Comments on: Birth Control Gave Me Blood Clots

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:41:08 +0000

Also, forgot to post on my previous post, that they have had me on Diamox for 2 months beecause the cerebral fluid hasn't been draining, so I've had intracranial pressure pretty severely….

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:39:10 +0000

I am 37 and, over 5 months ago, I started having really bad headaches and double vision. As I was seeing my GP and he was running blood tests all symptoms got much worse. I ended up going to a neurologist over 3 months ago…. after 4 mri’s, 2 spinal taps, 1 CT Venogram and dozens of blood tests they have found a blood clot in my brain; however, for some reason they feel that “treatment” is to simply take me off of my bc pills (orthocyclen). They believe that it will dissolve itself within 2-3 months… not sure how I feel about this. I am nervous that I am not on a blood thinner bc it seems that every case that I have read about has been treated with blood thinners. I am uninsured and having to pay for all of this myself, which may be one reason why? However, I would much rather be in medical debt than take a chance of death or paralysis, etc. Also, they have not given me any restrictions or parameters to stay within…. any thoughts?

By: I Almost Died From Taking Yaz | BuzzMonster

I Almost Died From Taking Yaz | BuzzMonster — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:29:23 +0000

[...] these days. Some of you may remember my issues with the birth control pill, Yaz. After surviving a pulmonary embolism, I can now consider myself relatively healthy although doctors are not sure if I will have more [...]

By: I Almost Died From Taking Yaz : CollegeCandy

I Almost Died From Taking Yaz : CollegeCandy — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:31:06 +0000

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:57:20 +0000

Last Tuesday, I drove back from NYC to WV with my husband – a 5 hour drive. I'm fairly certain that we didn't go for more than 3 hrs without stopping. That night, I gave a lecture to my students (I'm a professor) and was very out of breath – so weird. Also, my right calf had started hurting. My foot had been hurting for a month or so from wearing flip flops, so I thought that the pain had just moved into my calf muscle from over-compensating my foot pain, or from driving a long distance.

The leg pain and breathing problems (when lecturing and when walking to/from work) continued. Saturday I did some internet research and came up with DVT/PE and my dad, who has a background in medicine, said that with those symptoms (leg pain, breathing issues), I should go to the ER. I went the next morning, this past Sunday. They said I was very low risk (no smoking, family history of blood clots, 37 yrs old) I had no lung pain, no coughing, no discoloration or swelling of my leg… they weren't expecting to find anything. The ultrasound of my leg showed no clots. The intern came in and said that my leg had no clots – and he was going to go look at my CT scan. My husband and I were planning where we were going to go eat lunch after the visit. Then, the guy came back and said "well, unfortunately, there are clusters of small blood clots and a bigger clot in your lungs. We need to treat those – Is it okay if we admit you?" I was pretty shocked – and so I responded, "wait, what? You want me to stay?" Very surreal experience. I'm healthy. I'm overweight, but have always been very healthy. I haven't smoked in 6 years, I'm vegetarian so I have great cholesterol levels, perfect blood pressure. This came as a real shock. Nobody talked at all about this being a result (possibly) of me using Nuvaring.

I spent the night there, with lots of blood tests, Heparin IV and then they started Lovenox and Coumadin. They kept listening to my lungs and they were clear, which is great. I went home on Monday. I STILL had the leg pain and I asked if it was possible that the machine didn't see a leg clot and the Dr. said no. (of course)

Magically, overnight (Monday) the leg pain went away. I know there was a clot. It went away with the drugs. I am going to tell my Dr. about this, but I don't think he'll believe that there actually was still a clot in my leg. We'll see. I've also been hypersensitive about every little thing that my body is doing – leg cramps, chest flutter/squeeze etc. I can't wait until this obsession goes away. That's the good thing about going back to work. More OTHER things to focus on.

Anyway, I've been doing the Lovenox shots and Coumadin since Sunday and aside from them making me feel like crap, I feel okay. I've been back to work since yesterday (Wednesday), and giving my students PSAs about blood clots and birth control. I would have NEVER imagined that this could happen to ME, and with all of the scary stuff I've read online since Saturday about blood clots, blood thinners, and all of the complications, I've been freaked out but trying to stay positive. It's hard to know what is legitimate and what is over-reacting.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:39:24 +0000

I feel the same way! I was diagnosed with a clot in my brain three weeks ago from birth control. Everything that birth control says claims that it is rare. It obviously isn't that rare!

By: Jenn

Jenn — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:26:23 +0000

Thanks for sharing your harrowing experience. I am 40 yrs of age and I am a smoker (still trying to quit) and was taking Yaz bc for a month or two and then switched to Ortho Tricyclen. I don't know if it was the Yaz that increased my risk or both and just being my age and smoking. I didn't take baby aspirin everyday but frequently (prob 3 times a week at least) took Excedrin for headeaches. They were the average headache and not really strong. However over Memorial Day weekend this year, the headache started and it was only on one side of my head. Now, I was not someone who dealt with migraines throughout my life but I wrote this one off as a cluster headache..even though I had never had one, I knew they were on normally on one side. But the pain just kept intensifying and felt as if someone was running an ice pick through my head and trying to break through my skull on that one side. I was vomiting from everything I put in my mouth, if I did sleep I woke up with the blinding pain and the last day I had an episode of feeling numbness and tingling on that one side. It was as if I could draw a line straight down the top of my head, across the bridge of my nose and down to my chin. I went to an urgent care center, operated by the hospital since my GP would not take me (it was a Friday to make matters worse). The urgent care center Dr. prescribed a migraine medication and phenegran. Upon arriving at the pharmacy I was told that the migraine med was no longer on the market. Husband comes home from work and calls the Dr. back, to which the nurse tells him that a new Dr. is now in the office and advises me to take Tylenol. I was LIVID to say the least. I took the phenegran and slept for a few hours. I woke up with the headache again, not pulsing as strong but still hurting. By this time, I had learned to deal with the some of the pain. But at bedtime, I could take no more and went to the E.R. With the exception of the run and totally obnoxious intake person, the Dr. and nurse were awesome. They didn't order any tests, but did look in my eyes and gave me migraine meds which took the edge off. I went home in the wee hours of the morning. The next day, Memorial Day, the pain started coming back and off I went to urgent care again and it was the same freak that prescribed the wrong meds. They gave me a shot of Nubain and I went home and slept all night. The next day the pain was nearly gone but I did get to see my GP whom ordered an MRI. After the results came back my GP, himself called me to say the radiologist spotted an abnormality and while it may not be anything, he still wanted me to see a neurologist. I ended up seeing the most respected neurologist in our area (by luck) and after discussing the images with the radiologist herself she said there were 2 blood clots in my brain. Now this visit to the neurologist was almost a full month after the headache. One of the blood clots had started to dissolve and another was still there!! I was walking around with this clot for almost a month and have lived to tell about it! She immediately ordered a CT scan and I left her office to have it done. Unfortunately the clot was still there and she admitted me to the hospital where I was placed on a heparin drip, oral coumadin, and baby aspirin. I was there for 4 days.

What is really weird about this and a lot of people don't think about is that when I was admitted to the hospital, I WAS NOT IN PAIN. My advice, don't EVER think that just because your not experience symptoms that all is well. I am now taking Coumadin and have about 2 1/2 mths left to go. I know too well how it feels to be poked every six hours, in addition to IVs being stuck in various places on your arms. I left the hospital looking like someone had taken a bat to my arms!!

I know that a lot of people want to blame everything on smoking and yes it does cause a lot of problems, but IT IS NOT ALWAYS the main factor in illnesses. As I've read here and other places, it happens to young, old, smokers and non-smokers. More than likely it's a genetic predisposition. Regardless, I'm sooo very thankful to be alive and loved. I'm still having problems with sleepiness, but have to talk to my neurologist about that to see if it's related to this in any way. I had extreme sleepiness a year before all of this happened (which was also before the birth control) and wonder sometimes if it wasn't starting to develop then.

It's not good to hear others stories of suffering, but it is good to know that you're not alone. God bless everyone.

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Hollywood Celebrity Gossip: Round 1 – Jun 10, 09 | Celebrity Gossip — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:40:21 +0000

[...] Birth control gave me blood clots – College Candy [...]

By: jay23

jay23 — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 02:11:52 +0000

for the women who had the pulmonary embolism experience, i severed with the same thing. The only thing was, my doctor said I can never take oral conceptions again but use different forms of birth control. a blood clot was 2 nerves away from my brain but now that i'm on warfin and feeling a million percent better. i wanna live a normal and remain sexual active with my bf and remain safe with it.

By: Jess

Jess — Sat, 14 May 2011 04:53:51 +0000

Thankyou for posting this.

I suffer with severe period pain and a blood clot formed as a result of taking the birth control pill to keep my pain at bay. I've been very wary of birth control medication since.

This just put my mind at rest! Thanks!