Side Effects of LoSeasonique for Hormone Imbalance

A woman with hormone imbalances that is still in the child-bearing years, will often be prescribed birth control pills to "help" balance things out. But do birth control pills really fix the problem, or is your health being sabotaged by the very thing your health-care provider believes will help you? What if you experience side effects and are told by your doctor that they are normal? Are these side effects really normal? Should you really have to wait it out for 3 - 6 months for things to supposedly get better, or is it time to listen to your body and make a decision based on what you are experiencing and not on what the medical profession wants to tell you.

I am a 35-year-old woman that has been having health issues since 2006. I started to recognize a pattern that correlated with my monthly. For the first half of the month, my health wasn't as bad, but the second half was horrible. I was constantly tired to the point of fatigue, I was weak, I would have hypoglycemic symptoms, my body ached, I had hot flashes, I would have chest pain and get heart palpitations and my heart would race. I wasn't sleeping well. I woke up repeatedly with my heart rate fast and feeling extremely hot. I also noticed that my cycle had gotten longer to about 35 - 40 days. The week before my period was the worst with extreme PMS. When I would finally get my period, it was extremely painful and I felt terrible. I would take two different pain medications, but it would only take the edge off of the pain. So I finally went to an OB/Gyn. She ran a lot of blood tests and had an ultrasound done of my reproductive organs. It was found that I have low progesterone and many little cysts on my ovaries because I am not ovulating. At first a fertility drug was used to see if my body could be kick-started into ovulating again and producing progesterone. That didn't work, so I was put on LoSeasonique birth control pills that are supposed to make your body only have a period every three months. I was told that not having my period every month would benefit me because of how sick it made me and the pain it caused me. It was also said that I would receive the further benefit of getting some progesterone. All of these benefits were supposed to be noticeable by the end of the first pack (which is 3 months).

At this point, I was already on medication for my fast heart rate and high blood pressure. Within a couple of weeks of starting LoSeasonique I had to see my cardiologist to have my medication doubled because my heart rate was high again, I was having chest pain and palpitations and severe headaches from my blood pressure being up. I didn't realize at the time that LoSeasonique was causing these problems. I called my OB/Gyn a little over a month after starting the birth control pills because I wasn't seeing any improvement and I was having a full period with all of the same symptoms and spotting for over a week though I shouldn't have been having a period yet on the pills. She told me it was normal and that it would take until the end of the second pack (which is 6 months) to get my body used to doing something new. I was bothered that now she was saying two packs, when before she had said one pack, but I decided to take her advice and stick it out. I was still not feeling well, but I did skip my next period. Then came time to have the period I was supposed to have while on LoSeasonique. It was absolutely horrific! I was so sick the entire week. I felt terrible, was extremely fatigued though I slept a ton, felt weak all of the time, had horrible pain and was extremely emotional and irritable. I actually felt depressed, which is not normal for me at all.

I continued to try to stick it out and started the next pack of pills. Once again, within a couple of weeks of starting the pack my heart rate was up, I was having chest pain and palpitations and I wasn't sleeping well. About four weeks into the second pack, my body fought to have a period again. This time it was over two weeks of spotting and bleeding along with extreme pressure and bloating that literally made me feel like I would blow up. I had stabbing pains in my lower abdomen along with aching legs and lower back. I was so uncomfortable that I couldn't even wear my jeans. I also started having vision problems and was having severe headaches again because my blood pressure was up. That's when it dawned on me that it could be the LoSeasonique that was causing my heart and blood pressure problems. So I counted back the weeks since I started the pills and compared it to the date I had to have my heart rate and blood pressure medication doubled. I was amazed when I realized it was shortly after I started LoSeasonique. I decided to stop taking it. I talked to my OB/Gyn to let her know what was happening to me on the birth control pills and that I stopped taking it. She proceeded to tell me that all of the symptoms (except the heart rate and blood pressure ones) were completely normal because my body was learning to do something new and that it could take up to three or four packs (9 - 12 months) for my body to get used to it! Once again, she changed what she had said about how long this was supposed to take and I had had it. I had already been on LoSeasonique for almost four and a half months with no improvement in symptoms and experienced many unpleasant side effects. I was done.

Within a couple of days of stopping LoSeasonique, my heart rate and blood pressure began to settle down. All of the bloating, pressure, stabbing pains and spotting went away. I bought some progesterone cream, though my OB/Gyn said I didn't need it and started using it about a week before my last period. Though this was usually the week I felt the worst each month, I wasn't sick, weak, or fatigued, nor did I experience the terrible PMS. I was somewhat tired, but not to the extent that I used to be. I only bloated a little and my cramps were mild. My whole lower body didn't ache like it used to during my monthly. I am starting to use the progesterone cream on days 7 - 27 of my cycle. I have only been off of LoSeasonique for one month and been on the progesterone cream a total of 6 days so far and I have already been able to reduce my daytime heart and blood pressure medication back to what it was before I started the birth control pills. I am expecting things to only get better.

From my experience, taking birth control pills to balance out hormone problems is a terrible mistake. If someone is low in a specific hormone, shouldn't that be the hormone that is replaced? I also would not recommend taking a birth control pill that tries to force your body to not have a period after the way my body fought against LoSeasonique to have a period. It was obvious to me that not having a period was not what my body was meant to do. Birth control pills are not the cure-all for every female problem. I truly believe they often cause more damage than good and that all the side effects should not be accepted by the medical community as "normal". I personally would not recommend LoSeasonique or any birth control pills for hormone imbalances or to have less periods. Listen to your body, don't ignore the so-called "normal" side effects and don't allow yourself to be pressured into continuing to take something you believe isn't good for your body.