breakthrough bleeding means no seasonale

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2004
breakthrough bleeding means no seasonale
3
Wed, 06-02-2004 - 1:49pm
I'm 19 and have been on the generic pill apri for about a year now. recently i skipped a period by skipping my sugar pills and starting on a new pack so that i could enjoy my vacation sans period. However, I started spotting and then a heavier, brownish flow, at the beginning of my second week of this pack of pills. I have heard that some women just cannot go without a period for more than a month. does this breakthrough bleeding mean that i wont be successful on a course of seasonale?
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-19-2004
Wed, 06-02-2004 - 2:45pm
Most women need to give the extended cycle a few tries before it works right. Try skipping your sugar pills every few months (to run two cycles together) with a period or two in between, until you don't get any more breakthrough bleeding. when that happens, try running three packs together with a period break in between until the BTB stops with that. if that works for you, talk to your doctor about changing your prescription to meet your increased pill needs during the year. the progestin in Apri is desogestrel, which is not the same as the one in seasonale (levonorgestrel). if you really want to do seasonale, you could ask your doctor for a change to mircette (same formulation as seasonale), do what i described above to gradually ease in to an extended cycle, then ask your doctor to change your prescription to seasonale.

really, though, if apri is working for you in general and you can make extended cycles work, i see no reason to bother with changing formulations simply to get an extended cycle tablet dispenser.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2003
Wed, 06-02-2004 - 3:54pm
Hi alexkw, welcome!

It depends on the mix of hormones in a pill as to how well you will be able to skip periods on it. There is nothing special about Seasonale except the 84/7 extended cycle packaging. If you are interested in Seasonale you might want to try Nordette first. Nordette (not Mircette) and Seasonale have the same formulation of active ingredients.

Seasonale: 0.15 mg of evonorgestrel and 30 mcgm of ethinyl estradiol

Nordette: 0.15 mg of levonorgestrel and 30 mcgm of ethinyl estradiol

Apri: 0.15 mg desogestrel and 30 mcgm of ethinyl estradiol

Mircette: 0.15 mg of desogestrel and 20 mcgm of ethinyl estradiol

If you are interested in tricycling then you might want to talk with your doc and see how you would do on Nordette.

Good luck!

      Jill

    

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-19-2004
Wed, 06-02-2004 - 4:03pm
D'oh! sorry about the typo in my post. Don't know where my brain is today.

Thanks for the correction, Jill!