Why have I been feeling pregnant on birth control?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Disclaimer: I’m not looking for medical advice unless you’re a doctor. I’d love to hear anyone’s story though.

I’ve been taking Yasmin for 3 months. About 4 days into the third pack, my husband and I had sex. Now, 12 days later, I’ve been feeling pregnant and have for 4 days now. I’ve had the extreme exhaustion, bloating, headache, bigger breasts, frequent urination (that one started yesterday). I haven’t been nauseated, but I smelled my husband’s dinner one night and it smelled odd, even though it was something I loved. The last two days, I’ve been crying at stupid things and under normal circumstances, I’m usually not big on crying…ever.

I’ve been pregnant before, so I know the signs. However, after looking online, I noticed that a lot of women experience these same symptoms as a result of the birth control itself.

I stopped taking it two mornings in a row, in case I’m pregnant and also to see if I get my period. This morning, I woke up with awful cramps and a bit of heartburn, so I’m very confused. This would have been the day I would have doubled up on the pill I missed and I normally don’t feel crampy like this.

Has anyone else had experience with Yasmin? And yes, I did take a pregnancy test this morning and it was negative. I think it was too early anyway and I can’t see my gyno until next Thursday.

2

Hormones contained in oral contraceptives have a very wide range of side effects. All of the symptoms that you listed could be included.

I have taken Yasmin, and it made me overly emotional and I wanted to eat everything in sight.

In general, I have always had to take my BC pills at bedtime. It seems to minimize adverse effects in my case (esp. nausea).

3

If I understand things correctly, birth control pills suppress ovulation by fooling your body into thinking it’s already pregnant, so there’s no need to pop out another egg. This means that you can get a lot of the same side effects of pregnancy with the pill, especially in the beginning, until your body reaches something of an equilibrium with it. To me, it’s a bit odd that you didn’t feel these side effects during the first two packs, but started in the third - I think most people feel any side effects most severely in the beginning, if they’re going to have them.

4

I didn’t tolerate Yasmin very well, and got a few of the same symptoms you have (bloating, crampy crappy periods, plus I cried at the drop of a hat). Oddly, it was recommended to me to help with my PCOS and it did jack crap for any of my symptoms except the amenorrhea.

ETA: symptoms persisted well into the fifth pack. So yeah, some women just don’t tolerate certain brands of BCP.

5

Typical BC symptoms (IME), especially the smell thing and the constant crying. Usually they kick in earlier, though, so that’s a bit odd.

6

I do very well on Yasmin. If you put me on Ortho I become a crying, screaming, bloated mess. You need to find the one best suited for you. That doesn’t mean you are or aren’t pregnant, just that some people don’t react well to certian kinds of bc.

7

I took Yasmin once. It made my acid reflux horribly worse, to the point that I switched to a different pill.

8

I took birth control over a decade ago to regulate my wacky period, and never experienced any side effects at all…

I went back on it a year ago and for the first three months–actually into the fourth month–I would get hours of severe nausea. I guess “morning sickness” type nausea, although I’ve never been pregnant, and it would generally strike at night, not in the morning. (Pregnant friends have told me that “morning sickness” can strike at any time though.)

I told my Doc and she said “give it one more month.”

It cleared up within the 4th month, and if it hadn’t I would’ve tried another brand. 3/4 hours of persistent nausea is hell. Ugh.

I didn’t have any of the OP’s other symptoms, though…but just anecdotally, I’ve known women on the Pill who have.

If you’re not prego and the symptoms persist, by all means try a different brand.