Yasmin and being a nurse

HEART PALPITATIONS
After a year on Yasmin, I developed heart palpitations. They first began occurring at night, while lying in bed, then progressed to the point that my heart no longer had normal beats. My heart was fluttering constantly. My OBGYN said that arrhythmia due to Yasmin is "impossible", and a $1,200 work-up by a noted cardiologist ruled that my problem was due to "emotions". Just 10 days after quitting Yasmin, my heart beat returned to normal, and I have not had one heart palpitation since.

Silke
Hi, BitterRN again. I dont believe your gyn either. What you are coming to realize is what all of us in the medical field already know, and its scary, but all doctors do not have the same knowledge in all fields of medicine. That is why experts always push second opinions all the time in hopes that the second time you will run into someone who has more knowledge and experience in your particular problem. I know this because I see it everyday, please believe me, and EVERY WOMAN ON THIS SITE PLEASE KNOW THIS: A doctor is only as good as he continues to strive to be. As far as hormones go a gyn has limited knowledge about them exept that the normal ranges fall between here and here as printed on the lab report, if your labs fall in the normal even if normal is 0.3 to 4.4 if your lab comes back 0.3 well thats normal right? BUT IT IS NOT NORMAL, normal for an 80 year old maybe, but not a young woman. So only if that gyn has taken a particular interest in hormones, gone to many seminars, read many books about them, interacted with experts on hormones, will they even know to flag this as abnormal and further investigate it. They will tell you everything is fine and by process of elimination its all in your head. ITS NOT. Even being a nurse I was told this and it infuriated me. Thats why I seeked Dr after Dr until I found one who could help me. Rarely do you find a Dr. who will say hey Silke, Im just not sure about these labs or Im not really an expert on hormones so maybe you should seek out another opinion or sometimes they really think they are right because thats what they have always told patients for the 20yrs they have been practicing and so your just depressed or crazy, but we all know that medicine changes rapidly, year to year, so if they dont keep up, they just keep treating with "old methods", because thats the way its always been done.
Sorry to get on my soapbox Silke I just get so frustrated! That is why I gave you the name of that Dr. in Spain because I knew that he was an expert on hormones. I know Spain is far!:( I even tried to google Dr's in Europe who are experts in hormones with no results.
So yes when you call your doctors office ask for copies of this lab report (You have a right to your medical records) they may make you sign a release for them and go to the office to get them that how they do it in the U.S. Anyway tell them you want a copy of ALL of your lab reports from this visit AND the visits where you had the labs done a long time ago. This way we can compare what they were last time. I would even be willing to ask my doctor here if she thinks your levels are too low and maybe you should get another opinion. She may even have some leads of Dr.s there who can really help, as she attends many seminars where experts gather worldwide.
OK Silke, Ill let you go, sorry for the long post....again:)
BitterRN

Dear worried,
Hi. I am writing to you because you sound like my wonderful caring mother, I too have had a horrible experience with yasmin. However, I am 33 yrs old. I took birth control pills for 14 yrs. with no side effects have been through 2 pregnancies and restarted the pill with no problems. I have always, and my mother would tell you this, always been a Happy go lucky person...until I started to take Yasmin Sept. of last year. I switched from ortho novum to Yasmin because the ob I went to see thought it would help with some stomach problems I was complaining about (turns out I had low Iron and just needed some Iron supplements) but I had already started taking the Yasmin.. so I stayed on them. Let me tell you this... I am a registered nurse, have been for 14 years, I was self confident, self assured and always self reliant.. until I took Yasmin. I started to get panick attacks, which I NEVER ever suffered from my entire life. I became depressed, moody, insecure, and scared to death, these symptoms were only things I had read about out of a text book, I thought I knew what depression was from nursing school books, boy I had NO idea how bad it could be. I really thought I was going crazy. It took me three months on that pill to finally realize it was the pill! I only stumbled upon this realization because I ran into another aquaintance who had a bad experience with Yasmin, and had friends who also had bad experiences with Yasmin. She described the same symptoms I and your daughter have experienced.

Being a nurse, I have dove head first into literature and books on hormones. I have also spent Lots of money on tests and doctors visits, many of whom tried to put me on anti-depressants. But I would not take them, because I KNEW my body. I knew I was NOT depressed with life in general. I KNEW that the Yasmin and all of its horrible side effects was what was making me depressed and anti depressants would not help my underlying problem. Dont get me wrong, lots of women on this website get some relief from them, and if that works for them thats great, but I stuck it out, and it took a while but finally the depression lifted and I began to feel more like my normal self. I know your wondering how long?

Let me just say that with all the reading and information I have gathered this is my best guess..
There are many different bcp, and some have more androgenic (male hormone effects) and some have more estrogen effects. There are many different types of women with different body chemistrys for example lets take
Curvy type-full breasts, no facial or body hair, more body fat (Has more estrogen in her chemistry)
Althletic type-althletic build, more muscular build,prone to facial hair, has some body hair (Has more testosterone/androgens in her chemistry)
We all have estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in our chemistry, but based on the woman own personal chemistry, each of our bodies seems to be different in how much we make and which is more dominant.
So if you give an athletic type person, much like I was, an estrogen based pill, which is what Yasmin is, then it only makes sense that you are going to feel bad. Because this is nowhere near your bodies normal. When I was on the ortho novum, a more androgenic pill, I never felt any of the HORRIBLE symptoms I felt on Yasmin. And guess what, on the yasmin, my breasts grew larger and my facial and body hair dissappeared. It sounds like a good thing but its not, I also lost muscle mass, got itchy dry skin, dry hair, wrinkles, and soo much more I could go on and on.
The thing that seems to be the trend with me and the others on this website is that for some of the girls you get immediate relief when stopping the yasmin, for some as well as myself, you get relief and then it goes down hill again, especially the week before and sometimes on your period and this will cycle month after month and it is a process that takes several months. If this happens she will get discouraged and depressed again, some of the symptoms will come and go, but keep reminding her she will feel better.
My hope is that because your daughter is so young and producing so many hormones right now, her hormonal balance will get right back on track quickly. For those of us in our 30's and up I believe it takes much longer because we do not produce as much of the hormones, including the "mother" hormones like DHEA which converts into testosterone and progesterone, because we make less and less of this hormone as we enter our late 20's and early thirties and age. This may explain why it takes some of us so long to feel better and others feel better right away.
It may also have to do with how long you have been on it, but Im not sure.
Another thing, and Im sorry to write a book, but I have also learned that bcp work by first bottoming out ALL of your natural hormones and then replacing them with synthetic ones (the pill). When you go off the pill, as in my case, your hormones I believe bottom out again and then your body has to replace them again. This can be more difficult for an aging woman.
One more interesting side note:
Testosterone is responsible for a whole lot very important things in your body. Sex drive being one of the main ones but it is so much more than that. If you read any book on testosterone, Suzanne Somers The sexy years is a good one you will find that it is so important for all of your body organs, the mind, and even in aging. I know that I feel a hundred years old when mine is low and only when it starts to go up did I start to feel like my old self.
Also, they have found that testosterone which is suppressed during pregnancy, sometimes does not come back up after birth in some women. Some women need a boost to get it back up and I wonder if this is what brings on post partum depression. The bcp can do the same thing after being on it a while the body may forget how to make it.
I think anyone still having side effects after stopping the pill should get their hormones tested and see if they are low or high in something. Keep in mind that hormones are about balance. Once your hormones are completely balanced again you will probably start to feel better.

So I think your daughter feels better because she stopped the Yasmin and I would not go on any bcp for a few months and then see how she feels (keep taking the vitamins and eating well and lots of water) she may even be able to quit the lexapro. I would definitely suspect the pill if the depression started when she started taking bcp (whatever type) Probably due to hormonal imbalance which she will probably get from any pill. There are other options out there besides bcp. I hear marena (sp?) is an implant in the uterus that releases progesterone (to block pregnancy) but the hormone does not circulate the blood system. She might want to check out other options with her OB.
Anyway feel free to write back. I hope this helps some of the other women on this site as well. We are all just trying to understand what is going on with our bodies. And please ladies, all these "weird" symptoms you keep writing about and asking do you think this can be related to the pill? I think YES. To all of them. Because knowing what I have read about hormones and how important and intricate the balance achieves in our bodies to maintain our health and sense of well being, then yes messing with this balance can wreak havoc of all kinds. Each body is responding in its own different way and it is going to take time to get back on track.
And YES mood swings are a BIG part of it. The hormones seem to go up and down. Not a steady climb as this can be discouraging at times!
I wish you all the best and keep your heads up. It will get better.
Last but not least the Yasmin is the only bcp that has dsrp in it (the diuretic part of the pill) I cant quite put my finger on it but I feel this "unique" part of this pill may be the part of the problems we all experience. Im sure its why some of the girls on this site have to urinate a lot as that is what a diuretic does. I would not recommend this pill to anyone.

Hi tashbash7 18027
I saw three differnent OB's and 2 of them said no way the pill could cause this finally the last one said of course it could cause all your symptoms, what works for one person is hell for another. I know that not all doctors know everything there is to know about every medication. They get these fancy drug reps in their office bringing fancy gifts and telling them to use their new miracle drugs because they can do this and that. Some doctors only know what the reps tell them about the drug unless they do their own research(not likely) and even if they did do research on it, they are not going to find the symptoms we are all describing, because most of them are not in the packet insert info. which is about all the info. i found on the web about yasmin. Except that it is on the worst drug list because they say there is no reason to be taking it because the other bcp do what they are supposed to. I agree, if I had known that Yasmin had spirinolactone in it (its the ONLY bcp that does) I would not have taken it. If i had seen this website, i would not have taken it. Imagine how stupid i feel being a nurse and having this happen to me. I could just kick myself for not researching it first. I should know better, but I thought all bcp were basically the same. Our OB's dropped the ball too when they didnt explain the "difference" and possible additional side effects. But I feel they dont know about the side effects we are feeling because the drug is still too new. We are the experts girls, not the doctors, because we are the ones who have/are taking it. You cannot tell the guinea pigs what they are feeling is not real because the money hungry drug company who never ingested so much as one little white pill SAYS thats not a side effect! What you are feeling IS real. I experienced for the first time in my life what real depression feels like. The doctors?! The cold hard truth is that most of them either dont research, or more important LISTEN TO THEIR PATIENTS. WE are the experts, not them. Dont let them make you feel like you are crazy, because you are not. And the last OB I saw (a female) even told me that as well, that I am not crazy or imagining my symptoms, that the pill can cause all these symptoms, and that it will take a couple of cycles for everything to get back to normal, but that none of the changes should be permanent. I believe what makes one doctor evaluate different from another is experience with a particular drug, personality and the ability to think further than whats just in front of them (ie, it doesnt say it can do that so it cant), and just LISTENING which believe me, A LOT of doctors just do not have this skill. If the ones who told you no your crazy logged onto this site and read all of these similar complaints would they rethink their answer, would they even take the time, would they even care? FEW would and some would not thats the cold hard truth. I know my body just as you all know yours and you can feel when there is something wrong with it thats why I kept refusing the antidepressants they were trying to put me on. I noticed around about Jan. 14th that heavy black cloud sitting in my head lifted and I started to feel better emotionally, though I still have spells of depression but not nearly as heavy or lasting as long. Dont get me wrong if anti depressants are helping you that is great, I personally just didnt want to chance extra side effects on top of the million side effects i was already experiencing. The headaches have really disappeared for the most part as well but they were terrible. My skin is still changing every day its starting to get oily and pulmp again and my hair is falling out less and less. Its been 3 months off the Yasmin, things are getting better slowly. Sometimes it feels like one step forward two steps back, but just hang in there, it does get better. Write me. This website is good therapy.

OMG! So I'm not crazy after all! I'm 43 been on Yasmin just a little over a year now for ovarian cyst. I've been experiencing chronic headaches thinking it was allergy related. So I've been living on Motrin, Aleve, Claritin, Tylenol for months now....not even touching my headache pain now. In the past I usually have maybe one migraine per year. I've already had 3 this year! I've also experience chest pain....being a nurse I've tried to ignore it (you know how medical people are!) ha! ..... didn't occur to me until reading the post others have had chest pain caused by yasmin.
When I suggest to my husband (he's a physician) that I thought the yasmin was causing headaches he promptly blew me off. >:(
I was 2 days into a new cycle when I discontinued taking them... I hope my libido goes back to normal...it's been completely gone! PMS is much worse taking yasmin, I'm very moody and feel more anxious. Also experienced vaginal dryness taking Yasmin.
I"m so glad I stopped taking Yasmin! It's only been 5 days and I can already tell the vaginal dryness is better but still have a headache though... someone told me it takes a few weeks for it to completely go away.

:)