When I was 15/16, my old gyno put me on BCPs... I had blood vessels in my eyes break, it was a nightmare. I have up on them until I was 20, soon tto be 21. My periods and hormones were so irregular, i couldnt take it anymore. Her fix? BCPs again. I had break through bleeding so they increased the dose. Within days i had trouble breathing. i couldnt walk from one point of the room to the other without being out of breath. i had trouble laying down at night because my ribs hurt. i thought i may have broken a rib. calling my gyno to report the problem, they said 'it wasnt their problem'. waiting through the weekend i called my doctor sunday night and not having a wink of sleep went in monday morning. thank goodness they squeezed me in. they told me to go to the ER because it was either my heart or lung. i get there and they said i have a Pulmonary Embolism (PE). A blood clot in my lung. It was MASSIVE. I also had tightening in the toips of my legs over the weekend. I tried to walk a block and couldn't. i kept having to stop to catch my breath. i stopped 6 times. they did and ultrasound of my legs but found nothing. two nights passed and i didnt sleep. the third night (second night in hospital) they have me a sleeping pill at midnight. i fell asleep at 3:30 - 4am, and woke up a few short hours later. somehow i knew something was wrong, and i think i pushed the nurses button. i just remember my bed being surrounded by doctors and nurses, i was crying, and they were taking the bottom of my right foot and running their knuckles up and down it. but i couldnt feel it. this all happened within seconds that i remember. passing back up, i woke up to my leg swollen up twice the size, hot, red and i couldnt move it. it was deep vein thrombosis (DVT)...
www.dvt.net... if you ever had a charlie horse in your leg so bad that for the next few days you couldnt even walk right, thats how it felt times 100. it felt like a thousand of the worst charlie horses up and down your leg non stop for days. i cried, screamed, and a week later, i left. within the next few weeks i had a physical therapist and nurse come to my house. i had to learn to walk again. at 20. i didnt feel lucky to be alive. i was in pain all the time. all i could do was cry. two weeks after i got home from the hospital my calf had gone down in swelling, but was still 32 inches around.
i made it through though. while in the hospital my mother called my old gyno and she said she had no idea i had ever called, and i was a PROBLEM case because i have PCOS and i was overweight.
screw you.
my whole life changed because of you neglecting to help me.
my leg is still swollen. i get charlie horses sometimes bad. but im going to get through it. ill be on a bloodthinner indefinately. i have to go to a hematologist and get my bloodwork checked every 2 weeks.
people say im lucky. sometimes i feel that way, usually i don't.
my whole point in writing this is... im not downing BCPs at ALL. i think they are good when used appropriately, not just to fix just ANYTHING. if you feel any symptoms like the ones i described (shortness of breath, sharp pains in ribs, tighting of thigh muscles) please contact your doctor. they told me i was lucky to be alive and that in 6 months they would probably disolve. its been almost a year and a half and the DVT and PE are still pretty bad, but im considered out of the woods. im 22 now.
just keep all this in mind when taking bcps. i think they can work wonders, but be aware of how strong they are.
that is all just a brief story. i wont get into specifics of how i felt, but if you want to know, contact me anytime.
take care of your health!
High dose of BCP may lead to bloodclots *IMPORTANT* 
WOW! 
