I started taking Alesse 28 when I started my period on December 24th (terrible timing right?!) and I have been experiencing some rough side effects. I had the worst cramps of my life throughout this period, it completely crippled me through most of Christmas...I could barely move. I bled longer than usual as well, it was light towards the end but I bled for almost 9 days! I have also experienced more dryness down there than usual, so much so that I have had some vaginal tearing down there and now a yeast infection on top of it :( I've experienced some nausea here and there, headaches, dizziness, been super emotional/weepy and on Saturday I woke up with weird pain in my right leg (it's passed now and hasn't returned at all) and on top of all this, all these things had to occur when I was visiting my long distance boyfriend for the first time in a couple of months :( ugh.

Anyways, is it normal to have so many symptoms? Has anyone else suffered this way when starting? Does it take long for them to pass typically? My Doctor recommended I wait 3 months before switching but if this keeps up I don't know if I can deal with it. It's only been 12 days but it's been rough. The yeast infection/vaginal tearing is killing me most. I can deal with crying a bit and having some headaches/nausea/dizziness hear or there.