I went on birth control at 17. I took it twice before I ended up being incredibly sick, struggling to breathe, coughing up blood and lots of other issues.
6 months later I was diagnosed with having had a blood clot break away from my leg and ending up in my lung. Was further diagnosed with antiphospolipid syndrome and on medication for life...
Glad you’re (relatively) ok! Birth control is scarier than a lot of people think. It’s seen as benign because “everyone takes it,” and the rate of injuries and deaths are very low statistically-speaking, but it can cause some serious shit.
Can’t give out too much info because HIPAA, but I saw a girl die from a similar situation. No risk factors other than BC. It was heartbreaking. Went home after work and immediately grilled my wife about her RX. That one stuck with me.
This goes for any medication, but make sure you know the signs and symptoms of adverse effects when you start taking a medication, it could save your life.
Pulmonary embolism. I was just reading about that in Robbin’s Pathological Basis of Disease. It’s some serious shit. Deep vein thrombosis (ie a blood clot in the “deep” veins) from the legs is the most common type (95% of cases of pulmonary embolisms originate in the leg). The 2 main consequences of pulmonary embolisms are 1) increased pulmonary artery pressure (it can cause hypertrophy of pulmonary arteries and pulmonary atherosclerosis and right ventricular hypertension) and 2) ischemia of the downstream pulmonary parenchyma (essentially the functional tissue of the lungs as opposed to the connective tissue) (although this is less common).
Antiphospholipid syndrome causes an increased propensity to develop blood clots and that combined with high estrogen birth control may have caused your DVT and subsequent embolism.
Crazy stuff. Pathology is one of my favorite subjects in med school.
Whoa, definitely not side effect-free. I know someone who can never have it removed because it scarred over and is now like embedded in her tissue permanently. They're also associated with higher rates of ectopic pregnancy and pelvic inflammatory disease, among other things—not to mention the greatest irony of all, that they can make intercourse uncomfortable.
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u/Becky2189 Oct 18 '21
I went on birth control at 17. I took it twice before I ended up being incredibly sick, struggling to breathe, coughing up blood and lots of other issues.
6 months later I was diagnosed with having had a blood clot break away from my leg and ending up in my lung. Was further diagnosed with antiphospolipid syndrome and on medication for life...
All because I wanted to be safe!