Medical Monday: A Partial Pathetic admission on Yaz

I’m not a fan of synthetic hormones. That should be no secret by now.  Not because I am Catholic (I’m not), and not because I think they are mean, not because I kissed a boy behind a magazine.  Just was never a fan.  I had the Depo shot once after Jacob.  I felt three months pregnant for a year.  A scattering of times after that, I would try the Pill, and find that I did not enjoy it, and would quit.  After Jon and I started to try to have kids, we soon found out that I didn’t need it anyway.  Getting pregnant was TOUGH.

As I began my journey into the pharmacy, I learned a lot about hormone replacement therapy and the like.  I began to dread my future.  Taking a pill that consisted of a pregnant mare’s urine did not appeal to me in the slightest. Women are pumped full of hormones from their first zit to the last chin hair.  It’s nuts.  I am not about doing away with the pill, I think if used properly, it is an acceptable option in the family planning arsenal.  (Would much rather dispense pills than increase abortions, TYVM.) But the fact that women accept them part and parcel as a rite of passage into womanhood, is kinda frightening. Not to mention all the junk ending up in our water supply! (Moobs galore!)

Almost one year ago, I was given one month’s sample and a prescription for Yaz.  I was having some spotting after exercising vigorously.  (Running and anything involving Jillian Michaels.) So my doc touted these new pills as the greatest thing ever.  I wouldn’t gain weight, I would feel great.  Hell, I might even want to stay on them past the three-month trial run.

I took them for a week and a half.  Then I almost died.  After not dying I spent months feeling like I was going to die. After that, I spent months afraid symptoms would return.  In the end, my doctor said I was anxious, the ER got tired of seeing me, and I was left with wonky heartbeats and sheer terror. I had so many x-rays and CT scans I should be glowing.

Turns out I was not alone, I found website after website where women experienced what I had and were told it was nothing.  Anxiety.  Agoraphobia. Paranoia. Only a few had a nurse or doctor who admitted there was a problem with the birth control pills containing drospirenone. Some never got an answer because they dropped dead. Many found their gall bladders destroyed. Most had clots that had rapidly formed in the legs and rocketed into the lungs. Hundreds of women on each site, all with stories identical or worse than mine.

Imagine the surge of optimism when I saw this headline on CNN.com. “Blood Clot Risk Higher in Newer Birth Control Pills, Study Finds”.  Yeah, then I read it.

‘Bayer, the maker of Yaz, challenged the study’s methodology and the databases used,  saying that they “provide less reliable conclusions than are available from existing scientific evidence.’ ”

Of course.

“According to Bloomberg News,  6,850 lawsuits  were pending in the U.S. as of February 1 over alleged injuries and deaths as a result of the use of Yasmin, Yaz, or generic versions of the drugs.”

To Bayer, all those women are lunatics and liars I guess. The stuff is not safe.  It should be pulled from the market.  I am just so very thankful that my family did not have to sue on behalf of me because I left this world too early.  I will write a post one day that fully explains what happened to me.  Because the findings on all of my tests were inconclusive I was not able to sue.

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