I've been on warfarin for several years now and been on anywhere from 12mgs to 15mgs a day (currently on 15mgs a day) and the only side effect I've experienced since first starting warfarin s some hair thinning. Fatigue, for me, was limited to the first 3-4 months of my PE so for me, fatigue was PE recovery specific not medication specific.

To me, there's no difference in risk between what people consider a higher dose vs a lower dose. I mean in terms of a bleeding risk, if your INR is high, that would be the same risk for everyone regardless of the dosage. As my Hema said, doesn't matter the dosage asking as your INR is in range.

I've been on warfarin since 2010 and I haven't really noticed any side effects. I know there are others who have had a more difficult time on the med, but for me I've never really had a hard time with it and my INR has tended to stay pretty stable.

I have to agree with RMB that my exhaustion seemed directly related to my PE recovery and not to the warfarin. I had no exhaustion when I just had DVTs, for example.

Also, as a lifer, you might check into getting a home INR tester. It really has made it all much more manageable for me.

Toddo or not Toddo. Hiya buddy!!!

Some folks have allllll the luck and can do Warfarin for life without ANY side effects (like RMB and TNT Hiya gurls!!!) But I was not one of them and like RMB said it's not due to the ammount you do.
No matter what ammount I was doing, I was ALWAYS tired and whenever I was off warfarin(for whatever reason), this tiredness would gradually go away, then if I would come back on warfarin, I would feel like I was NEVER sleeping.
Some people, even my hemo tried to associate this to other meds, WRONG!!!!! Warfarin was the only med I was doing at the time.
Other side effects FOR ME were in a fog, had to really concentrate on tasks in hands... But the one that really put a scare into me was forgetting how to do things that I had been doing for a lifetime, whish made me think, gas pedal on the right brake on the left and I drive daily for 1:30 THAT's what made me switch to Pradaxa and by the way, since then allllllll the side effects I experienced, all went away.

Some do, some don't. Warfarin is a weird drug for some of us...
I opted out, even with not having an antidope, FOR NOW.

Thanks everyone. All very helpful.
PS: Hey Dero! Good to hear from you! Hope all's cool!

Hi all ! Very interesting to read all these replies. I have suffered from tiredness all the time since taking warfarin for over a year . I am a 'lifetime taker' now and still feel unwell following a massive dvt last year. My hospital consultant said it would take about a year or so 'till I started to feel better. Well, the year is over and I feel exhausted more than 'sleepy' if you see what I mean? This could be as a result of the treatment I had (thrombolysis and stent) or the warfarin. I have my INR done every two weeks as my levels are unstable.

Maybe it's the warfarin. Hard to say. Could it be other things, ie anemia?

Warfarin interfers with the k-vitamin induced biochemical processes in the body, by lowering the levels of active k-vitamin . As an example, k-vitamin is important in blood clotting. The reduction in the amount of K-vitamin caused by warfarin has been shown to increase the rate of arteriosclerosis of the arteries (i.e. the veins become become thick and stiff) and osteoporosis (bones become brittle). Note however, these symptoms only appear for those that have been on warfarin for long time, i.e. several years. Furthermore, increased rate of osteoporosis may only happen among old people. For those of you that are long-term users of warfarin, then I would ask your hematologist about these long-term side effects, and perhaps it would be good idea to switch to the new anticoagulants, e.g rivaroxaban (xarelto).

@stefan014

The newer anticoagulants have their own risks and side effects. It's also likely that they have equally scary long-term effects that we just don't know about yet because no one has been on them long-term.

For me personally, I'm a lifer and I'm currently on warfarin and I might someday switch to one of the newer ones, but I'm still waiting to see how they play out. I have heard of people with issues with low heart rate who are taking Xarelto. This would probably be a serious issue for me, since I already struggle to keep my BP in normal range and can easily get too low, which results in dizzy and sick. Adding a low heart rate would make that even worse.

Truthfully, none of these meds are risk-free. It's just a case of being informed about the risks and side effects, making a choice that fits you and your lifestyle, and mitigating risks as much as you can. (I take easily absorbable liquid calcium, to help prevent the osteoporosis that you mention.) I don't think it's ever as easy as "take the new med! it must be better than the old med!"

Just because warfarin has side effects doesn't automatically make it a better alternative to the newer anticoagulants. If you'd watch RX commercials in the US, you'd swear warfarin was the devil.

Marketing man, marketing.

I've been researching all the blood thinners that would apply to me. Most of the known side effects are the same. If I'm having low blood pressure and kidney problem on xarelto I will probably have the same on warfarin.

Xarelto should have been the best choice for me. At this point l'm not real sure any of them will work for me. I do have problems with most meds. I will wait to see what the hematologist finds when I finally get an appointment.

Rivaroxaban (xarelto) is very targeted medicine. It inhibits activity of Factor Xa, which is a type of thromboplastin. In other words, while warfarin affect the whole of the K-vitamin cycle, xarelto inhibits a very specific pathway in the very complex coagulation pathway, see e.g. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Coagulation_full.svg/400px-Coagulation_full.svg.png

It seems that Factor Xa is important in coagulation only while K-vitamin has various functions apart from coagulation...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K

Having said that, the long term effects of taking the new anticoagulants (Rivaroxaban, Pradaxa etc), is poorly known as these have been so recently approved by FDA. Only time will tell if the new anticoagulants have any detrimental long-term effects.

Right. I think that's what TossNTurn's point was- there's still a lot of unknowns about long term effects of the new drugs.

The finer point, regardless of how any of these drugs work, is that all anticoagulants have some side effects, some shared by the new meds and warfarin, and some unknowns with the newer meds. So given the unknowns with the new meds, hard to stay, really, which is worse long term - new meds or warfarin but for me, I'd prefer to know what I'm possibly in for. You can't say that yet with the new meds.

I was on warfarin for a year, and as others said, my only symptom was increased hair thinning as well. Nothing changed coming off of it, such as energy levels, etc.

This is my 3rd time to try and post here so I did it in my E-mail in case it disappears again and copied it here::
I am a lifetimer since I have been on Warfarin since my last blood clot 18 years ago.
My daughter is 48 and has been on hers for about a year and will be on it the rest of her life because she has the factor that causes blood clots. I probably do too but the doctor won't test me for it.
I will be 68 10/10. I have thinning hair and am tired a lot but not sure if it is from the Warfarin or not.
I take 6 mg and have my test every month unless the level is off then I have it every 2 weeks.
I looked up the newer medications. They are questioning whether people should be tested when they are on it because each person's body is different. You can read more about it here: http://www.webmd.com/stroke/news/20140725/blood-thinner-pradaxa