Yasmin and drug companies

Hmmm.

My advice to all is to go see your doctor and discuss this with your doctor.
A doctor can help you much more than a bunch of postings over the internet.

I took Yasmin for 4 years and had no issues. I gained a little more weight, but considering everything else it did to help me with the PCOS, that is okay.

I took myself off of the pill for nearly 3 years because I was mad at my OBGYN for never being in the office so I stopped going.

I recently started the Yasmin again and I am glad.

Yasmin is mostly designed for women with PCOS or who need estrogen supplements. Yasmin is not for everybody. You should discuss this with your doctor to determine if Yasmin is right for you.

Hi, I was searching on the internet for potential emotional and hormonal side effects to Yasmin because I started taking it 2 weeks and 2 days ago, noticing immediate changes in my physiological and emotional state. The advice nurse of my OBGYN stated that my side effects seemed extreme in comparison to the stated side effects the company warns against. I am so glad to have found other women experiencing similar things.

From the beginning I have experienced nausea daily. I developed severe cystic acne within the first week. My appetite shrunk considerably. I began feeling some shortness of breath and have consistent sleep disturbance. I feel as if there is some type of electric current running through my legs. I guess we could call that anxiety. My body temperature has shifted drastically and out of nowhere I have hot flashes but am only 29 years old. My emotional state is in constant flux. I can be laughing one moment and crying the next.

At the start of the 2nd week I woke up in the middle of the night, looked at my fiance, and decided I wasn't in love with him. In fact, I wanted him to get away from me completely. It was at that point I realized that the only change in my routine had been the addition of Yasmin. I am highly irritable and headaches come on daily towards the end of the day.

I was advised to at least finish this first month cycle if not a full three months. I have just this week to get through before the placebo pills kick in. I will be switching back to Levlen which was good to me for 14 years. I only switched because I had been on the same pill for so long but I am convinced now that if your hormonal balance is right, one should not mess with that. I hope I will not have much transition time before feeling normal again. In addition, I hope that some of these drug companies start disclosing the potential emotional and physiological side effects to changing one's hormonal balance.

Yasmin should be taken off the market. I had GI bleeding, and when I discontinued taking Yasmin, my body went into Post Partem depression. My heart began beating irregularly, my adrenals got messed up, my thyroid, and my progesterone and testasterone were almost non existent. I felt like I was going crazy. I have been off of it for 1 year now, and by the grace of God I am healed. It has been the biggest nightmare that almost cost me my lif. No more women should have to have their bodies messed up. Our endocrine system is so delicate, and it runs our bodies. This pill messes it up. The damage is severe. I am not alone. Let's get it off the market. There is no need for it. Ortho Novum was just fine-if there is such a thing. This pill is evil. No more woman being hurt by drug companies. We are not test mice.

I was on Yasmin for 5 years. Ages 20-25. During that time, i had bed-soaking night sweats and hot flashes. I also had ulcerative colitis- a pre-existing condition which was exacerbated by this poison.
In June, after nearly 5 years, my hair started to fall out. That was it for me. I went into an extreme downward spiral of depression. Not to be vain, but I was devastated. In August 2005, exactly 5 years to the month, I stopped taking it.
I completely lost my appetite and cried for a week. Since then I have felt MUCH better but am SOOOOO hungry and have gained about 6-10 pounds. My hair is finally starting to grow back!! And i'm just generally calmer. No more sweating either. HOWEVER, i never had a zit in my entire LIFE until going off of Yasmin. I dont even know what to do with them.
I've only gotten my period twice in the 6 months since going off of Yasmin and both times, my cramps were not as bad as when I was on it. How ironic.
I plan to have bloodwork done soon just to make sure everything is ok but was told by my doctor that it can take a year for the pill to be completely out of your system.
Please let me know if anyone is having similar experiences. Anyone been off for longer than 6 months?
And why do women have to be the guinea pigs for drug companies to experiment on? I'm sure they did a lot more tests for the side effects of viagra before they would allow a man to take it.

I feel your pain, ladies! I had been on Yasmin before for several months with no side effects, so in February I went back on it. I gained about 5 lbs that month, and just didn't want to deal with the weight gain.

So when the month ran out, I stopped taking it. I gained 35 lbs in 6 weeks!!! I changed nothing about my diet and exercise during that time, so I know it was the Yasmin.

Here it is November and I've lost about 7 lbs of it. I can't change calories or exercise too much because I gain 3-5 lbs in a day. All I know is that it will take time for your body to stabilize, so hang in there.

I get so frustrated with drug companies and doctors only talking to each other, and not listening enough to patients who complain of these side effects. My blood pressure spiked from the weight gain, as did my glucose and cholesterol, which have always been low since I was 6ft tall and 155 lbs (now 189-192.) Just keep speaking up!

I am so unbelievably thankful that I found this website. I started feeling depressed about a month ago. It has gradually gotten worse to the point where I feel like I have nothing to look forward to in life. This is not my natural state of mind. I have ALWAYS been a very upbeat, optimistic person. A few days ago I started thinking that my depression coincided with the stopping of my Yasmin. I had been on Yasmin for 4 years and loved it except for the fact that it has, especially in the past year almost diminished my sex drive. (I guess a bc pill will be foolproof if you never, ever want sex.) So I stopped taking it, 2 weeks later my sex drive came back but depression started. I decided to search the web for Yasmin info and found this site. I was amazed at the number of women with the exact symtoms as me. I was also relieved to know that it is not me but the drug causing it. Also very angry at the drug companies that make this drug. Now that I've ranted...my main reason for posting is to let everyone know that I immediately went to see my Dr. who is wonderful. She was very concerned and agreed 100% that it is the Yasmin causing my problems. She told me to buy some Primrose oil, flaxseed oil & phytoestrogen supplements (these all come in capsule form)..these all help regulate your hormones naturally. She did not want to give me anti-anxiety meds because it will just cause more negative side effects down the road. I have only been taking them for 2 days now but feel better and less depressed already. It could be these supplements or just the fact that I am doing something positive to help my situation, whichever it is I'm glad it's working. If you haven't tried these it may be worth it.

I took Yasmin for only 10 days. In that time I

felt nauseous almost every day (each time i ate)

had constant terrible anxiety from day 2 on it. I could feel it in my chest the whole time

had constant breakdowns. I cried up to 30 times a day for no reason.

basically i wanted to die.

I have been on many different pills and never experienced any emotional side effects. I have no history of depression or anxiety.

I think this pill is dangerous and people need to know about it. When I went into a family planning clinic to tell them my predicament and ask them the best way to go off birth control after taking it for so many years, they said that Yasmin is not first line of birth control because of the side effects, but drug reps are hitting the advertising hard and doctors are not really educated about it.

The (non-biased, drug rep free) family planning clinic changed my pill mid cycle 2 get me off Yasmin. I cried once the day they changed it (over the whole situation i have been dealing with) and have felt totally calm since then. No nausea, no breakdowns, no anxiety.

I have posted warnings on other forums. Please spread the word about your experiences because I really feel the side effects are bad enough that they could end in a suicide for someone.

It is time that people recognize that drug companies are not honest and can really downplay the side effects.

-Rayann

I too was a Yasmin guinea pig. Guess the drug companies had my OB/GYN conviced that Yasmin was the latest, greatest thing 2 years ago. I had been diagnosed with polycystic ovaries and had all the lousy stuff that accompanies it, such as horrible skin and hirsutism and was told Yasmin was the best bc pill available to alleviate my symptoms. At first I thought it was great, I lost quite a bit of weight, which was always hard to keep off with the Orhto-Tri Cyclen. My skin improved as well. But after 3 months, I would get a yeast infection every single month, always the Friday before my period started! And I am someone who very rarely has had a yeast infection. Then I noticed my hair was falling out by the root, I had to constantly sweep it from my bathroom floor! The last straw was when I nearly had somekind of a mental breakdown after ongoing extreme depression. I didn't know what the heck was going on and two doctors that I talked to just shrugged me off. I finally made the connection when I got my precription filled at a different pharmacy and read the new drug info regarding the side effects. These included hair loss, yeast infections and emotional problems. Why this wasn't included in the drug info when I initially had the Rx filled is maddening, perhaps when the drug was new these side effects were not known. I am bitter about being subjected to the effects of this new drug, bitter about all the hair I lost but grateful I stopped in time before I committed suicide, which I felt very close to doing! I am now back on the Ortho Tri-Cyclen, which isn't ideal, but not nearly as dangerous as the evil Yasmin. To this day I don't think my doctors believe me because the drug companies have them under their spell and maybe the kickbacks are just too tempting. I am glad this website exists to warn others not to take it!