Birth Control Disasters

A friend of mine recently had a very scary experience with birth control. She was bleeding for about two months non-stop and was suffering from chronic headaches. One day out of nowhere she blacked out and was rushed to the emergency room. They told her that she had lost a lot of blood and a blood transfusion was needed. After three days in the hospital the doctors finally discharged her and prescribed she take Loestrin 24(a type of birth control pill which is supposed to have a lower dosage of hormones and is advertised to give you shorter, lighter periods) to help regulate her period. A little less than one month later she suffered four seizers in a matter of a few hours. She passed out and still to this day have no recollection of what happened. When she woke up in the hospital bed about two weeks later, she was told she that she was in a coma and was on life support for over a week. There was a blood clot the size of a tennis ball in her brain. The doctors tried to remove it but deemed it to be too risky. She lost her short term memory and was receiving oxygen from a tube inserted to her nose. Apparently, in a very short period of time, the birth control pills that were prescribed to her four weeks earlier caused a series of blood clots leading up to this frightening and life threatening disaster. My friend, a young, energetic and very sweet girl now has to spend a considerable amount of time visiting OBGYNs, Neurologists and a series of other specialists in order for her to regain some sense of normalcy. She also has to take six pills every day to thin her blood and constantly check her blood level to make sure it is neither too think nor too thin.


Birth control pills have always been a pretty scary thought for me. I’ve used the NuvaRing for about six months and although I liked it, I became paranoid after hearing too many stories similar to my friends.’ I got off of it and well what do you know 3 months later I was pregnant! But what’s meant to be will be. After giving birth, my gynie recommended me use the “mini pill” since I was breastfeeding because it supposedly has no estrogen, which is known to slow down and sometimes even stop your milk supply . However, after about 2 weeks on the pill I started noticing a difference in my body which resulted in constant break through bleeding and unbelievable discomfort in my breasts. Without much thought, I stopped taking the pill immediately. Doctors have been recommending birth control to me since I started having my period at nine years old!!! YES I said NINE years old! My cycle was always irregular and my hormones were always imbalanced. I’ve been hearing the pros and cons of BC for about 17 years now and I still am not convinced that it’s a safe form of contraceptive. I know that every woman’s body is different and what works for one may not work for the other. I’ve always been suspicious of altering our natural state of being. Although there are tons of safe medications out there that are intended to help alleviate whatever symptoms and pains we may have, when it comes to birth control I’ve cannot help but be skeptical.

I know this may be a lot to ask, but if any of you have had any good or bad experience with any birth control, would you mind sharing? I would like to bring some sort of awareness to what happened to my friend and what I know has happened to many other women out there. I’m very interested to know what kind of effects these hormone pills have on our female bodies. Thank you in advance if you chose to share your stories.

For more information on Loestrin 24: http://www.loestrin24.com/loestrin/birth-control-faq.jsp