I apologise greatly for my absence. I have had a lot going on. But I am back now.
Today’s entry is somewhat different to many I have posted so far. Today I wanted to re-post an entry that I posted on another blog a few years ago that discussed my experiences with Yazmin and Microgynon birth control pills. The blog entry I am referring to is contained within a personal blog now. I wanted to share it again here so that I can direct my fellow PMDD sufferers (and anyone else who is curious to hear of my experiences with these birth control pills) to this blog to see this entry specifically. I have edited it slightly in some cases to improve reading. With that, welcome to any girls from my PMDD groups. I hope you and anyone else reading this entry finds it helpful in some way.
Disclaimer
Remember that women are indivuals and not everybody will react the same way to these birth control pills as I did. I am not attempting to scare anyone or put anyone off using birth control pills. They can be extremely helpful to the majority of women who use them. I am simply writing this entry to share my experiences as I frequently get asked questions about birth control pills. Any advice given in this entry is NOT professional medical advice. It is only general advice so please take it as such.
Please be aware that this entry will discuss the topic of birth control pills, PMDD and the menstrual cycle and might, as a result, might be quite graphic. If you are not mature enough to understand or handle such subject matter please skip over this one. This entry may be slightly edited from the original to improve reading quality but the points are exactly the same. I ask that nobody attempt to offer me treatment advice as I only take health advice from my doctor. Thank you!
Background Information On Me
For those who are unaware, I suffer a great deal physically with my periods. I have something called Dysmenorrhea alongside PMDD (Pre Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder). I get pain so bad it makes me vomit for a few days at least. I then have to use industrial strength painkillers which barely help most of the time. That confines me to my bed for the duration of those few days. I bleed heavily, I am irregular and nothing generally seems to help the physical symptoms. I have been checked numerous times for things like Polycycstic Ovaries and Endometriosis. I have neither. Rather I have one symptom of PCOS but they can only diagnose it if you have three symptoms. I do have fibroids which cause the dysmenorrhea but everything else has been ruled out by various doctors I have seen over time.
EDIT 26/5/15 : Since I wrote this entry I have been diagnosed with PCOS. There is a bit of a back story behind this (apparently, in short, they didn’t see the cysts on my scans until my diagnoses in March earlier this year (2015). I was also informed that I did not need to have all of the symptoms to be diagnosed with this condition. I was previously told much different so there was the cause of my confusion and disbelief at the fact it took over 10 years for me to receive a diagnosis! Therefore I’m now aware of what is causing my pain and vomiting.
As previously stated I have PMDD. This means I get a lot of emotional symptoms too like insomnia, anxiety, changes in my eating, feeling hopeless, etc. HOWEVER, I have had therapy for the emotional symptoms so now I’m more than able to cope with them the majority of the time. They have calmed considerably since then but the physical symptoms, I feel, will always ruin my life as there isn’t a lot that can be done for me on that end. (Aside from taking strong painkillers, which I do. This sometimes helps, sometimes doesn’t.) I have been strongly advised to never to take birth control pills again. I thought at one point that I would never intend to either but there is a chance I’ll be trying a new birth control pill soon. I am very nervous of trying it so it’s going to take me some courage to give it a go. All I can say is it’s a ‘maybe’ for now. I will report back and write an entry about my experiences if I choose to try birth control pills again in future.
Again though, my experiences are my own and they do work for many, many women. Please do not let my experiences scare you. And always consult your doctor with any concerns you might have about trying any new medication.
Yazmin Section
I began taking Yazmin when it was very new. It was said to be a ‘miracle’ birth control pill. I had high hopes for it. I have had PMDD since the age of 18 (though only found out what it was in later years). I was miserable and desperate so I went to my doctor who said he saw no reason why I couldn’t try it, so I began taking it.
At first it seemed great. I experienced no side effects. Then it gradually got worse. I admit I did not take the pill at the same time every single day at first and I thought that more than likely was causing some of the problems I had initially. So I started taking it on time. And unfortunately things got even worse.
So initially when I wasn’t taking it at the same time every day I got constant discharge. Deep reddy brown thick, horrible discharge. It was non-stop, I found myself having to wear pads constantly because it was as bad as having a period. I was reluctant to have sex with my now ex partner over it too. Now I KNOW that when you don’t take the pill the same time every day you are bound to get discharge. I thought at the time that I’d brought it on myself which is when I decided to behave and take it at the right time. I was experiencing some emotional side effects at this point pretty much all the time – mainly tearfulness, depression, anxiety..but they were tolerable. Nothing overly extreme and I figured it was part of getting used to taking a new pill. Sometimes you can get symptoms like these when you begin taking a new pill.
After I began taking it on time, those emotional symptoms got worse. I went from being a bit tearful/depressed/anxious to a crying, depressed suicidal mess drowning in anxiety. I cried constantly, I still had the discharge too. I was sick of it, it ruined my clothes as well as my sex life. I also found it did nothing to help the pain I go through each month.
Once I began taking this pill properly I gave it some time for my body to get used to it so it is not as if I did not give this pill a good chance to work.
One night I was staying with my ex and I spent what felt like half the night in the bathroom. I had the most awful heavy discharge, bleeding and stomach upset. I was scared out of my mind.
The emotional symptoms just kept getting worse. I spent my days crying and feeling out of my mind. Nobody could understand it.
Because of all that I decided to stop taking Yaz. It was sweet relief, quite frankly. I felt like myself again. A little while later I visited my doctor to try and find another solution. He suggested I stop taking it and try something else. That was the point where I tried my last pill. Microgynon. This was recommended to me by a gynecologist who said that it was ‘an oldie but goodie’.
Microgynon Section
I took Microgynon for about a month or so. That was all it needed to trigger clinical depression in me. Between the time I stopped taking Yaz and started Microgynon, I was FINE. I stopped crying all the time, stopped feeling depressed all the time, stopped having that discharge and just went back to what I normally suffered with. (I need to stress that because some people might think I was clinically depressed to start with. I assure you, I was definitely not.) I do suffer badly with emotional symptoms but I get these 7-10 days before my actual period which is NORMAL pmdd. They’re less severe symptoms now because I’ve had therapy and know how to handle them. Feeling this way ALL the time was a big giveaway that something was wrong. Silly me, kept taking the pill because I wanted to help myself and thought I just needed time to get used to it. But it went downhill fast.
I noticed something wasn’t right early on. But due to the fact I kept taking it, I believe I made my problem worse. I was feeling exceptionally down. Depressed to the point where I became anxious, suicidal, stopped eating/sleeping properly, stopped caring about everything and anything, cried all the time, etc. I don’t want to talk too much about this because it was such a distressing time for me and I’m now completely over it. I see no need to bring it up other than to say I completely recovered and am now happier than I have ever been.
It is still a bit hard to accept that I have to be so wary of taking birth control pills again if I ever do.
These are my experiences with Yaz and Microgynon and I’d just like to stress once more that just because I had these experiences doesn’t mean you will. Also, do not be put off by what I have said. Many women benefit from birth control but it is very important to know when to stop trying with them if they are not working for you. It’s so important to keep a close eye on how you feel. If you feel you’re going downhill on any birth control pill, go to your doctor. You may be one of the rare ones like me who just can not tolerate birth control pills. They are known for being something that helps lots of women, so I more than understand that it’s difficult to accept when they don’t work for you. But trust me, life without them can be just as enjoyable.
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