late cycle bleeding-what's a good pill t

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-27-2004
late cycle bleeding-what's a good pill t
1
Tue, 09-14-2004 - 12:33pm
I read in the FAQ's if you have Late cycle bleeding while on BCP, you should try a higher progesterin (sp?) pill.

Can you tell examples-brand names or generics?

I have tried Loestrin 1/20, Yasmin, OTC, Triphasil, and Nordette. On every pill, i have spotting/bleeding during the last week of active pills. (I guess that is late cycle bleeding!) I was on the pill (Triphasal) for about 5 years before this started w/no problems. I have had bleeding for the last 4 years!

Thanks!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Wed, 09-15-2004 - 10:16am
You've tried decently high progestin pills (they're not necessarily high, but compared to others...), but the only pill with 20mcg of estrogen was Loestrin 1/20, which has a large dose of a not-so-strong progestin. OTC has not so much progestin and 35mcg of estrogen, Triphasil has a good progestin in it, but it's got 40mcg of estrogen in the middle phase. Were Nordette or Yasmin any better than the others or the same?

Have you had other tests to rule out a physical (non-hormonal) issue?

If there's no other issue and it's just hormonal, a pill you might try might be LoOvral. It's pretty similar to Nordette but this version of progestin is supposed to be better at maintaining the endometrium than some of the others.

If you're not game for trying that, you might look into pills with a lower dose of estrogen. Estrogen and progestin kind of compete with each other when it comes to how the endometrium develops and is maintained. Estrogen tends to "feed" the endometrium and encourage growth, while progestin restricts growth and maintains what's there. So if the progestin isn't sufficient to maintain the endometrium, perhaps reducing it's growth by lowering the estrogen might be an answer.

Mircette might be a good choice--desogestrel is the progestin and it's got 20mcg of estrogen only. Desogestrel is a stronger progestin than levonorgestrel, which may help. Another option might be Alesse, it's another levonorgestrel pill, but the doses of both hormones are lower (0.1mg LNG and 20mcg of the estrogen). Nuvaring has the lowest estrogen dose on the US market at 15mcg and the progestin is derived from desogestrel, I read someplace that it's supposed to be good with irregular bleeding but I can't quote the article directly because I forgot where I read it!

Those are some ideas, I hope one of them works for you! Please keep us posted on how you're doing or what you think, it's not always easy to find the right choice!

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