Yasmin and gradually

When a class action lawsuit is filed, let me know....this drug should be taken of off the market immediately. We started all of this with an OB/GYN that prescribed this “miracle pill” and now have had to go not only to our primary doctor, but also a psychiatrist, gastrenologist, college campus counselors, psychologists, psychiatrist, and the campus medical doctors; All the while, accumulating enormous doctor bills. All the doctors say, "No, Yasmin won't cause those problems" (except the college campus doctors..wonder why? Hmm.. could it be that they are not in private practice?)....well, I beg to differ. Everyone needs to give this website to their doctor so the doctors can hear from the patients that have taken this drug, and not listen to the pharmaceutical companies that are pushing this drug to be the "miracle pill". Maybe if enough people complain and go to the media, we can get rid of this drug!
My daughter who is 18 was put on Yasmin because of irregular periods, hormonal imbalance, etc. We were told it was the new “miracle pill”. It will make you loose weight, regulate your periods, clear up acne, you name it, it will fix it. Yeah, right.
She started taking this pill in March 2007. She was off at college but called to tell me she was experiencing horrible headaches, behind the eyes. She complained about her stomach hurting, but we just figured it was the stress of freshman year at college. Then she said she got where she couldn’t eat when she went to a restaurant. When she came home in May for the summer, I noticed a total personality change. For example, she was always a neat freak, and now she wouldn’t clean her room. The first day when she drove home, she started crying she was so mad about the traffic. Yes, she has always had a little road rage, but this was ridiculous.
By June, not only could she not be in crowds, like at a restaurant, but now she is having full blown panic attacks and IBS. We called the OBGYN and they said, “Yasmin won’t cause this, go see your primary doctor”. I knew that the only thing that had changed with her was taking the YASMINE. I knew it had something to do with all of this so I “Googled Yasmin” and this website (http://www.medications.com/se/yasmin) was the first one I looked at. All of her symptoms matched everyone else’s! I am so glad we found this website, it explained everything and I had her to stop Yasmin immediately.
So we went to the primary doctor, explained about the Yasmin and how we thought it was the culprit of everything. Of course this doctor also says, “Yasmin won’t cause that”. We told him to look it up on the internet and see how there are over 3000 complaints on this drug, more than any of the other drugs on the market.
Besides the emotional problems she starting having, her pulse and blood pressure was sky high, so he puts her on medicine for that, and puts her on an anxiety medicine and sends her to a psychiatrist. She is very thirsty all the time, and develops IBS. She can’t eat without having pains in her stomach. So, now we’ve have gone from having just irregular periods, to all of the above, plus a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist doubles her medicine (and puts her Pamine for the IBS) because the panic attacks are gone, but she still is having a lot of nervousness, anxiety, can’t sleep at night, crazy thoughts, worrying all the time, etc. A month later he changes her medicine again, to Effexor. The first 2 weeks, she does okay, but the packet doubles the strength after 2 weeks. It takes 4 weeks for it to take full effect. Right after she doubles this medicine, it is like her senses are on hyper-mode. She can taste everything that is in her food (chili powder, seasonings, etc…), taste the metal in water, and she can hear someone’s phone vibrating, in another room.
Then she goes back to college at the end of August 2007, and it’s horrible. The Effexor is having bad, bad side effects. We called the psychiatrist that she was using at home and he doubled the dose. That was the worse thing they could’ve done. The side effects were worse than ever. I had her to immediately go to a psychiatrist on campus. She told him the whole story and he believed her! Needless to say we switched doctors. He then lowered her dose back down to ½ a dose and hopefully can slowly get her off of all this medicine.
The newest thing she has developed is being hypoglycemic. The campus psychiatrist sent her to a campus medical doctor and he told her that they would get to the bottom of this. He tested her for everything under the sun. Low blood sugar is the only thing they found. But, she hasn’t taken the Yasmin since May. No telling what the results would have came back like if it was done at the time she was taking Yasmin.
Thank goodness she has counselors and doctors there at the campus that believes that Yasmin can cause all of these problems, and are working with her. From what I have read from the people that have used this medicine, although most doctors do not agree, Yasmin takes like 6 months to get out of your system. I think I am going to believe the testimonials of the people who take this medicine, over a doctor who prescribes it.
If everyone goes to the media, their doctors, the FDA, congressmen, and make them aware of these horrible effects, surely we can get this drug off of the market! Does anyone know a class action lawyer that would pursue this? For my child to have to go through all of this is ridiculous, not to mention costly. What do we know of the long term effects this drug will have if it is doing all of this when you first start taking it?
If you have the same concerns as me about this drug, and would be interested in looking into a class action lawsuit, please email: ****** I would be interested to see how many would want to pursue this.

Hello,

I read about how YAZ birth control pill affects the body and psych and I am now scared. This is my 2nd day of YAZ (I've never been on birth control pills ever and I am 27 years old), it's all new to me but after reading all these negative posts about Yaz I don't know what to do. Before the birth control pills, I was depressed, annoying, serious weight problems - 210 lbs :~~((, low energy, low libido, always tired, terrible migraines every 2nd day, ridiculously increased appetite and excessive hunger, hair where it shouldn't be, menstrual blood clots, excessive cramping etc
I have all these problems for 3 years now and now that the family doc. put me on YAZ birth control pill I am even more scared - mainly of more weight gain, it would be a tragedy for me, I am fat enough already and what's worse I can't lose the weight, exercise doesn't help, diet doesn't help, NOTHING. Will YAZ birth control pill worsen my already tragic condition? I just don't know what to do and what to believe ... I appreciate any advice or help you can give me ... Thank You to all!

To Guest 35725 and Others,

4.5 years long time but what's so great is that you are getting off of it! One step is the first in a journey. I was on it for 2.5 years and now off for 3.5 months, slowly seeing changes though I still have chest pains. I've already had an EKG that confirmed a heart murmur but other than that, I haven't pursued further medical testing because I am on major medical and the pains have been gradually subsiding.

What I can't believe, is that your Doc and all the other ladies' docs on this site don't attribute all the many problems this pill causes. When we read the size 3 font in the accompanying medical brochure, it outlines all these risks or many of them! Depression is one of them! The pill messes with serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain. That's why!

I am so sorry everything you have been experiencing. i do wonder whether for women who have had children, the symptoms and troubles are that much more intense due to the changes in hormones following child birth???

I don't have anything positive to say about this pill except for the weight loss. And that, as enticing as it is today with all the hoo hah about being thin isn't worth the terrible havoc this pill takes on one's health.

Please, report your side effects to the government as well as to the manufacturer of Yasmin.

Unless you do, and document them, this site, now at almost 3000 entries will only grow, more women will suffer and this pill won't come off of the market for years, and years and years!

Best wishes to you for well being. Be gentle with yourself.

To the gals who seem to be losing hope: I've been off of the Yasmin for almost three months and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again! My cycle has gotten back to normal (25-28 days) and the anxiety I was experiencing right around my period each month is gradually lessening. I am optimistic that it's only a matter of time.

I opted NOT to get on ANY medication to help with the mental aspects of withdrawal/weaning: I take vitamins!!!! Hang in there guys...

Hello everybody.
I am hoping that somebody here will be able to answer my question.
I have also had terrible problems after taking yasmin for 4 years. I stopped taking it about 9 months ago. I have gradually been feeling better but have been undergoing hormone testing because of terrible pms and a short cycle.
I had my first hormone testing done at the beginning of this cycle. It was done on day 3 and all the results were normal. However the second part of the test was done on day 7 after i ovulated. This test was for progesterone and estradiol. I got the results today. The progesterone level is 37 and estradiol level is 257.
I spoke to the nurse at the practice and she said they were low. I wont have an appointment with the doctor to discuss the results until next week. When i look it up on the internet i cannot get any definite answers as to what this means.
I hope there is somebody here that can help me.
I am afraid i have been left with some permanent damage after yasmin.
I dread to think what this means.
Does anybody know.
Please reply if you can help me as right now i feel i have gone back to the days immediately after stopping yasmin.
Thanks in advance
murph70

Hi Katyh,
I was on yasmin for over 4 years and suffered all the symptoms you listed. I also had the same response from my doctor. Although my previous doctor refused to prescribe yasmin for me because she was not comfortable with it. I wish i had listened to her. I am off it now for about 8 months and am feeling much better. It takes some time but you will be glad you stopped taking yasmin. I decided not to take any hormonal contraceptives ever again as i feel my body has been through enough. If you believe you will get rid of these bad side-effects then you will. Just try to look after yourself for the next few months and gradually you will be ok again. Surely soon the medical profession will have to sit up and take notice of all the things that are happening to women while on this pill. Not to mention the withdrawal side-effects. I wish you the best of luck and good health.
Murph70

I too have suffered sever side effects from yasmin.

Has anyone thought of ever seeing if they can gradually reduce the dose instead of abrubtly going off them? It only seems to make sense to me that this would help with some of the side effects of the withdrawls. I know lots of medications that you have to gradually reduce dosage or the side effects can be severe. I would think this would be especially true for hormonal drugs such as birth control?

I want to stop taking my Yasmin and birth control all together, but knowing how this drug has effected me while taking it, I have to believe my body will be thrown all out of whack when I stop and I am considering a gradual reduction in dosage, maybe taking only half or taking it every other day since there is no "prescribed" method out there to do so?

Has anyone tried this or have any thoughts on this they can share?

hi abs528.
i also had terrible panic attacks and constant anxiety as well as really scary thoughts and dreams, i thought i was crazy too (still might be have only been off yasmin for 9 days!) i'm not sure how long it takes for the panic attacks to go away, i think now you have had them you will have to learn a good technique to difuse them, i have to keep telling myself that they will not harm me even though they feel awful,try to distract your mind,i sing songs or count really quickly and the best but hardest piece of advice is to not be scared of them,if you are not scared then you will not react the way you do and the panic attacks will gradually go away. I promise you i know how it feels,i felt like i had gone insane,i took yasmin for 1.5 years and thought it was great but then after 6 months things started to get bad,i was diagnosed with panic disorder and given diazepam but that made me worse, i decided to face it head on and it has been working but it is hard and i have good and bad days,hopefully now i have stopped the yasmin it will ease up a bit,please post your progress on this site whether it be good or bad as it may help another poor soul who is going through the same thing. in the mean time get yourself some magnesium as a definciency in this mineral came make your symptoms worse also drink as much water as you can to detox your system. you should get your period in a few days and hopefully you will start to feel better. best wishes to you...and remember you are NOT crazy!

Hi ladies--just an update:
after I stopped taking Yasmin, I went without any pills for a month and steadily got better. I only had a migraine once after the initial two week withdrawal. After one month, I stared Nuvaring (today, I started month 2 on it). I have not had any anxiety or panic attacks for over a month. I do feel my heart racing every once in a while still, but I think that if I managed to cut down the caffeine, those will stop as well. My BP went down significantly within a month after going off Yasmin.

I still feel fatigued, but I think now it's just my hectic schedule. I have no trouble falling asleep anymore (I would lay in bed for hours while on the pill). I feel EXTREME thirst sometimes since goinf off, like one other person posted. I can chug a half-gallon and still be thirsty, but that is gradually getting better.

To answer the question about detoxing--I went through a two-week detox after stopping Yasmin, with vitamin and herbal supplements, an immense amount of water and teas, no caffeine, no meat, etc. It helped me tremendously and it accelerated my getting better, I strongly recommend it.

Good luck to you all.

Hello everyone,

I am so glad to have found this website. This has been the BEST therapy ever... to know that I'm not alone in this. I started taking Yasmin on Jan 1, 2006. To give you some background, I am 27 years old and have always been very healthy. This was the 1st bcp I had ever taken... and what a nightmare it has turned out to be. Within weeks of taking the first pill, my heart would race a mile a minute, I had some shortness of breath, a complete lack of appetite, I was dizzy and sometimes felt like I was in a fog... in short, I was a shadow of myself. I think i gradually got depressed b/c I was so frustrated from feeling like total crap. Finally, i couldn't take it anymore and quit taking the pill (mid-pack) about 6 weeks after I started. I immediately began to feel better. However, a week or so after quitting cold turkey, I started to have some headaches (nothing major) and still feel dizzy and experience shortness of breath from time to time. I still don't feel 100%... I've been off Yasmin for 3 weeks now.

How long did it take you all to feel normal again? I was only on this awful pill for 6 weeks and I feel like it's completely wrecked my hormonal balance. Suffice it to say, I will NEVER recommend Yasmin to anyone!!!! They need to take it off the market. My OB has recommended I use Mircette/Kariva, which has a lower dose of estrogen. I'm not going to take it until my body is back to normal...

Any thoughts would be much appreciated! Thank you, girls, for your support. We WILL get through this!!

I've been taking Yasmin for almost a month. Although I am sad and depressed all the time, I just connected it with that my serious relationship with my boyfriend is gradually, painstakingly coming to an end. I will be leaving for college in a couple of weeks and am sad to leave family and friends. These are all things I would naturally be upset about, but my mother tells me that there's a constant cloud over my head. I've read other postings and can relate to others' symptoms. I am just sad all the time. I leave my tv on at nights so I can have some other kind of "noise". I can usually fall asleep in 10-15 mintutes, but lately when I'm lying down in complete silence, I analyze everything I'm depressed about (namely my boyfriend) to where I can't go to sleep for hours. I had nausea for the first week or so. I found that if I ate breakfest before hand, it was better. Speaking of food, I have no appetite. I actually become nauseated from not eating, but when I go to eat, I feel like I'll throw up if I take a second bite. Clothes are fitting better, but I have no energy from not eating.

The same life routine irregularities (sp?) are what happens when I become depressed about certain issues, so it's difficult for me to differentiate what's natural for me and what is caused by the pill. Insight anyone???

ok, i am warning you in advance that this is kinda long, but i wanted to explain a little rather than just list how i was affected. the effects happened gradually at first and then all of a sudden got worse.

i was on yasmin for just over 2 years. i started taking it shortly before i got married and at first i noticed that i hated everyone and everything around me but figured that it was due to starting a BCP for the first time. after a month, i was ok.

about last year april, my father in law who is a gynecologist said that continually taking the active pills would be ok and then every 3 packs or so to stop and have a period. ok fine, that is what i did. i thought things were fine until july when i noticed that i was starting to have all this hate towards my husband yet i still loved him. i thought it was just stress from us both trying to finish school, me working full time and him not working. around august, i got a bit happier. not sure why. during the rest of the year, from september throuogh december, i went back and forth in my head trying to figure out why i was so mad and depressed all the time...was it me? or my husband? or just life in general?my family and feriends could see that i was no longer happy and just wasn't the angel they knew. i seriously considered leaving my husband because i thought it was all stress because of him. fortunately, i decided to wait until january to see how i felt then. i didnt want to just hurry up and get divorced only to regret it later.

january came and i got worse. i started crying because i didnt know what to do. i almost lost my job because they didnt like me "coming to work with all my 'home' problems". they didnt think i kept work and home separate. around february is when i noticed the nausea thing. my husband and i went to target one night and ate some pizza before doing our shopping. while we were wandering around, i felt extremely sick. i either had to sit down right now in the middle of the aisle or go to the bathroom. this happened a few times so i blamed it on the greasy pizza - maybe my stomach couldn't handle it anymore.

i found this site last week monday. i took my pill that morning but havent taken one since. after reading all the problems other people had been experiencing, i knew i had to stop. i started talking to a friend about it; she said to stop. so did my husband. i called my sister who was also on yasmin. she stopped. things from the past year all started to make sense. things i never even considered would be caused by taking yasmin every day. having me and my sister both on it probably made a lot of people in our lives wonder why we were so crazy. as i read through this site, i realized just how many things in my life were being affected. the symptoms/side effects i noticed are:

depression
extremely bad headaches (in the back of my head)
hair loss
dry skin
no sex drive (at all)
anxiety
severe mood swings (i've always been moody but never borderline psychotic!)
start crying for no reason (i used to never cry and my friends thought i was incapable of showing emotions!)
insecurity (especially about weight)
weight gain (25 lbs in 2 yrs -no change in eating habits)
inability to concentrate/cloudy thinking
diarrhea
abdominal pains (especially after eating)
sudden food intolerances i didnt have before
very bitchy
night sweats
dry itchy nose
unexplained memory loss
swelling of hands and feet (aka edema if you come across that word!)
dizziness
blurred vision
constant achy feeling
extrelmey sensitive
dehydration
no motivation
insomnia (i've NEVER had a problem sleeping!)
constant worrying
vaginal dryness/pain during sex
heartburn

Reading abck on all of this, i must seem like one of those people that thinks they have every sickness in the world, but I AM NOT LYING. Yasmin affected me in a very bad way. It took a year for me to start noticing any symptoms, so to all of you who after 1 week or 1 month say that everything is fine, it was the same with me (for the most part). if you give it time, it will affect you too. as for me, i am never going on another BCP. i just dont like the idea of putting extra hormones in my body. if you think back to being a teenager when your hormones start going all crazy on their own it only makes sense that adding more later on wouldn't be a good thing.

as i am off yasmin for more time, i will post which symptoms are improving and which arent. And I will try to keep them shorter!

thank you for reading and best of luck :)

angel

Hi everyone,

I took Yasmin for about two years, with increasing severe side effects that finally caused me switch to another brand. Everything was fine for the first few months or so, then gradually I started experiencing symptoms that I would normally link to PMS, but I was having them all throughout the month. Each month it got worse and worse until I'd finally had enough.

My GYN repeatedly told me it was just taking my body a while to adjust to the medication, and to try to wait it out because I'd really like it once I got used to it, but after two years I figured I had waited long enough. It shouldn't take that long for my body to adjust!

I've been off Yasmin for about three months now and I have had a dramatic reduction in the symptoms I had been experiencing for about a year and a half. As I've previously said, my symptoms didn't appear all at once, but built up gradually over the course of several months. Specifically, my symptoms were:

*Extremely oily skin and really bad acne on my chest, back and face. When I say really bad, I mean it was worse than when I went thru puberty, which was pretty bad. The pimples on my face in particular were very deep and painful cystic acne, which is something I had not experienced before. I also broke out in weird places like my neck, around my ears and eyes and on my head (under my hair). And one time just inside my nostril. Ouch! I tried everything, including a dermatologist who advised Accutane (which I declined), nothing helped.

*My hair was also a lot oilier than normal. I didn't notice any thinning of the hair on my head, but I did notice that I was waxing my legs a lot less often, which was just fine with me. I have a lot of hair (genetic, thanks Mom and Dad!) and I usually get my legs waxed every month, but after I'd been on Yasmin for a while I was going almost four months between waxings. I have really thick hair on my head that grows like a weed, so it's possible that it thinned some and I just didn't notice. So that's one side effect that I really didn't mind.

*I started having frequent headaches that would linger for days. Not migraines, because I also get those from time to time, but a "milder" headache that felt like constant heavy pressure behind my eyes and all around my head. OTC meds were no help at all. I also had periodic cramps in my calves for no apparent reason (not due to exercising or injury).

*My breasts became swollen and incredibly sore. Again, this would occur all through the month. I had to buy a couple of new bras to accomodate the swelling and tenderness. I avoided any activity that would cause my breasts to move or jiggle at all, even walking briskly, because it was so painful. Showering was painful. Even wearing a soft tee shirt was too much sometimes.

*My periods gradually became heavier and longer, which is exactly the opposite effect from what I've experienced in the past with other BCP's. I also started having pretty intense menstrual cramps throughout my period and then at random times during the month. I would sometimes get light-headed when I was having these major cramps, to the point where I would lose my balance and fall or have to sit down immediately. Every once in a while, when I was having these cramps, I would experience a brief, stabbing-type pain that would literally take my breath away. My GYN was unconcerned about this, and told me that I was just having some side effects that would go away in time.

*I also experienced a fairly drastic increase in my normal vaginal secretions, all throughout the month. I started wearing panty liners all the time (which I'd never done before) and often changed my underwear in the middle of the day because I felt so gross. I sometimes carried an extra pair of panties in a ziplock in my purse. This discharge wasn't itchy or particularly smelly, so it wasn't a yeast infection or anything, just a lot more volume than usual. My GYN tested me for everything under the sun and everything came back normal. She told me it was "just my body adjusting" blah blah blah. At this point, I was really getting sick of hearing that phrase.

*The straw that finally broke the camel's back was when I started spotting all the time. With everything else, I felt like I was having my period all month long and I was miserable. I also had some of other symptoms, like anxiety attacks, insomnia, severe mood swings, foggy thinking, feeling tired all the time and feeling depressed but I have a long history of Major Depression, which I take medication for, so I attributed those symptoms to my existing condition. I can't say for sure whether Yasmin caused those symptoms, but I do know that they have pretty much disappeared or are under better control since I stopped taking Yasmin.

I've been off Yasmin for about three months now, and all of these symptoms I've listed are gone. My skin looks great, the enduring cramps are gone and my breasts feel normal again. Of course, my hair is growing faster again, but I'm willing to give up that one benefit in exchange for all of those symptoms being gone. I've switched to OrthoCyclen and I have not had any problems with it.

I'm sorry this is so long, but I needed to tell all of this to people who would understand what I've been through. I feel so bad for the women here whose stories are much worse than mine. I know everyone responds to medications differently, and Yasmin seems to work just fine for some women, but it seems to me that there are a lot more women all having problems and side effects. It can't be coincidence that we all have such similar horror stories about Yasmin. I guess the bottom line is listen to your body, and don't allow your doctor or anyone else to bully you into taking a medication that you know is causing you more harm than good. Thanks for reading my story and I hope we can all find solutions that will work for each of us.

Amy

First of all, thank God I found this web site. I have been on Yasmin since July of 2004 because my doctor thought it would have less side effects. The second month was rough, but then it seemed better for a couple of months. The past three months have been steadily getting worse. I made an appointment with a counselor, because I thought I was losing my mind. I was anxious and worried constantly about everything, couldn't focus on work, couldn't sleep through the night because my mind was going in circles. I obsessed over crazy things like why my boyfriend didn't call when I thought he should and then worried and questioned everything to the point that I made him have second thoughts about us. Who would want to make a lifetime commitment to someone that is such a mess. I had lots of headaches and fatigue too. The really scary part is that it came on so gradually that I didn't even realize it could be the pill until this month when I took the first pill in the pack and had a horrible day. I was anxious and couldn't turn my brain off. I decided to look into things and found this site. I just wish I had found it months ago. Hopefully I can repair the damage done to my relationship and help someone else avoid the same horrible experience. I have been off of Yasmin for one week now, and can't believe the difference. I am not completely back, but at least I feel sane and was able to enjoy the weekend with my boyfriend instead of obsessing about what could be wrong. Beware, the first few days are rough. Night sweats and sleeplessness get bad, but now I am sleeping again. I have never written to anything like this, but it helped me so much to see that it wasn't me, I had to do the same for someone else.