I was on the pill for 14 years and didn't have emotional side effects, but I did have severe cramps from them. I didn't realize that the pill was causing them until I got it out of my system.
But I got very depressed when I was taking Depo-Provera (the monthly shots) for several months. I stopped using that as soon as I realized that was the cause.
I never suffered from anxiety, but did have pretty severe depression from the pill, many years ago. Not fun at all, and I was so glad when my OB/GYN told me it could be the pill. Quit using it and returned to normal pretty quickly. My GP, at the time, told me that my problem was that I had gotten married too early (I was 19), which might have been true, but he stopped there and prescribed Triavil. Never asked about anything else, and I'm not sure he knew I was on the pill. The triavil made me so wonky that I quit that, too.
Got married too quickly. Add another pill. Good grief.
Someday when medical care in integrated and the various providers know what each other are doing, we're gonna look back at this time as the dark ages of medical care.
+1Originally Posted by Tammy
I go on calls every week where it's clear I'm the first person to ever get a complete medical history from the patient. It is quite common for some of my elderly patients to have 8-9 meds from 3-4 different doctors, meds which interact, and none of the doctors have talked with each other or even know what other meds the patient is on.
That said, often when you ask the patient what meds they are on, they point to the counter or the medicine cabinet, and don't really know what they are taking, off the top of their head, or what it's for - they've accumulated the prescriptions over the years, and they may not be on the top of their game mentally anyways. So I can imagine that when they walk into a New Doctor's office, he doesn't get the full story. I only manage to get it because I'm in their house looking through all their bottles of pills.
Last edited by bae; 6-1-15 at 3:33pm.
I've seen this first hand. They dont know what they are, they don't know what they're supposed to do, and tragically they don't know about the very real side effects they may be producing. And as an astute doctor once pointed out to me--they all have side effects--often multiplied synergistically.
Bae, are you a nurse? I did regular home care nursing, then hospice home care. Hospitalized people who in no way can manage their meds at home, get discharged so fast, a nurse reads the instructions quickly and out the door they go. Then, if they were lucky enough to be referred for home nursing, we took over. I'd have patients drag out grocery bag upon grocery bag and say, "I take these." But they are not quite sure, "I take that one. I stopped that one." Always a mess to fix and scares me for the patients who come home with no services. If hospital doctors realized how few of their scripts actually get filled and used properly, they would be astounded.
I took the pill for years with no side effects, except I rarely had periods, but was told this was fine. Then I got a Mirena IUD. Loved it, just a pinch going in, a little crampy that night. Only a small amt of hormones enter your blood stream. I loved it, no periods, no "PMS". 100% satisfied.
but then at 36, I kept having these massive strep infections that never really went away until I saw an ENT. She took my tonsils out the next day, because strep can affect organs if you have it long enough. Tonsils out but it was too late, strep affected my ovaries, etc. I went right to the Gyn, yup, I had not even had perimenopause, I was post menopausal, my hormone levels resembled those of someone 20+ years older. My head was spinning, but because I went so young and there is a high level of young heart disease but not breast cancer in my family, she strongly recommended Hormone Replacement therapy. Something I know about as a nurse and thought I would never choose. That has been amazing, i had some depression/anxiety, the HRT massively fixed that, same with bad insomnia. I had been having an unusual amount of hot flashes that were starting to drive me crazy. HRT, no more hot flashes. I am on a very low dose that we will stop in the next few years
Anyway, I think hormones affect people differently. There are so many BC options.
My neighbor had severe anxiety from BCP. She then developed some severe (life-threatening) side effects and was taken off. She didn't realize the pill was causing her anxiety until she got off them - she and her doctor attributed it to stress.
I think stress is given out as the cause of way to many disorders.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” -- Gandalf
ITA, especially in women
No, Firefighter/Wilderness EMT/HAZMAT/Technical Rescue. 80% of my calls are medical. My department provides a lot of in-care monitoring and help for our "frequent fliers", to help them live here instead of in some far-away care facility. We created a special division a few years back to provide a higher level of care for these sorts of folks, instead of waiting for them to call 911.
Another bunnytrail on meds - alternative medicine is a big thing out here. I'll ask someone about their meds, and they'll not think to tell me about all the really quite active herbal remedies they are *also* on, that interact with their "regular" meds. You need to take a *complete* patient history, and ask the same question 5 different times, 5 different ways :-)
I hear ya, "are these all of your meds, even the over the counter meds?" "Let me check," come back with 2 more bags. It can be hours before just that piece is done, lol.
that division sounds wonderful, must be a pretty advanced community?
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