Relationship symptoms and conditions

i, too had the head zaps with lexapro. they happened when i stopped taking it and also if i missed a dose. i thought i was the only one who had them and i could never really describe them to anyone else. they sucked though. i also gained about 15-20 lbs on lexapro but i'm not sure if it was related to the meds. when i was on lexapro it kinda made me a sociopath...i didn't really care about anyone or anything. it didn't make me happy or unhappy...just made me not care about anything. i almost ruined my relationship. honestly i never really felt like i needed medication. so i was on it for about a year and one day just decided to stop taking it...not the best idea cuz the withdrawal symptoms were pretty bad. in addition to the head zaps, i had migraines and walked around in a fog for awhile. i was also super cranky bc i stopped taking the Pill at the same time so some of the side effects could have been hormone-related. needless to say i was kind of a mess for a few weeks afterward. but i'm fine now.

I am a 33 yr old male with Cystic Fibrosis. I started prednisone in 2006 and as of 2009 i have never been off of it.This drug has destroyed my body. I was under weight when i started, at 130 lbs. I am 5'9'' so i admit that was thin,but know i am at 170 lbs. This has had an effect on my relationship with my girlfriend since i met here when i started taking it. It may actually help me breathe better,but I am not sure. I have decided to stop it myself. I will do so slowly,but i am sick of the way i look and feel. This may sound silly to some but i just hate being in this state. I look like a pregnant woman playing a trumpet. I wonder how long it will take me to look like me again? Good luck to all of you. BK.

I am the husband to a wife that has Mirena. I married the sweetest,
greatest, prettiest, sexiest most unselfish angel of a woman back
in 2005. I had been in a miserable marriage for 11 years before.
Anyways soon after we were married, she got pregnant and we now
have a precious 2 yr old daughter (and a 10 yr old previous marriage).
6 months after our daughter was born, my wife got on Mirena (the devil pill). She has changed more than you can imagine. She's gained some weight, very moody, severe back pains, bleeding, depressed, absolutely no sex drive, tired, grumpy and just plain mean. She has been a huge part of helping my 10 yr old through lots of life changes (divorce, changing schools, etc) and he just loves her to death but she's been so mean to all of us for the past 14 months. She goes through spells and she'll be herself for a day or 2 then she's right back to the grump. She complained and complained about her back so I went and bought a $1200 mattress and it she still complains. We dated for 2 years and NEVER fought. We
had the best relationship ever but now, all we do is argue. Nothing I do
makes her happy. I'm miserable and I know she is too.
I've approached her about getting the Mirena removed and she talked
to her doctor and he told her that it wasn't the problem and she doesn't think that's the problem. I just wondered if there's anyone out there that can give me some advice on how to convince her to get that thing removed
before it ruins our family.

My son who is 5 years old was on Singulair for 5months. He turned into a total different child. He developed extreme OCD, anxiety, excessive crying, scared at night, and irritability. After researching I found out it was the Singulair causing his symptoms, so I immediately took him off. After just a couple of days his mood lightened. It took a few weeks for the anxiety and OCD to go away, but it did thank God! Although, the main debilitating symptoms went away he still after 5 months is irritable and takes offense to anything and everything. It is like every time I talk to him I say something wrong and it annoys him or makes him mad. Our relationship is completely different now. It is like we are not as close. This was not my son before Singulair. I am heart broken. I read peoples post and most say after taking their children off Singulair all the symptoms went away and their children are back to normal. I feel there is 20% still missing after 5months of being off Singulair. My son is not 100%. I am beginning to feel like he may never be 100%. I feel like it causes some permanent damage. Does anyone else feel the same? Or have a similar situation? Or have still experienced recovery past 5months? I would love to hear your story. THANKS!!

So I have only been on the NuvaRing for about 3 weeks and just took it out. I feel SO down but I didn't feel down till about a week ago. Would the depression hit that fast? I keep getting in fights with my boyfriend and I'm feeling like we aren't going to last even though before this we've never had any real issues and I was positive he was the one I would marry. Now I feel like I'm doubting us but I have no reason at all to doubt us, nothing has happened except I started using the NR. I keep denying that it's the ring but the more I look back on it I feel like it could be since only a few days after I started using it I felt very irritable. I guess it's time to switch again? I don't like feeling like this and I don't want birth control of all things to be the reason our relationship fails. I feel so down and depressed but it isn't constantly, it just comes on randomly and stays till I go to sleep pretty much. Has this happened to anyone? Do you think that the effects would happen that soon after starting the NR? Any help would be great! Thanks!

I have been taking Lisinopril 10 mg for over 3 years to regulate my BP. That is just fine. However over the last 3 months I have developed a pain in my left shoulder and rotater cup. I am going to chalk this up to a change in the brand of Lisinopril since I had no issues before changing to the 90 day supply for $10.00 vs what I was getting before. Looks like I might have gotten more than I bargained for.

The pills I have right now have the RX 533 on one side.

Shame on me... I had read similar reviews when I was prescribed NuvaRing a year ago, and thought "Side effects vary among women", but the general consensus seems to be that WE are the majority, not the "occasional" exception.

I have been experiencing many of the same disastrous effects of the Ring for the past 12 months I have been on it. Depression, ZERO SEX DRIVE, headaches, intense mood swings that lead to physical aggression, frequent (nearly daily) uncontrollable crying, anxiety, more vaginal discharge, pain after sex (on the rare occasion that it DOES happen) and overall a poor outlook on life. It's ruining my relationship with a wonderful man, who (bless his heart) is nearly at the end of his rope dealing with me and all the tribulations listed above.

To those of you who thought you were crazy, BEFORE you blame yourself, consider that the Ring may be a contributing factor.

Hello I'm a 41 year old female, and I took Lipitor 20 mgs for 6 months about two years ago. When I called my doctor's office to complain about side effects they told me it couldn't be the Lipitor because I had been taking it for a month already, and would have had problems before that. I eventually took myself off of the drug 5 months later. Here are some of the side effects I experienced:
Itchy fingertips, increased blood pressure, 30lb weight gain, shaky hand writing, acne, poor driving skills, poor memory, hair loss, "frozen joints", IBS, incontinence, low grade fever, itchy feet, numb toes, numb hands, foggy brain, joint pain, muscle pain, foot pain, plantar pain, dizzy, jaw pain, back and neck pain, week ankles and wrists, nasal allergies, skin rashes, migraines, heartburn, Increase in Astham, heart palpitations, knee pain, difficulty standing up from sitting position, difficulty climbing stairs, water retention alternating in feet, hands, arms and legs, almost constant taste of bile in my mouth.
These are only the ones I can remember. Two years down the road everything but the muscle and joint pain and weakness is gone. even those have improved a lot. I stopped taking the Lipitor and lost all 30lbs I had gained on it, without dieting, in a months time. I still have two toes on each foot that are partially numb. I have trouble climbing stairs, and getting up from a sitting position. I can do both, but I move slowly while doing them. The pain in my muscles and joints drives me crazy, but I'm grateful that the rest of the symptoms have cleared up. My doctor never believed me about my symptoms, and neither does my new doctor really. Went to the emergency room for asthma that was not responding to my inhaler, and they were about to let me go home when I mentioned to the doctor that I had been on Lipitor. Suddenly a huge battery of tests were ordered including a CT scan and a stress test. When I asked the doctor why he said that they just wanted to be sure that it wasn't something other than asthma. Why did they do that after hearing about the Lipitor? Do they know something? Are there doctors who believe that statins are killing and seriously injuring people? I'm so angry. Even as I sit here typing I know when I stand up I will have massive amounts of pain that I will have to "walk off". My quadriceps have not recovered, and remain ridiculously weak.
If I can stop one other person from going through this I will be happy. Thanks everyone for taking the time to list your symptoms. It makes me feel better to know that someone believes me, and knows what I am going through.

I am on my seconded pack (month 4) I have endo and thought it would be awesome to only have my period 4 times a year. To my dismay, I've been spotting for the past 2 months and counting. I had a full period about 3 weeks ago and had hoped it was ending and the spotting has continued! I don't want to give up this far. I am SO hopeful that it will stop, but I am really losing that hope. Also, I have cramping still (maybe from the endo) and feel like an emotional wreck!!! I do NOT want to go back to having my regular periods... they were really heavy and severely painful, but this is really getting old fast too! I am 34 and am thinking that maybe I should just go talk to the Dr. about having a hysterectomy. I don't have children and don't think I'll ever have any anyways. Im older and am not in a relationship, so maybe I should just take the plunge?! Help!

Hi Ladies! I've had my Mirena out for 3 months now. I feel AMAZING!!! I've lost about 10lbs in 3 months which is only about half the weight I put on with the Mirena but I'm well on my way. Thank goodness I took it out! My relationship is on the mend, my fiance noticed the difference in my attitude almost immediately but things are getting better day by day. I will NEVER put my body through something like that again. I'm so happy without my mirena it's amazing.

I'm 23 years old, and a mother of 2 children under 2. I had my Mirena placed in September 2008. Since the placement, i have had extreme bleeding and clotting for 20 days straight in the beginning. my doctor said that was normal and that it would subside, which it did, but i was still having the abnormal bleeding throughout. That wasn't a concern for me, it started with the strange pains that i would get, it felt as if something sharp was poking my insides, my boyfriend also would feel it during intercourse, and at times it would be so painful for him we had to stop. That has ruined our sex life. Just recently i have developed lower back pains and didn't know where it was coming from, i thought maybe because I'm constantly picking up my 7 month son who weighs as much as his sister who is 2. But then the depression started kicking in. I feel so lost. I cry out of no where, and I'm always tired, and have no motivation, or desire to care. I feel like everything is falling down around me, and i have no control over it. I snap out of no where with anger. I'm a stay at home mother, and i feel trapped every day. i love my kids, but lately i feel like I've lost who i am, and it's effecting my relationship with my children, not only that but with their father. i feel myself distancing myself from him. I don't really have anyone to talk to about anything, and sometimes i just wanna run away from everything in my life. i used to be such a fun person, always laughing and happy, but now i feel like I'm not me, like I've changed completely. i thought i was loosing my mind until i thought maybe this is all a side effect from Mirena? My doctor did not warn me of this so i wasn't sure until i found this website. I can't believe everyone is experiencing the same thing! as of now i don't have medical insurance, and i want this thing removed! I'm in the process of getting insurance so i just hope that i can cope with this a little longer, because i feel like I'm gonna lose myself entirely

I haven't been on Aviane long. I've used Depo (the needle) and I have also been on Alese. I was told Aviane and Alese were the same thing. I highly doubt that. My reaction to returning to birth control after my second child has been drastically different then any other time. I find my breasts are extremely tender, to the point that some days anything that is remotely binding is not an option. My moods are out of control. I feel anxious, depressed and angry more often then ever before and more intensely. I used to be a pretty easy going person. My sex drive has completely disappeared, to the extreme that I don't even want to be touched (cuddled/kissed etc.). This is not doing good things for my relationship with my husband. I'm glad I found this site. I though perhaps I was just going crazy. I'm going to stick with it for as close to three months as I can to see if the symptoms level out, but I have children, if it gets any worse I will be switching. Thank you so much for this forum.

I can't believe this!! I was searching the internet to see if there were any side effects from the mirena as one gets closer to the end of the Mirena life and I came across this site. I'm so blown away. I am getting my Mirena taken out in a week because it's been 5 years that I've had it in and I NEVER realized all the problems I've been having in my life was because of the IUD!! This whole time I thought it was just me and I was going crazy. So looking back on the last five years it's all making sense to me! Not only was the pain so unbearable getting it in, but the pain in my abdomen was so bad for 2 weeks straight, and no let up with the pain, that I almost passed out from it. My horrible boyfriend at the time told me suck it up. I said a prayer one night praying for the pain to go away and that if wasn't gone by the morning I was going to go get it taken out! I woke the next day and the pain was gone. But this wasn't the end. I developed depression ( I thought it might have been because of the crazy relationship I was in) which I'm STILL prescribed for and I also severe anxiety attacks,which I NEVER had before in my life! dizziness, lower backaches, crying fits, extreme fatigue and copious amount of hair loss, right around my hairline. I used to have lustrious hair which I had to have two hairties in to hold it up, now I can use a tiny little jaw clip to hold it all up!!. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it was because of the Mirena. I thought how great it was that I got it put in and didn't have to worry about it for another 5 years, since I have a terrible time taking regular contraceptive pills ait the same time every day. My memory has definitely been affected and another symptom I never thought would be possible is the weight gain. A year ago I was diagnosed to be Pre-Diabetic and have had to change my diet and exercise. You think I would have lost the weight, NO, quite the opposite I have actually gained more weight. I have little to NO sex drive and I USED to have a very high sex drive. Now this is all making sense to me. I really wish I had found this site sooner! Like 5 years ago!!! So thank god I am getting this thing taken out of me next week. I am opting to get a diaphragm fitted and getting all these harmonies out of my system, maybe I'll go back to being my old self! (tears in eyes as I am typing this!!! ) All these years....who would've known. I am still in shock!!!!!

I posted several months ago on this string and wanted to update. I had bloodwork done for the 1st time since I quit the 20mg of Lipitor in August. LDL went from 123 to 210. Total Chol went from 191 to 285. HOWEVER all shooting pains I had been experiencing in legs, feet, and chst are GONE! Went back to my Dr. today, told her that same result and my serious objection to taking any kind of statin and she prescribed CRESTOR while telling me it was more potent than Lipitor! WTF!!!

I refuse this course, am drinking 30 - 40 ozs. of water each day now like I should have been, doubled my CoQ10 to 200mg/day, finally getting back into the gym to lose weight and get the HDL up from the level of 36 it is now. also started to drink the new yogurt type "shot" of Promise for cholesterol that provides 2 grams of plant sterols per day.

I will not take statins ever. I WILL find a natural way to keep my Chol under control. I've also been convinced that you don't have to be at or under the 200mlg of total chol to be healthy. Look at your C Reactive Protein and Homosiytes (sp?) If they are in range you should be good.

I know Lipitor was the cause of my rupturing each of my Achiller tendons a year apart while playing tennis in my late 40's Muscle pain soon followed.

I started this pill about a month and one week ago and I hate it i am like an emotional rollercoaster some days i'm happy others i feel like everything in my life is wrong even my relationship (which just might be LOL!). But anyway my sex drive is no longer in existence it seems as though i have no female moisture and that has never been the case for me until a month ago when i started this pill. So ladies if you wish give it a try, but if you don't like them switch to something else! but i don't like them at all.

I got my Mirena inserted in May 2008. I thought this was great since I am horrible at remembering to take the pill. I am 29 and have tried numerous BC. According to my GYN at the time, I was informed I would not experience weight gain and very minimal periods along with occasional cramping. I understand everyone is different. Well, the weight gain was much a lie as I have gained 40 pounds since the Mirena was inserted. My lifestyle has not changed. It took me a year and a half to loose 60 pounds and 6 months to put most of it back on. I encounter two periods a month and they last 7 days. The cramping can be horrendous. I am more tired than I usually would be but being a mother of two I do not have time to think about it. What concerns me the most is after intercourse I experience horrible sharp uterine pains and I begin to bleed. I feel the Mirena poke/stab me during intercourse but try not to let it affect mine and my partners relationship. Don't get me wrong, he is very understanding. The last time we had intercourse (2 days ago) I experienced strange clots which seem to be a bit more than just blood clots and since then I have had a pain around my left ovary area. It has left my lower abdomen area tender. I made an appt. in 2 weeks to have the Mirena removed. Have anyone experienced the after intercourse pain and/or bleeding?

I met my fiance a little over two years ago. Initially our sex life was hot and heavy as is the case with most new relationships so we decided to look into some sort of birth control. Like most of you, I was attracted to the idea of not having to worry about taking a pill and the potential consequences of forgetting to take one. We started using the NuvaRing and I went from having an absolutely healthy and fulfilling sex life to now avoiding my fiance like the plague... The decreased libido side effect associated with using the NuvaRing is seriously life altering. It has been approximately 1 year now since I discontinued using it and I still have not regained my sex drive. Its definitely ruining my relationship and I don't see a wedding anywhere in the near future. I cannot urge enough women to avoid it at all costs... Find something else to use if you cherish your libido as much as I did. Best of luck ladies!

I got Mirena inserted June 07.Since then i have gained 30 pounds.Right after my baby was born i was 130ponds.I weigh myself once a week.Since Jan 08 i have been a whooping 160pounds till now.No addition or subtraction.Before Mirena all i needed to do to loose some weight was walk for about 30 minutes a day,but now,i can walk on the track for 30 minutes,do some crunches,walk on the treadmill for another 20 minutes and am still at 160pounds!!!! For all the people who have had the Mirena removed,did you shed some pounds?
Thanks you.

After reading these posts I am connecting some of my experiences that I attributed to other things. Glad to know it could be the IUD and not just me. I'm 46 so things are changing anyway. Thought the dizziness was from my blood pressure medicine... Anyway I got my Mirena in '05 so I've had it for awhile. I got it after my divorce. I like not having periods but I don't like the occasional brown discharge or spotting.

The worst side effect that I've experienced is the total lack of sexual sensation. Many of the other women report loss of libido but I think this might be different. I want to have sex but when I do it's like I have no sexual sensation from vaginal penetration at all. Almost as though it was dead down there. I also don't have the same sensation in my breasts as I used to. I've never been overly sexual but this is really frustrating. I've been seeing the same man for the last 2 years. He's very sexually oriented so it's a good thing we can only see each other every other weekend when he doesn't have his kids. It's really important to him so I indulge. Otherwise the relationship is great. I can orgasm sometimes but not from penetration. I asked the doctor but she kinda blew me off saying there was nothing I could do except teach him how. So I mostly suffer in silence and fake it sometimes.

Been thinking about getting the Mirena removed but I was worried it might not help. Wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and if everything goes back to normal when it's removed. I do like not having my period but perhaps it's not worth it. Please let me know!

I just want to thank everyone for their experiences with Mirena. I went to the GYN on Tuesday for my annual exam and inquired about birth control since I am now in a relationship. I am 42, no children. She recommended Mirena and gave me a booklet on it. I have been researching it.

I am now deciding AGAINST this. I will stick with condoms for now and start researching another type of birth control. I don't want weight gain (I am already overweight but have lost over a lot of weight thanks to Weight Watchers). I don't want acne or bleeding everyday.

It helps so much hearing everyone's experience with this. The brochure doesn't list all these side effects. The doctor was pretty honest with me but thinks I would be a good candidate but I think I really need to rethink this.

Has anyone had any good experiences with other types of birth control?

Thanks!

I started the pill about 2 months ago..and wow do i regret it..when i first started it i had migraines that lasted for hours..i mean before i used to get them but it was when i was stressed out or something but they would go away..i barely ever got acne on my face and now i have huge red pimples that last for days on random places on my face..i have gotten my period like 3 times already and it sticks around for so long..lately i been feeling like everything in my life is wrong like no matter what i do it just gets worse..i don't even go out on the weekends anymore because im so tired..i sleep about 12 hours a night and im still tired..i go to the doctor and they tell me im fine that my immune system is fine and theirs nothing wrong with me..so i came to my conclusion that its the pill..its caused for me to be so moody that my relationship with my boyfriend has hit the worst..and now to top it off i started getting some weird rash type of marks on my body that tend to look like hickeys fading away..i got the last 4 pills to go and im done with them...i took them for 2 months and thats it im going to to try a different method..depression and anxiety and fatigue are not worth it..
so for most girls reading this blog think twice about it before taking this pill and if right off the bat you start struggling with these type of symptoms i recommend you stop taking them.

Thank god I read this. I have been on Aviane for about 1 1/2 now. I was fine for the first few months.

Then I started losing my hair which girls usually do but for me I never ever lost hair, in my brush on my clothes, in the shower never lost hair and I am noticing for the last few months that I have been losing considerable amounts of hair and I've been wondering how this could be all of a sudden.

and I have been so mean to my boyfriend, I thought I was just so unhappy at this point in my life. I found myself nagging for no reason at all but just to do it. and I'll tell you he is absolutely perfect and I have no reason at all to be unhappy in our relationship. I'm not the kind to have mood swings of any kind or suffer depression, I have always been very pleasant.

I started suspecting my bc even though I had been on it for a while. 2 months ago, while on my sugar pills (and I don't think I have to remind you but my period, which is supposed to be our "crazy time of the month") within in a day of not being on this bc, that entire week was the most pleasant I can remember being this whole past year. So again one more month I take this bc, again bitchy, nagging, crying for no reason at all after one day of being back on the pill!

I just can't believe that "pmsing" while not on the pill gives me a more pleasant attitude than taking Aviane!!! I thought I was just depressed thank god I found this website, I am switching immediately!

On another note, I haven't had any side effects like breakouts, not anymore than the usual one or two a month, no cramping, no migraines. But I have been noticing busted blood vessels, quite a few on my arms and one under my eye. I am relatively young, early 20's, I thought it may have a side effect like this because of the heart, blood clotting, strokes etc. anyone else with that problem???

Thanks so much for your posts, ladies, I am on the phone with a gyn as soon as I post!!! No More Aviane!

i got mirena 2 weeks ago, since then i've experienced all the side effects..the worst is i've become so depressed that my fiance' is scared to death i'm going to hurt myself...my depression is broken up by periods of extreme anxiety..i'm afraid this is destroying my relationship..i am normally a happy person who likes to have fun and now all i do is cry and scream at people for no reason...and sometimes i have to fight hard to keep it from getting physical. I am now in the process of getting it removed because the mood swings are scaring me..not to count all the back pain, acne....and i work out and keep gaining weight..my fiance' and i are now looking into other forms of contraceptive....if anyone has any hints as to how to get over this or what else may work...please email me ****** any advice is welcome.

I've been on nuvaring for four months now. I've been raving about it to my friends and only recently started to realize that maybe it isn't as great as I'd thought. Here's the thing... I have gained weight, lost my sex drive (which at 20 years old is terrifying), felt my self-esteem fall through the floor, and feel stress/sadness weigh on me even on days that I am truly enjoying myself. (Oh and excuse the ick-factor but I've now also have discharge everyday which is seriously annoying and frustrating!) I've been attributing all of this to my lifestyle of being stressed out in college, not knowing who I am, worrying about my relationship... I've felt so much self-loathing and disappointment in myself, feeling like I am failing myself and my boyfriend. The thing is that I'm not one to blame things like this on medications, and I don't think that there's any way of truly knowing if the changes I've felt have been due to the ring or just my life as a whole. I've tried every other birth control and hated it so now I'm conflicted if I should stop taking it or not. I'm way too paranoid to just trust condoms... so I don't know. Take it for what you will - in many ways it has been a great form of birth control (no babies, right?) but if these changes I've felt ARE due to the ring, then I would NOT recommend it.

I havent tried Nuvaring yet.... I just got back from the doctor with some free samples. I'm on the Ortho Evra patch currently and I have side effects that made me concerned enough to try something different. I was on the Depo shot for 4 years. I decided to get off of it after I had cycts removed from my ovaries and had pre cancerous cells removed. Which the doctors said would lower my chances of having children. I decided to take a whole year off of birth control. To give my body a chance to "recover". The only problem I had was my periods kept getting longer and longer and more frequent. Next thing I know the doctors tell me I have Polycystic Ovarian Disease. Which also lowers the chance of having children because of the irregular bleeding. The pill makes me so nautious I couldn't stand it so I thought I'd try the patch. Now I have menstrual cramps when I'm not ovulating, I'm so moody its not even funny, I'm eating all the time and tired 24/7. The only thing it did do was regulate my period. Which is what I wanted... But I've only been on it for two months. My doctor told me you cant even feel the Nuvaring and it has a low dose of estrogen so I wont be moody. But reading all of the comments and stories.... I think I'm just going to not be on any birth control and see if my body naturally regulates itself. If I was using the birth control just to avoid pregnancy it would be different, I would want to be on at least something. But I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that thinks birth control is evil and causes alot more problems than doctors tell you. So I think I'm just gonna toss my free samples of Nuvaring, get off the patch and see what my body does naturally.