need help
Find a Conversation
need help
| Wed, 07-07-2004 - 1:43pm |
Hi, any advice or help would be much appreciated. I started on Yasmin about a month ago on a Sunday but the problem is that I started my pack 2 weeks after I had my period because I was confused about what they meant by Sunday Start. My period ended on June 2 and I started my pack Sun. June 13. I should of gotten my period by now if I hadn't started BC but I am really late. I finished all my active pills but decided to not take any inactive pills this week in hopes of getting my period sooner. I would of been on my 4th pill. Would starting the pill 2 weeks late cause a delay in my period? I have been getting light cramps the past week or so when usually I get very painful cramps the first day of my period. And I have had sex while on the pill but we are safe about it. I am really nervous now. Thanks.

The pill's primary method of protecting you from pregnancy is to stop ovulation. If you stop ovulation, you stop most of the hormonal process that goes with that. As you go through a normal not-on-the-pill cycle, your estrogen levels rise as you approach ovulation, developing a nice fertile lining in your uterus that contains the right structure to provide blood and nutrients to an embryo. After you ovulate, the estrogen drops off and your progesterone levels increase to help maintain that lining. If the egg isn't fertilized and no embryo implants in the uterus, your hormone levels drop, and without the hormones, the lining of the uterus degrades and it will shed or, if not much has built up, the blood vessels will just leak.
When you take the pill, you're providing both progestin (a synthetic version of progesterone) and estrogen in pill form instead of what would normally be produced in your body. You don't ovulate, so you don't have the hormonal cycle, so you won't have a period until you stop taking active pills and allow the hormone levels to drop off. This is the theory, anyway, at times if there is more lining in the uterus than your pill can support, you'll have bleeding even with the active pills. If you want to have a period, you'll need to stop taking active pills, but if you're into the next pack already, you may just keep going until the inactive pills in this pack, knowing that you may have some bleeding at any time (which would be pretty normal).
Because you're changing the effects of the hormones on your body (by taking the pill instead of letting it go naturally), your period is going to be different than it was before you started the pill. Most of us have lighter less crampy periods because we're getting either less estrogen or more progestin than our bodies normally produce, so don't freak out if your next period isn't just as you'd expected--it's supposed to change!
As long as you used a reliable form of backup (withdrawal doesn't count) in the first seven days that you were on the pill and have been good about taking your pills, pregnancy shouldn't be a concern. And if you are still worried about pregnancy, using backup never hurt anybody! And if you both haven't tested clean for STD's, you'd need to keep using condoms anyway, as they're your only protection.
I hope that helps! Good luck...
Judie