My Birth Control Pills Gave Me a Blood Clot

The pain was sudden. Unfamiliar. Uncalled for. Throbbing and heavy. Unlike anything I had ever felt before.

It was a Wednesday evening. I had just gotten home from work and popped a migraine medicine for the persistent headache that had been with me all day. I had plans I wanted to keep for the night. But as I was about to leave the house, I felt it. A sudden aching pain in my arm.

There was no bruising, my skin wasn’t discolored. I couldn’t remember any injury or strain. My first thought was blood clot.

But it seemed so unlikely. I’m young, with no family history of clotting. I’m a little overweight, but I don’t consider myself unhealthy. I don’t smoke. I hadn’t been traveling or sitting for hours. The pain was in my arm and usually, a DVT will present in your leg. There was no bruising or swelling, the most common symptoms of a DVT. I was on birth control pills, but everyone was on birth control pills. Realistically, it was far more likely that I had pulled a muscle.

I just couldn’t remember pulling it. And that really bothered me.

I finally decided that I needed to get it checked out.

Two days later, I went to see my doctor. It was more out of anxiety than anything else. Why spend hours googling blood clots when I could just get it checked out and stop driving myself crazy. I assumed that I was making a mountain out of a molehill and I fully expected her to send me away with a clean bill of health. What I did not expect was for her to send me to the hospital for further testing.

I had one big glaring risk factor for blood clots. My birth control pills. The fact that I was on birth control pills and the way my pain was presenting was enough for her to agree with my concerns. For everyone’s peace of mind, we decided that I needed an ultrasound. To be safe.

At the hospital, they took an ultrasound of the veins from my neck down to my arm. They tested the blood flow in my subclavian vein, axillary vein, brachial vein, radial vein, and ulnar vein. My brachial vein failed the test. I was positive for blood clots.

I had to stop my birth control pills immediately and start blood thinners.

My doctor prescribed me Eliquis twice a day for 6 months. Without insurance coverage, it would run me $483 a month. It’s better than warfarin in that I don’t need monthly blood tests and I don’t need to restrict my diet, but it still has its own slew of side effects. I bruise easily. Bleeding is hard to stop. I’m at risk for brain bleeds. The first week of Eliquis made me nauseous, tired and lightheaded. I experienced full body aches with joint pain. I can’t describe it as anything other than feeling out of it.

Certain birth control pills increase your risk of blood clots, and mine was one of them. My birth control pills contained desogestrel and ethinyl estradiol. These hormones are a progestin and an estrogen. Progestin and estrogen increase the risk of blood clots by increasing the levels of clotting factors in the blood. My options for contraception became suddenly limited.

Blood clots are dangerous — and common.

Blood clots in deep veins are dangerous. They have the possibility of breaking away and traveling to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolism is a blockage in one of the arteries in your lungs. It can cause shortness of breath, chest pain, permanent lung and organ damage, and death.

Unfortunately, blood clots are often undiagnosed. Like STDs, the most common symptom of a DVT is no symptom at all. About half the cases of DVT present with no symptoms. Some people only discover their DVT after it has progressed to a pulmonary embolism. Determining what caused the DVT can be even harder, as risks vary and include being overweight, smoking, hormonal medications, immobilization, surgery, cancer, trauma, and genetic clotting disorders. It is usually recommended to work with a hematologist after being diagnosed with a DVT to figure out the cause and decide how long to continue blood thinners.

Being diagnosed with a DVT affected my mental health.

The week after I was diagnosed, I was heavily depressed and anxious. I felt betrayed by my body and angry that my contraceptive choice caused so many problems. I was anxious that the clot wouldn’t go away. I was worried about the side effects of Eliqiuis. And I was scared.

This was my first big health scare. I didn’t expect it. At age 23, I thought it would be several years until something like this happened. I know there are no guarantees with your health, but it’s hard to believe that it will happen until it is already happening to you. The reality of the physical and financial consequences of the diagnosis was terrifying.

I’m an anxious person, so I don’t expect that to go away. The depression is lifting as I start to feel better. I’m trying to trust my treatment and my body. And I’m only worrying about the things I can control, like taking my medication and being aware of the risks I face.

Trust your body.

This whole ordeal has really taught me to trust my body and to trust my gut when I feel like something is wrong. I could have brushed my blood clot off as an injury I didn’t notice or a sprain that would go away. The longer I would have waited to get it checked out, the more dangerous it would have become. But I trusted my body and acknowledged that the pain I felt didn’t feel normal. Because of that, I caught my DVT early and was able to treat it right away. Self-awareness saved my life.