[Mes T]

As some of you know, I have the copper IUD and usually strongly oppose hormonal birth control.

Well ever since getting the IUD I've had my period twice a month, very predictable, like clock-work. After it became apparent that this wasn't going to change any time soon, I went to the doc who prescribed me Yaz for three months to regulate it.

I am TERRIFIED of this pill. I told myself that if ever I would go back on the pill, I would NOT take Yaz, yet here I am.

Luckily it's a temporary thing, but I have my doubts about what will happen once I go off of it. Will my body magically know, on its own, that two periods a month is a bad thing?

Anyway I've only taken it for two days thus far, and I'm watching myself very closely for side-effects.

Not sure what the point of this post is... Support, I guess? Venting?

[Saria]

Hi again! I have heard from other people about regulating your period by taking birth control pills and it working for them. They definitely regulated mine, though mine weren't very irregular anyhow. Since going off the pill, my periods have been alright...though for the last two cycles they've been terribly late, like 2 weeks late. Talk about scary stuff when you're in between birth control methods and just using condoms!

I guess the short story is, everyone's body is different, and you won't know how you'll react to the pills until you take them and then get off of them. The good news is, worst case scenario, even if your cycle doesn't regulate itself after getting off of the Yaz, you CAN stop taking Yaz, and the pill won't do any permanent damage to you. So at least there's that...? :P

Well, I hope your body stops being a bully and regulates itself! It's really frustrating when your body is doing crazy things against your will, and this seems to happen to us women way more than men. ___

[Mes T]

That's the thing, what's gonna happen to my period once I go off? If I need to stay on a pill to keep it regular, I might as well say goodbye to my nice little IUD. :-/ ... And my health.

I'm also mostly worried about experiencing hair loss again. But I guess 3 months isn't enough for anything drastic to happen anyway.

Man if this works out... I will no longer automatically try to steer people clear of Yaz.

[Jayci]

What I found on Yaz was that it gave me shorter and weaker period pain.I was on this for three months to try and see if the lower dose of œstrogen would help my condition. I experienced no bad sided effects like ones that people have mentioned in previous threads. If I was to go back to the combined pill, I'd want to go back to Yaz.

I have just recently changed to the Implanon and am a bit scared of that as I had tried the Mini pill previously, which is mainly the single hormone (prostogen) and like you, I had two periods a month and it is not normal, mine was like every two or three weeks. As soon as I was put on the combined pill (Lavette) my period regulated right away.

[Yazwoman]

Give it a try, see if it works for you. In 3 months you should know if it's good or bad for you. Though I have a theory it might not be. (Unless you have PMDD symptoms.) I have seen a trend of people who have PMDD and do wonderful on Yaz, while others, who do not have PMDD seem to do horribly. Of course, every woman's body is different, but this is just a trend I'm seeing when it comes to Yaz on forums and websites.

For me, Yaz is working well, of course I have been taking it for PMDD and regulating my cycles so yea, seems my situation fits the bill. Might not work for everyone though. I can't tolerate higher estrogens even though I'm overweight, I'm super sensitive!

[Mes T]

Yazwoman I was hoping you'd reply!

I didn't realize Yaz had lower levels of estrogen than other pills. Might not be so bad after all, though again, I really don't see how my body will be able to have regular periods once I go off it (as I have an IUD, so continuing the pills was never the plan).

On my third day now, and I've had light spotting rather than my heavy period, so that's nice for a change.

[Yazwoman]

*smile* Well, I guess I chose an interesting username , lol. I didn't think it would stick so well.

Yes, Yaz is a lower dose estrogen. That is why I wanted to try it out. I didn't know about all the issues with it (in terms of the lawsuits for certain women or stuff like that.) but I knew that I couldn't handle something with a lot of hormone in it. I was the kind of girl, who, and still can, predict when my body was in what stage of the monthly cycle. Even my insomnia was keyed to two week cycles for awhile there!

I had tried Ortho-Lo (30 ul estrogen). It made me go crazy. I knew then it was just too much chemical hormone. It wasn't right for my body. No one ever gets it right on the first try. At that time, there wasn't anything lower than 30 on the market. So I endured for many years until I saw Yaz. I saw that it was a lower dose and I had a feeling it might work for me. Within the first two weeks I felt that it was working. I felt more confident as a woman, my massive chocolate cravings were gone (and though I still get a flicker of chocolate cravings every now and again, they are not half as intense as they used to be- Yay. )

I'm pretty sure the chocolate cravings were tied to ovulation for me as chocolate is a natural aphrodisiac. Also they were intense during my periods as well but that was because I wanted comfort foods. Hehe. This has helped me loose weight because I have less cravings for high sugar foods.

Guess what I'm saying is that if you are sensitive to medicines, like I am. (I can take 2 baby aspirin to cure my headaches, that's less than half the recommended dose.) Then you should try the lower dose and see how it feels. Some women's bodies do not respond well, and may need more estrogen to fully be effective as birth control. (Hence the reports that some women have fallen preg on Yaz- the dosage might not have been high enough or there might have been some other failure.)

Yaz is different because it contains dresiperone, (totally spelled that wrong) a progestin that can increase potassium. I've also personally experienced more urination on this pill than others. But I'm fine with this, as I have a tendency to retain water anyways, and this has helped me loose weight. Some women are linking this new progestin to issues they have been having. Which may be the cause, but as it's always said: each body is different.

Yaz is also a monophasic pill, which means that every day has the same amount of hormone in it, except for the placebos. This helps regulate things because there's not that rise in hormone for every week unlike the triphasic ones. It's only a 4 day placebo period as well, which is NICE. (Though I usually bleed through the first active pill.)

Regardless the point of my long winded post is; this pill is great for those of that that feel that "less is more." For super sensitive bodies it may work, I know that for the year + that I have been on it, I've had just a few little minor problems with it (polyuria/nocturia) and so far seems to work well for me.

Hope this helps.

[Yazwoman]

Added note:
Only other issue for me is the price. ($45-50 a box.) Since I don't have insurance. But hopefully I will have a better paying job soon and I'll keep on forking it over, because it has improved my life so much. That's cheap for something that helps me feel that I finally have control over my body. Until my body decides that Yaz is no longer good. (I really hope not.)

[Mes T]

It's $20 per box here in Korea, and I thought that was expensive!

Wow thanks for the detailed post. I did notice there were only 4 placebo days, which I thought was interesting.

So far things seem to be fine, I know it's probably too early to tell... But I HAVE been a tad bit emotional, what with certain commercials almost making me teary. But maybe that's just because I'm on my period anyway.

[Yazwoman]

Your body may be adjusting to the hormones yet. Or it could be from having your period. Give it a little more time and see the problems persist or worsen. I think it's still too early to know.

Glad you found the pill useful. Yea, pills here in the US are uber expensive unless they go generic. Yaz isn't generic yet. Pooey.