I just turned 23 on March 10, 2007, and was just diagnosed as having had a stroke caused by my birth control today, 3-14. The amazing part is that at the ER on 3-13 they found NOTHING WRONG WITH ME... but when I went to my regular doctor today, he said I had suffered a very mild stroke related that he believes was related to my birth control. IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND TAKING BIRTH CONTROL - PLEASE TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT YOUR RISKS!!! My GYN never warned me that at 23 years old I could have a stroke from the "low dose" birth control he put me on in order to restart my ovaries so that I might be able to get pregnant. The warning labels say "women over 35..." which I am quite a ways from, and, yes, I smoke, but it never occurred that it could happen to someone so young. I have heard about the patch causing problems like this, but LADIES HEAR ME WHEN I SAY THIS -

I WAS NOT ON THE PATCH!!! IT WAS THE PILL!!!

Please don't let this happen to you... please. I was sitting at work, where I am in customer service for an insurance company, just doing my job, when all of a sudden my head started hurting VERY badly (I had a headache for the past few days, but not as severe as it suddenly was.) and then my left arm from the elbow down into my fingertips went numb. Then, after about 15 minutes it went away. I thought, "no big deal, that was crazy..." Well, about an hour later, those same symptoms returned and worsened. I lost feeling in the left side of my mouth, my left foot, and got so dizzy I almost ran off the road while driving back to work from lunch. I got back to work, made it inside (barely b/c I couldn't see very well) and a friend called an ambulance. The hospital did an EKG, and a CT, and blood work, but couldn't find anything. They also sent me home w/ a "holter monitor" to moniter my heart for the next 24 hours.

When I went to see my regular doctor, he was VERY alarmed, as this had just LAST MONTH happened to one of his nurses, who is 24 years old. I am now being sent to a neurologist and having to undergo some further treatment for my birth control problems... I just don't want anyone else to have to deal with this problem. If you don't HAVE to take birth control, please don't... it could cost you more than it's worth...