[kaebea]

Dear chicks,

I just thought i would pass this on in the event anyone else is taking this drug.
It is a birth controll pill.
even though the manufacturer doesn't inform patients about this risk, many many women have had the side effect of depression, extreme mood swings, suicidal thoughts, apathy, numbness, and many other emotional, mental and physical side effects.

for some people as with me, it may take years before you experience them and you may not make the connection, but artificial hormones are not natural in any case and can wreck havoc on your system.

if you think this might be you there is a site called yasmin survivors, that you may want to check out.

just though i'd throw it out there so noone goes throught the years of anguish that i went through, wondering why in the world i had become such a basket case.

thanks,
Kb

[Get n healthy]

I have been on Yasmin for years and just recently read an article about the side effects you are talking about. I think i have a lot of them. I just dont know that any other BC pills are any better though. I have PCOS and need BC pills to treat it. So do i fight depression on the pills or go off and fight an up hill battle with pcos and insulin resistence? I really am torn. I am on Yaz now, the SE are supposed to be less, i really havent noticed a difference, although it has only been one month. We shall see.

[Leenie]

Ohh man, thats really scary.

I was on Ortho 777 for years and years and never had a problem with it... its a very very low dose. Went off b/c DH got snipped

Good luck ladies

[kaebea]

getnhealthy,

i am sorry that you are in that situation.
I was put on it to see if regulating my cycle from every 21 days to every 28 days would improve my iron level, thus improving my fatigue symtoms. sort of a round about approach i guess.

i stopped yasmin this week, and am looking in to something called NaPro technology. basically they teach you to track your cycle and can tell you where and which hormones you are or are not making enough of.

there is something called estrogen dominance, and i think it may be related to pcos. The thinking is that we make too much estrogen compared with progesterone, causeing an imbalance. they can treat you with nutrition suppliments or they use bioidentical hormones, which are supposed to be processed by the body better than the artificial hormones in bcps.

it is a newer approach, and they do work with real obgyns. they check your blood periodically to monitor your hormone levels. They are expecting it to become a more commonplace approach in the next 20-30 years.

i'm just starting it, so i can keep you posted if you want. I like the idea of not having to depend on a pill, it seems more natural. I know it's not what everyone would want, but it feels right to me.

So i'll be a Guinea pig and see how it goes. I 'm having such bad luck on the yasmin that i figure what do i have to loose by stopping it.

best wishes,

[Get n healthy]

Hey KB,
Wow, you are pretty hip to some really new treatments. I am impressed. I have heard of bioidenticals but only in regards to menapause. I also think you are very brave about being a guinea pig. Definately keep me posted. I would LOVE to come off of bcps. I hope all goes well.

[CousinRockingChair]

Is that proven? A lot of women have mental health problems. A lot of women take BC pills...I'm sure a few have negative side effects, but I'd want proof before I got worried.

I have poor mental health and I'm on Yasmin. HOWEVER...mentally ill for SIX years, on Yasmin for ONE! Lol..I'm just psycho anyway

[kaebea]

hi cousin rocking chair,
i wrote a reply but apparently i didn't do something right, basically what i had written was, if you research yasmin, you can find on pharmaceutical sites, that it should be used with caution if there is a history of depression. in fact it is in the insert that comes with the pills.

you can check out this forum for accounts that women have posted on thier own side effects. they are eerily similar to what i have experienced. no, it is not scientific proof, but when this many people have the same complaint there is something going on , weather or not the medical community takes it seriously. if they do decide to research it and look into the claims, studies take years to set up, years to carry out, years to evaluate and then publish the findings. So for those waiting for scientific evidence, it may be a long wait.

Also, just because there is no scientific evidence to back something up, that doesn't necissarily mean it's not true. it could mean that no studies have ever been done, therefore it's simply not known.

but it is not uncommon at all for drugs to be approved, then pulled from the market years later. the trials for yasmin lasted 2years. many women have stated they are fine for years before they start to experience these effects.

here's some sites your can check out to see what other women on yasmin have experienced:

www.iddb.org/drugs/yasmin/
www.medications.com/se/yasmin
http://www.askapatient.com/viewratin...98&name=YASMIN

these are side effects that women have reported since the drug was approved for the market. they have not been confirmed or refuted.

Consequently, all estrogen containing bc has been added to the NIH's list of know carcinogens, after being approved for marketing.

just throwing this out there though in case there is someone out there suffering like i did. it's definitly something to look into if you're depressed and on this drug. i realize everyone has to make thier own decisions about thier health in the end, but if someone recognizes this as thier situation, they can at least be aware of a possible connection.

i stumbled on it quite by accident, so i'm guessing there might be others out there like me.

best of luck in your health, and if you notice your depression worsen or increase in anxiety, definitly consider it might be your yasmin not agreeing with you. even if it takes years.

take care,
kb.

[CousinRockingChair]

Maybe, but it controls my PCOS, so Id be loathe to give it up. And .... PCOS gives you depression anyway!

[kaplods]

I think it's best for anyone taking any medications to know the common risks and side effects, but be prepared for anything not listed as well. On more than one occasion, I've experienced side effects that hadn't been listed in the known effects that my doctor or pharmacist may or may not have heard of before. Some of the meds have benefits that (to me) far outweight the risks and side effects. For example, if it were just for birth control purposes, I might not be willing to accept some of the contraceptive risks/side effects, but considering how I feel without them, I would be willing to accept a much higher risk/side effect profile. That being said, knowledge is power, as long as you understand the "real" risk as separate from the "percieved" risk. Sometimes hearing (or not hearing) about side effects or risks make the actual risk seem higher or lower than actuality.