brown spotting, then bright red... very abnormal.. - Women's Health Message Board

letsrock · 09-06-2008, 11:34 AM

First off I'm on Ortho Evra and have been for about 2 years, before that I was on seasonale for a year. Even with the patch, I'm supposed to pretty much skip my period due to some issues I've been having since I started my period 8 years ago. I do have one every 3 to 5 months by choice though and it is ussually very heavy and painful, it always has been.

4 months ago I had brown spotting a week, i decided to not put a new patch on and just have a period thinking thats what my body wanted. It started within hours of removing the patch, it was extremely heavy and had a lot of clots, it lasted about 4 or 5 days.

About a week ago I had brown spotting again, this time it was a lot lighter and it stopped after 4 days. Two days ago I woke up and I spotted bright red for an hour and it went back to brown, then stopped. And a few hours ago I started spotting red again but this time it's a little heavier and hasnt stopped.

I haven't had sex in 2 months, I did take a preg. just in case I got thrown into that 1% BC doesn't cover and it was neg... I was under a lot of stress and was really depressed the first time this happend so I blamed it on that, but this time I'm fine so I'm not sure what is causing it.

I went to the doctor over pains I was having in my side a year ago and they said I had an enlarged uterus but after a sonogram that said nothing was wrong and sent me home. I still get the pains in my right side, right below my rin cage every do often though... i'm not sure if it's related or not.

I have a doctors app. in a week or so but I just needed an opinion from someone, i'm not sure if I should try to see someone asap or not.

letsrock · 09-06-2008, 07:52 PM

anyone......

mayriv8409 · 09-07-2008, 07:49 AM

Hi. I'm so sorry you're going through such pain.
Maybe it's a reaction to the patches. It's tricky knowing how your body is going to assimilate the hormones and everything. I used to be on a pill that for some unkown reason gave terrible rashes all over, another gave me huge acne and terrible mood swings. the last one I used didn't give me any form of side effects.
So maybe you should try switching to another type of patch.
Question, do you have to skip periods because of endometriosis? If so, the brown spotting is normal, it's just your body getting rid of old tissues.
Regarding the pain and discomfort, maybe you should get a second opinion. I was going to the same gynecologist for 7 years and he insisted I had a weird condition. Something just didn't feel right so I went to another doctor and she couldn't find anything. It was an eye opening experience, I learned so much and realized that the previous doctor wasn't really paying attention to my symptoms.
I hope you get better.

letsrock · 09-07-2008, 04:44 PM

Well they thought it was endo. because of the enlarged uterus but changed their mind after a sonogram.

I guess the main reason I'm a little freaked about it is because I was supposed to get a coloscopy a year ago, but right after they called me saying I needed to get it done I had moved to another state for college. I go to a private, pretty unconventional university and I have an insane schedule, I'm just now begining to have enough free time to make it in and get it done.

The only reason I dont feel it's the birth control is because out of the 2 years i've been on it, i've never had a single issue. My doctor wanted me to skip my periods because they were ussually so painfull I'd end up missing school for a few days, they're still like that but at least I dont have to deal with it every month

mayriv8409 · 09-10-2008, 02:43 PM

I understand. I have been dealing with gynecological issues that I kept postponing because I was studying outside of my country and didn't have medical insurance there.
The important thing is that now you have time to do the coloscopy, that will hopefully determine what's been causing all of this.
You should definitely see the doctor, tell them all the symptoms and everything that concerns you, see what they have to say, have all the required tests done, etc, etc.
If it's too painful for you to wait for your appointment or if you're too worried, then check if you can see someone else before that. But if it's just a week away I think it should be fine.
Good luck and I hope everything turns out ok!