Your experience with YAZ birth control pills - part 2

I have taken Yazmin for about two years or so to help clear up acne, and later as a BC method. When they came out with the generic, Ocella, I started having some spotting.

My gyno had given me some trial Yaz to use so I decided to try the new birth control. For the first month, it did pretty good. The spotting stopped, my period came on time, nothing seemed to change.

However, the second month has nearly killed me. I started getting these weird light-headed spells where I would go dizzy for just a few seconds. I thought I was seriously going crazy. Then the neverending headaches started. Then I started sleeping 14-16 hours a day. Nothing could get me to wake up, and when I was awake, I had trouble going to sleep. I became a horrible, cranky person to be around and my boyfriend dubbed me "the monster".

Now I'm waiting for my period to come. It was supposed to be here Saturday, limped through that with a barely there spotting and now the flow is so light, it's almost not like it's blood, but pink watery discharge. I took a pregnancy test, but it was negative (and yes, a p-test should be positive at this point since it's been about three weeks since sex and I always use condoms anyways, semen is way too messy for me and pregancy isn't an option).

But, oh, the horrible weekend I've had. I'm bloated so bad that my belly feels like a bounce house, but I can't pass the gas. I crave water and have drunk more water this weekend then I've ever wanted in my lifetime. I definitely notice the increase in potassium because I ate a banana and it nearly killed me with the pain afterwards, in both my stomach and my joints. And the mood! I go from happy, to sad, to lively, to can't get up off the couch. In about 5 minutes. I can't sleep either.

Bye, bye, bye Yaz. I'll put up with slight spotting instead of this mess.

Also, I have a hair-pulling anxiety disorder that I had under wraps for a few years now. I haven't been able to stop pulling for about a week now. It's completely scary.

Hi Ladies I REALLY NEED YOUR ADVICE.! I've been on Yaz for a couple days now. I'm 19 and a virgin, but my gyno prescribed it for severe ruptured cyst(s). Since starting it...I have been a little moody. I started crying the other day for NO reason, but I'm also on my period and I'm usually a little moody then anyways. I've been a little irritable, I have to go to the bathroom more than usual, and my breasts have been sore. I'm trying to avoid the whole "weight gain" issue. I'm eating healthy and I'm very active so I'm not really that worried about it. So Not really any REALLY bad symptoms.

HOWEVER, the only REALLY WEIRD symptom I've discovered is that my sex drive is THROUGH THE ROOF! (AND I'M A VIRGIN!) I'm aroused so easily by NOTHING.

My boyfriend and I are saving ourselves for marriage, but the increased sexual appetite isn't helping. I was wondering if anyone else felt this way. Please help!


o.O

I really appreciate all of these posts. It now confirms my thoughts that my severe bloating and constipation may likely be due to the bc pills and not just irritable bowl. I have had so many different tests done on the pain in my stomach to realize I was just so blocked up it was terrible. I have also experienced no sex drive. I am 30 and very happily married and thought maybe school was killing my sex drive. Now that summer is here, I still have no drive and I am exhausted. I think it is time my husband and I have to deal with condoms or something else because this bc is killing me. Even if I have to take pain killers for a week to deal with the cramps!

KatieLady~ I have been reading through all of these strings, closed ones included, and it seems like everyone has their own 'special' side effects to Yaz (like any other drug...) I have seen many say their sex drive was gone, but I have been on Yaz since February and have not had that problem at all. In fact, I do remember when I first started taking it that I was really frisky... But unlike you, I am not saving myself and I have a boyfriend, so that wasn't really a problem! But it has subsided back to my normal self, so I think if you can hold off for a couple months, you should be safe! If you are like me...

I am on the drug to treat symptoms of ovarian cysts, and the upleasant side effects I have continually had are moodiness, cramps (slight, but I never got them before) and very tender, BIG boobs! (I was already a D, I do not want to be a DD! These things are heavy. Oh well)

I don't even know where to start. Thank God for this site. I wasn't sure what was wrong with me for the past almost a year. Now I know. This is what I've experienced:

Significant weight loss to the point of looking drawn and sickly
Skin on my face dry and cracked - looks like I aged 10 years in 6 months
Significant HAIR LOSS !!! This was the most disturbing, and caused me to research when I found this site
Small red spots on my skin (some on my face)
Insomnia - horrible
Not myself

So now I am horribly depressed. I am not sure if it's because of all the cosmetic issues, or whether it's also from this poison, or both. Help me. I just want to know - will my hair grow back? I've been off YAZ for 3 months now, and it's not gotten any better. My gyn doesn't have any recommendations, except wait-see. I am actually considering a hair transplant.

I started taking YAZ two years ago. It all started June 2008, whenever I am really hungry I experience vaginal bleeding and cramps. I told my doctor and she does not know why it's happening. Has anyone experience this?

I have been experiencing all these symptons too!! Does anyone know if there is a class action law suit on YAZ?? Any particular attorney to go to.

I'm 18 years old and 5'6''. Ive been taking Yaz for just shy of a year. Ive had no problems. I did gain a little bit of weight in the first few months of taking it, but it came back off quickly within the first 4 months. No mood swings, feeling angry, or depressed. Its been great, i love it!

After months and months of skin issues and hair loss from Yaz, my hair is FINALLY starting to grow back. Each strand seems thinner and fly away, but I'm taking Biotin, Avodart and using Rogaine. My skin I don't think will ever come back fully. It's as if someone took all the moisture out of it and it just looks dry and bumpy. For the hair issue, I went to see Dr. Redmond in NY - he prescribed the Avodart and was helpful. Nice guy.

I've been on this pill for 3 years and I haven't had any problem with it. My period is lighter and lasts for only 3 days, I have no more cramping that would keep me home the first day of my cycle, it comes on time so well I can actually tell when I'm getting it, I haven't had an outbreak of acne since I started (I have a pimple every now and then but rarely) I haven't gained any weight from the pill, and I haven't really noticed any loss from it and I haven't had a horrific mood swing since I started taking the pill. Overall yaz has done my body good.

Hi, I'm 16 years old and I started Yaz sometime in July and it is now September, I am at the end of my second package and have been experiencing a few problems aswell. During my first month I had extreme bruising in my legs and through out my hips and arms. If I bumped into a wall I'd turn purple. After my bruising went away I started to experience leg/foot pain. Also the first month I had my period for 2-3 days but after I beleive 2 white pills and I experienced cramping and swollen breasts a week to two before. This month my bruising has gone away, I still experience some leg pain and have been feeling very irritable. I was changing last week and with in a second I started freaking out and had a tantrum I can't even explain what happened but I felt like I could snap on anyone. I am now 2 white pills in and still havent recieved my period. But I have gotten a bladder infection and the antibiotics may be causing my birth control to have some sort of an effect. I also had cramps and swollen breasts last week and a bit of the week before. I'm going to be totally honest I hate this pill, when I was 14/15 I was not having sex but was on Tricyclen and my only problem was that I couldnt keep up with the pill but I had no side effects and originally was put on it for depression and moodiness. Now after being given yaz, due to having sex I don't want to stop taking that pill because I want the extra protection.

My story? and I'm finding alot of the same stories among you.

I've been taking Yaz for about 2 years. I have never had PMDD and never experienced the associated symptoms, so I'm not sure why my doctor strongly suggested it... The only negative symptoms I noticed at the time were really bad migraines and temporary nausea.

The past year I have noticed smaller symptoms I used to brush off have gotten worse -- horrible depression episodes, mood swings, crying over silly things, no sex drive, weight gain, and my breasts have gotten bigger and very sensitive. My boyfriend has especially noticed all of these changes and we're both concerned. I was off of Yaz for three months and these major symptoms started once I went back on the pills. Is it possible to have these symptoms show up now? Or were they just not as severe before?

I'm going to talk to my doctor about this, but I'm very glad to have searched my symptoms and had Yaz discussion pop up. Good to know I'm not the only one going through these "crazy episodes" on Yaz, for now I have stopped taking them.

I am 28 and have been on YAZ for 13 months now. At first I really liked it; No weight gain. I didn't have any cramping and my periods went from heavy for 5-7 days to extremely light for 2-3 days. I was a bit moody/weepy for the first month and my breasts were quite tender and got a little larger for the first 2 months. Other than that I didn't have any issues with it.

I first started thinking my hair was getting thinner about 3-4 months after starting it but thought it was all in my head (and didn't associate it with the YAZ). It was in June that I noticed I was losing ALOT of hair-enough so that family members asked me about it (My brush would be full every time I used it). And it wasn't just breaking off. After every shower and hair brushing I would see the roots on practically all of the strands. At first I researched what might be causing hair loss; thyroid imbalance, poor nutrition, etc. Had blood work done for anything and everything I thought might be the culprit. Everything came back within normal levels. I even went to a dermatologist. No one seemed to be able to explain why I would be losing my hair....

It wasn't until I started looking back that I realized other things had changed in me as well. I am tired ALL the time, sad/crying more than I ever had, huge loss of sex drive, get winded easily, have to urinate 3 times more often than I had to before, no desire to do anything really. I am a healthy, active 28 year old who eats healthier than anyone else I know, and these things just weren't making any sense to me. The only medication I am on is YAZ. I started researching side effects of it, and was absolutely shocked to find hundreds of other posts with complaints similar to mine. I have decided to get off YAZ, especially now with the lawsuits and finding out the pharmecuetical companies weren't honest when disclosing the side effects. Who knows what else they weren't telling us!!

After researching other birth control pills that would not cause hair loss (as that is my most prevalent side effect), I found that that is pretty much non-existant. The only one that looks even slightly promising is Desogen. Does anyone use this who can tell me how it affects them? I want a non-androgenic pill as testerone seems to be the culprit of my hair loss. My last option is Natural Family Planning, which sounds enticing since you don't use chemicals to alter your body, therefore don't have side effects. However, it's effectiveness rate concerns me. We are not ready for a baby just yet, and the thought of going back to really heavy periods with dibilitating cramps scares me.

Does anyone have any information that combines the best of both worlds??

I started using Yaz about 4-5 months ago. I don't know why the doctor prescribed it seeing as how I don't suffer from PMS or PMDD or anything else for that matter. Anyhow, life started to change for the worse. I thought I was going crazy. I'm from Canada, so I didn't hear about Yaz before or heard about any lawsuits. Anyhow, to start an interesting story, I started getting nonending heachaches that felt like a clamp was across my forehead. I suffered from migraine headaches before, so naturally I assumed that Yaz was maybe causing some migraines. However, more symptoms came along with the headaches. I became depressed, anxious and completely emotional over anything and everything. I am a lawyer and I think logically, but all of a sudden I am irrational and fighting with my husband over spilt milk. I cry a lot and am emotional over everything. My sex drive has diminished drastically and I bleed when having sex due to dryness. My eyes are dry and blurry and I started getting double vision which I attributed to migraines (I don't know why I attributed it to migraines seeing as how I was never affected this way before). I guess I was attributing most of my symptoms to migraines as I didn't know what else was causing them. THEN, THE WORSE PART STARTED. I started becoming increasing anxious - like I was losing it. I felt all alone and like the world was against me. I started getting easily alarmed and jumped easily. Then one day at work, my vision got blurry and I had this nasty headache which caused severe confusion in me that I couldn't find my way home. I then had a massive panic attack and I broke down. I came home crying at noon and collapsed as I almost couldn't find my own home. When I collapsed, my husband panicked and took me to ER as I couldn't remember what day and time it was. My heart rate was palpitating and my temperature was high. Also, my speech was slurred and I couldn't maintain my balance. The doctors thought it was a stroke, seizure and/or a tumour in the brain. The confusion and dizziness lasted for about 1 hour. I am always dizzy, though, up to now since I started Yaz. They do all kinds of tests, even a CT Scan. No tumour, thank goodness. All blood, urine and other tests come back negative. They send me to Neurology to a bigger hospital in a bigger city to figure out what's happening with me as they are alarmed. Nothing shows up. Sitting in Neurology with a frightened husband, I suddenly remember what the doctor said about what Yaz was originally designed for. So I do a little research on Yaz on my Blackberry in the hospital room while waiting for the 3 Neurologists to come back and tell me their diagnosis. I am SHOCKED to find out that all the symptoms Bayer is being sued over have been my symptoms exactly for the past 4-5 months. I thought I was going crazy. I thought I was losing it. I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. All my symptoms were similar to that of a stroke!!! I am scheduled for EEG's next week to determine if I had a stroke and/or a seizure. I quit taking Yaz as a result and have had a head busting headache that never ends. I also started losing my hair and gained weight while on yaz and slept for ever, never able to get enough sleep. I became extremely depressed and felt like life was not worth living even though prior to this, I was handling life pretty darn good despite some setbacks. I am now on Ibuprofen and Tylenol extra strengths for the headaches and am hoping they will go away soon. I just want to feel normal again. We quit using Yaz and my husband is now using condoms. He is going to get a vasectomy next month as we don't plan on having children for other reasons. I am 44 yrs old and he is 41 years old. I hope this helps someone. Maybe not everyone experiences negative effects like I did while on Yaz, but I tell you, what I did expereince was horrible and I wouldn't want it on my worst enemy. Thank goodness I was only on it for a short period before pieces the puzzle together. There are other contraceptives out there that don't affect you like this - so unless you are desperate and have severe PMS or PMDD or other related symtoms, don't take Yaz. However, even those individuals taking Yaz for PMS or PMDD, Yaz doesn't seem to help them either, so go figure. God bless!

Simbamarie