TMI: 3-month Pill cycle

[asterroc]

I take a tri-phasil version of the Pill. Usually I start a pack on a Friday night, have 3 weeks of real pills, and week 4 starts placebos (or I just toss them) on a Friday night, and I menstruate for 4 days, Monday morning through Thursday. I am now taking the packs back-to-back: as soon as I get up to week 4 placebos I start the next pack, until the end of the third pack - I am not yet up to that week, my first placebo week will start on Friday.

W1-3 = P1.1-3 = As normal. I didn't even decide until sometime in week 3 that I would start taking the packs back-to-back.
W4 = P2.1 = Old P1.4 = Breakthrough bleeding starting near the middle of the week, continuing into P2.2 = W5, 4-7 days total, light flow.
W5-6 = P2.2-3 = As normal.
W7 = P3.1 = "P2.4" = Breakthrough bleeded started in the middle of the week, light flow
W8-9 = P3.2-3 = Breakthrough bleeding continues, light to moderate flow.
W10 = P3.4 = next week.

That's right, I've a pill-month of breakthrough bleeding - if any males are reading this, the term usually refers to light menstruation happening in the middle of the month while on the pill. ARGH! I keep hoping it will go away. I keep wondering if I should quit, but the problem is I feel I should give it at least 3 cycles to know for sure how it works, but at 10 weeks per cycle that's around half a year!

Anyone else ever try this? How long did it take your body to adjust?

Comments

[meredithanne42.livejournal.com]

I tried the continuous pill thing several years ago, but the breakthrough bleeding made it seem like I had a non-stop period for the two months I did it. I got fed up and quit after that--things were much simpler with the pill taken as usual (a predictable, easy, 3-day period, every time).

So, I'm no help, but I can tell you that the first two cycles were no good. Who knows what might have happened after that. I wasn't willing to stick it out at the time, though I'm sure the body adjusts *eventually*.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm feeling fed up, but my scientist brain is saying that one jumbo-cycle isn't statistically significant, plus I haven't yet given my body time to adjust. And yeah, I feel like I've had one non-stop period for nearly a month now, so it's pretty frustrating. I'm going to try and stick it out one more jumbo-cycle and see how it goes.

And I'm jealous at the 3-day period, mine's 4 on the Pill normally. :-P

[(Anonymous)]

In my experience, it can take a few cycles for it to "regulate." I've skipped the placebos on two different Pills.

1. Yasmin: I had breakthrough bleeding that was pretty much a regular period during the 2nd pack of active pills. I tried this twice, and after the breakthrough happened during the 2nd try, I pretty much decided it sucked, stopped the active pills, let "it" happen, and went back to the three weeks on, one week off plan.

2. Lo-Ovral: This is the BEST Pill I've been on (as compared with Ortho Cylcen [NOT Ortho Tri-Cyclen] and Yasmin). I'm up to 9 "active" weeks in a row with no breakthrough bleeding. It is GREAT! HOWEVER, it took me somewhere between 7 and 9 weeks of "active" pills (2-3 packs worth) to get to this point. During the first 9 weeks of active pills, I started to have breakthrough bleeding at the beginning of the 3rd pack (7th week). However, I stuck with the active pills through the 9th week. The next time, the breakthrough bleeding didn't start until the middle of the 8th week. The 3rd time, my period didn't come until I stopped the active pills--9 weeks. This time, I'm trying for 12 weeks, wahoo!

A tri-phasal pill (e.g. Ortho Tri-Cyclen) may also be the problem, as, I'm sure you know, each week has a different level of synthetic hormone. Therefore, if you skip the placebos, and your body has to readjust to the FIRST level of hormone, it may not know which end is up, get very confused, and start bleeding from inconsistent hormone levels. In other words, by skipping the placebos in a tri-phasal pill sequence, you may be unknowingly mimicking your body's natural cycle of flucuating hormones, hence the breakthrough bleeding. So I'm not sure if you're supposed to skip the placebos on a tri-phasal... I've only heard of successfully being able to skip the placebos on a monophasal pill, because it provides a constant level of the (synthetic) hormones estrogen and progesterone (e.g. Ortho Cyclen or Yasmin).

Good luck, chica!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking about that triphasal thing. Problem is when I started the pill originally some 4 years ago, I first tried a monophasal and not only did I have breakthrough bleeding, I had migranes and mood swings. I asked my doctor and gyn about it before I started, and they do know I'm on a tri-phase pill and they said it was ok. Health and protection -wise it's ok; they said breakthrough bleeding was likely w/ a 3-month cycle, but they didn't mention if it's more likely w/ a triphase pill on a 3-month.

My guess is that what would probably be best for me is a triphasal 3-month pack thing, where they have first all the type 1 pills, then all the second type, then all the third, then the placebo week. Now, I know I could simulate this myself by just taking all the blue, then all the white, then all the pink, then the one week of orange, but if I did there's a MUCH greater chance of fucking up and missing days, making the pills ineffective, and that's counter productive, so I'm not planning to try it.