Major problems with triphasil-Help!

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2004
Major problems with triphasil-Help!
3
Mon, 07-05-2004 - 11:02am
Hi,

I am 38 years old and started triphasil about 11 days ago on the first day of my period. So far my period has not stopped and has only gotten heavier! I used to jump out of bed every morning ready to go workout, now I am dragging myself to the gym. People ask if I have been out drinking because I look so awful! I feel nausious off and on, my head hurts and my energy level is gone. I started these to help with my heavy periods, but am not so sure it's worth it. The doctor says to hang in there for at least 3 months, but I am tired of crying and feeling like crap all the time, not to mention my period shows no signs of stopping. Help!
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2003
Mon, 07-05-2004 - 1:34pm
Hi mair2004, welcome!

I’m sorry you are having such a bad experience so far with Triphasil! How a particular pill affects a woman is a very individual thing depending on the user’s body chemistry and a triphasic can be more difficult for your body to adjust to. Your doc is right, side effects usually take 3-4 cycles to disappear. If you are still bothered by them after that then a pill change is probably in order. If you want to bail that is understandable. If you want a pill switch you might ask your doc about Loestrin 1.5/30 which is a monophasic pill (all 21 active pills with the same dosage of hormones) and is sometimes prescribed for management of heavy periods. Let us know what you decide and how you’re doing, ok?

Hugs,

      Jill

    

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 07-06-2004 - 8:44am
Hey there....I could say I know how you feel, but I'm sure I can't know exactly! You should try to hang in there at least through this first pack--sometimes the side effects only last a week or two, but sometimes they're longer. If you don't give your body a chance to get used to it, you'll never know if you could have taken Triphasil successfully.

And with that out of the way...I had a bad time on Triphasil too. I was on it for only four months, but it was pretty awful. I had a bunch of strange and rare side effects, including fatigue, lethargy, cystic acne, hair loss, I felt like my skin was crawling, I had heavy crampy periods (it's all the estrogen), and that's when I started having problems with vulvodynia (chronic genital pain). Fortunately, once I got off of Triphasil, just about all of that went away, and once I got onto an unrelated progestin, the rest went away too.

If you're still having this much trouble at the end of the pack, talk to your doctor about maybe being able to switch to something else. The high-progestin pills, or the stronger progestins, can cause fatigue, and Triphasil does have quite a bit of estrogen for some women (meeee!). I've taken Loestrin, and I didn't have the same problems as with Triphasil. It's pretty low in estrogen, though, so that didn't work for me either, but for women around your age, it can be a pretty good pill.

Take care and let us know how you're doing, okay?

Judie

Judie Cl for Birth Control 
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-29-2003
Tue, 07-06-2004 - 9:09am
Judie mentioned that many women our age take loestrin. Thats true. My dr suggested for our age Loestrin, Alesse or Nuvaring. And a friend of mine that works for the health dept here said thats what they prescribe for women our age. They are lower in estrogen. I had been on Loestrin and I had the fatigue, headaches and felt anxious. Maybe one of the others would be a good bet.

Josie