InformedChoiceForAmerika.com
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Remembering Erika
  • Our Current Focus
    • Contraceptive Choices >
      • Be Informed
      • CONTRACEPTIVE CHOICES
      • Things to Know About Contraception
      • CNN Article about Contraceptive Choices
    • Synthetic hormones
    • Video about Blood Clots
    • Video about Deep Vein Thrombosis & Pulmonary Embolisms
    • True Stories >
      • Share Your Story
    • Disinformation >
      • What Drug Reps Don't Tell Doctors
      • Drug Company Dishonesty
      • Drug Safety: Changed By One Little Sentence?
      • What Doctors Don't Know About Drugs
  • Media
    • IN THE MEDIA
    • Vanity Fair - Danger in the Ring
    • Katie Utehs/KTVU.com
    • FDA approved NuvaRing despite experts’ safety concerns
    • Marie Claire Article: Is Your Birth Control as Safe as You Think?
  • References
    • RESEARCH
    • Danish Study: NuvaRing has increased risk
    • FDA-funded Study: Increased risk of VTE with the NuvaRing
    • Thrombotic Stroke and Myocardial Infarction with Hormonal Contraception
  • Donate
    • Donate
  • Our Team
  • About Us

Amanda Lynn- severe side effects from Nuvaring

6/20/2015

16 Comments

 
I wanted to share my story with the nuva ring I was on it for four months. I got extremely depressed to the point where I couldn't get out of bed and I constantly cried. 

I then started getting paranoid and blaming my husband of cheating on me to the point where I drove him insane and we almost broke up. I was delusional and emotional to the point where I started thinking people were after me and I would spend all day in bed crying with the blinds closed so no one could see in my house in fear of someone murdering me. I also started to always have to have my back up against a wall cause I thought that someone might kill me from behind. I also had a complete mental breakdown at a gas station cause they nozzle kept clicking off. 

I became obsessive compulsive and would make 100s of lists for every second of the day. This was not how I am or have ever been in my life. I finally started to get suicidal and realized something was going on I didn't think it could be the ring but I went to crisis intervention to talk to a counsellor who sent me for testing. 

My hormones were off the charts messed up and I then realized with a doctor that it was the nuva ring ... I took it out and writhin 4-5 days I was completely normal again. Also I gained 25lbs, which I immediately started losing after. Another side effect I experienced was fuzziness like I was in a daze type dreaming state and severe fatigue.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Irene Aguilera 
I know exactly how you feel. I wore for one month , just 3 months ago. I turned bitch towards my family. Everything irritated me. I even accused my husband of cheating on me because of a dream I had, while wearing it. When I realized this is the only thing different, I pulled out, ai was normal after just a few days.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Karen Langhart 

Amanda and Irene,

Thank you for sharing your stories so other women may realize what this drug (yes, the NuvaRing is a powerful hormonal drug) can do to their health and to their families. We believe that the introduction of "the pill", clear back in the 60 's, was a major contributing factor to the sharp increase of the divorce rate in America. Thank goodness both of you figured out the reason for your distress and the effect it was having on your marriage and family...but what happens to all of the women who are affected by these drugs in the same way you were and never figure out the connection? Unfortunately, often the prescribing of more drugs like anti-depressants and anti-anxiety is the result together with divorce. Great for Big Pharma and Medical profits, but devastating for women and their families.

The NuvaRing killed our daughter by causing massive pulmonary embolisms. The worst happened to our daughter, and unfortunately untold numbers of other innocent women, but we also want the world to k ow that women are unnecessarily being made to suffer from depression, anxiety, weight gain, breast and other cancers, loss of libido, fertility issues, depletion of essential vitamins and minerals leading to a myriad of chronic illness, etc. from these drugs. These drugs affect every organ in a woman's body but women are shamefully not being told the real truth about hormonal contraceptives because they make far too much money for the drug and medical industry.

May we share your stories on other websites dedicated to informing women about the dangers associated with these drugs? Every woman who learns the truth about hormonal contraceptives is one more woman who will not suffer injury or death.
Thank you,

Rick and Karen Langhart
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Amanda Lynn 

Hi Karen, 
I will never again take any form of birth control as I agree 100% with everything you are stating. I'm very sorry about your daughter my prayers and condolences are with you and your family. If there is any way I can help to raise awareness and advocate for women please let me know. I am a social worker myself and I take pride in advocating for what I believe in. Please feel free to share my story and I am willing to help in any other way.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Karen Langhart 


We appreciate this very much Amanda. Your advocacy for the health of other women by sharing the truth about hormonal contraceptives will improve and save lives. Thank you for standing up and making a real difference in the lives of others...
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Alison Hudson 

I went on it and was always in a rage. I called it Nuvarage. My legs started hurting and I found this page. After reading the stories, I took it out and never went back. Sad so many lives were lost. I have been off it for two years and don't have the rage anymore or leg pain.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Trish Manning Mathis 

Nuvaring caused a blood clot in my lung, it is very very bad.
16 Comments

Tracy’s Story: Say No To NuvaRing

9/22/2014

2 Comments

 
Tracy’s Story: Say No To NuvaRing
 Written by TONYA 

My sister, Leah, met Tracy the Fall of 2002 when they were both Freshman at the University of Arizona. They have been best friends ever since.

I have had the pleasure of spending a little time with Tracy over the years and have always enjoyed her company. She is witty and smart and has been a good friend to Leah.

Tracy was particularly instrumental to Leah’s grieving process when we lost our parents in 2007 and was there for her the night we found out they had died. Tracy was there for my sister when I could not be. I will always be grateful to her for that. 

Last summer, Tracy who lives in New York was visiting my sister in LA.

One night the three of us went to dinner and to see Beyoncé in concert. We had a great time and as always it was fun to witness the banter that only two good friends can share. That was a Friday. Two days later, at 29 years old, Tracy suffered a stroke.

Last week she shared the following on her Facebook wall and with her permission I am sharing it here:

One year ago today, 3 weeks past my 29th birthday, I had a stroke. It was caused by the birth control NuvaRing. Due to this event I lost a significant amount of my left peripheral vision. I’m so BLESSED to say it wasn’t worse – women died. I’m not celebrating this “anniversary”, rather I’m ready to share my story, so that it may help others.

Full disclosure – I entered the class action suit, along with 3,800 other women, against the makers of this product, Merck. The final payout Merck was responsible for was 6% of what a similar case paid out, we’re talking a few millions versus a few hundred billion. Basically a slap on the wrist for a company that is knowingly selling a dangerous product to millions of otherwise healthy women, like me.

So, I didn’t settle and here’s why:

If you had a life altering stroke at 29 years old during the height of a beautiful California vacation that ripped vision and sensation from the left side of your body, would you settle?

If you spent two days in the hospital and worried your entire family, friend and professional circle, would you settle?

If you had to correct your mom in a room full of doctors that glasses wouldn’t help because the injury wasn’t in your eyes, it’s in your brain, would you settle?

If over the last 7 years you told several doctors of your experiences with migraines, never to be taken seriously, would you settle?

If you still walk cautiously through every single intersection worrying that you may not see the motorist, bicyclist or Mac truck, would you settle?

If you secretly dread shopping because it will require you to perform exhaustive and annoyingly slow eye scanning, would you settle?

If you sometimes avoid large crowds because you worry you will bump into, trip or hurt yourself or others, would you settle?

If people still ask you “how’s your vision” and you have to tell them that it’s no better, would you settle?

If something that happened to you on one day of your life is now something you think about every day, would you settle?

If you knew officials claim the type of stroke you had doesn’t “support a casual link” to NuvaRing, but the FIRST THING the ER doctors asked you to do when they identified your stroke was to remove your NuvaRing, would you settle?

If all official medical reports point directly to NuvaRing, but the courts don’t care, would you settle?

If the after insurance amount in medical bills was more than the payout, would you settle?

If you knew that other women died because of NuvaRing, would you settle?

Please share/tell my story to one person, then it’ll be worth it.

For those of you who don’t know, NuvaRing is a birth control option for women. It is a small flexible contraceptive ring, about the size of a silver dollar. The NuvaRing contains the same hormones as many birth control pills. It is inserted manually into the vagina, where it is left for three weeks. There, a continuous, low dose of hormones is released. Then the ring is removed for one week. This is the week you have your period.

According to Tracy, many young women and their common stroke-like symptoms are being ignored. She was given an IV initially and sent home.

Tracy has zero regrets about not settling in the class action suit and is hoping that someday soon there will be enough studies that prove arterial strokes are directly linked to medications like NuvaRing, in the meantime regaining 100% visibility may never happen for her, but she is optimistic in new visual training programs offered by the School of Optometry at SUNY.

I wanted to share Tracy’s story because it’s important and because I have a tiny following here and thought I could help spread the word about the dangers of NuvaRing. I am currently shopping for new birth control and I know many of you may be as well or know someone who is. I’m begging you to take the time and do the research on ANY birth control you are considering. It could save your life.

For more information, here are two articles Tracy recommends, they are relevant and extensive on the subject of the NuvaRing case, Danger in the Ring and Parents of 24-year-old killed by NuvaRing reject their part of $100 million settlement.

2 Comments

June 05th, 2014

6/5/2014

5 Comments

 
Informed Choice For Amerika Foundation, a Non-Profit Organization, was established in the name and memory of Erika Langhart. Erika died of massive double pulmonary embolisms as a direct result of the NuvaRing, per her attending physician. Had she been fully informed of the increased risk associated with 3rd and 4th generation hormone based contraceptives, her life could have been saved.

Erika’s stated goal in life was “To Make a Difference”. 
It is our goal
to raise awareness and support research for helping Americans make informed choices about their health and well being; initially by raising awareness and supporting research that will provide American women and their families with the knowledge to make fully informed choices about contraception.

Please share any information you think might
"Make a Difference"

Click on the "Add Comment" below.
5 Comments


IMPORTANT: 
Information shared on this website is intended to
enhance (not replace!) discussions with your doctor and other health care providers.