Yaz and depression

i started taking yaz in June because ive tried almost every other birth control pill, and patch and my mood and depression seemed to be only when i was on one of these. I wanted to go on that mirana IUD however my doctor told me i shouldn't because i have not had kids, im not married and im only 19 however it seemed anything i tried gave me the same side effects. So they put me on YAZ instead, at first it was great shorter periods, little to no cramps, but now 5 months and i hate it. I live with my boyfriend now and when before my sex drive was high I have ABSOLUTELY NO SEX DRIVE LEFT AND IM ONLY 19, WHAT HAPPENED TO IT. And whats worse my moodiness has come back for example at the store today i lost it and started crying when they didn't have the coat i wanted to buy. I couldn't control myself i completely lost it. i don't know what to do with myself anymore. My emotions are worse then ever before i want them to put me on something that has no hormones my body cant take it. can anyone give me any suggestions.

I started taking yaz last summer about 3 months before i got married. sex drive went down the toilet. absolutely none whatsoever. it also caused depression. and even caused me to get a syndrome that is terrible and marriage threatening! my periods were shorter which was nice. but i got more acne than before. weight gain was probably 5-10lbs in the 4 mos i took it. i would not recommend for anyone to take this pill!
it was absolutely terrible.

I have been on Yaz for over a year now and it has been wonderful! I began taking Yaz because I was having extremely heavy periods with unusually heavy bleeding and debilitating cramps. My periods would last for over a week! Now that I am taking Yaz, my periods last 4-5 days, are "normal" flow, and my cramping is much more manageable. It has also cleared up my (admittedly light) acne, and I have even lost some weight. My energy levels have been normal, and I have not experienced any of the depression or headaches that others on this board have had. I would recommend this pill to women in situations like mine. I am now able to have a normal week during my period without having to worry about missing days of work or classes because of my cramps.

I too have had a very bad experience with Yaz. I've actually started a website several months ago to help other women and girls with side effects from this very dangerous drug. I've been off of Yaz for eight months now and I am still suffering from the awful side effects. I pray that one day I will feel normal again. Thank you for all of your stories and very good luck with all of you.

Yaz Forum

My daughter started taking YAZ birth control August 2007 and was starting her second year of college. Everything in her life was going well, she loved her choice of college, had a wonderful boyfriend, was excited to live in her sororiety house, had wonderful friends, and was always one of the most focused individuals I knew. She was home for the Thanksgiving holiday and the night before I was to drive her back to school, she broke down at the kitchen table and said she can't pretend anymore, that she is not happy and doesn't know what is wrong with her. I took her to the doctor and she was treated with Effexor for depression. After 4 weeks there was no change, she fell into a deeper depression and they doubled her dose of Effexor. Still no change. I started looking on the internet and found that one of the side effects of Yaz was depression. I told her to immediately stop taking it. Two days after she stopped the pill we had an appointment with a psychiatrist. I told him that this was the first day I saw some improvement and that I thought it was related to her stopping YAZ. He disregarded my statement and didn't feel that was the case. He didn't like Effexor because he said that it was "a bear to get off of". He titrated her dose down by half and introduced Wellbutrin into her system. Two days later she overdosed on pills. She couldn't bear how bad she felt. I remember it like it was yesterday, she stood in the corner of the hosital and cried, "How did I get to this point, how did this happen to me?" I knew then that it was the pills. After her release from the hosital they handed her a prescription for Lexipro. I was advised by ALL of the PROFESSIONALS that she needed to take this antidepressent because she will definitely have a relapse.

My daughter chose NOT to take any more medications. We both KNOW that it was the YAZ that started the depression and the other antidepressents just put her over the edge. It took several months to get her life back together. We pursued counselling to make sure she was equipped with good coping skills for stress before attempting to go back to school. She missed 5 weeks of school and we knew that she had alot of catching up to do and the counselling helped her get through.

It has now been almost 1 year since that incident and she is back to her old self again. NO MORE BIRTH CONTROL AND NO MORE ANTIDEPRESSANTS. I'm not against any of these medications, however, I don't feel that health care professionals equip these young girls with enough information about side effects. Depression is listed way down on the list of side effects. If her gyn would have warned her that depression was a side effect, we may have never gone down that dark frightening road and if the psychiatrist would have taken into consideration that it could have been the birth control pill things could have been different. I also work for 4 pediatricians and none of them were aware that birth control can cause depression. I am now noticing that there are mother's calling our office because their daughters are depressed and as I am looking at their charts, I see they are on birth control. I have to wonder how widespread is this epidemic and how many young woman may have been diagnosed with clinical depression when the cause could be birth control. I know that at my daughters last well visit she was asked if she was taking any medication and she said no, she didn't realize that the pill was medication. Professionals need to be more specific when asking teenagers and yound adults questions.

I hope that this helps someone else out there to understand what could be causing their depression.

I wanted to update people since my last post. I have taken YAZ for a month now, and at first I had some killer side effects. I hate the bouts of depression, extreme anger, cramping, breakthrough bleeding, etc. Now, all my side effects have gone away, and I'm the same old mean. I suggest those of you having problems SEEK medical advice from your doctor. Don't rely on the internet (this is what causes us, myself included, to panic) everyone is different. Everyone reacts differently, especially if you are starting on a hormone. Go with what your gut tells you, not what the internet tells you. If you feel that you shouldn't take it, stop immediately, but I suggest you give it a little try and a little longer to see if your symptoms go away. If they do not, then YAZ is not the right choice for you. :) Good luck ladies

Almost everyone is affected differently by different types of birth control pills. They are not all the same, please talk with your doctor about what is best for you. Sometimes is DOES take a few tries with different pills to find the best one for YOU.
This is my personal experience with Yaz... I have been on it for 1 year and 1 month exactly. I am 22. I was on Ortho-Cyclen (not tri-cyclen mind you) for a full year previous to Yaz. My periods without birth control were usually very heavy and lasted a week plus a day or two without birth control. My doctor suggested birth control to help with those problem. Ortho-Cyclen helped somewhat shortening my periods to about 5-6 days and made them a "normal-like" flow. After taking it for a year, she suggested Yaz to me help make them even shorter and lighter. Well I switched immediately after the last pill of my Ortho-Cyclen and things proceeded very nicely since I had already been using a method to regulate my cycle.
Yaz has helped me tremendously, my periods are only 3-4 days now and much lighter. I start them after 2 days of placebo and usually have a little bleeding into the first 2 active pills of my next pack.
The only side effects I have noticed are;
1) Weight gain: (I have gained about 8 lbs on this pill) and I even get more exercise than I used to when I was on Ortho-Cyclen. I eat healthy as well.
2) Breast tenderness: I have more noticeable breast tenderness while taking this pill. (But it is not every single day)
3) Cramps: I get cramps now on the first day of bleeding, but they are well taken care of with an aspirin or ibuprofen.
4) Slight depression: I cannot directly link this to Yaz as I am not a professional. However, I do find that a week to a few days before my pill period, there may be a day or two when I find myself crying over some nonsensical thing. (I never noticed this with Ortho-Cyclen.)

Another thing I have noticed though, and it's pretty nice, while I have gained a little weight on this pill, I do not get bloating before/during my period as I used to before I started using birth control pills. And yes, I used to get bloated using Ortho-Cyclen. So I can say that I have to thank Yaz for this "desired effect."
Also, I never suffered from any bad acne problems before using birth control, just the occasional breakout before getting my period, and Yaz actually did away with even that little issue.

I am so glad to have found this site. I really thought that I was losing my mind. I have been taking YAZ for almost 16 months. The first couple of months took adjustments which I gave to taking the new pill. Then I started to get mean. I have almost lost my best friend over this stupid pill. I wanted to hurt people. I became mean and very temperamental. I have never in my life been that way. I am a very kind, loving person. I enjoy people and being with others. I was suddenly closing myself off from the world and didn't want to see anyone or even talk to anyone.
I have been off the pill for a month due to having uterine ablasion and OH MY, what a difference. I am back to me. I am back to enjoying my husband and my children and all my friends again.
This medication really needs to be removed from the market. If someone were to take this who already had a battle with depression, the end results could be catastrophic. My sister's in law's were both on this same bc pill, and when I started to question, they have all the same symptoms that I have been having.
Why does the FDA allow this drug?

I started taking Yaz only 6 days ago and I started getting headaches and some nausea. This subsided by day 4 or 5. By about day 5 I felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster. I have been sobbing and feeling deeply depressed. I was sent home from work today (day 6 on Yaz) because of my "unexplainable" sobbing and lack of emotional control. Not only is this behavior completely unlike me, it was embarrassing. I have never suffered from depression, nor does it run in my family. Judging from this experience, I would not recommend this Birth Control pill to ANYONE, it is harmful and toxic to your body.

I've heard nothing but good things about Yaz. The commercials make it look like a DREAM drug......one I truly needed. I'm 34 and getting married for the second time. My PMDD has become horrible. I started YAZ 7 days ago because I didn't want to be on my period for my honeymoon but mostly because I wanted to be a normal woman. I have 1 good week out of the month. I'm so tired of the mood swings and everything that is associated with PMS/PMDD. Well after day one I was horribly nauseated just like I was when I was pregnant. That has been daily. My stomach felt very"anxious" like I was nervous all the time and that is NOT me at all. It never dawned on me it could be the YAZ I thought it was nerves because of the upcoming wedding. I felt depression that I hadn't felt in a while since getting engaged. And it was almost a "hopelessness". Last night when I was driving home from work, day 6, I started coughing for no reason. I haven't been sick at all. It was like I couldn't quit. My left chest area was on fire and radiated to my back. I finally started thinking what in the world could this be so I got online and researched side effects of Yaz and boy am I glad I did. It blows my mind at the poor women who have either suffered threw a blood clot, or have died from it and ALL the other side effects I see on here that are just like mine. I'm so glad that I found this because today the Yaz went in the garbage. I refuse to take it anymore. I was worried all night I had a blood clot in my lung that I could barely sleep. I don't think anyone is aware of these problems associated with this medication. I hope they recall it soon!

I took YAZ for 9 months. Within those 9 months I have noticed that my mood was completely different from my mood when I was on Loestro 24. By the end of 9 months I was depressed, worried about everything (especially right before my period) crying all the time, and down right crazy! I don't have PMDD, and I don't think it is good to take this pill unless you know that you have it. This pill emotionally made me crazy and caused me a lot of depression which is something that I am not used to. I switched back to Loestro24.. and felt 1000 times better the next month, my only issues with that pill is that after a long period of time of taking this pill, I get acne all over my legs, which is weird. I recently tried to switch to Femcon FE... and that was terrible, I was really sick from that pill. I don't know that birth control pills are the answer, they all have some kind of weird side effects, but I do know that I would not recommend YAZ to anyone who doesn't want to cry every month. This pill made me crazy!

I took YAZ for 2 weeks and for the first week i felt kind a drunk and experienced mood swings,crying ,fatigue,dizziness,migraines.intense anxiety,panic attacks and depression and severe Acne on my face and back. I decided to get off Yaz 3 days ago. I am still experiencing many of these symptoms,and yesterday while shopping I got really panicky and turned pail and dizzy thought i was going to pass out :( that sick feeling to my stomach.Today I got my period 1 week early. I used this drug in hopes to help my PMDD,but instead it magnified everything i had 10x worse. Im confused??? I called the doctor and she said you aren't even supposed to start getting symptoms of side effects for three months of being on the pill??

I started taking Yaz 2 years ago after my son was born. I didn't have any side effects for a long time and was generally happy with the pill. About a year after being on Yaz I started getting horrible anxiety and depression. It was really beginning to interfere with my life. I always felt on edge, my heart was constantly racing, I felt down, starting binge eating, etc. I also started noticing that my blood sugar was out of wack. I became hypoglycemic and had to eat little snacks every hour to keep myself from having my blood sugar drop too low. I sometimes even had to take a glucose tablet. My thoughts were always racing. I felt like I was going crazy. After going to my PCP and a psychiatrist and not getting any relief from the way I was feeling, I took it upon myself to stop taking Yaz to see if that made a difference. Well, since stopping Yaz my anxiety, depression, and hypoglycemia has completely disappeared. I feel happy again, normal and healthy. I have gained a few pounds and my skin is an oily mess, but I would much rather deal with that than the hell I was dealing with before. I'm not big on taking medicine unless I absolutely have to and this experience has only made me feel stronger about that. I think I will go back to using condoms and give my body a break. (forever)

I have just recently began taking Yaz and am starting to experience side effects. I am in my third week, and am having a lot of anxiety, heart palpitations, mild headaches and shortness of breath. Sometimes I feel dizzy and I take them at night so that I do not experience the nausea that I know comes along with bc pills. I am on them because of my hormones being out of whack but I think I would almost rather deal with that than all of these symptoms. I think it's time to contact my OB/GYN and get off of these things...

i have been on yaz for about 1 month now. i am a little scared to start my next pack. i have been feeling a little depressed and not much like myself. i figure i'm just in a rut right now. could it be from the pill? i feel tired and sad a lot. i go to the gym everyday and normally i'm pretty active. i just don't feel like me. i have tried the ring, loestrein, and the patch in the past and all of them gave me nausea and weight gain. so far i don't think i've gained any weight and i don't feel sick but the depression has got me curious. if anyone has experienced this please let me know. i don't know if i should stop the pill or not.

I can't tell you how happy I am that I Googled this. Reading all of your posts is helping me determine what's going on with me! I started Yaz about 3 months ago and lately I have had no desire to do anything. Nothing has excited me at all. My mood swings have been just awful and the fatigue has taken such a toll on me. I am only going to be 30 in a couple of weeks and I just can't get a hold of what makes me happy anymore. I haven't had any suicidal thoughts but the feeling of absolute anger and depression has gotten a hold of my entire life. I used to be so happy. Everything made me laugh. Nothing has that effect on me anymore and I hate that. Since this pill has settled into my body I have been a completely different person. Reading everything all of you have posted has made me realize this pill is killing my happiness. Looks like I'll be calling my gyno tomorrow. I thank you for all of your posts, as you've helped me see what needs to be done.

I started taking YAZ about a year ago. The first three months especially I noticed that I could cry and wanted to cry about everything from the phone ringing to dropping a paperclip. I screamed at my then bf for hours about everything and nothing. I snapped at everything, I couldn't control anything. After three months when my body slightly adjusted other side effects took over. I had vision blurriness randomly, migraines almost every three days that overtook my life and barely went away with sever migraine meds, appetite off the charts, depression, face heaviness when sleeping which was incredibly painful, numbness in my extremities.. its been a nightmare. I got off for a few months because I wanted to be free of it, and i was. Unfortunately because of my medical condition I need to be on b/c for life. I started taking it again and have been on it for several weeks and ALL of the side effects are back with a vengeance including crazy acne and bloating. Someone shoot me. I hate this drug.

I am 39 and just stopped taking YAZ after being on it for only 1 month. My side effects include: hair loss, panic attacks, numbing in my arms and feet, depression, no energy, severe headaches and pain in my chest. I went to my internist and had a CT SCAN performed to make sure that I did not have any blood clots. My test came back clear. I am just amazed at how many of us are out there and experiencing the same things. We need to raise our concerns to the FDA for sure, since this drug seems to cause many more side effects than what it was prescribed for. For me, I was taking it to stave off my endometriosis. After this experience, I am going to go for a more holistic approach including acupuncture, since I have heard it does wonders for PMDD, Endo, and heavy periods. I wish everyone the best with their health.

I had terrible side effects with Yaz....I literally thought I had a deathly disease. It took 6 weeks to feel normal again. Get off of it if you are suspicious....there are other forms of birth control.

Add me to the list of people who will never take this crap again. 38 years old, never been on birth control. My obgyn sang this pills praises about how it will help with my mood swings and severr cramps due to severe pms. The headaches were awful, by boobs doubled in size, I gained 4lbs in 1 week, moodiness, feelings of being out of control, depression worsened, felt crazy, angry, short tempered. Memory loss, my speech was affected. I'm normally a very decisive, direct communicator and I couldn't find words to complete a sentence. My short term memory was shot. I think I will stick with a few beers to get through my pms. This stuff was not worth it.

I was on YAZ for only 7 days before I felt suddenly and completely crazy! On the Yasmin site there are several women complaining about YAZ side effects and asking if anyone is interested in starting a lawsuit. I feel there is enough severity and consistency in the complaints to start one. I don't believe a medication should be on the market that causes so many so much distress. If I could just save one women and her family from what we've gone through I would be willing to put quite a bit effort into it. Please respond to me or one of the women on the Yasmin site if you too think your suffering was enough that no one else should have to go through it. I read the side effects very carefully as I always do but I don't remember any that warned you may lose emotional stability. I had no history of such severe, or unmanageable anxiety, depression... . Please help us take this drug off the market, Imagine how many other women are suffering but either not looking on this site or stopping to share their stories.

Wow. I thought I was going crazy. I have PMDD and go through my 'psychotic' periods the week and a half before my period starts. I had the worst one ever last/this month. I don't think I have experienced anything this bad before. I started YAZ at the beginning of May. I tried Apri before and it caused me to have my period for 18 days, followed by 7 days of brown gunky blood and then my period for 15 days. On YAZ, my period lasted 11 days. I normally have a 5-8 day period which is very heavy. It was not as heavy, but it lasted longer with intermittent days of the brown gunky blood. I have also been experiencing more frequent panic attacks and depression. My stomach has been upset and my head has been hurting constantly. I am used to getting migraines, but not normal headaches. I have also experienced dizziness. One think I did not attribute to the YAZ is the change in my vision. But I read in a prior post that someone has had an issue with that also.

I have had the above symptoms because of other ailments, but they were basically gone, until I started the YAZ.

After having a semi-break down yesterday which included 3 separate occasions of rage, suicidal thoughts, and crying jags, I have decided that one of my medications is at fault. I thought at first that it was the Klonopin that I started taking April 1st. This confused me because, after initially taking the Klonopin, I had a follow up with doc after two weeks and it was working great. I then got on Yaz around April 20th. In the last month, I have had increasing mood swings, horrible depression, complete exhaustion, inability to focus on anything, stomach aches, heart palpitations, soar throat, coughing, and my back has been killing me. The worst is the depression and bouts of rage. I was all set to blame it on the Klonopin until I read this site. Well, I'm going to axe the Yaz first and see if things improve. It makes sense though, I been feeling like I did in the worst time of pregnancy.

I have been on yaz for about 5 or 6 months now and it was great at first since coming off low estrine, I was havening serious side effects, but starting yaz it was awesome for the first few months now i have huge waves of nausea, constipation, back ache, some headaches, EXTREME mood swings, and depression*, bloating, my breast are always sore, i have gone up a cup size, my boyfriend cant stand to be around me! i have no drive any more, im just tired and my stomach hurts all the time i still have bad cramps, even though i have no acene any more and i have light periods all these problems are making me feel worried that i am pregnant all the time even though i take bc like i should i still don't trust bc so we still wear condoms, so i no that im not. i thought i had everything wrong with me,i have gone to several doc. but they found nothing i have IBS also so suposably my stomach was hurting from that. i know when my IBS has kicked in and thoughts pains were not it. but all these post i keep reading have really brought light to this pill. everyone i know thinks im going crazy and i know i am. i have never complained so much in my life about how bad i feel and its on a daily basis for me now! im going to stop at the end of this month hopefully ill feel ten times better then i have been. i want my old self back!!! im so glad i took the time to find out about my bc and its side effects and all the post i have read about this horrible pill. it feels great knowing im not the only one!

YAZ!!!! It is great at first, have been on it for three months, and am going back to Ortho Tri-Cyclene Lo!!!! I thought it was fine at first and then I beleive I thought I was going crazy. Very emotional, fatigued(fell asleep, more like passed out for two hours with a two year old at home), I wasn't even this tired when I was pregnant. I am depressed, anxious, have no patients at all for anybody, rage, rage, rage, and headaches. You definately don't have PMS, PMD because you just have it all the time. Instead of only a week of being emotionally nuts, it just spreads itself over to everyday. Yaz slowly turns you into a emotional nightmare. I was NEVER like this while on other BC, only YAZ. I would not recommend it unless you like being depressed, tired, anxious, emotional, and plain out crazy. I was honestly going to seek out medical help for my depression and emotional problems before I figured out it was YAZ. I couldn't live with my husband and two kids they way I was feeling. I was miserable and making them miserable too. They are constantly walking on eggshells with me, and they never know and I never know when I am going to start yelling at them in a fit of rage that is hard to control. I went absolutly nuts when my two year old spilled her bowl of watermelon on a concrete floor. Watermelon?!?!?!!! Not glue, paint, nail polish just watermelon on a dirty CONCRETE not carpeted floor. Rediculous!!!! I know it's crazy but that is what the YAZ turned me into. It sounds great, that is why I started taking it, but over time it is just too good to be true. Stay away from YAZ !!!!!

My 17 year old daughter started taking Yaz, and before she finished the first pack she was going crazy. Severe anxiety, overwhelming feelings, depression, aggression, and finally crying jags, the last of which lasted 2 hours with anxiety, when we finally put 2 and 2 together! What a nightmare week, as things escalated. She also was not thinking rationally, I think because of the anxiety. Of course NONE of this is mentioned on any Yaz list of side effects or any WebMD type pages on the internet!! Damn Big Pharma. They can say anything in the TV adds, the FDA does not regulate them. Luckily, it wore off in 24 hours.

I find it strange that everyone has hated the YAZ pill...I am 19 years old and have been on it since September....my periods are only 2 days now...i don't even have to wear a tampon....yes i have started to get more migraines, but it has TOTALLY CLEARED up my skin!!! It has been amazing!!! I have always had moderate acne, but this pill has gotten rid of it completely. And oddly enough I would say it has not decreased my sex drive...seems more like a definite increase....Yes i still get bad cramps, but I have always had them so i don't know if thats the pill or what...ive only experienced nausea a few times....i have had NO mood swings or depression....oh and I have even lost a little weight...usually I averaged about 116 and watched what i ate...but now i eat whatever i want and i stay around 110....!!! (i don't exercise too often) i can tell it has increased my metabolism....overall i would say this pill rocks, and you gotta stay on it for at least 4 months and take it consistently everyday at the same time to get good effects.

I just wanted to give an alternative perspective to the comments on this board.

I've been on Yaz for two months, and I'm very happy with it. The first week or so wasn't great: weird muscle aches, fatigue, lightheadedness occasionally. I had light brownish discharge/spotting for about a week. The second week I had some striking headaches, and over the first two weeks I lost 10 pounds (water weight).

But since then it's been smooth sailing. My period came exactly on time and lasted about 2.5 days. I no longer have any symptoms besides breast tenderness (akin to what my breasts felt like before my period, before).

So - keep in mind when you're reading these negative comments that usually the happy folks don't feel the need to post!

moody/depression, stomach pains, lack of energy, some weight gain, but lighter regular periods

Yaz has been driving me crazy. I keep having these mental break downs and before my period I hate myself and everyone around me and just walk around and cry to myself and stressing out. I've had times of extreme fatigue as well, but that may or may not be due to the pill. I lost weight first, then put some on and my chest grew, then gained again, but lost in my chest. There are other side effects that I also have a hard time to blame on Yaz, but even doctors have very little way of explaining them. It's a horrible roller coaster for me since I switched from Orthotricylen Lo in AUG2007. I am jealous of those who have had a successful experience with Yaz, however, I believe I am NOT one of them.