Yasmin and pounding heart

Yasmin is a steroid so when coming off it you can suffer all the same symptoms as someone stopping a steroid drug... and by the way, when people are taken off steroids it's done in a controlled way - they cut down on them very slowly by reducing the dosage. It's a real shock to the body to just stop a steroid. This could explain why a lot of us feel so terrible when we stop taking it. I know I had a real increase in severity of symptoms followed by months and months of exhaustion and fatigue.

Hello all Yasmin Survivors.
I stopped taking Yasmin in July 2005 and three years on I am still re-building my life! I feel this pill and its side-effect stole some of my best years, I am 33.
My main side effects were extreme anxiety, agoraphobia, pounding heart, panic attacks, fear of doing anything (even going 10 minutes away from my own home). I was on it for 12 months and the side-effects started very gradually at about 5-6 months, I barely noticed them creeping up on me. It took me another 6 months of taking it to start to question whether Yasmin could be causing the extreme change in my personality. I think if I hadn't stopped I'd have had a major breakdown. I had lots of weird physical symptoms too including, bloating, passing urine all the time, leg cramps, dizziness, hair loss.
Anyway, all the extreme anxiety and stress caused by Yasmin left me with exhausted adrenal glands - which I'm now trying to re-build. Anyone feeling fatigue, nervousness, anxiety, inability to handle stress in the same way as you used to, PMS several months after stopping Yasmin should look into Adrenal Fatigue as a possible cause of their symptoms. It's hard to treat and can take a long time to recover - but there are lots of things you can do to help your body re-build. Visit ******(doctor Andrew W. website on Adrenal Fatigue) as a start to find out more about the condition and how to find out whether you are suffering from it.
It would be good to hear from more people re-building their lives after the impact of taking Yasmin on this site. Also, is anyone out there trying to put together a class action?
Sarah

Hi everyone -

I'm brand new to this site and I can't tell you how glad I am to have found it!

I'm 41 years old with no history of any serious health problems. In February of last year, I started feeling run-down, depressed, etc. (first time ever). By April, I went to my gynecologist and was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst and put on Yasmin to help it resolve. After the cyst cleared up, I stayed on the Yasmin because I liked how it worked for birth control (never used BCP's before this). At the same time, I was diagnosed hypothyroid. A few months into treatment for both, I started having tachycardia/palpitations/pounding heart, severe depression, anxiety attacks. These were all written off by my docs as related to the hypothyroidism. My doctors and I kept thinking once we had that under control, the symptoms would resolve.

Well, the hypo has been under control for about three months, but the heart and anxiety symptoms continued to get worse.

I decided to dump the Yasmin about 7 weeks ago, because I couldn't figure out what else could be causing all the symptoms. My heart started feeling better in about 3-4 weeks, although the depression and anxiety lingers on (but are both improved).

I am not a very patient person and the idea of "waiting this out" is awful - but your postings have given me a lot of hope that all of this will eventually go away.

I would like to suggest that everyone spend a few minutes reporting their side effects to the FDA. If you go to www.FDA.GOV, there is a section where you can report adverse reactions yourself - without having to convince your doctor to do it for you. Under the section "Let Us Hear From You", there's an option to "Report a Problem with a Product". It takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. If enough people file complaints, they'll have to do SOMETHING, won't they? ;-) And just the act of "ratting out the makers of Yasmin" is very satisfying....

Good luck to everyone!

Julie

Lizzy,
Isn't it unreal that no docs will admit the correlation of Yasmin and the side effects of anxiety, pounding heart, weight gain, etc? How can we all be experiencing this with one common denominator - -YASMIN?

I am almost 3 weeks post Yamin, on Xanax and Paxil for about 10 days or so, which I hope to wean within 4-6 months. I have never taken any medication of this kind in my life! I can feel myself getting better day by day, I hope it keeps up.

Good luck on finding a competent doc when you return to N.O. I hope that it all works out for you.

One thing that is helping me is that I cut out caffeine. I used to love Crystal lite teas, diet coke, etc.... I drink lots of water and I think it is helping (I suppose that it cannot hurt). I also am careful not to have any alcohol. I never was much of a drinker but I won't even have an occasional glass of wine until I get better.