Yasmin and low iron

I have been on Yasmin since 6 weeks after having my baby, and he is now 5 months. Since then, i have noticed some strange things going on, and until finding this site i just thought it was my body still adjusting to having a baby. But I have been VERY emotional, and can snap at my husband very easily. I also have been having heart palpitations and it will almost take my breath away, and i feel like i could pass out. I thought it was low iron and went to the doctor, and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. I also have been losing my hair. I kept telling everyone how bad my hair is falling out, and my husband is just amazed at how much because he has to clean out the shower drain everyday because of it. Also my skin has been itching me like crazy. And now i really think its because of this pill!! What would be a better choice? I defiantly don't want to get pregnant again this quick, but i don't want to have to go through all of these symptoms, especially if they are going to get worse.

I started taking Yasmin on Monday April 21st, and by Wednesday morning I wanted off of it. I started getting really bad leg cramps all the time, I feel dizzy all the time, I have trouble concentrating, and I have trouble breathing. The worst part is that I have heart palpitations now. My heart feels all butterfly-like or it feels like it's beating really slowly really hard. I just spoke with my doctor, and she says to stop taking it immediately.

After reading this website I see I'm not the only one affected by horrible side-effects from Yasmin.

Hi bitter RN!! Hope you read my last posts... (I fear they were displaced in the meantime to site 2 or 3).

Just had a phone talk with my doc's office. They didn't tell me every result of the bloodwork but I asked them especially for those here:

TSH (Thyroid) 4,1 (!!) --> the highest it has ever been...

Transferrin: 340 (within the normal range but at the upper end of them; so it seems to be a bit high, which could show, that my iron storages are a bit low........

Iron: 76 (which is also still within the normal range but at the lower end of the normal ranges!!)

I have an appointment with my doc to talk about all the results on tuesday next week in the afternoon...

I hope they can finally help me somehow.......

Flowerbabies:

As you told, you have hashimoto's... do you know or could you tell me, how your TSH is??

Thank you both in advance!!

Best wishes
Silke

Dear Silke, and all

i hear what you say about the bleeding and have had similar problems myself. Update on my naturopath visit as he confirmed my low iron and liver issues from the pill. I am now on a liverdetoxification supplement shake for dinner to let my liver try and renew itself and also a supplement called adenosine that takes you into a deep night sleep naturally to try and repair the damage done to the brain thru yasmin, i must admit i have been on this for over 6weeks now and i feel much better and he tells me that until the liver is repaired then the weight will not go so lets hope this can repair my liver enough to drop the kilos. i am also on a iron supplement as my levels are low. One month in an my period come on time and unlike last month where i had cramping,clots,pain and a 7 day bleed i have had a 26 day cycle and my period is on a 3 day and then back to no period which is great
stay in touvh
lisa

Happy New Year to all

Hi there i am officially one year and 2 months off yasmin and i can tell you all its hard and each day is hard as you go through each and every symptom and every anxiety attack and every pain that you think may be leading to a heart attack/stroke/blod clot etc, and i am still here 14months after finishing this damn pill but i can tell you ITS GETS BETTER. to the new ladies to recap i was on the pill for almost 3years and yes i went through every side effect and struggled each and every day to the point i thought i was losing it even having a heart attack and life was so hard with a job and three young children and i felt like i was going insane and then i stumbled on this site and found silke and all the girls.
the first three months were horrendosu and the symptoms were so severe and i struggled immensly but then as i approached month five it slowly began to get better each and every day and i had everything high blood pressure huge weight gain massive anxiety heart palps i had to quit my job i was not coping and yet every day i came to this site and after a long six months i was getting better and better, i just want you all to know to hang in there i took it day by day and i know thats so hard when you are going through it but guess what i have been there and its gonne be ok. I took magnesium, vitamin c, a good multi vitamin and flaxseed capsules and i think these helped immensly, I have just been diagnosed with low iron so am on an organic supplement and my liver is not working as good as what it should so my naturopath will give me something for that in late january and thats why he thinks i have massive weight gain so lets see if what he gives me helps.
take care all and remember all of us who have travelled the road and still are are here to help you to realise you are not going insane and that you are on the road to recovery even though you fell like its a battle you will never win
take care
LISA

Silke-
What did your doctor say? I have been going over some blood hormone tests I had done way back when I was feeling terrible, and my doctor confirmed that my testosterone was indeed low. My level was
testosterone 13 ng/dl
%free testosterone 0.45 %
free testosterone 0.6 pg/ml
It looks like yours may be even lower than mine was. I am thinking your free testosterone was measured since you said it was 0.37 ng/ml? or was it 0.37ng/dl?
Also as a side note throughout all of this my Iron levels keep dropping too. I have to take an Iron supplement to keep my level up. I thought it was because I had a history of anemia (low iron) but it may be a side effect of the unbalance as well?
Also I was wondering when in your cycle did they have you get your blood drawn? Was it at a particular day you had to do it, or just anytime?
Anxious to hear from you,
BitterRN

Also to KIM and DEJAY
please hold on. Silke is right, it is going to get better. coming off this pill is hard and everything you are mentioning is symptoms we all have experienced. The sore in your mouth Im sure is related to your hormones just like your sister said. I had a lot of mouth issues (sore, raw gums, my teeth hurt etc.) as well. Just take good care of your teeth right now maybe try to avoid acidic foods for awhile (oranges, tomatoes, pasta sauce) or anything rough in your mouth like crusty breads. I asked my dentist when I happened to have an appt once when I had a sore in the back of my mouth and he checked it out and said he definitely saw something and it looked irritated but not to do anything unless it did not go away in a couple of weeks. I asked him if it could be hormone related because I was having problems with my hormones and he said yes. It went away. Dont worry ok. Oh and one more thing, DO NOT believe those doctors that tell you this is NOT related to yasmin, it most certainly is!!!! I have had physicians tell me no, its not related to the pill its in your head. My second opinion Dr. (and third and fourth!!! opinion Dr. ) all told me YES of course it can be from Yasmin!!! And from here on out I too have been on the hormonal rollercoaster as everyone else on this site has. UP and DOWN you think your better and then your not. But Silke is right and Sarah too, and many of the women on this site, you will get better and what you are experiencing are things we all felt too, and you will get through it! Keep posting to this site. It helps. There are lots of kind women full of concern because they too have been through this nightmare and it breaks our hearts every time we read about another victim! I hope the drug company and the doctors wake up soon!!!!!
keep your head up,
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.