Yasmin and testosterone levels

I was on Yasmin for 2 years and it was 2 years too long! I should have stopped taking it immediately. I experienced EXTREME HAIR LOSS!!!! It started to fall out as soon as I started taking the pill, but I was also coming off Depo Provera and thought it was the Depo causing the hair loss. This happened in 2 different cycles. The first time, A LOT of hair fell out and I was humiliated. After about 6 months, some hair grew back; but my hair was still extremely thin and you could see most if not all of my scalp in strong lighting (outdoors for example). About 8 months later, it fell out again...this time worse than ever because I had about half of the hair I used to. I think I was literally lost 3/4 of my hair this time. Most if the hair loss was on the top of my scalp and every doctor I saw had something different to say. In the beginning stages of the hair loss, they said it was stress. Then when they saw it progress and they realized how much hair I had lost on the top of my scalp, I was told I had female pattern baldness...only no female in my family had ever experienced this before. Finally, I went off the pill and WOW...I HAVE HAIR AGAIN and it is probably close to what I had before I ever lost any of it. Oddly enough, Yasmin is used to prevent hair loss; as it is prescribed for women who have higher testosterone levels...yet it caused me to lose mine. I also gained A LOT of weight on that pill!
I have been off of Yas for about 6 months now and my periods are definitely less than regular. I won't get my period for 3 months and all of a sudden I am getting it every 2 weeks. I also have cysts on my ovaries and I thought I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome which can also cause hair loss, but the doctors are quite positive that I don't have PCOS and that it is not what led to the hair loss.
Moral of the story...unless you have to go on a pill that is designed for lowering your testosterone levels (and I recommend Diane 35 if so), do not take Yas! If I ever go on the pill again, I am sticking to something like Alese that is low-dose.

I am the mother of a 23 year old who has been on Yasmin for 5 months.
Her dermatologist prescribed it for her without blood tests for acne. She went to a gynecologist who did a blood panel and said her testosterone levels were four times the normal level and agreed with having her put on Yasmin. We as her parents were totally against this decision.

Since she has been on Yasmin she has suffered severe abdominal pain with periods. She had an ultra sound and nothing was found. She then developed an infection in one eye. Very red and itchy. Took steroid cream for that. Then in July came down with strep throat. Antibiotics for that.
Since then she has had 3 bouts of strep. Every time she gets off
antibiotics she comes down with another bout within a week and a half.
She has also had a lynph node in her neck swell up to a huge size you
could easily see. Doctor said it was a byproduct of her strep.

She is now contemplating having her tonsils taken out. I am at my wits
end. I know all this chaos is from this pill and am trying to get her to get
off it. It is so sad and exhausting watching my previously healthy daughter go through this. And she still isn't convinced all this is due to Yasmin.

I have read so much on this pill. The doctor's hand it out like candy. Anyone got any words I might use to convince her to get off this killer?
Thanks.

Both my 19 year old daughter and my 30 year old step daughter were put on Yasmin. Both began having heart problems. The eldest had heart palpitations, a racing heart and dizziness. The doctor discovered that her potassium level had shot up and her magnesium was down. They put her on magnesium to help control the racing heart. It helped, but then she became pregnant and had to lower the dose. The 19 year old has had the worst side effects. She was fine on ortho tricyclene, but when her doctor switched her to Yasmin her blood pressure shot up to 170/118. She began having chest pain. We pulled her off the Yasmin, but she has continued to have uncontrollably high blood pressure. The doctor ran several tests and has found no underlying cause as of this writing. She began taking 5 mg. of Norvasc, but was increased to 10 mg. to manage the high blood pressure.

Help me! I have stopped taking Yasmin for about 4 or 5 months because my husband and I want to conceive. I AM STARTING TO LOSE MY HAIR! I am so worried about this as I am losing at least double the normal amount everyday and this has been happening for about a week now. I have noticed the difference as my hair is not very thick. My husband has noticed. My friend says she can't tell, but if you look in my bathroom and my comb you would think I was undertaking radiotherapy. I went to my doctor two days ago and she thinks it could be thyroid or iron problems. She thinks it could be ceasing the pill but is unsure......PLEASE, is there ANYONE who has experienced this? And if so will it stop? I am so distressed about it.

I was on Yasmin for the last 6 months before this one. My doctor was out of the Yasmin and gave me Yaz to try. After being on Yaz I have finally realized something. While I was on Yasmin I could NOT stop eating. I would eat a full dinner and then ten minutes later, even though I knew that I was full.. would go into the fridge and eat something more.. and then an hour later.. and so on. I have gained about 30 lbs. I just thought it was some weird depression I was having since I am slightly depressive anyways. Well.. now that I am on the Yaz....I feel completely different.. I do not have the out of control urge to eat, eat, eat. Finally I feel normal again. I am also not bloated with my stomach sticking out like before.. so I don't feel so disgusting physically. The Yaz is having its own little side effects...but for now I am doing a "wait and see." This is because they put my on Yasmin to help me out because I have a high testosterone level and it is supposed to not increase that like the other pills do.. it uses a different kind of androgen.. I definitely do NOT want to go back to the normal testosterone pills since they cause my testosterone levels to surge over the "normal" limit. Sigh, hopefully Yaz will work.

KIM
shoot!! I have a typo on the forum below.
I meant to type
HOWEVER my TESTOSTERONE level was 11. Then continue reading about testosterone levels in that paragraph.
Sorry
BitterRN

Guest 34551
Hi! Thanks so much for your informative post. I had no idea prozac was used this way as well and will definitely read up on it as you suggested. Your story is intriguing to me because you describe my situation pretty closely, and confirmed what I had felt all along, that my testosterone had fallen and that estrogen had taken over (even if my estrogen was registering a normal level it was still too high because I did not have the testosterone levels to balance it). Did your doctor confirm these findings with you? I had the same annoying stomach problems and just when I thought things were getting better again, I would feel bad again. However at my six month mark, I did feel some improvement, maybe a little more than the 1% you were describing, but not completely, so I tried to restart my old pill I took for 12 years with no problems before I took the yasmin, and at first I felt pretty good and things really started to feel normal, but then about 12 days into it I started with the anxiety again and stopped taking them immediately about day 15 and all my symptoms seemed to start over from scratch just like after I quit the yasmin. (I really wanted to die at this point), but now 4 months after that episode I feel like I may be progressing again, but it is like you said, back and forth. And all along I have been testing my hormones monthly, I was starting to see my testosterone come up when I was starting to feel better, but when I tried to take that pill again it fell again (I could feel it, I knew even before the results came back) But I want to know, did your doctor confirm your hormones with lab tests? I will definitely read up on the prozac, as I had not heard of it used in this way. Your right though, that is a pretty low dose. Also, I was just wondering did your doctor ever suggest hormonal replacement with bioidentical hormones?
Thanks for your post and in advance for your reply.
Sincerely, BitterRN

Silke
BitterRN here again. Im sorry yesterday was the craziest day for me, at work and at home! But I did want to get back to you sooner. I think the reason you are getting sick is when the testosterone is dipping lower. Testosterone also helps keep the immune system strong. So it sounds to me like your body was (the past few months as you were feeling better) starting to kick your testosterone levels up a little higher which would cause you to feel better and kick your periods back on again.(When estrogen dominates periods dissappear)
but then you said after that month of a good period (higher testosterone) the following 2 months you only had light spotting (testosterone dropping again) Hormones fluctuate constantly all the time, this is why we feel ok some days and horrible the next. I think your testosterone dipped lower the past couple of months, this can be caused by many factors, the body demands more testosterone for stress, exercise, and any kind of healing. So you may have just overexerted your body in some way and caused it to go down. This would explain why you got sick (lower immune system) and why your symptoms came into play again, or the virus you caught may have caused the symptoms because your body could not fight it with the lowered resistance. I will write you some more tonight silke. I am at work and have to go. I just didnt want you to think I forgot about you.
BitterRN