Welcome to Gaia! ::

I haven't been on Gaia in a very long time and so haven't posted to this guild in a while either. (Hi Nikolita!!) I actually started Gaia back when I was a Senior in HS. I am now a college graduate and will be married for 5 years in August.... biggrin


Anyway...
I've been on three seperate birth controls since I've been married: the patch, the ring, and Yaz. The patch made me crazy and gain about 30 lbs. The Ring was fine for a couple of years and then I started feeling incredibly depressed. I stopped using the ring for a few months and I felt better without it. So, my gyn recommended Yaz.

Yaz was great. My face stayed cleared, I was losing weight, no crazy emotional roller coaster, and my period was only 2 days! I thought I hit the jackpot.

A couple of months after I graduate college ('09), I began getting extreme pain in the upper right quadrant of my abdomen. I couldn't eat anything without throwing up or getting diarreah. The pain got so bad I finally went to the doctor thinking I had IBS or something.

Turns out my gallbladder was working at only 7%. I went in for surgery the same week the doctor told me the news. Gallbladder surgery was the first surgery I've ever been through. I was very scared.

After surgery, I was told that a tumor slightly larger than a golfball was found on my liver. A biopsy was taken while I was under for gallbladder removal. I had to wait THREE horrible weeks to find out if I had cancer or not. Contemplating your own death at 24 years of age is not fun. It makes you realize how little you've actually accomplished.

My tumor is not cancer. However, it can grow. So, every 6 months I get an ultrasound to make sure it hasn't grown. If it grows just .75 of an inch more, my doctor will want it removed because it will then be the size known to cause issues. A liver resection surgery would mean getting cut from the center of my abdomen (right under the rib cage) all the way to my right side.

The report given to me by TWO seperate labs that looked at my biopsy both believe my tumor could have been caused by birth control.

I've been told to stop hormonal birth control as it could cause further growth. My husband and I know use fertility charting, Basal body temp, and condoms to ensure we do not get pregnant. If and when we get pregnant, I will be high risk.

Everytime I would hear or see health issues related to birth control, I thought "Yeah yeah, I don't know anyone with health issues caused by birth control." Well, now I do... myself.

I'm not telling this story to scare you all out of taking birth control pills. I believe I am one of those rare cases. However, I think everyone should be aware that the health risks associated with birth control pills are all very very real.

Take charge of your bodies. Learn to recognize what is normal for your body. Maybe if something goes wrong with you, you will find it sooner than I have.

I'm also not telling you to stop taking your birth control while sexually active.... If you have health concerns, you should contact your doctor right away.

<3 Yi Min

There is always a risk. There's more of a risk with Yaz and Diane 35 because they are a different type of birth control and they are actually only recommended to be on it for a short period of time.

Some people get side effects, others don't.

That's really scary and makes me think maybe I should reconsider birth control pills. I've never taken them myself, but I've always thought that I would eventually. I was actually considering asking for advice regarding them in this guild but hadn't since I wasn't sure if my boyfriend was going to continue living with me or go back home to help his parents move and possibly take a job offer from one of his friends. I didn't want to start on something like that if he was going to leave. Now I'm not so sure I want to at all. So far I've only ever used condoms. I'm horribly afraid of pregnancy and thought I'd have more peace of mind with pills but now I don't think so. crying

I was on Yaz for a little over a year. I knew it was a short term birth control. My gyn and I chose it for several reasons... and, I was only going to be on it for two years because my husband and I were planning on having children after that.

I have to agree with Yukito Yu on this Kevin. If weight gain was her only symptom, she should try another bill or another form of birth control.

Omg hi!! mrgreen heart

Holy cow that sounds so scary... I've been online and read about one woman who used the Patch and ended up having major heart problems, and she said she was going to sue, etc etc. As Yukito said, stuff like that is always a risk, but one doesn't ever really think it'll happen to them eh?

I've been on the Pill, Depo and the Patch, but I'm not on anything right now. My boyfriend and I are in a temporary LDR while I'm finishing up university, and it's not worth paying the money for. If I get pregnant then I get pregnant... I'm at the end of my degree, so I can change my last semester by up to a year and it won't be a huge deal.

Congratulations on your upcoming 5 year anniversary! ^^

I saw one of those infomercials that tell you that you can get money back if you've taken so and so and had these side effects and then they show them on the screen

I actually saw one for Yaz, however, this was a quite a long time ago. o.O