Switching From Loestrin 24 Fe To Minastrin 24 Fe (Page 13)

Hey Guys!
So I went to the pharmacy to pick up my monthly pack of LoEstrin 24 Fe two weeks ago, only to find out that the makers of LoEstrin 24 Fe discontinued the pills and are replacing it with Minastrin 24 Fe. (I am VERY disappointed to report that I was NEVER notified of the discontinuation, as my reproductive health care is apparently not a priority of my pharmacy or my doctor). My pharmacist says it's the same pill as it is made by the same company and contains the same amount of hormones in it, the only difference is that this pill is chewable. The pharmacist then proceeded to tell me that she would be happy to fill in the prescription for me expect that since she could not get a hold of my doctor to approve the Minastrin, I could not purchase it which caused me to start my pack late. I was supposed start the new pack on a Sunday at 9pm but did not start it until Monday morning at 10:40am when the pharmacist finally got a hold of my doctor (this would put me at taking the pill roughly 13 hours late). I then proceeded to take my normal dosage for Monday night at 9pm. When my boyfriend and I are sexually active we always use condoms and pull out, in addition to taking the pills but since I started my pack late, I'm very worried that my birth control pills aren't effective. I haven't been sexually active at all this month because I'm too nervous about an unplanned pregnancy. The pharmacist told me that as long as I double up on taking two pills on Monday (which is what I did) I should be fine and no additional contraceptive is needed but the nurse at my gyno's office says that the pills won't be effective for two weeks and that during that time I need to use another form of contraception. I don't know who to believe! Does anyone have any insight on this, or has anyone been through something like this while making the switch from LoEstrin 24 Fe to Minastrin 24 Fe? Is there a high possiblity that a pregnancy could occur if I decide to become sexually active this month, as I started the new pill pack late? Thanks for your help!

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Right, so after 8 months now of being on Minastrin, I am finally done and sick of this horrible pill. Like most of you, I switched from my wonderful Loestrin to this seemingly synonymous copycat and have had more problems than this word count will allow! i.e.-bloating, weight gain, acne, low sex drive, tiredness, horrible periods, and even a new onset of depression and anxiety.

It was such a relief to finally sit down and do some research to see that I was not the only one having issues like mine above. So at that point, I got in touch with my doctor and told her to switch me to something else, and after more research I'm going to try LoMedia for a few months and see if the generic of Loestrin will put me back on the right track. Until then, I will let you know how it goes and if my previous horrible side effects finally go away.

I just want to thank all of you for this forum and all these posts that have reassured me that I am not the only crazy one suffering from the bad medical advice that Minastrin is AT ALL the same.

Time to try LoMeida…at this point, anything is better than what I've been doing for the last 8 months! x

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Yes, please keep us posted. Most everyone has been talking about Ministrin and the terrible side effects. LoMedia is still very new and not a lot of gals know about it or tried. Our vote is still NO for LoMedia and nothing else compares to the LoEstrin so far for us. :-(
I wish you the best of luck!

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Hello, ladies! Well, I'm almost 3 months through Lo Loestrin Fe, having switched after being fed up with Minastrin, and so far I am thoroughly pleased. I've noticed that the depression and mood swings I once had, have disappeared, I've not had the painful cramps I once had, the weight I had gained is still slowly falling off and I don't feel the "need" to eat as much, all since I stopped taking Minastrin. It turns out too, that the lightheadedness I had noted a couple of months back, was completely unrelated to switching birth controls, as it was merely an infection that had attacked my middle ear. So, overall I'd say that I'm confident and happy in the choice I made by switching to Lo Loestrin Fe. I realize that not all women will experience the complete dissipation of negative side effects, should they choose to switch to Lo Loestrin Fe, but I am an example that there is a better birth control option that still remains under the Actavis Pharma umbrella. I hope this gives any hope to some of you and that you will consider switching to it. Alas, I still miss Loestrin 24 Fe.

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So, color me clueless: Why was it necessary for the Boneheads to discontinue LoEstrin . . . but NOT Lo LoEstrin? I don't get it.

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My dr told me that the loloestrin has a lot lower estrogen

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I heard from a pharmacist that they discontinued Loestrin because its patent was expiring and the generic, Lomedia, was coming out in a few months. They launched the patent-protected chewable version, Minastrin, hoping to get all the patients converted to that product before the generic came along and started taking patients away from their brand. LoLoestrin is protected from generic competition for a few more years I think.

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I've now been on minastrin 24 fe for 4 months starting my 5th next week and from day one I've had good and bad results. The good, is that from the first pack I've had no spotting and my period come on time and lasts 4 days versus my normal 8 days. Also, it extremely light versus my usual so heavy I need the thickest pad and two so its long enough to cover everything period. The bad is that I've had trouble breathing, especially exhaling for too long and shortness of breath, my heartbeat throughout the day rises past 100bpm and I experience lightheaded ness often. WORST of all constant itching everywhere! From day one, on my head, face, stomach, legs, feet, back, neck, and arms everyday I have new welts and end up turning them to scars with my scratching whereas I've never experienced itching or hives as a side effect on any pill before and so I will be stopping next week :/

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I experienced the same in terms of shortness of breath and fast heartbeat. I went off minastrin back in March but just started lomedia three days ago. Hoping it works better. I miss loestrin 24 :( I'm wondering if the inactive ingredient of sorbitol in minastrin has caused our problems?

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I will look into sorbitol but thank you so much because I've been looking high and low for people with either the itching or breathing issue just to confirm. It sucks because I have 4 packs now and 7 more refills which are free with my insurance but I'm so over the symptoms

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Hi Ladies! I was just as shocked as all of you were when I found out that Loestrin was discontinued and that my doctor failed to notify me. I had been on Loestrin for about 3 or so years before they discontinued it and was just sort of dropped off at the Minastrin doorstep without given any type of information on it. I was disgusted at the idea of chewing, so I just preferred to swallow it because what goes down from chewing also goes down by swallowing ;)! I was very annoyed by my doctor not informing me about the switch that I ended up changing doctors.

Now a little background on me: I am 22 (almost 23) year old, relatively healthy in all respects. I'm overweight, but always "working on it". I have parents with cardiac conditions (father) and thyroid condition (mother) as well as histories of cancer on both sides. I only drink socially and have experimented with smoking cigarettes in my younger years but no longer use them.

Anyway, I was experiencing chest pain for about 3 days this past week but chalked it up to sleeping wrong or pulling a muscle doing some household chores. I had had this pain before, but figured it was just a rough sleeper and didn't pay much attention to it. Finally on Thursday (8/14) I realized that the pain was just getting worse and nothing I did seemed to alleviate it so my boyfriend brought me to the ER. Of course as soon as I mentioned chest pains and being 22, I was given an EKG which returned that I was in fact not having a heart attack (thank god!) but during my CT scan it turned up that I had a bilateral pulmonary embolism, presumably stemming from my birth control.

I am since on blood thinners and have been released from the hospital but there are still many questions I have yet to find the answers to. An ultrasound of my legs showed no other lingering blood clots in my legs (where most originate) and I still plan to have my heart checked by a cardiologist but I wish I had asked so many more questions about Minastrin before just taking it. I just wanted to share my story to you ladies in hopes of helping, or educating some of you!

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OMG! That is terrible!
Why doesn't someone DO something about all this? Is one of us supposed to die over this before anyone NOTICES? EVERYTHING is wrong with this scenario! Who should we be calling? Food and Drug admin? Who? This is absurd!

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You can report adverse events and side effects to the FDA or to the manufacturer. They have the report them to the FDA. If you don't report it, they'll never know!

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OK! So everyone on here that has had these terrible problems, and also know anyone else who has, let's all tell them! They need to know! The sooner the better. All this h*ll just because a patent expired is B.S. People's lives and health are at risk!

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I'm reporting to the FDA right now.

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Hi everyone! I just wanted to follow up my post from August 6th about my switch from Minastrin to LoMedia. So it's almost been a month and I can already report a MIRACULOUS turnaround. My skin has cleared up, my anxiety, mood wings and verge of depression, and bloating have all subsided and I am finally returning back to normal. I have almost finished the first pack and can say that I am so glad I made the switch. I feel as close to how I felt on Loestrin as possible. Thank the lord!!

Now unfortunately, everyone is different, so I am just happy to say that my individual results have been very positive and hope the very best for all of you on your switches. But I know I can say confidently, that Minastrin has been a lowest common denominator for all of us and deserves as much attention as possible.

I will be reporting this to the FDA as soon as possible to ensure that we get the justice we deserve. It is inexcusable (like most of the healthcare in this country) that we women should be the victims of patent aversion. Our health and well being will forever outweigh a pharmaceutical company's pay check.

Well that is my rant. Best of luck to all of you, and I will continue to report my results if anything changes. Love to you all! x

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Giving an update on lomedia. Little history: was on loestrin 24 for 5 years with little problems (although after coming off bcp for a few months over the summer, I realized it was the cause of migraines I had been experiencing for all of 2013). Anyway, after loestrin, I was on minastrin for 6 months. At first it was great...I had less acne and hair loss. But around the 4th month, I started experiencing heart palpitations, shortness of breath. Came off bcp for a few months but the increase of acne and hair loss made me get back on it. I just finished my first pack of lomedia. It has been a month of hell with migraines every day. I'm about to start my period and have had heart palps for last 2 days. I thought all of my problems were related to minastrin but now I'm thinking that my hormones have just changed over past couple of years (I'm 34) and this ratio of estrogen/progestin no longer works for me. Thinking about switching to lo loestrin or alesse. Sigh. Hormones are a b!tch

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I was on loestrin 4 years and didn't have any problems really except a few headaches. When I started lomedia January 2014 I had migraines daily. I was just going into my 4 th pack when I had a seizure in Walgreens. Now I'm no longer on any birth control. I don't know what to do. I never had periods on loestrin or lomedia

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Wow, SO TIRED of hearing of this happening! Why isn't anyone listening? Don't they care? If we are all DEAD then how will that help anyone? All this over MONEY! Wow. These pharmacutical companies should be SUED for allowing this to happen to us!

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I am experiencing all sorts of side effects I never had with Loestrin. I am very emotional, crying randomly, extreme breast tenderness, breasts have gotten significantly larger, 5-10lbs weight gain.

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A quick update* after taking minastrin24fe for 4 consecutive months I stopped because of many issues, the most bothersome were irregular heartbeat, trouble breathing, and itching everywhere all the time. After 3 weeks of not being on it I can happily say all my symptoms are gone. Goodluck to you ladies!

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