Monday, November 24, 2014

I hate myself for going on Yasmin

I have had a terrible experience with Yasmin. I started it in September this year (2014). Before this I was on Levelyn ED since 2008.

I decided to switch to Yasmin because of the so called benefits such as clearer skin, lighter periods etc. When I asked my doctor if he could prescribe this pill he did not hesitate at all. He didn't ask me any questions about my health or whether I had a history of anxiety or bloods clots or anything. This made me believe that this pill wouldn't be so bad. I assumed that if it had bad side effects he would have told me. I soon learned how wrong I was. 

As soon as I began taking Yasmin I was very thirsty, dehydrated all the time. I thought perhaps I was not drinking enough water. Note that I only ever drink water and ONE cup of coffee a day - I do not drink much alcohol, except maybe one glass of wine a month, nor any soft drinks. No matter how much water I drank I could not rehydrate myself.

I had a feeling that the dehydration was the result of the Yasmin but I ignored it as I did not think it was anything major. After a couple of weeks I no longer felt dehydrated. Instead, I begun feeling anxious and with this I had diarrhea. In the past, I have had very mild anxiety with diarrhea (I now believe this is from my other birth control pill) but it was never this bad. I was not sure if it was the diarrhea causing the anxiety or the other way around. At first it happened every couple of days and on weekends when I was catching up with friends. I thought this was just me being silly so I took gastro-stop (anti-diarrhea medication) and ignored it. After about a month, I was waking up with diarrhea every morning which continued into the day and would re-occur at night. I was having full on panic attacks for absolutely no reason at all. I thought I was going crazy. I could not eat with fear of going to the bathroom and lost weight.

Eventually it all got so bad and I started doing research on Yasmin. I worked out that it was the Yasmin that was making me like this. I decided it was time to stop. That was when everything went down hill.

Monday, October 20th, this year was my first day without Yasmin. I was still feeling somewhat anxious but I was happy that I stopped taking Yasmin and was looking forward to getting back to normal again. On Tuesday I felt worse, having a panic attack at work. When I got home from work I had terrible anxiety and diarrhea. On Wednesday, I felt even worse and left work early to go home. I thought that perhaps I had gastro or a stomach bug (it was this bad).

On that Wednesday everything changed.



Once I got home I had a horrible panic attack and it lasted for hours. I had chronic diarrhea and could not even have a sip of water without going to the bathroom. I was also nauseous. My entire body was trembling and my heart was palpitating and felt as though it was going to jump out of my chest. I had never felt like this before, EVER! I was rushed to the emergency room and put on a drip immediately. I had every sort of test performed on me imaginable. All of my tests came out perfect. The doctor told me I was perfectly fine and that I probably had a bug, to drink lots of water and I would be fine. I told him that I had stopped taking Yasmin and done research on this - I asked if this was the withdrawal symptoms of stopping Yasmin. He said no.

The next day I felt slightly better but as it got later in the day I was exactly the same again. And, once again I was rushed to the emergency room. I had more tests done and they told me I was fine and probably had a bug. I told the doctor about the Yasmin and he ignored me. I was sent home after the tests came back fine and I had a drip as well as morphine to calm me down.

I have not been in the hospital since then but my symptoms have not really gone away. I admit that I am better than I was but to this day (it has been almost one month) I have had diarrhea and some anxiety daily. I have seen a doctor about this TWICE. on the first occasion he told me this was not the result of Yasmin. He said the symptoms I was having were too severe to be related to Yasmin. On the second occasion, he told me that MAYBE this was the result of Yasmin but this was "rare". He said I would be fine after another week. He was wrong.

I have no idea what to do. I spend hours everyday crying and have had thoughts of ending my life. I cannot enjoy the things I used to enjoy and I hate myself for going on Yasmin. I refuse to take any other pills or to put any other chemicals in my body. I feel like I will never get better. I feel like there is something wrong with me even though I know Yasmin is the root of my problems. I know it has only been just under a month but how long will this last? I have been taking various vitamins and minerals but nothing seems to help.

I hate that doctors won't admit that we are suffering from Yasmin side effects. It's not fair.

I have days where I am positive and feel like I will be fine. Then on other days I feel like I am just getting worse all over again. I don't know how to help myself and its not fair that I am putting my family, friends and boyfriend through this. I have had thoughts of breaking up with my boyfriend so he doesn't have to see me like this.

Any advice will really help and I would really appreciate to hear some success stories from women who have experienced similar symptoms and recovered.

Thank you.
Camilla,
Adelaide, South Australia

11 comments:

  1. How are you doing now Camilla? Your story sounds very much like mine, unfortunately I didn't stop at the first sign of anxiety and internal jitters and went on to develop recurrent sinus infections, dysautonomia, allergies and ME. Did you ever have derealisation? A feeling of being in a dream state and not in your body?

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  2. How are you doing now Camilla? Your story sounds very much like mine, unfortunately I didn't stop at the first sign of anxiety and internal jitters and went on to develop recurrent sinus infections, dysautonomia, allergies and ME. Did you ever have derealisation? A feeling of being in a dream state and not in your body?

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    1. Camilla writes:

      Hi Hayley, no I did not experience anything like that but anxiety can take many forms. Mine consisted of heart palpitations, cold sweats and the bathroom runs. It has been about 4 months now and I can happily say that I no longer experience anxiety or the panic attacks. I actually can't remember the last time I had one.

      I should tell you that after numerous blood tests and hospital visits, it was discovered that I may have the bacterial infection called H Pylori. It has exactly the same symptoms but consists of a lot of bloating, abdominal pain and flatulence. My blood tests were 'inconclusive' for this but as my dad and boyfriend are now suffering similar symptoms, I am going for further tests via endoscopy. My parents have had this bacteria before and it is very common. I think that this bacteria is what started my problems.

      However I know that Yasmin made everything 100 times worse and had it not been for Yasmin, I would not have suffered like that. There is no way that I would have had panic attacks like that if I wasn't on Yasmin. Yasmin is one of my biggest mistakes in life and I do not understand how it can be prescribed.

      I know that everybody says this but hang in there... It really does get better with time. I never thought I would recover, it was the worst experience of my life. For the first 2 months I could not leave the house or eat. I lost so much weight and I was at the lowest point in my life.

      I will be honest and also say that no vitamins, foods, minerals etc helped me or made a difference. In fact, it made me worse because it created expectations that weren't met.

      My recommendations to you are (and if I did this I believe I would have recovered a lot quicker):

      1. stay away from Google - researching your symptoms and the effects of Yasmin etc will drive you crazy, its best to stay away and let everything return to normal on its own
      2. try your absolute hardest to completely ignore your symptoms (this is VERY hard but believe me once you learn to do this you will be so much better)
      3. find a doctor who will perform blood works for you so that you can see your hormone levels, vitamins levels etc for yourself
      4. try and resume normal life as best you can
      5. stay positive and KNOW that it will get better, no matter how long it takes.

      Camilla.

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    2. Hi Hayley,
      I suffered from sinus infections or at least sinus problems for YEARS thanks to the pill - it destroys your mucus membrane completely. I also had many very strange and random allergies that are gone now thankfully! And the feeling of being out of your body.. oh yes, especially when I would lay in bed at night... I honestly felt as though I was watching myself laying in bed while "I" was flying very high above myself... multiple times..

      Hope you will get better soon!!!

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  3. Thank you for your replies ladies. your advice Camilla is excellent, just what iv been doing and what iv advised other to do also. Im about 8 years off Yasmin now and what ever after effects i still have are now here to stay unfortunately. Its just nice to know iv not suffered alone with from that awful pill, I wish they would ban it.

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  4. Thank you for your replies ladies. your advice Camilla is excellent, just what iv been doing and what iv advised other to do also. Im about 8 years off Yasmin now and what ever after effects i still have are now here to stay unfortunately. Its just nice to know iv not suffered alone with from that awful pill, I wish they would ban it.

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  5. Hayley: I am so glad I found your post. I was on loestrin for years and it was good but had break outs so asked my doc what would be better for me. Despite knowing about the blood clots, I still went on it without any doctor warning. They make you feel you are going crazy! Anyway was on it for 2 months and had the same symptoms of gastro issues. Crohns runs in my family and I thought it was that and started freaking out. It wasn't until I started researching yaz that I figured it might be due to this. I decided to go off cold turkey. It's been 16 nights since last taking it and everyday is different. I was at such a low a week ago that I went to a doc to get blood work. He called back when the results were in and everything was totally fine except my estrogen was at 0 and he said that was the cause probably. He put me on my old loestrin pill and its been hit or miss. I was ok for a couple of days and then yesterday the GI tract crap came back and I woke up super early with the heart palpitations and anxiety. I talked to my sister in law who is a doc. She looked at my bloodwork too and the only thing she can attribute it to is getting adjusted to the new pill and getting off the yaz. I have been on bcp most of my life and this is definitely the worst. Anyone else feeling the same, please respond! Misery loves company.

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    1. Amy, I hope the new pill is working for you. I have found many that have had so severe reaction to any of them stop all together to allow the body to truly heal.

      Love to you

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  6. Dear Helena,
    Thank you for giving our lost souls hope. I have been on yasmin and Yas for about 6 year, on and off. To be honest with you while on it I have never feel wired or emotional, in the contrary, I have been emotionless. I do remember though that when I left Yaz back on 2013 I felt anxious and very emotional for more than a month but I started the pill again and therefore I didn’t pay much attention. My true struggle anyhow, started this September while coming back from vacations from Greece. I live in Albania, which is close to Greece therefore I drove there with my car. On the way back, after a wonderful vacation and after I cross the border I sat with my family for lunch. I was feeling very week and needed smth.to eat quickly. As soon as I sat I started to have very strong feelings of near fainting and nausea, just like a strong blood pressure drop but a continuous drop. It was pushing me to the fainting point but I wasn't fainting. I thought it was just because I was tired and I tried to eat and drink smth sugary and it will go away. I started to drive again and even after 60 km the near fainting feeling and the nausea was still there. Than the dizziness started and I broke. My face was numb and my head was numb and my arms started tingling and getting numb. I ended up to the ER convinced that I was dying. After measuring my blood pressure and an ECG they gave me manitol and diazepam. We don't have health care free here so they dismissed me telling me that it was just a panic attack. I was feeling yet very nauseous and kind of scared. My head was very fuzzy. I run blood tests the next day which came back all normal and went back to my daily life. I was still on yaz at that time and I gave it a thought that maybe because I was not taking it so regularly (I missed a day or two while on vacation), it was giving me this kind of symptoms, but I didn't pay too much attention. Than after one week (I again missed one pill) I experienced the second episode of near fainting and vomiting and dizziness and this time it didn't gave me the chance to self-drive myself to the ER. I was scared to death and the near fainting spells were coming every 2 seconds. I was given again Manitol and Diazepam and sent home. I couldn’t move myself from the bed for the rest of the weekend and I asked my family to help me with the tests. I was hospitalized 2 days after and run all the possible blood tests, did ultrasounds and a MRI of the head and the neck and everything came back normal, except for the hormones. I need to mention that I did the hormones blood test 4 days after quitting Yaz mid pack. During this time I developed severe anxiety for the first time in my life. It has been 6 weeks that I am off yaz and I have had panic attacks and anxiety and feel nauseous and very very week. I tried to supplement with omega 3 and Vitamin B and magnesium but I have this constant feeling of burn in my chest and in my throat that gives me the feeling that I am not tolerating the supplements. After the first day on my period (Before quitting yaz I had amenorrhea for more than 1 year) the near fainting feeling came back while sitting on a restaurant eating lunch. It consumed all my energy levels in less than 5 seconds and left me almost passing out. I didn’t end up to the ER but I had a Xanax and pushed myself to go on. Than on the last day of my cycle it happened again and it is driving me crazy. I can take all the other symptoms but this feeling of passing out is killing me. It happens without any warning and leaves me paralyzed. It takes me a lot of time to recover after this kind of episodes. I would really appreciate it If you could let me know if this is a normal feeling of withdraw. I don’t know what other tests to run or if I should keep supplementing. I feel so week I can barely make it to the end of the day. I am taking one pill of Xanax every 2 days which is helping me but I don’t want to use medication anymore. Please let me know your opinion and whatever advice you have for me. Thanks a lot again.

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    1. Dear.
      I am so sorry to hear all of this.
      But I have to tell you that you are not alone. I also went through these terrible "fainting spells" on top of extreme panic and anxiety. I also thought I was going to die. I also went to the ER a few times and had all tests possible - normal.
      The only test that wasn't normal was my cortisol - go figured that was high. Clear indication of stress. My body was going through a LOT.

      And just like you describe... I was more numb on the pill than anything and when I quit I had severe attacks like this. I remember I was having a hard time eating due to the fact I thought I would faint if I had "one more bite".

      The best part is that it ended... Little by little. Slowly. One day at a time... I got out of it. I detoxed my body naturally. I allowed my body to heal. I saw every good and bad episode as a sign my body was moving in the right direction. I had to - I had no choice. I wasn't going to go back on the pill that was for sure.

      I can't tell you exactly what to do - we are all so different - but there are some suggestion here on the blog, plus there might be other stuff you enjoy. I would like to recommend you doing something to calm you - like walking, yoga, meditation, painting, or something along that line.

      If you have facebook look up "SunnySoulCoach" and there is a video on how to help you with your panic attacks..

      HUGS

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