I was on Yasmin for three years. I was put on it for the same reason your dr's suggesting it leocat. My periods went from alternating 21 day and 35 day cycles to 42 day cycles. I had a blood test that showed that I had low estrogen, so my gyno said I should take Yasmin. I liked it at first because my periods came closer together and my periods were lighter. But I ended up having a lot of problems with it. My periods never came on time... what I mean is that I would start my inactive week on a Sunday and my period wouldn't show up until Thursday (the latest it's supposed to start is Monday). My periods would also continue until Wednesday of the next week when I was taking active pills. I tried to perserve through that for two and a half years but by the end I had to stop taking Yasmin because the last couple months it made nauseous and I would throw up the pills (not so good). I also had worse cramping with the Yasmin than without, the first day of my period I couldn't get out of my bed. I had cramping everyday of my period which I never had before and terrible mood swings. (My poor fiance....) The last straw for me was that it started giving me headaches everyday, which I have since found out is a common side effect. After that my gyno recommended a different brand of BCP with more estrogen... that just made it all worse. I just decided I had enough, so I stopped taking BCP's at all. I think all that time on BCPs really messed things up because I stopped having my period at all. At least I was having them before Yasmin.
I started taking vitex about a month ago and my periods are back, kinda screwy (they haven't settled into a regular cycle yet, it's a little bit like going through puberty all over again
). I don't know if the vitex is helping because I have low estrogen... I'm taking because my prolactin is high and I'm trying to decrease that.
If you do try it, I hope it works. I would point out that there's research out there that says that BCPs aren't a long term solution to PCOS but hopefully it'll make you feel better and you can find something that'll work for you.
Just a side note... I think it's odd that with all the phytoestrogens that are supposedly everywhere in the world, they're in our food, drink, containers we use, everywhere, there's some of us out there who still don't have enough estrogen. It makes me wonder if estrogen isn't the problem.
P.S. leocat and brbangle-- I am LOVING the Jem avatars. Truly outrageous.
