Info on Breakthrough bleeding

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-28-2003
Info on Breakthrough bleeding
1
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 11:43am
Okay here is some background....I have been on Ortho tri-cyclen lo since November of 2003 before that I was on Depo-Provera for 5 years with no real problems except for my skin was horrible. I have been pretty regular with the pill and for the first few months I did not really have a period at all. With it being summer I decided to skip my period the last two months. I skipped the inactive pills and went directly to the actives. Now I did this before in March with no problems. Well these past two months I have experienced some heavy breakthrough bleeding. I will bleed at least one or two days during the weeks that I am not supposed to be having my period. Should I be concerned or is this just a side effect of me skipping my period? Will this straighten out next month if I take the whole pack of pills?
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2003
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 12:19pm
Tri-phasic pills, like you're on, are much harder to skip periods successfully with than monophasic pills. For some women, the drop in hormones from the week three pills to the week one pills may be enough to trigger bleeding (after all, it is the drop from the week three pills to the no-hormones of the placebo week that triggers your pill period). For you, obviously sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't.

I wouldn't say it is anything to be concerned with, though if you want to skip periods on a regular basis, you may want to talk to your doctor about trying a different (monophasic) formulation of pills.

I'd say it is likely that taking a full pack of pills & allowing your body to have its regularly scheduled pill-period will sort out your irregular bleeding issues.