I got nothing...

[bubbleysugar.livejournal.com]

Maybe you guys can help me out here, I feel pretty stupid when it comes to my own female parts and what exactly should be going on "down there". I'm a twenty one year old female, i'm overweight (but that's slowly changing), I currently take the birth control Seasonale, so I only get my period four times a year. I started taking the white pills on May 29th.
By June 3rd I still did not have my period, since I was due to start up on my pills again the next day I took a pregnancy test, it quickly came out negative.
On June 4th I started to get terrible cramps, I spend all day lying in bed in the worst pain I've ever felt in my entire life, June 5th was no different except for the fact that I started bleeding that night, heavily. I went from nothing, to flooding. (never happened to me before)
On the 6th it seemed to stop.
On the 7th my normal dark flow of red blood became a brown flow of discharge, which is what the end of my period typically looks like.
Since the 7th of June till now (June 21st) I have been experiencing in no pattern that I can pick up on various stages of flow, sometimes I'm bleeding so much I need a tampon, sometimes it's the brown stuff, sometimes its a mix and sometimes it's nothing.
I have been under alot of stress lately but this just seems like too long for something to be going on. Just recently (2 or 3 days ago) I started getting cramps again.
I've been taking my BC just like normal but I haven't been having sex, I'm too freaked out too.
Should I go to the doctor? I've been trying to get advice since when you make an appointment there it's usually a minimum of two weeks wait.

Comments

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

If this is your first period on this form of BC, it's entirely possible that this is a normal occurence. However, you can always call your doctor's office and talk to a nurse on duty, or if you have an HMO like Kaiser, there are always RN's on duty to take calls, and ask if you should be expecting this.

With my BC, I get a period every month, and the very first one was not incredibly heavy, but it started right away. Of course, I was on the pill to regulate my periods because I've had breakthrough bleeding, and I could actually tell that my period was coming. I've heard other girls say that their periods come on Wednesdays, and that's with a Sunday start date.

Remember that every body is different, and every pill causes different reactions.

Also, your pill pack instructions should have signs to look out for. If you've thrown it away, I'm sure the information will be on the website. But still call the doctor's office just to talk to someone. And when it comes to learning more about your body, amipregnant and other groups here have some great sites to go to for a "tutorial" of sorts.

[bubbleysugar.livejournal.com]

I've been on this for almost a year now.

[stripling.livejournal.com]

seasonale sounds good in theory, but i'm not sure how i feel about it in the sense that it makes you menstruate only 4 times a year. If we were meant to only have periods 4 times annually... wouldn't we have been made that way? but then again, i'm against birth control pills in general due to my own reactions to them, and the fact that the hormones are fake, taken from horse urine.

I'd book an appointment with your doc to stay on the safe side. While you wait for the appointment, you can do more research and see what other people have experienced on seasonale, and maybe catch some patterns.

ps- unrelated, but you don't look overweight! & you're adorable! when you say overweight, do you mean technically, by your BMI, or just that you feel overweight?

Just curious!

xo

[bubbleysugar.livejournal.com]

*blush*
I was embarassed so I'm posting through my friends lj.

[stripling.livejournal.com]

no need to be embarassed, everyone has weird period/bc stuff sometimes!

two corrections

[sulingsi.livejournal.com]

just so you know, we actually were made to have fewer than 12 periods per year-

if we didn't try to use birth control, we would be pregnant much of our lives and therefore would end up having many fewer periods rather than hundreds. it has been theorized that having so many periods might be traumatic to the uterus (of couse having many babies is not good for your health either!)

also, the hormones in birth control are synthetic, they don't come from horse urine. the drug you are thinking of is Premarin, which stands for 'pregnant mare urine'. it is a hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women.

Re: two corrections

[stripling.livejournal.com]

i suppose if we were to have sex regularly without birth control, that would make sense. but i'm also thinking that without doing anything with your body, it's going to menstruate monthly. that's all i meant. I don't think really consider periods to be traumatic to the uterus, but i just am personally weirded out by the idea of only four periods annually. I like my menses. I like knowing when I'm not pregnant, and I like attuning myself to the natural changes in my own cycle.

and thank you for the correction on the hormone stuff! I read it in a female reproductive health book at some point, and figured they had done their research. but even so, the idea of synthetic hormones does not appeal to me in the least, and I do not react well to the birth control pills I have been on.

thanks for your reply!

Re: two corrections

[geminigirl]

We menstruate far more than women did even a hundred years ago...we start bleeding earlier than people used to, delay pregnancy and have fewer children. Our bodies weren't necessarily meant to have the number of periods women not using hormonal birth control have-Seasonale is probably closer to the natural menstrual cycle than we think. The 28 day cycle that we're often taught to expect is fiction.

That said, some people are okay with it and not others.

Re: two corrections

[stripling.livejournal.com]

i'm sorry, but birthcontrol pills are not "close" to a natural menstrual cycle no matter when they schedule you to bleed. true, naturally, women don't necessarily follow the 28 day clockwork myth, or a calculated system where you bleed only four times annually. even the most regular periods are off a day or two at times.

changing the levels of progestin and estrogen in the body to prevent ovulation, however, is not "close to natural". sorry, but i'm going to be picky about that. perhaps what you meant was bleeding for shorter and fewer times annually (ie, four)is more close to the way women used to menstruate, and isn't bad per se for the body. I will agree with you in that sense, but since I reached menarche (approximately 13 years old) I've bled monthly. I consider that "natural" as it occurred without manipulation/me doing anything to control it. it's picky, but I feel strongly that there ain't nothing natural about bc pills.

[herekittykitty.livejournal.com]

I agree with zambonigirl. if it's your first cycle of BC, then a weird period is bound to happen. my first month on birth control? bled for 26 days.

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

Totally off-topic, but your icon is brilliant. Combining Harry's plight with Seymour's is inspired.

The OP said that she's been on this for over a year. I'm thinking that some periods ARE just heavier than others, particularly if you take into account that she's losing weight and under stress. Still, I recommend a chat with the nurse, and a good read-up on the female body.

I don't know why, but I always feel comfortably foolish when a nurse or a doctor assures me that my body is behaving in a normal manner. And if it's not a normal manner, you've gained, whereas you aren't in any danger of loss on the flip side.

[herekittykitty.livejournal.com]

:)

ditto. sometimes our bodies just react differently and in strange ways to different types of stress. and i agree on the doctor thing... "my body's SUPPOSED to do this??"