Yasmin 28?

Avatar for misslady77
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Yasmin 28?
3
Wed, 05-12-2004 - 7:26pm
Hi everyone...

New here, but not to these boards!

Has anyone here tried Yasmin 28? I have been on several different types of BCP's, the last being ortho tri cyclen for about 3 years. My sex drive, as some people on OTC have mentioned here, was and still is super-low... happened about three months after I met my boyfriend (who I've been with for 2.5 years) - isn't he lucky??? :) I am also on 10mg of an anti-depressant for a wonderfully fun female problem called vestibulitis. My dr. did not want to take me of the anti-dep., so she asked me to go off the BC for 3 months and see if that helped. It didn't at all - feels a little worse - so I am starting Yasmin after my next period. It's supposed to simulate the effects of testosterone without giving you any (my hormones are completely normal, somehow...).

I know that all BCP will affect everyone different. But, I have a few questions:

1. Did anyone notice a change in their libido with Yasmin? How did it affect you, good or bad?

2. Did it make anyone's skin less oily? My skin was doing WONDERFULLY on OTC, and all of a sudden, I'm as a greasy as a hamburger fried in oil! I hate it.

Thanks in advance for reading and responding!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
In reply to: misslady77
Thu, 05-13-2004 - 8:12am
I've done the pill + antidepressant combo, but it wouldn't surprise me if your lagging libido is a result of the vestibulitis and not just the pill. In my case (I had dysesthetic vulvodynia that was active for about a year and a half, it's in "remission" now), it was absolutely influenced by which pills I was taking. And OTC would be one of those pills that's on my no-way list! It's hard to be interested in sex when all you can think of are your parts hurting, almost a year since I stopped taking Elavil I'm still trying to work through the association between pain and sex. Vestibulitis can be caused by a wide variety of things (seems to be different for everybody), so it's not unusual that your hormones are normal (and even so, those fluctuate from day to day). Did your doctor ever prescribe Estrace (synthetic estrogen cream)? That's been helpful for some women over at Vulvodynia Support and it helped me too.

Yasmin's progestin is technically an antiandrogen, meaning it helps to lower the level of free testosterone in your body more so than some of the other pills (perhaps a little better than OTC). What testosterone does besides fuel your libido is it gives you oily skin and acne, which might be why you're having more problems with your skin off the pill than on (that's pretty common).

Good luck! Let us know how things go?

Judie
Co-cl for Birth Control
Judie Cl for Birth Control 
Avatar for misslady77
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: misslady77
Thu, 05-13-2004 - 10:09am
Judie,

I remember you from the vulvodynia board, I was there for a bit :) My vestibulitis seems to be in remission now too - I am not seeing a specialist for it anymore but still on the elavil and protopic. My new GYN said it could be a combo... and thinking about it, when I starting taking the elavil is really when I saw the drop in my drive. But, I am afraid to go off it in case my vvs comes back. How long were you in remission before you stopped the elavil? and what was your dosage?

My doc did prescribe estrace, but when my hormone tests came back normal, she said to stop it (only used it for a week anyway) because if I have enough estrogen, I don't need more. I also think I got a slight yeast inf. from the estrace. My dr said this would be uncommon but anything is possible. It may just have been an irratation because the itching went away by itself. I thought at first it was the vvs acting up, but since it wasn't going away when I applied mega amts of the protopic (usually does the trick in about 24 hours), I thought YI automatically.

SO.... I guess I will just have to try the Yasmin and see what happens. Maybe I will talk to the dr about losing the elavil. She actually wanted to up my dosage to 20mg because she said it can help bring blood to the area or something... but when I told her i wasn't taking the 10mg every night (trying to wean myself off it to see if I still needed it... of course, no one told me to do this....), she just told em to take it every night. Not seeing a difference yet. (been doing this for 2 weeks now)

Thanks for your help! It is always such a comfort to talk to someone who knows exactly what you are talking about!!!

Jenny

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
In reply to: misslady77
Thu, 05-13-2004 - 10:22am
I went on my own for quite a bit of my treatment (I don't listen too well unless I have a lot of trust in my doctor). Periodically, when I thought things were pretty good, I'd stop taking the Elavil until I felt the pain come back, then I'd restart (10mg/day at bedtime). I went on a family vacation with my mom and sisters and totally forgot to take it (I stayed up late talking with my 15 year old nephew instead) and when I got home I realized I'd been off of it for five days and still didn't have any pain. So I never took it again! And come to think of it, my libido and function did improve a little when I stopped taking it (I just put that together this very minute). It is an antidepressant after all, and it does have sexual side effects as they say, but I think I'd balk at increasing the dosage too if you're trying to get off of it. Increased blood to the area? I haven't heard of that before, but hey I'm no doc! ;) Your gut instinct might be onto something...

YI's with Estrace might be more common than your gyn thinks, we've had several women at VS with them and I'm talking to someone via e-mail who's had the same issue. But if the Protopic is working, I'd be all for it! We had a discussion come up lately about it if you want to stop back by and report your results (forgive me if you've already done that--I'm scatterbrained lately).

Good luck!!

Judie
Co-cl for Birth Control
Judie Cl for Birth Control