Pill Woes again
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| Sun, 12-24-2006 - 9:45am |
First of all, Hello board members! My name is Angela and I am a 40 year old woman, married with one five year old daughter.
For the past eight months, I've been on Ortho-TriCyclen Lo. Yesterday, I noticed a dark red spot in my underwear, then a bit of bleeding throughout the day, which stopped. Today, there was no bleeding at all. After doing some backtracking, I can say that I have taken all my pills, didn't skip a dose, am not on any additional new medications and basically, everything else is normal. While being aware that breakthrough bleeding can be an occourance, even after prolonged normal use, I am questioning the effectiveness.
Since it's the holiday weekend, I am out of luck with contacting the doctor until Tuesday (it's now Sunday). Any thoughts?
FWIW, my BCP experiences over the past year have been awful. About fourteen years ago, I started taking BPC's with TriLevelen and LOVED them - went from serious period problems (that developed into two-week periods with pain) to none at all. I noticed, at one point, that my periods were getting heavier after extended use so a few years ago, I was switched to Estrostep. I had A LOT of severe emotional lows the week before my period, but the cycle itself was working like a clock.
Two years ago, I reached my goal of losing 100 lbs. Throughout that year, I noticed an increase in my periods again, and we switched over to Yasmin. Big mistake! In three days, I gained six pounds of water weight and still cannot get rid of it. In any event, in that year, I switched from Yasmin to Ortho Tri Cyclen to Estrostep again to another brand I cannot recall and now back to Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo for the past eight months. Does anyone have anything to add with their experiences as well?
Thanks!

Hi angelak86, welcome!
Jill
It started on Saturday, the last day of Week 2 of my pills (I started the first pill of my last week yesterday). I did have pelvic pain for about an hour on Thursday, like serious pain that I almost went to the doctor for but then it stopped and didn't come back. I did have brownish discharge again today, and upper stomach pain, but nothing else. I do believe I remember another episode a few months back, actually. When I called the Ob/Gyn, a doctor on call, whom I never met, said I should take a pregnancy test to be sure, but thought it was most likely stress. Honestly, I was such a wreck over it I didn't want to spoil Christmas for my daughter and husband that I did not take a test yet. While I plan on calling the doctor tomorrow, I am still bothered by this, as I take my pill every day and due to my husband's work schedule, we only had sex twice in this entire cycle. Thanks for your reply earlier, I do appreciate it.
Edited to add: I've had a bad cold the past week as well. My daughter had a virus two weeks ago, so did my husband, and I only developed stomach cramps and nausea one day from that, about two weeks ago, but never got the full virus.
Edited 12/25/2006 10:43 pm ET by angelak86
Hi again hon,
Jill
Just wanted to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
FWIW, I had a sonogram done and the doctor found I have several lateral cysts on my ovaries, which may have caused discomfort. He switched my pills (again) to "regular" Ortho Tri-Cyclen. It's only been five days, but I haven't noticed anything different yet.
Thanks again.
Hi again Angela, welcome back!
Jill