Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Seasonale

Early period while on BCP--best choice to minimize the bloodbath

not that girl — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:01:28 -0800

Period starting a week early on Seasonale: your best educated guess about whether I should skip the sugar-pill week or not? This is my first 13-week cycle on Seasonale. I already had 18 days of heavy bleeding, tapering to spotting in the last few days, beginning in late June. Now my period has started with a week yet to go of the active pills, after several days of spotting. I see myself having three choices:

1. Given that my period has started, make this my sugar-pill week and then start the next 13-week packet of pills.

2. Keep taking the active pills and take my sugar-pill week as scheduled.

3. Keep taking the active pills and then start the next 13-week packet immediately, without a break.

I am interested in minimizing the suffering and blood, especially the blood. I've been having epically long periods with heavy heavy bleeding and flooding at roughly 24-day intervals for a long time. Regular 28-day BCP stretched my cycle to 28 days, but my period always started during the last week of active pills and lasted 8-10 days. My doctor and I are trying Seasonale in the hope that I can finally get some relief.

I know this is hormones speaking but (weeps quietly) I am just so tired of bleeding all the time and I want to make the choice now that will minimize this period that has just started.

Seasonale out of order?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:45:47 -0800

Are all of my "active" Seasonale tablets identical? Can I take them out of order? I screwed up thanks to a screwy holiday schedule, and I forgot to take five pills in a row. Now my period has started three weeks earlier than scheduled. No big deal, I figured, I'll just start a new pack next week -- but it turns out that my prescription has expired, and my doctor is out for the holidays, so I won't be able to get a new pack until mid-next week at the earliest. But I need to start on Sunday!

I still have three weeks' worth of pills from the old pack. Is it okay if I just take those instead, starting on Sunday? The prescription information says each pack contains "84 pink active tablets each containing 0.15 mg of levonorgestrel, a synthetic progestogen and 0.03 mg of ethinyl estradiol." That means they're identical, right? (And if that's true, as soon as I get the new pack, I should just start taking those, in theory ...)

Thanks in advance.

Seasonale v. Ortho Tri-Cyclen

anjamu — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:07:45 -0800

Women of MeFi, your experiences with Seasonale? As part of a two-pronged attack on my migraine (part two being Zomig), my doctor suggested that I switch from Ortho Tri-Cyclen to Seasonale.

I've never taken anything but OTC, and I'm concerned about the switch. Breakthrough bleeding? Weight gain? (I had very little of the former, and none of the latter, on OTC.) Nausea? Cramps? Decreased libido?

I'm also somewhat concerned about the long-term effects of messing with my body chemistry this much.

Basically, I'm apprehensive about switching, and I'd like a little more information from women who actually have taken it (or their MeFi-inclined boyfriends/husbands/what-have-you).

Don't be shy because you're not a doctor; I have a perfectly good one of those, and pharmacist family members, and what I want is anecdotes and such.

Will Bactrim knock me up?

fuzzbean — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:25:55 -0800

What is the real-world probability of my getting pregnant while taking antibiotics and oral contraceptives? I take Seasonale as my primary form of birth control, so I only have a period every three months. I was recently put on Bactrim (sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim) to treat an ear infection. My doctor warned me, when writing out the prescription, to use a backup barrier method of birth control "until my period would normally arrive" (ie, for another three weeks).

I've pubmedded this to death, and I can't find *any* studies indicating a link between antibiotics and a decrease in OC efficacy (with the exception of rifampin); I did find several finding no (statistical) drop in efficacy, and some attribute that decrease not to the antibiotics but to women forgetting to take the pill when they feel crappy.

I know, I know, the easy answer is, "Just use a condom for three weeks." But I really want to know! Is this a myth? If so, how did it get started--typical CYA? Does anyone have any experience with (not) getting pregnant while mixing BC and antibiotics?

Other possibly influential factors:

I'm slender (5'9", 130 lbs), so in general not worried about the dosage of contraceptives being too low for my body weight.
I just started a new pack of contraceptives the day before starting the antibiotics.
I am absolutely religious about taking the pill at the same time, *every* day.

So what are the odds?

Seasonale and sciatica

lilboo — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:55:25 -0800

I just started Seasonale about six weeks ago, and everything is going great, with one exception, the back pain. About ten years ago I ripped a disk in my lower back, which produced the inevitable sciatica. After working through it with physical therapy it pretty much went away, until recently it came back, about a week after I started the new pills. I have looked up the side effects, but back pain isn't mentioned. Has anyone else noticed a similar side effect with their b.c. pills?