Please help!!!!! Read on please!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-21-2004
Please help!!!!! Read on please!
3
Wed, 07-28-2004 - 3:44pm
Hello, thank you for reading. Basically, Ive been on Ortho tricyclen Lo since last August religiously. However, my prescription ran out when I needed my new pack for July 4th (that was supposed to be my start day) and I couldnt get a doctors appointment until yesterday (July 27th). After calling my past doctor, I was granted a prescription for one pack of pills around July 9 ish, and began taking it in fear that I didnt, my awful, painful periods would come back. Every month, my pills dictated when my period came. If i would be on schedule with my birth control pack, I would have started my period yesterday or the 26th, but if you look at my pills I am taking, I still have another week. I am wondering if this is just my pills dictating when my period comes or am I pregnant? My doctor yesterday told me to continue taking the pills I am on until this Sunday, and throw it out and begin a new one to go back on my old schedule, however she warned " You will not have a period for about 3 weeks". Does she mean that its all dictated by my pills since I wont ever be able to get to the last ones on this current pack (which dictate when my period comes)? Thank you so much, please help me I am so worried!!!!!!!!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-15-2003
Wed, 07-28-2004 - 4:17pm
I think it's just the pills dictating when your period comes. Actually a lot of women use birth control pills to avoid having periods by always using the active pills and never using the fourth week of sugar pills. If you've been continuously taking active pills, then that's probably why you haven't gotten your period. You won't get your period until you take the inactive sugar pills at the end of your new pack.

Don't worry. I don't think you're pregnant.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-21-2004
Thu, 07-29-2004 - 1:51am
thanks so much for your response...=)
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 07-29-2004 - 8:23am
So long as everything is going as it's supposed to, your pills will -always- dictate when your period comes! The caveat here is that when women have breakthrough bleeding issues, all isn't going quite as it's supposed to...

Very generally, here's how it works (for more detail, see the FAQ on how the pill works):

When you're not on the pill, you have periods because of the hormonal cycle in your body. As you end a period, your estrogen level starts to rise and peaks around the same time that you ovulate. This whole time the estrogen is developing the lining of your uterus. Your progesterone level is also increasing gradually, and after ovulation, it increases a lot. If you aren't fertilized, the progesterone level drops off, which allows the lining of your uterus to deteriorate and it "cleans house" so it can start over with a fresh lining in the next cycle.

When you're on the pill, that hormonal cycle isn't present because the pill's hormones have replaced it. If you continue taking pills, you continue maintaining a constant level of hormones. Once you stop taking active pills, that hormone level will drop, and the uterus knows what to do when the hormones go away--clean house.

Whatever timing you had before you started the pills again, forget about it! Everything should be controlled by the pill now. That's not to say you won't have breakthrough bleeding, that happens sometimes, but generally speaking you won't have a period until you stop taking active pills.

Make sense?

Judie
Co-cl for Birth Control
Judie Cl for Birth Control