Ovral to correct cycle

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-29-2004
Ovral to correct cycle
2
Thu, 04-29-2004 - 3:14pm
Hi...

I'm having a problem with my BCP's that I'm hoping someone here might be able to advise me about.

I've been on the pill (originally ortho-cept) for about 10 years, and over the last year or so, I've developed some very predictable mid-cycle spotting. Because of the spotting, my nurse practitioner switched me to Nordette for the last 3 months... the Nordette didn't do anything to change the spotting.

So now, she has prescribed me a high-dose pill for two cycles (Ovral). She suggested that it would get my cycle back under control, and then maybe after these two cycles I could drop back to a lower dose pill.

Has anyone ever heard of using these high-dose pills temporarily to stop mid-cycle bleeding? I'm really nervous about the side effects of so much estrogen.

Thanks!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2003
Thu, 04-29-2004 - 11:51pm
'bump'

Ovral users?

      Jill

    

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Fri, 04-30-2004 - 8:37am
I haven't heard of this particular use of Ovral, and I'm not sure if we even have any Ovral users on the board, but I know that Ovral is available for certain types of situations. I don't know that I'd worry about two months on a 50mcg pill, particularly if you're healthy and don't smoke, I think I'd worry more if my doctor wanted me to be on it for a longer period of time! And the progestin in Ovral is supposed to be pretty good at controlling bleeding (wonder if you might get a switch to Lo-Ovral after this?). It might work? Though I can't reason out how, your doctor obviously has a theory! ;)

If it makes you feel any better, the middle phase of Triphasil has 40mcg of estrogen, which isn't anything to sneeze at either. And that's a very commonly prescribed pill taken by many women. Very low estrogen doses are becoming more common, but there are still uses for the higher dose pills.

Good luck! I hope it works!

Judie

Judie Cl for Birth Control