“File a Yasmin Claim, Just in Case”

Tacoma, WAIt never occurred to Mary until some time later that an “incident” at work was in fact a mini-stroke. And it never occurred to her that Yasmin was the cause. It never even crossed her doctor’s mind that Yasmin was associated with stroke, but as soon as her ob-gyn found out, she told Mary to stop taking it - immediately.

Mary (not her real name) will never forget what happened on April 3. “I was at work and felt a wave wash over me,” she explains. “I closed my eyes and shook my head, and then when I opened my eyes, I had double vision and I was leaning to one side.” The sensation worsened. Fortunately, Mary knew what to do (she works in health care) and help was close by.

“I called my regular doctor and asked him what to do,” Mary says. “One of my staff members drove me to his office where I had all the usual tests, including blood work. He thought that I might have had a micro-stroke and referred me to an eye doctor.” As soon as she got home, Mary curled up on the couch and fell asleep, exhausted.

The eye doctor concurred with Mary’s physician, that indeed she’d had a micro-stroke. “He told me it would probably take from six to eight weeks to resolve and sent me on my way,” says Mary. “Still no one asked me about any meds I was taking. I never thought of telling anyone about Yasmin.”

Mary, a self-confessed “Triple A personality,” drove herself home from the eye doctor, more or less with one eye closed. She went back to work and began to get her normal vision back and didn’t think much more about the “incident,” until it was time for her annual ob-gyn checkup one month later.

“When I told my ob-gyn what happened, she threw a hissy fit,” says Mary, laughing. “She was mad that I hadn’t told her sooner, and she was furious that I was still taking Yasmin - she had prescribed it.”

Meanwhile, the eye doctor had ordered an MRI and the results showed previous ischemic events. “That was rather frightening,” says Mary. Her ob-gyn suggested that she get a CIMT test, which uses ultrasound to detect any cardiovascular risk before any symptoms occur.

“Thank god those test results came back clean as a whistle and my blood work was fine,” Mary adds, “but since this happened, I have noticed that I don’t have 100 percent balance and my husband says I try to walk through corners instead of around him. And my husband never heard me complain about headaches, but now I have doozey headaches. People have noticed that I can’t find words. I was always sharp as a tack, quick on my feet. Now I will say to someone, ‘Just give me a second, I will get that word.’

“Has Yasmin ruined my life? No, but I am concerned. Could this happen again? Maybe. I don’t have any other explanation for it, other than this mini stroke was caused by drospirenone. At the same time, I feel fortunate because I have heard of worse-case scenarios. It certainly makes you sit up and take notice.

“As for filing a Yasmin lawsuit, I was watching TV one night and saw a commercial with a Yasmin attorney. That prompted me to have a discussion with my husband - what if? If I collapsed tomorrow what would we do? So we filed a Yasmin claim, just in case…