canker sores on BC?

I started on the pill (mini pill) just 9 days ago, since then i have gotten 2 canker sores and it looks like a have another 1 or 2 starting. Ive googled and only found one other person who was concerend about this, but they were given no answers. Any information would be appreciated.

I have been on yaz for 5 months now and as of today i am discontinuing this medication. I have been experiencing reoccuring canker / cold sores (drs have suggested stress induced - but when weeks go by where i am at my happiest except for these painful sores I beg to differ). By the time one eases up and the relief of its termination takes over - i discover another appearing elsewhere within my mouth. Medicines ease the pain but nothing eradicates them for me, even twice daily rinsing with saltwater aids little. On average i have managed to have 4 days with a healthy kissable mouth at a time and this is unacceptable.This alone depletes my sex drive, feeling embarred about my mouth. I have spent the past three hours searching online and determined that with the number of people asking whether their coldsores are normal on birth control - the answer is yes. The next question is really whether or not thats a way of life I wish to accept.

When i began Yaz i had avoided bc pills for 12 years, finally choosing to try the pill at the age of 30 as i am not prepared to have a child just yet. Nausea (running to restroom at airports and during lectures as if i were pregnant) and breast tenderness were very high for me throughout the months.. some weeks worse than others. I alleviated these syptoms slightly by switching to the pill at night rather than in the morning (had noticed sex drive completely devoid in evening and was attempting to remedy the situation.) Nausea is still a prevalent factor. Breast size went from 34b to 34d very quickly and though weight loss occured at first ( i was throwing up often and think this may have something to do with it) My weight of 125-134 pounds stopped fluctuating throughout the month and stabilized at 138 - sometimes up, never down.(i quit smoking 3 years ago and initially thought weight gain was a residual of this.. kept insisting that i was losing weight on the pill but in reality i havent. Stock up on lubricants and expect to use them always and forever it seems from forum posts...

Taking a pill that demolishes sex drive in order to protect against pregnancy almost makes its other medicinal attributes inconsequential. IF you dont have any sex you arent going to be pregnant now are you?

Instead - I quit. Taking back my life and heading to the store for condoms this afternoon. with luck, in a few days I might have my libido back.

Wow i am so happy to see that someone else has the same problem with the canker sores as myself, Yes I also have been on YAZ for about 5 months, First it was horrible cystic acne, and recurrent Yeast infections, Then This. I have NO SEX DRIVE AT ALL. It's even very difficult to have an orgasm now. This is by far the worst side effect thus far. These canker sores are huge, and sooooo painful that talking and eating are uncomfortable. As soon as one goes away another one starts at one time I could not kiss my live in boyfriend for 2 months, cause its so painful. Please let me know what happened when you stopped the pill? Did the sores go away?

I thought I was the only one with this problem. I was on orthro-lo and towards the last two weeks I would start getting horrible sores in my mouth. They would last sometimes up to 2 weeks so just when I was getting rid of one, another would start. I also gained weight, was nauseous, and extremely irritable. I also had no sex drive whatsoever so taking it was useless. As soon as I stopped taking the pill I went back to normal.My weight went down (without dieting) and my mood is also back to normal.

Yep, me too with the canker sores. I've been on YAZ for three weeks and a week ago I aquired several of them at once. One is huge and hasn't gone down much after 5 days. I am prone to canker sores, but usually if I swill some plain yogurt around in my mouth a few times a day, especially at night before bed, the live cultures in the yogurt usually zap those buggers within a day or two. These cankers have been so persistent and big that I began to think their appearance was related to taking YAZ. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that YAZ messes with your potassium levels? Then again, a girlfriend of mine said she's had a bunch the past few weeks and her dr. said it was a virus going around. Who knows. Yaz has also been making me quite tired and gives me a "big head" feeling. Like I'm feeling a little out of it.

I would like to know if anyone who stopped taking BC also noticed a decrease in canker sores. I also suffer from canker sores. They went away for a couple years while I was pregnant and nursing, but as soon as I started on BC again the canker sores started again. I am on Loestrin FE.

I am taking Yaz...and originally I was on the 28 day pill pack...I switched to the 21 day (which I never thought there would be a difference), and guess what? Mass amounts of cankers...since January and it is now May, the amount has decreased but I still have them. In fact I don't remember a time since January that I didn't have them. I've been to the doctor twice and was given oragel(sp?), it stops some of the pain, popping them does too, but basically they have not gone away...obviously after watching my diet, supplementing vitamin B etc., there must be a connection with the pill and cankers.

I have been taking Yaz for 2 months and a half... and I have had 4 yeast infections basically every 2 weeks or so... I have had horrible headaches and No sex drive... my period is still 7 days long expect they are way lighter and my cramps are alot better... and my PMS has gotten better.... I wanted to know if anyone else had these symptoms??? I am thinking of just getting off BC all together...

I was on a version of Ortho for several years & had clusters of canker sores about every 2-3 weeks, really painful ones. I went off the Pill in Dec.2006 and just got back on the Pill about 2 weeks ago. The canker sores are back & it wasn't until then that I realized they had been gone the entire time I was off the Pill; I don't think that is a coincidence. I also had little itchy bumps on my fingers that the doctor said was just from stress, but they completely went away when I stopped the Pill... now I'm waiting to see if those come back as well.

I can't take any form of hormonal BC because of it's effects on me. It took nearly a full year of me being nearly bedridden to figure it out -- went to several doctors & specialists and got tested for everything in the book -- from STDs to Lupus to Fybromyalgia.

BC gives me the symptoms of a bad case of the flu... minus the congestion, plus MASSIVE canker sores & rashes. I had fevers, chills, body aches, fatigue, dizziness, fainting, nausea, muscle aches, weakness, headaches, blurred vision --- ALL the symptons of the flu w/o the congestion. The rashes were mainly on my arms & legs and were red blotches with tiny little itchy bumps all over them. The canker sores were huge -- sometimes the size of a dime -- and constant. I would have one or two at a time and as they healed, others would begin to form.

I recently started taking the herbal supplement Fenugreek to increase my milk production --- I'm nursing my 4th born -- and I've began getting the canker sores again. I'm wondering if there's a connection...but haven't been able to find any documentation on it yet.

Angie wrote:

I would like to know if anyone who stopped taking BC also noticed a decrease in canker sores. I also suffer from canker sores. They went away for a couple years while I was pregnant and nursing, but as soon as I started on BC again the canker sores started again. I am on Loestrin FE.

Yes --- all symptoms listed in my post went away completely within a month of discontinuing BC.

Amazing! I'm so glad we found this web site! My 17 year old daughter was on Loestril and then Levlen for painful periods for 2 months. The following 2 months have been a nightmare. She started with a canker sore in her throat, which was treated with Cloraseptic spray and Magic Mouthwash rinses...the sores multiplied, so we attributed that to an allergy to the spray and rinse. She was in severe pain during her high school graduation events (it's supposed to be the best time of your teenage years). The sores got a little better, then recurred worse than the first time...her mouth and lips were so swollen that she couldn't eat for 2 weeks, and was on Percocet and Lidocaine rinses to be able to drink...this 98 lb teenager lost 8 lb during all this. We had her on Ensure. Finally, I asked the Dr for Prednisone, which improved the condition. After the round of Prednisone was done, the sores started to come back, so she was placed on another round of Prednisone. Fearing among other things, an immune disorder, the Drs ordered blood work, cultures, biopsies...all of which were negative. The next step would be to see an allergist, a dermatologist, and a rheumatologist. Now that this second round of Prednisone is finished, she has gotten a couple of sores again. I thought it might be a Red Dye # 40 allergy (the common ingredient in Chloraseptic, and Benadryl liquid and Cherry maalox - 2 ingredients in the magic mouthwash, and maybe the pink birth control pills)
I asked the ob/gyn if they'd ever seen mouth ulcers as a side effect of birth control pills, and they said they hadn't.(I had found on a couple of web sites that mouth ulcers could be from "hormone shifts".)
Today, my daughter's friend informed us that she too got bad mouth ulcers when she was on the pill.
Until my husband found this site, all my research has yielded no documentation of this side effect.
Nowhere in the drug information sheets is this listed! It would have saved us a lot of anguish! Thank you all for writing in!
Hopefully this is is the answer to our prayers.

What I don't understand is why so many women can suffer from this, and yet my doctors are so CLUELESS about these canker sores. My entire life I've had them, but since I started on birth control a year ago they have been incredibly awful. I went from Tri-Cyclen lo to Yasmin; while they reduced my migraines tremendously, both pills caused weight gain, yeast infections and the most horrible canker sores I've ever had. I've been to the doctor many times, called in sick to work, got out of presentations at school and I'd never really made the connection until reading these posts. I'm going to stop after this pack and see what happens. I wish there was some brand we could take that wouldn't put us in unbearable pain but would stop us from getting knocked up ;)

I've been suspicious about the connection between my canker sores and BC; when I was on Aviane, I didn't get them, but now that I'm on lo-ogesterol, it's almost every month--for me, it's BC + when I'm stressed. But it's too the point where I can't eat with them, and I'm supposed to stay away from alcohol too.

So here's my question--has anybody SWITCHED pills and found relief? It's hard for me to find a BC that's safe for me to take (blood clot risks), but if anybody can suggest one, I'd love to try finding some relief!

Also, is anybody happy with Yaz? It seems like I only hear bad things!

You guys are a God send!!! I have been on BC for about a year and a half now, and I have been getting horrible canker sores the entire time. The funny thing is, I ran out of birth control pills today and just had a lighting bulb moment. I started having canker sores when I started the pill! I have had atleast one or two every week for a year in a half! I've seen at least three different doctors for it, and they have all said the same things. It's stress, a virus, or food allergy. The thing is that I am just as stressed as I have ever been and I haven't changed my diet(until I tried to change the things that I eat to stop getting canker sores)! I have been researching it on the web and hadn't really found anything until I found you guys, so thank you so much for writting in! Now at least I feel less insane. The problem is that now I don't know what to do about it. I already have four kids and don't want to risk getting pregnant, but I also don't want to live life with such pain and mental anguish!

I have been on yaz for two weeks and just got a cold sore today. I have not had one for a while. I just realized that I get them more frequently when I take BC. No more yaz for me. Thanks you guys for posting!!

Wow, I was having canker sores on yasmin as soon as I started it. It seemed every other week I would get one. I was starting to get really depressed and it dawned on me to stop the bc, and once I did, I saw a decrease in cs. I think it might take a couple months or so to get out of your system depending on how long you are on the bc. So, I am going to try a different brand or just say goodbye to bc.

I have had really bad mouth ulcers also while on BCP. These things are so painful! Since I am nursing, my OB/GYN put me on the mini pill and my milk supply is now dwindling and I am starting to wean her so I am guessing my hormones are going back to the pre-pregnancy levels. I guess the mouth ulcers in my case do not depend on the type of BCP I take since I get them on both the mini-pill and orthocyclen... I must say though I really enjoyed the 18 months (pregnancy and 9 months after my daughter's birth) without a canker sore!!

I was on Ortho Tri-Cyclen for 9 years. During that time I suffered from horrible canker sores that would last for weeks. I stopped taking the pill in July 2006 due to problems with bc pill induced anxiety, and I haven't had a canker sore since. I have discovered that most doctors are completely clueless to the side effects of the pill and to the side effects of stopping the pill. My advice is to just listen to your body.

AAAAAAAAHH!! I pray that it is the Yazmin causing these persistent canker sores! I have had at least one sore at a time and as many as 8 at a time since February and many bouts before then! I can't talk, eat, kiss, close my mouth or swallow my own saliva without some sort of pain. It's like having a mouth full of nails.
I've tried mouthwashes, toothpastes, vitamins, diet, apple cider vinegar, alum, Kanka, Glyoxide, no coffee.... I've burst into tears soooo many times.
I have hope tonight:) I just finished my pack and can't wait for a month off of it!