Hi Alice, http://ccli.org/nfp/contraception/pill.php was one place I found with references for further study - am too tired to dig further. I did find that blood clots in the veins are related to the oestrogen in the pill. Use of the pill is linked to blood clots forming which in some rare cases can form in the retinal arteries which may cause temporary or permanent blindness.
Re the blindness potential and the IUD - you'd probably know / my reading and research showed that the hormone levels from Mirena are localised and therefore are not systemic so I'd suggest that the chances of having blindness as a side effects from it are much lower. If she can be sure that the blindness has been linked to the pill, then it's a good option. There are other causes for blindness like this - I had patches of blindness a few years ago that eventually led to me losing vision in my left eye, and the first thing that was investigated was the pill that I was on. Tests eventually showed that I had shingles and the pill wasn't involved in this case, though the finger pointing was pretty strong. Em On 11/8/06, Alice Morgan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi, I've been approached by a friend about contraception options. She's previously been on the combined pill (Brenda I think), but had serious side effects the main one being periods of blindness. She's been told that these episodes would be likely to continue to occur if she took the pill and that they would increase in duration (her first episode was a few seconds, but some were up to 15 minutes long). I was wondering if any of you have heard of this happening or know anything about it. Is it the oestrogen, the progesterone, or both that cause it? We've discussed a few options and she's quite interested in IUDs. She has reasonably long and heavy periods so has some concerns about a copper IUD, but is also concerned that perhaps the Mirena might make the blindness come back. Any information would be greatly appreciated. I don't really know anything about blindness associated with the pill, so would be very interested to find out both so I can pass the information on to my friend, but also for my own knowledge. Thanks.
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