fainting spells
weakness all over my body
headaches
nervousness (sometimes to a point, where I thought I'd go totally crazy)
muscle fasciculations
blurred vision (totally frightening!!)
breathlessness
tight throat
heavy feeling on my chest from time to time
joint aching

Simply everything was completely too much for me, for about 3 months I even couldn't talk to someone on the phone without getting a fainting spell and dizziness

and the list goes on.......

Greetings
Silke

hi eryka,
glad i was able to make you feel a little better. i have no idea how long this phase lasts, i was the same as you, doing better for a few months,then started to feel a little worse again,i am now at month 8 without yasmin. it is definately getting easier as far as the anxiety goes.i do still get raging pms symptoms (never had pms before i went on yasmin!) but the way i see it,i would rather have pms for 10 days of the month than be a nervous,tired aching mental wreck the whole month like i was! i do feel that each month i am more and more like my old self,i am able to do most things that i used to do pre yasmin,it's not easy but i get by because i have too much too live for to let this drug take any more of my precious life. i am sure you are the same. like you i am not very keen on western medicine any more. i am going to have acupuncture to see if that will help ease the last of my symptoms and i am also taking a herbal remedy to help balance out my hormones.will keep you posted after i have tried the acupuncture!
best wishes.

sarah

Sarah, Sophie,

Tonight, when I laid down, and on a few other occassions, I have this really heavy feeling like its hard to breathe as if someone were sitting on my chest? Is this like either of your sensations? This follows this fluttery aching squeezing sensation I've had since yesterday morning...

Any other ladies out there who have developed this problem?

I can't believe this-the acid reflux, the plugged up achey ears, and now this chest pain (last 6 months)/been off of Yasmin for 2 months....went onto Orthocept but I think I just have to get off of all bcp's.

J

Hi flowerbabies!!

Your story sounds as if it had been written by me!!

I've experienced exactly the same symptoms and even some others like muscle weakness, muscle aching, joint aching, extreme shortness of breath (and I was so fit and healthy before that nightmare......), sometimes I felt as if I was going to faint after walking a few steps or doing something in my house, and so on..... I didn't recognize myself at all. A 31 year old healthy woman turned into an 80 year old ill grandma within a day....

And another thing which every woman should remember:

I've met so many women here during the last year, and the least of them had experienced the side effects already within the first months!! Most of them even felt good with Yasmin for over 1 or 2 years until they'd been hit at once by the worst health problems, they ever experienced!!!

Please ladies, be careful with that Yasmin stuff!! I've been on 3 other brands before Yasmin without any problems. This is definitely the worst pill I have ever been taking!!

All the best to you flowerbabies and keep goin on!! Things will get better and better (as you have already seen within the last weeks)!!

Silke

And this was brought to me by that "wonder pill", as I thought Yasmin was for the first 2 years. I know it, because I've been off that stuff now for over one year and I'm constantly getting better... In January 2005 I thought my life was about to end and I will never get better, because no one found out, what was going wrong with me!!

Dear Sophie,

I'm very sorry to hear, that you're feeling so bad at the moment (and I say AND MEAN at the MOMENT!!). I totally feel your pain, as I was sitting within the same sh...t around after 2 months off Yasmin.

And I remember that I also was thinking, that this nightmare surely will NEVER end and that this is the way my life will stay until I'm gone...

Another thing I remember very well is, that I also was sitting here and posting and searching for help, and look at me now: Today it's ME who is able to help others through this!! A thing I never would have believed one year and a half ago!!

The symptoms we all are going through are very weird. For one are the headaches the most frightening thing, for another one it's the dizzyness or nausea the worst and so on.

And everyone should know, that hormones are interacting every cell of your body and nothing works without them!! So I think it's pretty obvious, that an imbalance of hormones can cause 100s of symptoms and everyone has to deal with different symptoms.

What I want to say is, that your symptoms sound very familiar to me, after going through the same and reading 1000s of postings during the last year.

I still sometimes got bad aches in the upper of my spine, which I never had before this Yasmin nightmare, sometimes my joints are aching, as if I was an 80 year old woman... Another day I feel a bit dizzy again and so on.... But remember: Everything not at all as intensive as it was around after a few weeks off Yasmin!!!! And everything is getting lighter as months go on.

I had days, where I nearly couldn't breathe because of that pain in my upper spine. Another day it was completely gone again. One day I feel like a little genius, I'm able to talk and tell stories and concentrating seems to be so easy, the other day I walk into another room to do something, and the other second I don't know what it was, that I wanted to do...

So I just can give you one advice: Try to calm down (I know how hard that sounds....!!!) and give your body the time it needs to recover and get those hormonal chaos in balance again!! In some cases it's done in about 3 - 4 months in other cases (including me...) it's taking longer to get back to normal which seems to depend on how long you had been taking a bcp (I did it for about 10 years, 5 years of that I took Yasmin).

And if you don't do that already you really should think about taking any supplements. Magnesium and B-Vitamines seem to be the most important here because they are really important for your nervous system and muscles. And another thing you should know is, that all bcp and espacially Yasmin (because of the diswatering effect it has) are causing a lack of vitamines and minerals, especially magnesium and b-vitamines. And especially magnesium is able to help you to calm down a bit, because it's also called the "antistress mineral". In my case it helped very much with the muscle weakness and aching and the sometimes very severy tiredness. So perhaps it might help you with your back pain, too!!

It's no cold or flu we all have gone or are going through and it definitely takes more than only a few weeks to feel better again. Some women here said, that around 3 months they suddenly felt a lot better (so it was in my case). So keep looking forward to better days, you're almost there!!

Stay strong and hang in and please post here if you need any help or advice. I hope I can help somehow, although I know, that it's not easy to help someone whithin that situation...

Big hugs to you and I send you all the strenght I have!!!

Silke

Silke
These hormones are responsible for tissue, skin, and muscle regeneration. I would not be suprised if thats what caused your muscle fatigue. Recently, I have tried to start to work out again and I have found that I lost a lot of muscle strength through out this whole episode. I had a lot of jaw aching/pain on and off the yasmin. You know the muscles around your jaw, mine would often be aching. I thought it was stress from the whole episode, but at the time I remember thinking it was strange because it didnt feel like I was clenching my jaw. It just ached. It even did it some this evening. My skin still feels sensitive and I have been getting big pimple like bumps around my hairline and on my neck, I was getting them a lot in my scalp, now it seems to have moved down. They arent really like pimples because they dont form a white head and pop like pimples, they seem to resolve quicker and go away without breaking the skin, thank god. I think it is the oil glands coming back? I dont know. Anyway are you still experiencing side effects besides the muscle aches/fatigue? I am still hopeful to make sense out of this whole nightmare. Trying to get the Dr.s to help is hopeless at times. The key is finding a good one I think. Let me know what you think of the website. I found it informative.
I dont know if they have labs that can test for saliva in Germany. The company is based in Oregon and then they contract out the testing to a facility closest to you. I will try to find out if this is done overseas as well if you are interested. look forward to hearing from you!
Take care,
Bitter RN

Hey Rita!!

Thank you so much for your post!! That sounds very interesting and could be a solution for many of us. But I'm really afraid of perhaps again not finding the right doctor, who finally admits that our problems (I'm off Yasmin for over 1 year now, and still not 100% back to normal life......) are connected and brought on by Yasmin...

Exactly as you told, my gyn told me last year around july (had a blood test done there) that my hormone levels are "pretty" normal, though they were at the edge of what's normal (totally low)..... But I know, that this is already enough (hormones at the edge of being too low) to cause severe problems!!

I feel a little encouraged now to go and search again for an endocrinologist who could perhaps help me, too. I also have to mention, that I still didn't get my period. I had only one normal period around easter 2005 after getting off the pill!! So there definitely IS a connection between my still lasting symptoms (sometimes dizzyness, a little anxiety, a little weakness and so on, though everything much lighter as it was last year!!!) and my hormone levels, which are obviousely still messed up.

Did your doc tell anything further about that dehydration and the effects of that diuretic in Yasmin?? I would be so thankful to hear, if he thinks that this stuff could have caused my very heavy muscle weakness and muscle aching during the last year (has eased up but is STILL not completely gone!!).

Well I think that the dehydration brought on by that diuretic is on the other hand causing a heavy loss of vitamines and electrolytes. That could be an explanation for the fact, that in my case (I guess many other women would say the same) the symptoms slowly increased over the years and always got a little worse while I had some illness like a flu or such or while I was working out (because of the sweating)...

Over summer 2004 I got weaker and weaker and after a heavy cold with fever and sweating over 3 weeks in october 2004 i broke down completely with muscle aches, weakness and dizzyness and many more symptoms......

Sorry, if my posts always get that long, but I'm still searching for reasons of my severe illness I've been going through and which has lasted for over 8 months (that were only the hardest months... There were another 12 months where I didn't feel really fit and already had problems....) and is still just very slowly getting better...

God bless you all!!

Silke

To those of you asking about tingling/ burning in your face pre and post yasmin. I experienced this both during and after yasmin. I was on it 3 months. It managed to dehydrate me especially in my face. I have very oily skin and hair. The yasmin took away the oils in my face and hair, even the pores on my nose closed up. My skin felt swollen and sensitive like a light sunburn at times (tingly) shooting pains in my cheeks, jaw aching (Im a clencher i dont know if this was stress related.) Also my hair texture changed less oily, thin dry and brittle also my scalp was real sensitive i couldnt even wear my hair in a clip or ponytail without severe scalp pain. Needless to say it was falling out all over the place but it has let up now. (I took prenatal vitamins while this was happening to keep it growing fast.) I had lots of other symptoms too, been off the evil little pill 3 months now. Slowly getting better. I am an RN and I think this pill is bad news. I took ortho novum 777 for years with no problems, no side effects. I thought they were all the same. I cannot believe the LIFE CHANGING effects this pill has caused me and so many other people.

to hill (the last posting)

you are not going crazy and ur not dying of a horrible disease!!! my names chrissy im 23 and i was on yasmin for only one month last july and i suffered some of what you have. i went to the ER twice in august because i had a racing heart beat like about 147 beats per minute, plus my chest felt soooooo tight and heavy !! my left arm was aching i swear i thought i was having a heart attack.
they check everything and told me nuthing was wrong but i just didnt feel right. i was constantly anxious which is not like me at all and always tired..... alos had bad migraines for two days at a time...
the good thing is the symptoms will wear off i promise you but ur right ur body needs a break...!!
im now 7 months yasmin free and i feel so much better.... ive started going to the gym again and iv found the energy i lost....i do sometimes get the symptoms when im ovulating or when my period is due but its nowhere near as bad as it was.....
you will be ok you just need time... and dont let anyone tell you that ur crazy because your not... only you can feel whats going on in ur body no one else...
this website is what saved me and the girls on here were so supportive !!!
<<<< LISA if your still around id love to know how your doing>>>>
so please read all the postings on here and stay off yasmin!!! you will be ur old self again its just gonna take time...

lots of hugs to you
chrissy xoxoxox

hair loss on arms and legs, aching pain in arms and legs as if bruised but I am not, anxiety while driving or just anxious period. The the usual everyone else has postsed: queasy, lethargic, depressed, no interest in exercise or romance, withered skin and dehydrated. Been on Yasmin for 6 months - have switched today to Desogen.