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Scary Stuff and a BC Warning
My roommate from collage just sent me the following email. I am in complete shock and I wanted to share with all of you just in case it can help you or someone you know. Please keep in mind this is not a chain email. This actually happened to her sister.
I?m generally not very talkative about the things going on in my life, however, I almost feel guilty if I don?t mention this to you guys, not for the situation, but for the potential of it happening to others. Two weeks ago my sister had a stroke ? she?s only 28. She?s ok, not getting any worse, but hasn?t gotten too much better yet.
She woke up in the middle of the night and felt like she had too much to drink, nauseous and really dizzy. She felt like that all day the following day, thinking she had a really bad ear infection or something but felt really weird and dizzy, even lost her balance a few times during the day. She was going to just take a ? day and go home and sleep and even planned on going to a boot camp class that night. Since she works at a hospital (luckily) and to make a long story short, co-workers convinced her to go get checked out. Reluctantly she went to the ER and at first they just gave her vertigo medicine but the dr. asked her if she has headaches, and she has had really bad ones since she was in middle school, so when she said yes, he said they should do a CAT Scan just to be safe. She again reluctantly agreed. Afterwards, she was ? way finished getting dressed and ready to go home when they came in and said the CAT scan showed she had a stroke in her cerebellum, actually, she had several small strokes in different parts of her brain but the main one was in the cerebellum. She stayed in the hospital for a few days so they could monitor her brain swelling, run a ton of tests (including a bunch of genetic ones), and make sure she didn?t have any other blood clots, all the tests came back clear, which is good, but provides no explanation as to why it happened. The only explanation they have is a result of her taking birth control.
Now 2 weeks later she can't walk all that well on her own (ha, she has a walker she should be using, but is mostly just holding on to the wall), and she everything still spins when she moves her head, and she's not sleeping cause 1 ? she has to be elevated and can?t lay down flat, and 2 ? every time she moves/turns over she gets really dizzy and wakes up. They said she hopefully will get her coordination and balance back, they're giving it 6 months to come back (she has a ton of Dr. appts and physical therapy every day), but if it doesn't, then they don't know if it ever will. Since she?s young they?re optimistic about her chances and that another part of her brain will takeover.
So?back to my main point of telling you all of this ? the pill she was on contains the progestin drospirenone (DRSP). The only birth control pills that contain this are: YAZ, Yasmin, Ocella, Gianvi, Zarah, Loryna, Syeda, Beyaz, and Safyral. This particular type of progestin doubles or triples your chance of having blood clots, strokes, Pulmonary Embolisms, Gallbladder Injury, heart attack and death.
While you may not personally be taking birth control pills, your friends, sisters, daughters, etc. may be. If someone you know is taking 1 of these particular types of pills, I urge you to urge them to switch to another type of pill. You never think the adverse effects are going to happen, until they do.
Re: Scary Stuff and a BC Warning
Blood clots/stroke area risk for all hormonal birth control methods. Does she smoke?
Ultimately, however that is so sad and scary! T&Ps.
Jenny McCarthy = Former Playmate and MTV host
Pediatrician = Doctor with extensive experience and education on children.
Bumpies = Don't get me started!
I know who I get my health advice from!
What are you looking at?
I don't believe she smokes, but I am not 100% certain.
SO Scary! I was on Yasmin and Yaz for a combination of about 7ish years. I completely blame it for the reason I don't have a gall bladder any more.
We all know everyone reacts differently to these things, and this is one horrible story.
Hopefully everything ends up okay for her!
TTC #1 Since 3.9.10
Dx PCOS 8.30.10
3 failed IUI cycles Feb 11 to April 11, IVF #1 cycle start 6-18-12, ER 7-3-12 (10 retrieved, 8 attempted fertilization, 7 growing), ET 7-8-12 - 2-2ab transferred. Success! Due 3-26-13
Thanks for the message. It does happen with BC and is risk for sure (though a small one for normally healthy women). What I didn't know was that the hormones in those kinds of BC made it so much more likely to happen.
I was actually on Ocella for a year, but I heard a warning on the radio (I think there's actually a class-action case against them that maybe your friend could get some compensation through) while I was taking it. That warning combined with the fact that it gave me anxiety attacks made me switch.