Hi,
I would just like to say from my experience - if you have ANY tendency towards or history of any kind of depression or mood swings, I would suggest that you AVOID Cerazette like the plague!!
Started taking it eleven days ago - nothing too extreme at first (or so I thought), but the last week has been my worst for a couple of years...bordering on suicidal thoughts...
Yes, I have been through periods of depression before (about two years ago), but nothing this bad for a long long time with no reason. As well as ACUTE depression, I also experienced dizziness, pressure headaches, dry mouth and stomach pains.
I know that Cerazette is effective in many women - I have a friend who's on it who has experienced none of these symptoms, so it's obviously a personal thing.
Even if you haven't been depressed for years, and consider yourself a changed person, I would definitely advise that you steer clear of Cerazette, or any progesterone-only pill (lower dose pills would, by logic, yield less extreme, but similar side effects).
So incredibly relieved that I worked this out before things got worse.
The worst thing about this was that I couldn't work out why I was so sad about everything - unless you are aware of the potential side effects, you tend to think it might just be you.
I even went to see the doctor today to talk to her about it and was very concerned to hear what she had to say. She said these symptoms only occur in a handful of women (1. obviously not, according to the hundreds of forum writers who would suggest otherwise; 2. I don't really see why that makes it any less important to warn people). I told her that when it was prescribed to me, I had not been asked if I had any history of, or tendency towards depression. She frowned and pointed out that I would have been asked if I had any medical conditions. As if this is a specific enough answer!! Yes I know, depression is a serious medical condition. But people who are depressed (partly because of the stigma attached, and partly because of the inherent and obvious mind alteration that occurs) may not consider their depression a medical condition. Surely a doctor should understand this. However, all this doctor had to say was that in fact it was a medical condition. As an example, she said that breast cancer patients in recovery may not think to mention breast cancer as an illness. Now I don't know about everyone else, but I think breast cancer is an obvious thing to mention when in a doctor's office. For instance, in my original consultation, I mentioned that I had migraines. Physical condition, not mental. Furthermore, in EVERY pill leaflet, it mentions the risks of breast cancer. When I read my pill leaflet, it did mention "mood swings" as a symptom, but it did NOT say anything about depression (two very different things - depression is a medical condition, mood swings are SYMPTOMS of a variety of conditions). It DID say, DO NOT take if you have had breast cancer, it DID NOT say, do not take if you have ever been depressed. This, I think, is a crucial error in judgement. I was very forthcoming about saying all of this to the doctor, and suggested that in the case of prescribing progesterone-only pills, patients should be asked if they have a history of depression, specifically. She said - she didn't think the NHS were going to change. How disgraceful. A black-and-white, bureaucratic answer to a complicated issue. Are you not supposed to tailor your advice to the particular medication offered?? And once you've been made aware of an adverse reaction (which she admitted in this case, she had), why wouldn't you make every effort to ensure that it didn't happen with one of your patients? I let her know how unimpressed I was, in the most courteous way I could.
I'm thinking maybe the coil is the answer to this problem! :)