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

[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.