My name is Steph, I am thirty-one years old, married and a mum of two boys. I want to share my story on how I almost lost my life to blood clots triggered by the combined oral contraceptive pill.
I have been on the ‘progestogen only pill' since I was fifteen but after suffering with severe cystic acne, my dermatologist recommended I try taking the combined pill 'Yasmin'. I was briefly told about the possible side effects of blood clots and that I should watch out for pain in my legs. It wasn't really emphasised a lot and my doctor told me it was very unlikely it would happen. I was advised I would need regular checks so because I was told it probably wouldn't happen and I was perfectly healthy I didn't think much of it.
I had been taking the pill for around eleven months. In that time, I didn't have one check-up, due to covid hitting. I woke up one morning with an achy pain in the top of my leg, it felt like a trapped nerve. I knew I had not done anything to cause such an injury, so I just ignored it. In two days, the pain was getting much worse, it got to the point where I could hardly walk.
I now couldn't sit down because the pain had moved to my buttock, it was incredibly painful. My son had a doctor’s appointment that day. I also spoke to the doctor, told her about the pain I was getting. She didn't seem concerned, at this point I hadn’t thought about the fact she had told me to watch out for pain in my legs. She confirmed what I thought, a trapped nerve was to go home, go onto YouTube and follow some stretches to try and un trap it.
After doing some intense stretches in the hopes this pain would go, I woke up the next morning and there was no more pain. I then thought it really must have been a trapped nerve and was so happy to be able to sit down again. Little did I know, I had just made things ten times worse to the point where it was now deadly...
As the day went by, I started to feel a niggling pain under my right ribcage, instantly I thought I had overdone the stretches the night before and now pulled a muscle in my chest. Once again, a big mistake, I ignored it.
Four hours later and the pain was unbearable, it had moved to the tip of my right shoulder, and it was gradually getting worse, I now couldn't breathe deeply because it was so painful in both my chest and shoulder.
This continued for three days and during that time I rung my doctor so many times I lost count. I was worried about how much pain I was in. However, as she had only seen me a few days before and knowing I had done stretches, she thought the same thing as me. I had just been unlucky and pulled another muscle and due to covid protocols in place she didn't want to see me.
I went to bed early that night because I didn't feel well and within forty-five minutes of falling asleep, I woke up screaming in pain. It felt like a bad muscle spasm in my chest, and I couldn't move. That was the warning sign for me. My husband grabbed me and pulled me up and I went into the lounge. I now was really struggling to breathe, and I felt like I was going to collapse because of the pain.
It got to 9am and I knew I just had to ring my doctor again. I thought I was just being over dramatic and felt like I was being a pain, but something told me, something was really wrong and this time my doctor agreed.
She sounded really concerned and that was the moment she realised it could be a clot. From looking at my medical history and seeing I was on that pill, although I still had no idea.
My doctor requested I go straight into the surgery. I had so many blood tests and she said she would get back to me later that day with results. Less than four hours later she rang me back and told me I needed to go straight to the hospital. The blood test results were concerning, and it was possible I had blood clots.
I got to the hospital where they confirmed I had large clots in my right lung and if I had gone just another twelve hours without treatment I may have died. The clots started in my leg but by stretching so much I had caused the clots to break off in my leg and travel to my lung. Looking back now was the worst thing to do.
Almost a year on, I have had fifty-eight hospital appointments, numerous CT scans, blood tests and heart scans and I am not at the end yet. It was confirmed that I do not have a genetic condition that may have predisposed me to clotting, it was purely bad luck with that pill. My breathing still hasn’t returned to normal; I cannot talk and walk at the same time anymore and I will have to stay on anticoagulants the rest of my life as I still have some small clots in the arteries of both lungs. I am currently awaiting investigations to see if I will need any future surgery and to assess any damage the clots may have done to my heart, but I am staying positive.
I’m incredibly thankful I am still here to tell my story. I know a lot of people are not so lucky and I just want women and young girls to be aware of the risks with the combined pill and what symptoms to look out for, so they don't end up in the same position I am in now.