Yaz and side effects and benefits

[kitlucky]

I was told that Yaz is a new birth control pill.  I am used to 7 days of placebo pills rather than only 4.  Is Yaz's concentration any different from the common birth control pills? Is it like saying just taking longer birth control pills?  What are the side effects?  What are the benefits?  Has FDA approved?  Where i can search more about Yaz?  Will it affect my future plan of having a healthy pregnancy?  Also, i was told if i do want to get pregnant, i should wait 6 months after taking the birth control pills.  is that true?

[diana353]

second day on the pill && i have nausea && chest pains plus mood swing i have read all of your comments and wanted to thank ya for the information && i am getting off the pill

[mbheath1]

I have been on Yaz since the birth of my daughter 2 years ago. I am 39 years old and had no problems in the beginning. I have recently, over the past 6 months, begun have deep pains in my upper thigh. I can hardly sit for a period over 15 minutes without it bothering me. I have not talked to my Dr., but will immediately stop taking this pill. I am worried that there may be a clot issue and don't want that.

I have also had ZERO sex drive since my daughter was born. This has become an issue for my husband - since reading all of the other posts, he too agrees to immediately stop taking this pill.

I wish everyone the best of health out there - stay strong!!

[mrsordinola]

I am 19 and  I have only been on YAZ for 3 weeks and around week 2 I noticed I was started to feel super depressed, antisocial, very anxious, racing thoughts, didnt want my fiance to kiss me let alone touch me, my skin got horrible, I cried all the time for no reason at all, and I could go on but I think you get it. I thought I was going crazy and it was stressing out my family and fiance sooooo bad! I decided to get off of them last Friday. Best decision I ever made!!! I am slowly begging to see the effects wearing off. I am so glad I am not the only one who feels like this!! What a relief!! I would not put my worst enemy on this pill!!

[SadMom382]

My daughter spent the last 10 years working her way through college and law school, all while trying to hold down a job, a marriage, and raising 2 children. She graduated law school last August (2009) and passed the bar exam in Sept. She was hired with a start date of Nov 2nd. Because she was out of school in August and her job didn't start until November, she was left uninsured for 2 months (student insurance ended upon graduation). She has been on birth control for 5 years with no problems. She had her annual checkup and asked her doctor for samples to save money because she was unemployed and her new job didn't start for 2 months. They said they didn't have samples of her current birth control but would switch her to Yaz because they had lots of free samples of that. On October 9th she was inducted into the Bar, a proud day for our whole family. On October 27th I received a call that my daughter had been found unconscious and barely alive. She had suffered a massive stroke. For 6 days she remained in critical condition and I sat by her bed not knowing if she would live or die. No family should have to go through this. It was determined that Yaz had caused multiple blood clots and one of these had gone to her brain and caused the stroke and leaving her paralyzed on her entire left side. She has 2 children ages 5 and 8. The rehab will take at least 1-2 years. There is a high probability that she will never regain full use of her left arm and hand and although she can now walk again, she suffers a severe limp and will be in physical therapy for at least the remainder of this year. She cannot drive and has speech and cognitive issues that are being worked through in rehab as well. This has also financially devastated their family with the loss of her income and with medical bills in excess of 1 million dollars (2 brain surgeries, heart surgery and over 2 months in the hospital, plus long term outpatient rehab). Although Medicaid has stepped in with some Catastrophic coverage, they decide when and what kind of therapies you can have and if you need more you must pay for that yourself. It becomes strictly a financial decision, not a decision that is in the best interest of the patient - in fact the doctors are not even consulted when determining what kinds of treatments she can receive.

If you or someone you love is on this drug, I beg you to get off it immediately.

[SkookieWaleena]

I was on Yaz for two years until this last week. I am trying to get pregnant in the near future. For me, Yaz was great! I didn't gain too much weight (maybe 1 to 2 lbs) and after the first week, I was pretty much symptom free. The only things I noticed were (1) I'd get nauseous if I got really hungry and (2) Generally speaking, I was a lot less emotional than previously (which sounds like it's opposite than most people)... meaning it somewhat affected my sex drive, but I made do. I also didn't cry as much, but also didn't get as excited about things that I might be excited about normally. My periods were always on time and were WONDERFUL because they lasted 2-3 days max!

But now I'm off it, so we'll see if I notice some interesting differences. I've already had a much heavier period and it's lasted for 5 days now and no signs of letting up. And I've cried a lot... but that's to be expected when your hormones change :)

Anyway, I'd tell people to give it a try! Don't be too scared because I loved it! I'm a young, healthy 22 year old, so I don't know if that makes a difference but I thought I'd put it out there! :)

[moonbeam783]

When I was considering going off Yaz, I found lots of people wondering like I was and very few people who were offering their experience. I took Yaz for almost three years. I had no issues going onto it- no moods, no weight gain, etc, although it did take a couple months to get a period. Several months after starting it, I moved out of state. A little over a year later, I got to where I was sad all of the time. I thought I was having a hard time adjusting to living somewhere else, and it never crossed my mind that the birth control may have had something to do with my mood. A few months ago, it had gotten to the point where I cried all the time, mostly over insignificant things, and the worst part was that I felt as if I had no control over it. I’m sure that my boyfriend (who I moved out of state with) was starting to think I was crazy- I was even starting to think that myself. I kept wondering what was wrong with me, and when the commercials for depression came on tv I started thinking that those people sounded the way I felt.



For financial reasons (Yaz was not covered by my insurance and was costing nearly a hundred dollars each month) and because I had been reading about the risks of migraine patients taking birth control, I looked into the side effects of stopping Yaz.  This is when I found people saying that Yaz made them feel sad, kinda crazy, etc. I was almost relieved- maybe the sadness I was feeling wasn’t really ‘me’. I finished the pack that I was on. After four days of being off, it was like all of a sudden I felt SO much better. My mind felt like it was clearer, when I hadn’t even realized all that time that the pills were messing with me.  I stopped crying everyday. My boyfriend (who I’ve lived with for several years) complained about going back to using condoms, but said he could tell that I was feeling so much better. I wasn’t really expecting quitting Yaz to make my depression-like symptoms go away- I was hoping like crazy that it would- and it did. I can’t believe it took me so long to know that’s what it was- I feel like I wasted a year of my life being sad and depressed, when all I had to do was stop taking a pill.



As far as side-effects from stopping a month ago- I did NOT stop mid-pack. I don’t know if that causes different effects. I had no weight gain or loss, but Yaz never seemed to gave any effect on my weight in the first place. I did break out a little the first week, which I attributed to Yaz having some acne medication in it, but after that cleared up I haven’t had any issues with it. I have felt like I’ve been hungry ever since I came off it. I’ve read several accounts of people who didn’t get their periods for months after they stopped taking it or people that had it be magically lighter and shorter for months afterward… why, oh why, could I not have been one of those people?  Mine came right on time and is just as horrible as it ever was. I did love Yaz for that- I have apparently gone right back to my very long and heavy cycles just as I had pre-Yaz. I did not seem to have any mood-issues, cramps, spotting, or the number of other things I’ve read some people having. The accounts of some people coming off Yaz kind of had me scared, but it went fine.



One other thing that I feel might be a little TMI. I don’t really like to share things like this, but I’d seen several people asking- I had not ever had sex before I started taking birth control. For the three years I’ve been with my boyfriend, I was never really interested in it. It’s always just felt like something to ‘get over with’ and had constant problems of dryness.  I had read from a lot of people that they felt Yaz lowered their sex drive, so I was kinda hoping that might get better when I went off .. and it definitely helped me.



Yaz had seemed to work fine for me for so long that I am afraid to try another pill and go through so many horrors that I’ve heard from my sisters and online stories. I can’t speak for any other aspects, but if you are feeling constantly depressed and it seems like there’s no reason and you are on this pill, I would suggest that you think about stopping it to see if it helps. I hope this helps someone out, and good luck to anyone reading this who is having problems!