The pill almost killed me.
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The pill almost killed me.
| Sat, 06-05-2004 - 8:24pm |
I took Loestrin Fe 1.5/30 (AKA Microgestin Fe 1.5/30) for TWO WEEKS and it could've killed me! I have a blood clot in each lung and can never use birth control pills again. I have to be on Coumadin (blood thinner) for a year at least, and maybe for the rest of my life. I have to go to the lab twice a week to have blood drawn to make sure I'm on the right level of medication. I've never had anything like this before, so I shouldn't have been at risk. I'm a healthy, non-smoking 19 year old, and ended up in the hospital because of something that's supposed to help you. I want to sue the company (Watson) but I can't because it's in the label that it can happen. Well, I'm one out of the millions of BC users, and it just "happened" to me. So be careful, girls.

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Can you tell me how you noticed when this happened? What were some of the symptoms you had? Thanks for the information to remind us that this DOES happen to people.
To everyone else, my symptoms were: trouble breathing/shortness of breath, tightness/heaviness of chest, very fast heart rate (110-120) in doing normal activities, like walking across the room, severe and sudden dizzy spells, headaches.
So I went to the doctor. The doctor said "Well, we'll do a D-Dimer, but it just sounds like stress..." Anyway, the D-Dimer which is basically a blood protein test, checks for high clotting factor concentrates in the blood. They called me back later, saying "You need to come in, right now" So I went back to the doctor. They gave me an injection of Lovenox (Enoxiparin) in my stomach and sent me straight to the hospital for an emergency CT (cat) scan. Well, sure enough, a blood clot. Two, in fact. One in each lung. So I was admitted to the hospital that night. The next few days, my heart rate and breathing got even worse. I couldn't breathe without oxygen, though my blood/oxygen saturation was fine. I could get up and walk around without my pulse shooting up to 145, and me feeling so light-headed I could barely stand up. I had to be on a heart monitor the entire time I was there. The whole thing was just a bad experience. So if you have any of the above mentioned symptoms, and you're on the pill, PLEASE call your doctor because it can be fatal.
Oh hon. I'm so sorry! I hope you are well along in your recovery. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Your story points up the fact that serious health problems (even though very rare) can occur while on hormones. As another member mentioned the risks associated with being pg are much greater than the risks from problems caused by hormonal contraceptives, none-the-less they do happen and can be life threatening. There are other effective methods of contraception besides hormones so when you are ready to look for another method please come back and see us. Let us know how you're doing, ok? Wishing you a complete and speedy recovery!
Good luck and hugs
Jill
(reffering to Jenns response only)
Edited 6/6/2004 10:59 am ET ET by ilv2cook
I just read your story and it scared me because I just recently read about a young girl dying while on the pill. She too had blood clots that traveled to her lungs. If you are interested in the story, please copy and paste the following website to your browser, if you can't click on it. Best of luck in your recovery.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/archive/200311/FOR20031112a.html
Hi Karyn,
I'm so sorry to hear that this happened to you - but very glad that you sought treatment and are doing well now (despite the coumadin, which I know is a pain).
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