Birth Control & Mood Changes: A Personal Experience with Progesterone-Only Pills & Yasmin

Question
Hi there ( I'm one of the veterinary experts on here, but I had a question for once myself).

I had a daughter 2 years ago and was placed on a progesterone only pill so I could continue to breast feed without a problem. The baby weight would not come off no matter how hard I dieted and exercised.

My Ob-gyn recently switched me to Yasmin from Mircet due to 'anxiety and mood swings'. I did loose quite a bit of weight(12 pounds in 3 weeks) from the Mircet.  Now I have been taking Yasmin for 2 weeks now and I have a higher level of anxiety to the point I had to use a sedative to calm down.

Could it be my pills that are doing this? Can estrogen pills NOT be my friend? and The progesterone ones *even though I was a bit overweight* made me calmer and I did not have this anxiety level.

I vomit daily-especially in the morning from just plain nausea and now my appetite is way down.

I was not sure if it could be the pills. I have a pharmacist for a friend and she is convinced its the estrogen. She feels I have too much in my system naturally and just having a bit more added puts me over the edge.

What do you think?


ps. got a pet question, just ask me :)

Thanks in advance!  

Answer
The estrogen/progesterone pills will cause nausea, headaches, and breakthrough bleeding for the first three months of use. After three months, these symptoms usually disappear completely. If you are having nausea or vominting daily, it is most likely from the switch to Yasmin from Mircet. Give it three months. Try taking the pill with some food such as apple sauce. It usually prevents the vomiting. I do not think you should go back to the progesterone-only pill. That type of pill is fine while you are nursing, but the estrogen/progesterone pill offers much more in addition to 99.9% prevention of pregnancy. It prevents iron deficiency anemia, pelvic inflammatory disease, ovarian cysts, cance of the uterus, cancer of the ovaries, acne, etc. The pill does, sometimes, cause an emotional "roller coaster" effect. and certain preparations have varying degrees of effect. If you are not happy with the Yasmin, I would switch to another combination triphasic preparation.