What is Yasmin?
Yasmin is a daily birth control pill. It combines two different hormones to help protect you from pregnancy, and comes in packs of 28 pills. The first 21 pills contain hormones, and the other 7 are inactive ‘reminder’ tablets.
You’ll usually have a period-like withdrawal bleed during the week you take the inactive tablets, which can help manage irregular periods. The estrogen in Yasmin can also lower the amount of sebum (oil) your skin produces, which can in turn help to reduce acne.[1]
Who can use Yasmin?
Yasmin is intended for women of child-bearing age, who primarily want to prevent pregnancy. But it may also be helpful for women who have slightly heavier periods, or get skin problems like acne around the same time as their period.
Because it’s a combined birth control pill that contains estrogen, it’s not intended for women who are breastfeeding, are over 35 and smoke, or have estrogen-sensitive conditions like migraine. If any of these apply to you, or if you have a medical condition that means Yasmin isn’t suitable, a clinician may recommend a different pill for you.
What are the benefits of Yasmin?
One advantage of birth control pills like Yasmin has over other methods, like the coil or implant, is that you can stop using it at a time of your choosing if you decide you want to try to get pregnant. With other methods, you may have to visit your physician or family nurse in person to have them removed.
Like other birth control pills, Yasmin is thought to be over 99% effective at preventing pregnancy[2] when used ‘perfectly’. But it’s also less likely than some other pills to cause progestogenic side effects, like low libido, vaginal dryness or skin problems. So if you’ve taken a different birth control pill before and had these side effects, Yasmin may be worth considering.
How do Yasmin doses work?
Yasmin only comes in one dose: a yellow tablet containing 3 mg drospirenone and 0.03 mg ethinyl estradiol. A pack of Yasmin contains 21 yellow tablets, as well as 7 white hormone-free pills. You’ll take the yellow tablets for the first 21 days of each cycle, and the white ones for the final week (when you should have a period-like withdrawal bleed).
There’s a slightly weaker version of Yasmin called Yaz, which might be better for you if you get side effects like nausea when taking Yasmin.
What is Yasmin’s active ingredient?
Yasmin is a combined birth control pill, which means it contains two different hormones that help prevent pregnancy. Drospirenone is a synthetic version of progesterone (sometimes called a progestin), while ethinyl estradiol is a synthetic version of estrogen.
How do Drospirenone and Ethinyl Estradiol work?
The hormones in Yasmin give you three lines of defense against pregnancy. Firstly, they should stop you ovulating – meaning there’s no egg released to get fertilised. Second, they thicken the cervical mucus, stopping sperm passing through. And lastly, they stop your uterine wall building up – so if somehow an egg were to get fertilised, it would struggle to implant and develop.
