St Louis, MOFor 21-year-old Aaliyah, Yasmin side effects started with a loss of balance, then she couldn’t move her right side. “I was aware of the Yasmin dangers but my doctor said I wasn’t at risk because I was so young,” she says. “I never thought I would wind up with a stroke.”
Aaliyah (not her real name), a college student living with her parents, was prescribed Yasmin to treat her period problems but she quit taking it after two years when her period “became non-existent”. It took a year for the symptoms of a stroke to appear.
“This January I kept losing my balance and started falling down for no apparent reason,” says Aaliyah. “I would be sitting upright in a chair and the next moment I hit the ground. That continued for about a week and then I seemed to be OK, but a month later I woke up one morning and couldn’t move my right side. I assumed that I had slept in a weird position, but as the day progressed I still had no movement or control over my right side.
"I did manage to do some research that day on my cell phone—with my left hand. I read articles stating that these symptoms could just be chalked up to an anxiety attack but that night my mother told me that if I wasn’t better the next morning I should go to the ER.
"Next day I knew that I needed medical attention. At ER I was rushed into an examining room—I figured this was severe. A doctor saw me and assessed my right side for weakness and the lack of mobility. He ordered a CAT Scan immediately.
"He told me there was a shadow on the left side of my brain. He told me to hold tight, go home and phone for an appointment with the neurologist. I was discharged and my medical paperwork said ‘brain tumor’, which I took home.
"I thought about my future, if there was even going to be a future for me. The worst part was the long drive home, waiting to tell my mother the news.
"I had many more tests to determine if it was indeed a brain tumor—at this point I hadn’t seen the neurologist. Once I did see him, he told me that I either had a brain tumor or MS. I then had two more MRIs and an EEG. I saw a second neurologist regarding my symptoms and he informed me that my right side issues would go away on their own but nobody told me why I had these symptoms.
"The brain tumor scare lasted until my neurologist referred me to a neurosurgeon in St. Louis. After talking with him for a few minutes he asked me if I was on birth control. I had been on Yasmin but hadn’t taken it for about a year. He immediately explained that I could be suffering from a stroke because researchers were finding that a number of young women had suffered DVTs, pulmonary embolisms and strokes from taking Yasmin or Yaz. I had a moment of clarity: It finally made sense why this was happening, why nobody could give me a definitive answer about my symptoms.
"After that visit I had yet another MRI to confirm that I did indeed have a stroke. I felt an immense sense of relief; I started thinking that maybe I did have a future after all. I didn’t have a brain tumor. As you can imagine, my family was so relieved with this news and I haven’t taken another birth control pill since.
"Later on, my sister mentioned that several women had suffered strokes and blood clots from Yasmin so I went online and found a number of lawsuits against Bayer.”
Aaliyah had to drop out of college because to this day she still can’t write more than a few sentences or type on a computer for more than a few minutes. But she is hopeful that she will get her strength back and return to school this fall.
“I only wish someone could have helped me a few months ago,” says Aaliyah. “I was unaware of how serious this injury was and it took so long to get the right advice from the medical community. And I regret not having an attorney by my side sooner.”
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