Yaz birth control pill vs Junel Fe 1/20 birth control pill

Five stars because it saved my life. I have zest for life and do not intend to kill myself, but my PMDD turned me into a threat to my own safety for two out of every 3.5 weeks. I was so miserable that I wanted to be euthanized. Yaz makes me feel normal again, treat people normally again. The downside is some bloating, breast tenderness, and what little libido I had is gone. Additionally, since starting the pill I am prone to uncontrollable and unprofessional bouts of weeping when I do not feel like I need to cry. This is highly frustrating but better than living with PMDD. Generic version does not control my PMDD symptoms, brand name for me only.

wasn’t strong enough for me, caused breakthrough bleeding, mood was terrible

Yaz hit me like a freight train. Only lasted a month. Anxiety, panic, isomnia, dizzy spells and nausea and loss of appetite, and oh my god I peed like every 30 minutes, and felt my bladder was filling back up as it was emptying. A lot of pelvic pressure. I was tested for UTIs and got to a point where I made ultrasound and urologist appointments for my bladder, I had no idea what was going on. I did end up finding out I have a small bladder, so the diuretic effect of Yaz just hit me very hard. Do not recommend. The anxiety and insomnia hit hard and two weeks after stopping everything is normal, but those anxious thoughts at night needed ongoing cognitive behavioural therapy to get through.

This birth control really helped with regulating my moods but did make me gain weight significantly even when working out more because of major appetite changes be aware. My skin cleared up a lot and after 3 months haven’t had one breakout related to hormones. My first 8 months my breast grew 2 sizes with about a 8 pound increase in weight, my second round after taking a 6 month break my breasts did not change size but i did gain the 8 pounds back again after losing about 15 in the break period. I stopped getting my period and do not have even spotting when taking the iron pills. Lastly my sex drive almost disappeared and i find getting wet a challenge when i’ve never had that problem. My experience is about 50%-50% positive to negative.

All things considered, I’ve experienced minimal negative side effects while on Junel Fe 1/20. It does seem to have affected my mood and sex drive somewhat, so that’s worth considering.

Junel was great for the first 6 yrs on it. After that, the side effects started snowballing. Gained 10lbs, dryness, and my sex drive vanished to the point I became borderline asexual which ruined my relationship and contributed to our breakup. It also made me angrier. I didn't realize it was the cause of these things and stayed on another 5 yrs until it triggered weekly/biweekly migraines when I used to have 1 or 2 a year. When I came off, the migraines stopped. However, my body had become so dependent on Junel it destroyed my body's ability to regulate my hormones. Hormonal pills cut off your brain and reproductive system's connection so my brain didn't know how to do it's job anymore and I struggled very badly and almost went to the hospital. I regret ever staying on for so long. I would not stay on any hormonal method more than 5 years in the future. My libido also has not come back after 9 months.