Another drug marketed to women with images and innuendo. This one has never been approved as birth control, but as a treatment for severe acne only. Yet young women interviewed on this show thought it was for birth control. As did the young woman who took it for four years and developed a blood clot on her brain.

[ 20 March 2005: Message edited by: fern hill ]

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Diane-35 (cyproterone acetate and ethinyl estradiol) is indicated for the treatment of women with severe acne, unresponsive to oral antibiotic and other available treatments,with associated symptoms of androgenization, including seborrhea and mild hirsutism.

Note: Diane-35 should not be prescribed solely for its contraceptive properties.However, when taken as recommended (see Dosage and Administration),Diane-35 will provide reliable contraception in patients treated for the above clinical conditions.

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I think the reasont they can get away with this is because most of their target market will say that they have acne, even if it's one pimple a month.

The reporting of adverse drug reactions is underused by doctors, for all kinds of reasons, among them an inability to recognize that a particular reaction may be due to a particular drug (too many variables.) When I was on a birth control pill about 15 years ago(don't remember which one, but I tried two kinds) every 28 days, for about two hours, I had severe reactions: vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, fever, severe itching. The episodes kept getting worse every month, to the point where I thought "if this gets any worse, next time I'll die..." I'd usually end up in the emergency room, where doctors just thought I was completely stressed out and having some kind of panic attack (!?) Even my GP at the time didn't think it was the pill, though she suggested I try a different one. I finally went off them altogether and the episodes became less severe and quickly disappeared....Ten years later, my new GP tells me "oh, obviously you have estrogen intolerance - good thing you stopped taking the pill..."

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According to the poll conducted by Ipsos-Insight, young Canadian women (aged 18 to 24) trust the pill more than any other method of birth control for preventing pregnancy. In fact, 53 percent of those polled currently use some form of birth control pill.

This method was followed by condoms at 25 percent and then hormone injections (7 percent). About a quarter of respondents indicated they are not currently using any type of birth control. For those respondents not using any birth control, not currently being in a relationship with a fertile man was the primary reason.

Residents of Quebec are more likely than women in Ontario to be on the pill (63 percent vs. 49 percent, respectively). Women in western provinces (27 percent) and Ontario (26 percent) are more likely than Quebecers (16 percent) to say they are not using any birth control method.

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My risk of fertility is much lower of course, so I really don't need such an effective method (and as risky, past a certain age...).

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Originally posted by brebis noire:
Amy, I'd definitely trust my feeling and get a change in prescription, too - even if your doctor doesn't think the migraines are related to the pills (they're entitled to their opinion, doctors are, but it's your body...)

The reporting of adverse drug reactions is underused by doctors, for all kinds of reasons, among them an inability to recognize that a particular reaction may be due to a particular drug (too many variables.) When I was on a birth control pill about 15 years ago(don't remember which one, but I tried two kinds) every 28 days, for about two hours, I had severe reactions: vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, fever, severe itching. The episodes kept getting worse every month, to the point where I thought "if this gets any worse, next time I'll die..." I'd usually end up in the emergency room, where doctors just thought I was completely stressed out and having some kind of panic attack (!?) Even my GP at the time didn't think it was the pill, though she suggested I try a different one. I finally went off them altogether and the episodes became less severe and quickly disappeared....Ten years later, my new GP tells me "oh, obviously you have estrogen intolerance - good thing you stopped taking the pill..."

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Yes, I've had a similar experience with taking the bcp. I developed depression and serious mood swings, but had no idea they could be related to bcps. And as I went off and then on the pill due to being in a relationship or out, the depression came and went, but as I got older it got more severe. When I mentioned it to my doctor, I was told I should go on anti-depressants, which I turned down. It wasn't until I went back on the pill after having Ms B that I fully realized that the mood swings came on at the same time I started the medication. Stopped the meds, no more mood swings -- and I found, way at the bottom of the information insert for the pills, in very fine print, that depression could be a side effect. The doctor had no idea, so I brought it in to show him -- he was pretty surprised.

I have to wonder how many women out there are on anti-depressants because of medication-induced depression.

[ 21 March 2005: Message edited by: Zoot ]

We vets have a much smaller pharmacopeia to deal with, and even then we get our info either from the drug insert (produced by the individual drug company), from the Compendium (heavily subsidized by the pharmaco companies) or by our own experience....but it takes years to get reliable experience with a new drug. I don't believe the companies are out there to screw people's health up, it's just that they've got a heavy responsibility to track adverse effects, but instead it appears their budgets are lopsided on the marketing end of things.

When I prescribe something as simple as cortisone for itchy ears, I forget to mention about half the time that it will make Fido want to pig out. Argh. Good thing the techs remember to point that out. There's only so much info doctors (and patients) can keep in their heads at one time and be able to communicate/understand it meaningfully.

So I would be a case study. What would you like to know?

[ 21 March 2005: Message edited by: skdadl ]

Did you read the Globe review on the first polio vaccine? Very interesting.

When I was young it was very hard to find a doctor who would tie the tubes of a young woman with no children, even if we were sure our minds were made up not to have any. Wonder if that has changed?

Over the years I have had a few friends of my cohort who had polio when we were little, although I'm not in touch with any of them now. These stories always make me wonder how they are doing, since we hear that there have sometimes been much later relapses when people hit late middle age.

I took the (early? first?) pill for about fifteen years, until my doctor said, Well, you're thirty-five and you smoke, so no more of those for you.

If I had known then what I know now, especially about the potential for strokes, I would have been off them a lot sooner. I realize how lucky I probably was.

I had to lie, btw, for the first few years that I was buying them. In the mid-sixties I had to tell doctors that I was engaged to be married, or they wouldn't prescribe. And the first doctor -- ha! I've just remembered this -- asked for my fiance's name and insisted on writing the prescription in that name! Crikey! How did I get through that?

After that, I used IUDs (three, two years each), which I really detested and which I think did damage, and then I shifted to the good ole fashioned diaphragm, which I really liked -- but I was married by then, and didn't have to worry about the many downsides of diaphragms that might put single women off.

One bad thing about diaphragms in the eighties: we were told to dust and store them in TALCUM POWDER! And we hear now that talc is a carcinogen.

I have had both ovarian and endometrial cancer, both caught very early, just when I hit menopause. I understand that there are high associations for both those cancers with both the talc (grr) and with never having had children at all, although I'm always sceptical of these statistical claims.

On the diaphram front, I can't imagine either prepping for sex and then not getting it (I get peeved if I shave my legs and don't get some, and I enjoy smooth legs too) or the interruption not being bothersome.

Of course, my body has also been fairly tolerant of the pill (one bought of depression sent me off, but the doc seems to think that wasn't related to the pill, but other factors.) Been back on the pill for 9 months or so, and no problems yet aside from a bit of weight gain, which could simply be the school stress lifestyle.

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On the talc front, it also set off a round of giggles on the absorbshun front.

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swirrly, I know: I thought of writing about talc on the AbsorbShun thread but then I think I didn't, partly because the talc story really is sad, whereas baking soda is just ... funny!

I must sound like a walking disaster case.

In fact, I was one of those people who had very very few troubles or heartaches until I hit my fifties, and I know that I am lucky that way.

I'll never forget the first day I sat in the waiting room at Princess Margaret, waiting to see an gynecological oncologist for the first time. Close by were a beautiful young couple, in their late twenties, I'd say, lovely young woman trying not to cry, sweet young man holding her hand while they waited.

Slightly askew but still on topic, like Diane-35, cornstarch is an excellent clot inducer, you can use it to stop the bleeding when you cut your dog's claws too short...

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Originally posted by brebis noire:
Baking soda? Skdadl, it's cornstarch! Do much baking?

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Originally posted by brebis noire:
I think it's humanly impossible for doctors to be on top of even a quarter of all the medications that are out there.

But birth control meds...criticizing them makes me very nervous, since it's usually the only thing standing between a woman and an unwanted baby or an abortion. Still, I really wonder how many illnesses/depressions/hormonal imbalances are caused by the stuff. There was a whole cohort that went through it for the first time and I'd guess the women who first took it are in their 60s or 70s now. Where are the follow-up studies?

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I agree that the BCP is an incredibly important option for many young women, but I don't think it's unreasonable that doctors are aware of possible negative reactions, especially in a type of medication so common. I go to a university clinic and most of the young women I know who go there go mostly for their pill prescription, but when I was having troubles with one type of pill, I got scoffed at by one of the doctors. I told her that I skipped one of my week-long breaks once and as a result my reaction got wickedly worse and she still took my concern with a grain of salt. I promptly decided I wouldn't see her again. I also decided that if I had any issues with the pill in the future, I would do some research in the medical journals first and get me some back up, so that I'm not so easy for a doctor to dismiss.