Dianette : Oral Contraceptive

Please don't go on this drug, its a trap. You get good skin but a lifetime of emotional turbulence & depression that is likely to ruin your life far more than acne. I was on Dianette for 8 long miserable years and just assumed being emotional/ psychotic/ constantly fighting to feel content & happy was just part of growing up. Turns out Dianette stole some of my best years causing depression and making life just constantly a tough battle. Since I've come off dianette life has been amazing and the sky is my limit, I'm now the successful/ happy/ motivated and confident girl i used to be before i went on Dianette! If you start taking it, keep a diary of your moods so you can keep track of any damage its causing to your mental health.

After struggling for acne for years I was prescribed dianette.. it worked pretty quickly and cleared up most of my acne. It completely cleared up the minor acne I had on my back, but I still had a few pimples on my cheeks and forehead. However, this pill completely changed my personality, I had terrible mood swings, I would cry every single day for hours, I ended up fighting with my boyfriend and throwing things (which is completely not in me to do, usually), I began self harming and making myself sick.. I had suicidal thoughts and most days I'd just lay in bed all day crying. I know it works differently for everyone, but if you think you may be susceptible to depression or it runs in your family, I would completely avoid Dianette. Even though it made my skin clearer and made my breasts go up three cup sizes, it's not worth it. My acne also came back full force when I stopped taking it, it was twice as bad as before and began spreading across my shoulders even.

I started suffering from acne when i was about 13 years old. After a couple of years of 'dealing' with it my mum took me to the dr's to see what could be done. He put me on Dianette straight away and i stayed on it for the next 14 years!! It cleared my acne up within about 3 months and i thought it was the best thing ever. My boobs got huuuge and i put on a bit weight which i could handle at the time. 10 years later i met my now current boyfriend who, after a few months of being with him made a few comments about my mood swings, not so high sex drive and general unhappiness. I'd never noticed it before, i guess because i'd been on it for such a long time and from a very young age. I ignored his comments for a while but after 3 years he told me he couldn't handle it anymore and either i come off Dianette or try a different one or the relationship is over. I stopped taking the pill in December 2012....after about a month my hair got super greasy and started to fall out in clumps. My spots returned with a vengeance, massive cysts along my jawline and neck, small bumps covering my forehead. I must have cried for about 2weeks solid. This continued for about 6 months but i persevered. i probably lost about half of my hair within the 6 months...it was devastating! However back in August something changed...it felt like a huge weight has been lifted, i'm so happy for no reason whatsoever! My hair has stopped falling out and i have a lot of regrowth coming through. I still get a couple of spots but i'm happy to accept them! My sex drive is crazy, i'm happy and positive about life and i honestly cannot remember ever feeling like this. It makes me angry as i can't help but think i have wasted alot of years being unhappy and negative whereas if i never went on Dianette in the first place could my life have been different?? For anybody contemplating going on this pill i would strongly recommend you try everything else possible first

Where do I start, have been on the contraceptive pill since April 2011, I went on the pill as my periods were awful, and I mean sometimes on going non stop on for a month, the doctor said it seems I have mild scale of pcos ( polycystic ovary syndrome ) he put me on a pill to help correct my periods and apparently the pill is good to go on If you have pcos . I started off on microgynon which I was on for 6 months, unfortunately it made me very moody, emotional etc, I then went on femodette which I have actually been ok on and have been taking up until two weeks ago, I spoke to a gynecoligyst who said I should in no way be on femodette as it is not good for pcos. ( I also explained to him how I always feel weak, lethargic, exhausted, tired, groggy and I can't lose weight, not over weight but would like to lose a few pounds) I've had various blood tests trying to find out why I always felt so weak, lethargic and groggy ( as in greasy, sluggish etc, and I eat very well & excercise so I didn't understand why I felt this way! ) blood tests showed no results as to why I felt weak 24/7! ( I'm only 18 ) so, the gynecoligyst told me to come off femodette and go on the evil dianette ( BIG MISTAKE ) I started dianette after my week break having my period, I started dianette on the 14th of August and I can honestly say its been the worst pill I have been on. I have felt 10000x worse than before!! emotional, 100x more greasy, 100x more weak than I was before, hugely bloated, so so exhausted, tired, lethargic, light headed, HUGELY Increased my appetite. It also interrupted with my sleeping! I couldn't even sleep at night,my body would never shut off properly and go in to full state of sleep no matter what. I felt miserable and It caused me to have severe headaches too. I heard pills high in oestrogen can cause fatigue ( tiredness etc ) which this pill has. So I call doctor friday 23rd because by then ive had enough of the way I feel, she says if I THINK its the dianette pill causing this,to just stop taking it until I see her next week, I was 50/50 on whether to stop taking it suddenly or wait until ive had the rest of the pack. I wasn't sure if to take the rest and see how I go. But I decided that friday morning to not take it. Friday evening I had an amazing sleep for the first time in ages! I slept all night long! next day ( saturday ) I had work all day which I dreaded as i thought I would feel weak and lethargic as always.. Well guess what, day two off the pill and I felt NORMAL all day! I could actually work! no weakness, no tiredness, no tears, no headaches, I felt good! Happier.I have put it all down to the pill, & dianette was 100x worse, So this pill certainly is NOT a pill I recommend at all! Maybe my body does not like the pill no matter what one it is, but dianette I can honestly say made all my problems 100x worse. I have heard this pill is one of the most high risk pills too. No no no!

I was on dianette for around three months for my moderate acne. During those three months my skin got a million times worse to the point in which i needed a dermatologist referral and am now on accutane. This wasn't the worst part of it though, It also really interfered with my moods. I became a very different person while i was on this, it made me very upset and angry. I had went from being quite a bubbly happy person to being really down all the time.My flatmates would agree and felt as though i was a different person when i was on it (they also got the brunt of my anger, poor them!). As soon as i came off it within a few weeks i felt as though a huge cloud had cleared and finally felt like myself again. Although this happened to me it doesn't mean the medication will not work for you. I know other people who have successfully been on it and not had any of the side effects i had. My one piece of advice for people on it is be aware of your moods and also tell someone else to look out for you because sometimes you can't judge for yourself.

I took dianette for almost four years. It was prescribed after tetralysal and minocin had no effect. I took it without question but last year I started to do a bit of research into what I was actually taking. I happened across this website for the first time and it really opened my eyes to the side effects of dianette. While it did clear up my skin, it caused weight gain and severely affected my mood. I first started taking it when I was 16 and as a result I put many of the side effects down to me just growing up.....this wasn't the case. Since coming off dianette I have lost 15 pounds(with no effort:D) and I am a million times more sociable. Even though I now have to deal with my acne I feel far more confident than I ever did on dianette. Having research it there seem to be links with long term use and infertility and once I saw this I decided to stop straight away, it's just not worth the risk. My acne is definitely hormonal but even after taking dianette for so long I was left with no permanent improvement in my skin and it looks like I'll be starting accutane next month. I'm left feeling like I just wasted four years while I could have been dealing with my acne rather than just masking it

BIG SIDE EFFECTS!

Had the WORST time on this pill, I thought id give it ago as pills have different effects on different people but yes the horrid reviews I had read were right! I have pretty bad acne on jawline and I don't think dianette helped it at all sometimes I thought it was improving but then got worse. I tried this for 4 months and I know people say you have to be patient but I had to come off because it was ruining my life! I was depressed all the time, got headaches, really tired and I felt like my relationship with my partner was suffering because I just didn't want to have sex! My stomach was so bloated all the time, I looked about 3 months pregnant and I had these weird feelings like I had eaten NOTHING for a week even though I could have had a meal half an hour before! Well I gave it a try and I can say I will NEVER do this again id rather have spots! Im using duac and retin A from the doctors and this helps more.

Didn't work for me.

I have never posted on here before but I felt the need to warn people what can happen when you stop taking this. I had been using Dianette for 6 years for my skin (I did also try Yasmin for a year in the middle but it didnt work as well). I stopped taking it about 5 months ago as I no longer required birth control. Whilst I was using it my acne was improved and my skin was much less oily but since stopping it I have had severe outbreaks all over my face and mainly on my chin. My skin in really oily and I get about 6 news spots a day. Nothing that I have tried so far (including antibiotics) has worked at clearing it up, it is getting far worse all the time. Having looked on the internet and talked to a friend who also recently stooped I can see this is a very common problem. I wish my doctor had warned me about this before I started using it. And the thing with it is that you will have to stop using it eventually as due to the high hormones and risk involved doctors dont like to prescripe it for too long.