hi i missed one day on the pill and yesterday took the one for the day i missed and the current day like i'm supposed to. The only thing is now i'm bleeding, it seems to be a lot for the spotting that i was warned could happen and its never happened to me before when i've missed a day. I know its not sexually related cause i havn't had any sex or anything in that area for a while. Just wanted to know if anyone's heard of stuff like this happening and what it could be?

Hi Gecco. I've never had bleeding when I missed my pill but I have taken 2 at a time and had MAJOR cramps, like labor pains!(Ok, i've never given birth but it was what I imagined it would be like).

I've heard of it happening where it throws your whole cycle off whack and you start your period early, it happened to my friend.

Talk to your dr, this might be an indication your pills aren't working well enough or need to be adjusted for body weight (if you weigh more than I think it is 70-80 kilos, it might not be protecting you properly) and you might have to look at switching or changing your dose.

Gecco, don't let it freak you out. It's probably just spotting as usual. Maybe there is more blood this time because you're close to the time of your period (before or after) or because you took both pills at the same time instead of waiting for 12 hours. Or have you been doing any extra physical activity - biking, sit-ups/crunches, etc.? Sometimes if I miss a day on my pill nothing happens, sometimes I have a brownish discharge, and sometimes I have a heavy bloodflow for a day or two. Just be thankful that you remembered to take it, and try to stay on schedule in the future.

thanx for responding, i really hope its just some heavy flow, its just weird that i didn't have any cramps. Anyway i'm going to the dr. as soon as i get home from college, in about a week. But this HAD to happen during finals huh!

It depends what kind of pills you're taking. If you're on the standard single dose pill everyday for 21 days and either a placebo pill or no pill for the remaining 7 days, then you could miss 1 day (or even 2 days, though that's pushing it) and not get your period. These are low dose estrogen/progesterone pills that are at a good enough dose to cover you for that 1 day. Remember, even when you are completely on schedule, your period starts on the third day of placebo (or no pill). What you can also do with monophasics is plan your menses exactly. Let's say you want to go on vacation for a few weeks, but don't want to deal with a period. You could take the "real" pills for an additional 7 days or so, until you get home, and then take the 7 placebo pills (or take nothing for 7 days) to start your next period. Warning though, you should not take take the real pills for more than 7 additional days because your endometrium will build up significantly and could lead to very heavy bleeding. Also, you shouldn't do this on a regular basis. Every once in a while, it's fine, but you're taking a risk if you try to push it an extra 7 days every cycle; plus you gotta salvage another pack to get the 7 extra pills. It may sound a little convoluted here, but ask your gynecologist in person if you're a bit confused about what I'm saying.

However, if you are on the biphasic or triphasic pills, the estrogen/progesterone levels are even lower. They are _just_ enough to prevent pregnancy. If you forget one pill, you gotta take the missing dose immediately or else you won't be protected the day you missed, and may start early menses.

The bi/triphasic pill regimens are much stricter than the monophasics. The only advantage is theoretical, less hormones total is thought to further reduce your chance of breast and cervical cancer. However, you should also know that with monophasic pills, you are already getting less hormones than your body normally produces (these pills shut down your natural hormone production) and so you are already at a lower risk of cancer. The relative cancer benefit of the bi/tri phasics are small compared to the monophasics. The only other reason not to use monophasics is if you are having intolerable side-effects. There are a number of formulations, so it's just a matter of switching around until you find one that your body agrees with. More common side effects (of all the kinds of pills) can include headaches, nausea, clotting disorders, irregular bleeding when starting for the first time, weight gain, and clearing of skin (fewer pimples).

[This message has been edited by pvt94122 (edited 12-10-2002).]

What I'm talking about that happened to my friend, pvt, happened with alesse 28s, which are a monophasic pill.

And she was a virgin and was actually taking it for menstrual cramps, so ... she wasn't pregnant.

Yes, these side-effects are more common in the multi-phasic pill packs, but they do happen with the monophasic pill packs.

There have been studies shown that if you are above average weight, you might have to adjust your dose for your body weight. I'm dead serious.

What happened with my friend was she missed one pill, and got her period an entire week early, even while she was taking the active pills. This has happened now for three months in a row, and all that she had to do was miss one pill at the beginning.

If this happens again, I would recommend switching pill types or active ingredients. There's a couple of different estrogens and a couple different progesterones to put in birth control pills -- mine's levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol.

i was really hoping to switch pills soon anyway, my prescriptions about up. Anyway what are the best ones for clearing skin? And if i switch to ortho-tricyclin(which i assume is not the mono-whater pills you were talking about which i am on now) is it going to affect me in any negitaive ways like bad cramps or something cause i'm seeing my bf in january and i don't want to be vomiting from new pills http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

ortho tri-cyclen is a tri-phasic pill (meaning there's three phases to pill-taking) and ortho cyclen is a monophasic pill (meaning there's one phase, like alesse.)

Acne is directly related to the overall hormonal levels in the body. Since all the pills take over your hormone system and lower the total level of hormones, they will all help clear up your skin. Theoretically, the triphasics would give you the most acne fighting power since they use the lowest hormone levels; but actual practice doesn't always follow theory. Everyone is different, you should use whatever works for you, and try switching around if you don't get the right effects or get bad side-effects.

I'm pretty positive that the acne that i do have is hormone related cause i've tried several prescriptions and nothings worked too well, also i tend to break out towards my period.