How many women know Yaz Flex, Yaz, Yasmin and Beyaz are 99% similar in composition? ~Holly Grigg-Spall, author of the Sweetening the Pill blog and book.
If you are taking Yaz or Yasmin for your PMDD symptoms, you need to read this. So many of you have written to tell me you are being told the PMDD symptoms you experience are "all in your head." Well, if you are experiencing any of these reported mental, physical, or emotional side effects for Yaz or Yasmin, don't let anyone tell you they are "all in your head."
If you choose to take these drugs, then do so knowing the risks. Don't be taken by surprise.
Another quote from Holly: Monash University in Australia is one of the few facilities to have
undertaken research into the correlation between birth control pills and
depression. Professor Jayashri Kulkarni found that women on the pill
were twice as likely to experience depression, anxiety, and mental
numbness.
Sound familiar? If so, you have a choice to make.
But at least it's an informed choice.
Friday, May 10, 2013
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I'm in the UK, the doctor gave me Yazmin after the birth of my son, I can not tell you how much they messed me up, after three months I threw them in the bin. I wanted to die on them!
ReplyDeleteBack when we first got together my partner would experience one irrationally emotional day per month. She'd cry at something silly on TV and usually a hug and a hot chocolate would soothe it out. Fast forward a decade and my now wife is crying, out of it, struggling to concentrate, irrational, depressed, suffering panic attacks, severe period cramps, anxiety and unable to cope with daily life two weeks a month. I now recognise that all the hallmarks of PMDD were always there, but it wasn't until she entered her 30's that the condition really started to get out of control.
ReplyDeleteWe were travelling through Asia when the severity of her PMDD symptoms noticeably increased. As our lifestyle was so erratic we never gave her condition the attention it deserved. Over a period of months her monthly PMDD went from a 3 day a month period to a 2 week period. It was crushing to watch her suffer, especially when we were in what should have been our ideal life scenarios - no work to get up for, gorgeous sun sets, exotic locations etc. But PMDD was always lurking in the background. At the time we didn't have a name for her condition. We both believed it was severe PMS and at first I felt like I was enough to get her through her monthly turmoil.
But when you and your partner turn to other vices such as alcohol to deal with the stress generated by a PMDD episode then you are in trouble. I noticed the slippery slope of us reaching for the nearest bottle of wine to lighten the mood on an increasingly regular basis.
Daily exercise is a far better stress reliever for us both. Travelling and facing up to PMDD has opened us both up to options that we would never have previously taken seriously. We now both practice mindfulness, meditation and non-confrontational martial arts poses. Having some guided meditation podcasts and relaxing music downloaded on her iPod has been a great go-to when we are out somewhere and she begins to feel overwhelmed she can stick in her ear buds and 'escape' for a couple of moments.
We went to a gynecologist in a private hospital in Bangkok who prescribed her Yasmin birth control pills and recommended she 'get a boyfriend' - yes, he actually said that!! The first month on the Yasmin brought some improvement to her mood which we are not sure was a placebo effect or reality. Over the following 6 months her physical symptoms (bloating and bad cramps) improved dramatically as of course she wasn't actually having a period, but her mental state deteriorated with the number of PMDD days increasing each month. Again we don't know if this was as a result of the Yasmin exacerbating the physiological effects of her PMDD or a coincidence. The really terrifying thing about Yasmin was the dangerous weight loss - over the 6 months of treatment on Yasmin my beautiful wife went from a normal healthy weight to having a dangerously underweight BMI. Her face was sunken and her skin looked liked it was hanging from her bones. When we went looking for help with her weight loss we were shocked by the number of ignorant articles there are out their touting how fantastic Yasmin is for weightloss, while ignoring the dangerous diuretic side effects of taking the drug - which can lead to blood clots. (I would strongly advise that women read up on the emotional side effects of coming off Yaz and Yasmin before taking the pill). I was also shocked to learn that many such medications are only tested on men https://www.ted.com/talks/alyson_mcgregor_why_medicine_often_has_dangerous_side_effects_for_women