Yasmin and stomach pains

I went off Yasmin 4 months ago. While my period returned quickly after quitting and has been regular, the abdominal pain/cramping, greasy hair, acne (I never had acne in the past), and mild mood swings are persisting into month 5. I have especially strong abdominal pain in the morning when I wake up, which subsides a little after I urinate. Does anyone have any advice for how I can speed up my body's process of returning to 'normalcy?' The greasy hair and skin are especially frustrating, and the abdominal pain is uncomfortable. Is there some herbal supplement or something that could help??

I was put on birth control when I was 21 years old and I started with Estrostep FE for irregular and very painful periods. 9 years later, after complaining of unusually light periods and horrible hot flashes I was switched to Yasmin to see if that would make a difference. I was fine with the Yasmin for about 6 months but then I came down with what I thought might have been a stomach virus. I was fine until June of that year when I came down with what seemed to be another stomach virus. I found this odd as I had not had a stomach virus since I was eight years old, but I seemed to have contracted two within six months of each other 22 years later. By the time July hit, I was experiencing these "stomach viruses" just about every other day. I would have horrible acid indigestion and the sensation of needing to vomit (but I never would) which would send me running for the bathroom for hours at a time just in case I did. For over a year I sought the advice of doctors and had been theoretically diagnosed with the following: stress (always the first one), acid reflux disease, IBS, and gastroparesis. I have gone through an endoscopy, gastric emptying scan, colonoscopy, two ultrasounds, two CT scans and an MRI. Drug wise I have been put on Prevacid, Compazine, Zofran, Zegerid, Imipramine, Reglan, Levsid, and Erythromycin. I now am buried in medical bills and the whole thing has caused me to miss a month of work without pay. I also was struggling to eat and, at one point, had dropped 25 pounds which is very frightening for someone with my tiny frame. The mental anguish was unbearable and I was actually at the point of welcoming a diagnosis of cancer just because it would have been answer. The idea to stop taking the Yasmin actually came from a fifteen minute conversation during a birthday party with an obstetrician. Within two weeks of stopping I was absolutely fine. I gained all of the weight back in record time and am once again a person who rarely ever needs stomach aids (in three months I've only taken two tums). Stopping the Yasmin made absolute sense because the nausea episodes would only occur between 9am and 2pm (weird, just like morning sickness) and my thyroid levels were all over the place. One blood test would show them as normal and another would show them as sky-high. I questioned my ob-gyn why she said my blood tests were normal when my thyroid levels were actually twice the normal level. She merely shrugged it off as being "normal because of the Yasmin". No wonder I never felt well! I've been off Yasmin for three months now. I've only gotten one light period that lasted for three days. It was over a month ago and it took almost two months to happen after stopping the Yasmin. I don't know if I'm sterile because I have heard cases of girls becoming infertile after long-term use of the pill (any kind). I am definitely interested in joining a class action lawsuit because I don't feel I should be the one stuck with all of these bills. Has anything been officially started yet?

1. Blood Pressure 180/120 resulting in an emergency room trip
2. Weight gain of 25 POUNDS! Most/all of which was water and came off within the first week of being off from Yasmin.
3. Bloating and extreme water retention. See # 2.
4. Severe leg muscle cramping and foot pain
5. A mental feeling of not caring and general fogginess
6. Complete loss of libido
7. Acid reflux (probably from the diuretic in Yasmin)
8. General weakness in my muscles (there were times that I could barely open a revolving door).

I was on Yasmin for a year. I have been off for one month. I am still on blood pressure meds, but they don't think the Yasmin is out of my system. Has anyone else gotten hypertension from Yasmin and if so, how long did you have to be on blood pressure meds?

Some of my symptoms are getting better after a month, and some are not. If anyone is reading this to decide whether or not to take Yasmin, please don't. You may not have any symptoms right away and you may think you feel great, but that is the scariest part. When symptoms come on gradually, you hardly notice them until you are in the hospital emergency room.

Hi, i just wanted to say that very many people use Yasmin with little or no side effects whatsoever, i sympathies so much with everyone who has had bad side effects, and i completely agree that every person is different, some birth controls work for people, some don't. I find that most people who look up forums are the ones who have problems with a tablet, and thats why the majority of posts are all negative. To everyone who has had bad side effects i sympathies so much and would recommend trying a different pill, however very many people use this pill with little or absolutely no side effects (i know of some people with no side effects at all on Yasmin). I just don't want people to be worried unnecessarily. It is meant to be one of the pills with the least side effects and don't rule out using it because of some negative posts.

This site has put so much worry on my mind about Yasmin. I started researching Yasmin because I had my first spotting this weekend. It started on Saturday and now it's Wednesday night and it has not stopped. Why do I want to be on something that makes me spot..I use to be on Portia which I really liked. I never spotted....I got on Yasmin because my mom and sister think I am moody (which, three woman in one house...do the math?) I have been feeling so tired lately. I go to bed about 8:00 or 8:30 and get up around 5:30, but I am still tired. On the weekends I can sleep anywhere from 12 hours on. I come home from work and nap and then go right back to bed. I have started to get leg cramps, which I haven't had since I was a sophomore in high school (junior in college now.) I've had a few more head aches than normal. I've put on weight....nothing feels good on me, I feel like a balloon. I have been more "depressed"...it's something that runs in my family but when I was on portia I was really happy...now I feel like I just want to say something or bring people down to my level. I am seeing this guy who works out of town and it never bothered me that he did until I started on Yasmin. I have stomach pains sometimes. What really upsets me is I told my sister about this site and she doesn't believe me. She thinks ALL birth control will give you these side affects and she says that they are not suppose to happen, which in theory she is right...but she doesn't leave any room for anything like this. She thinks I am feeling this way because of something else....well before the pill I was different. I like my face being clear but I don't like everything else but yet she can make the decision about her meds. I'm blaming Yasmin because it's the only thing I am on! I am going to use my last three months but I am not taking it anymore....I cant be a full time college student and hold a job while taking something that could potentially ruin my life before I even start it.

I've been off Yasmin for 2 months now, and it's the best thing I've done!
A month after starting it I started having sharp pains in the lower left side of my stomach, excessive bloating and constipation at least once a month, severely enough to make me short of breath, light-headed and I could not work. I saw doctors, did all kinds of tests for viral infections, but nothing was wrong with me. Saw a gastrointerologist who sent me for ultrasound and x-rays, still nothing. He said if it continued to come back and we'd do a colonoscopy. I'm 34 yrs old. Luckily after my last appointment a friend told me she had similar problems and changed BCP and it go better. I hadn't made the link between Yasmin and the pains but when I realised the problem started a month after switching to Yasmin, I switched back to Alesse. No stomach pains since. Unbelievable!

Have any of you developed Leukemia after taking Yasmin? Or do you know some one who has developed it and they just happened to be taking it at the time? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Wow! I just stumbled on this site and am very happy I did. I'm 42 years old and am almost finished my fourth pack of Yasmin, which I started basically for skin problems. My skin did clear immediately, but I gradually started having other things happen, but never really attributed it to the pill...actually thought it was more an age thing (I hate to say it) and was happy with my clear skin. I had the chest pain thing and went for an exercise test, which turned up okay. I turn into this "freak" every once in a while, crying and stuff, which I thought was basically because I'm so busy with work and family, etc. I used to run half-marathons, but was feeling so crappy and had gained a lot of weight, so I decided to join a gym and hire a personal trainer, as exercise had always made me feel better. Near the end of one of our sessions, I started to have trouble remembering her instructions. I then went into the change room when we were finished and I could not remember my lock combination. This scared me quite a bit. A woman then came into the change room and was asking me about my trainer and what her name was...and I couldn't remember her name! I managed to get my lock open, but I kinda walked out of there in a fog and it probably took me about an hour to feel "human" again. Later that night I had a pretty good headache. I talked to my trainer about it and we figured that I must have had an extremely hard workout and that maybe I was a little dehydrated. I have noticed that I have not been as thirsty as I usually am, so figured this was the problem. The final straw came a few days ago when I developed this killer headache with some breakthrough bleeding. I've made an appointment with my GP to talk about going on Alesse, but am now wondering if I should just forget about messing about with my hormones and put up with a few pimples in my 40s. Any thoughts? Any Alesse horror stories?

Julia

Post your symptoms since stopping Yasmin!!!

Hey everyone it's Kay21 here and I just wanted to post my 3 month off Yasmin update. Because stopping the pill is a hard decision, I figured we should all post are updates here to help/support those who are planning to stop or who have recently stopped Yasmin.

I have been off of Yasmin since April 17. As some of you already know, I was experiencing horrible side effects while on Yasmin for 3 years (particularly stomach problems, vaginal dryness, muscle cramps, increased blood pressure and heart rate and anxiety).

The first 1 month off of Yasmin was okay. In fact, I felt the best I had ever felt in a while. My blood pressure and heart rate decreased and the migraines and muscle cramps went away. But when I hit the 2 month (8 week) mark, I felt HORRIBLE. I was severely depressed and anxious. I was crying all the time and felt a severe sense of DOOM! The physical symptoms also started to become problematic. The acne increased and I started growing more facial hair. The worse symptom, however, was that I started losing a ton of hair. I would lose stray hairs all day (probably about 200 a day). Since I have hit the three month mark, the hair loss has gotten MUCH WORSE! Now I am losing CLUMPS of hair all day. I have seen several doctors about this. Some say it's because of stress and a few (a derm, GYN and endo) say that hiar loss is common after stopping bcp. I have already loss about 1/3 of my hair.

I am also really concerned, because I have not had a period since April 22. So my doctor has put me on provera for 10 days to induce a period.

For those who have stopped Yasmin, what have your symptoms been (i.e. increased acne, weight gain, anxiety, etc.). Has anyone experienced hair loss? How long did it take to get a period???

Thanks...