(no subject)

[dialousco.livejournal.com]

Hi there. A few questions:

Is there any known interaction between UTI medication and Ortho Evra? (I've asked other communities, but I love getting second opinions.)

Today, as I usually do every month, I took a pregnancy test. I noticed that there was blood in the urine (obviously from my vagina, as I found out when I inserted a tampon). If this was the known "pregnancy spotting," and it occurred at the same time that I took the pregnancy test, would it affect the results? Would the HGc levels (I believe that's what they are) still be found in it? (There was minimal bleeding after that, which made me kind of curious as to what's going on - I've never had any trouble with my medication/breakthrough bleeding previously.)

Comments

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

that would depend on what UTI medication you are referring to. If you mean antibiotics, then yes there is a chance of an interaction and you should use backup. For over the counter painkillers and urine acidifiers, then no, likely not.

Nothing (except hormone therapy containing HcG that you could only get through a visit with an endocrinologist or other medical specialist) will interfere with a pregnancy test - it tests for HcG.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Many women have lighter periods on BCP then they do when unmedicated, and some stop having periods altogether. Short, light, or even missing periods are not necessarily a symptom of pregnancy.

Implantation spotting is a sign of very early pregnancy - you probably wouldn't be able to get a positive HPT the day of implantation, because HCG levels would still be very low. However, the bleeding itself wouldn't affect the test results.

[taldragon.livejournal.com]

if you're on birth control, why do you take a pregnancy test every month?

(i'm genuinely curious)

[dialousco.livejournal.com]

It's something I do to put my mind at ease.

Maybe I overexaggerate - it's more like every other month, usually only around times when I feel that I have a reasoning to be concerned. (As it shows, I don't have a lot of faith in a little piece of adhesive plastic.)

[blushingflower.livejournal.com]

Why, may I ask, do you take an HPT every month? If you're on birth control, and using it correctly, you shouldn't need to worry about being pregnant.

[dialousco.livejournal.com]

It's something I do to put my mind at ease.

Maybe I overexaggerate - it's more like every other month, usually only around times when I feel that I have a reasoning to be concerned. (As it shows, I don't have a lot of faith in a little piece of adhesive plastic.)

[blushingflower.livejournal.com]

Would you trust another method of birth control more? Because there's really no reason to put yourself (and your wallet!) through the stress. If used correctly, the patch is very, very effective. I just hate to see someone stressing out when they don't need to!

[dialousco.livejournal.com]

Ortho Tri Cyclen (and any other pill) had begun to make me nauseated - it's gotten to the point that I can't even look at birth control pills without feeling nauseated. It's quite astonishing how psychological this is to me.

Thank you for your concern. I think I'm just like this because of my mixture of antibiotics with Ortho Evra during a prime time in my period, and due to the random bleeding I had occur today (which has since stopped).

[pocketnovel.livejournal.com]

You can check the risk of interaction by using a drug interaction checker such as this one (http://health.discovery.com/encyclopedias/checker/checker.jsp).

As has been said already, blood would not interfere with a pregnancy test, since it tests for hCG.

If you're using Ortho Evra and condoms, your risk of pregnancy is around 3/10,000. There's no rational reason to believe that you might be pregnant. You should set up an appointment with your doctor to discuss the anxiety you're having about your contraception.

[urania.livejournal.com]

Antibiotics can certainly interfere with birth control; it's recommended that you use a backup b/c method in that case. However, if the medicine was not an antibiotic (if it was, for instance, just a painkiller) it probably would not interfere.

Mid-cycle spotting is a common side effect of birth control pills, and can start spontaneously regardless of how long you've been on the pill. I had been taking birth control for several years and started getting spotting out of the blue one month... *shrug*