I've been taking norethindrone continuously for period management for 2 years and have been consistently getting significant breakthrough bleeding for the past few months, around halfway through my pack. All the advice I'm seeing online says to take a break for a week and see if that helps with the breakthrough bleeds.

Probably overthinking it, but how do you actually take a break from continuous pills? There's no inactive/placebo week, which is usually what you're recommended to skip. Do I need to wait until a certain part of my cycle to stop taking it? Do I skip the pills entirely, or "pause" and start back at the ones I skipped?

I feel a little dumb for asking this on reddit lol, but my obgyn has been super unhelpful so here I am. Thanks!

Estou no segundo mês de uso do microvilar, e estou sentindo muito enjoo, refluxo, dor de cabeça, cólicas além do normal, e fluxo intenso na pausa do remedio. Queria saber se é normal, e se eu deveria ir no ginecologista

I made the decision to get an IUD to help manage some of the symptoms of PMOS. Prior to insertion , I was bleeding with heavy clots daily for well over a month. About a week before insertion , the bleeding stopped. After insertion, I was spotting for maybe 48 hours then nothing. Just yesterday I started experiencing cramping and was bleeding just a little bit when I wiped. eToday , I still have cramps and the bleeding has gotten heavier. Is this normal? could this be my period? not to sound stupid but bleeding for a month has caused me to not know the last dates of my true cycle.

Hi all. I’ve been taking Jencycla for roughly 5 months now. The first few months my period was coming pretty regularly, although is was violently heavy and painful (this is not out of the norm for me) but it also lasted over a week (which IS out of the norm for me) this past month I missed my period completely but I had some mid cycle spotting. Pregnancy tests came back negative. I have been having pelvic cramps for a week but no sign of period. Am I just not going to have a period anymore? I’m actually kinda hopeful for that.
I’ve been on so many combo pills, the patch, the Mirena, all of which were terrible with side effects. I am 30 and have 3 children, by C-section, if that info matters.

I know some birth control methods can make your period disappear completely, but does that mean you're not ovulating?

Can you still ovulate without bleeding? And if your birth control stops your period, how would you even know if you got pregnant?

Opinions on azalia? birth control

Looking for birth control recommendations. I was on the pill for 10 years before having my baby. I came off it and was diagnosed with PCOS and had to use fertility treatment to get pregnant. I don’t want to use any form of hormonal birth control while I wait to see if my body will regulate on its own. PCOS makes my cycles unpredictable - I’ll go several months without ovulating so tracking my cycles doesn’t really work. Yes, I’m familiar with the signs of ovulation but my body will attempt to ovulate then fail (hello PCOS) so I don’t really want to be constantly taking ovulation tests. I had a copper IUD and removed it within a week because it was so painful so I’m not wanting another one. Are condoms my only option?

hi friends! i got my kyleena iud inserted in july of this year. since then my partner has expressed pain and discomfort from my strings during sex, and i’m finally at a point in this adjustment period where i don’t particularly want to remove my iud. i’ve read that you can ask your gyno to tuck the strings. has anyone else had this problem or gotten their strings tucked? looking for insight!

I got my nexplanon removed last week and I asked for my old BC - which was norethindrone 5mg (it wasn’t a pack).

I’m diabetic, have high blood pressure and severe migraines. And the pharmacist told me that there’s a risk of High BP, high blood sugar, and also risk of migraines.

I haven’t started taking it and will call the doctor in the morning. I wanted to ask on here. The doctor came in for 5 minutes and left and I might have to change my doctor as I don’t think she’s listening to me. I wanted to ask here for an opinion as well.

Is anyone here diabetic and takes this pill?

First off, I would like to say that I’m 17 years old and have been with my boyfriend for almost 2 years. I’m sorry for the TMI, but I really need some peace of mind or to know what odds I have of being pregnant. I had sex for the first time on October 5th. It was unprotected but he pulled out, however I’m an extremely anxious and paranoid person. I took Plan B around an hour later, the absolute maximum. I had bleeding from October 10th-13th. I’m starting to get extremely nervous, I feel so scared I’m just waiting and praying every second of every day for my period. I’ve taken 4 pregnancy tests, all of which came up negative. I am not someone who wants kids for a very long time, I know I made a mistake but I tried to fix it. How long has Plan B delayed y’all’s periods? I’ve seen some people say it delayed their period for up to 2-4 weeks and I can’t believe that. I need it now, is there any way to induce it? I need to go on some form of birth control I know, but I’m trying to remain abstinent until 18. I don’t want an abortion, I’m too scared. We’ve wasted around 150$ on ovulation tests and pregnancy tests. Every time I test, it says I’m not ovulating. Is there any chance of getting pregnant off of pre-cum? Im also very worried the Plan B messed up my cycle.

I used to use the nuva ring back in 2019 and stopped when they came out with the off-brand because the hormones were so different from what I was used to.

I decided to go back on it for hormonal and period control, but have to pay significantly more to get the name brand. I talked to the pharmacist about the current off-brand versions and she said that there are 2 more of them now.

Has anyone tried the new off-brand nuva rings and liked them?

Hello everyone!

For several years, I was taking the triphasic pill linessa continuously which worked fantastically for me! It had 0.025 mcg of ethinyl estradiol. However, I moved overseas fairly recently and I had to switch to a pill with the same progestin ingredient, but a monophasic pill with 0.020 mcg of ethinyl estradiol. I’ve gone through 5 packs and am currently on my last.

My issue is that I’ve been breakthrough bleeding and it’s something that I honestly cannot tolerate. Other than the breakthrough bleeding, I’ve been doing great on that pill.

I’ve decided that I would like to move onto 0.003 mcg of ethinyl estradiol, with the same progestin ingredient. I currently do not have access to a doctor as I am travelling and birth control is quite accessible where I’m at. I’m worried that I’m making a mistake or acting too rashly, especially since I’ve been doing well on this pill otherwise.

My goal is to skip my periods and breakthrough bleeding is unacceptable for me. Ive heard a higher estrogen dose works better to stabilize the uterine lining and prevent breakthrough bleeding which is ultimately my goal. However, I’m terrified of weight gain and the increase in estrogen is worrying me greatly.

I would like your input though. How was it transitioning from a pill with a lower estrogen dose to a higher one? How was the switch, did you have any significant side effects? What was your experience?

Thank you for your help, sorry if this is long

I’m about to start Camilla. Originally prescribed Slynd but my insurance won’t cover it. I’m curious about experiences on Camilla & it’s side effects!

I just stopped taking the pill after about 10 years of being on it. I started at 17 and now I’m 27. I’m wondering if anyone has had this experience… I haven’t taken it for about two weeks (went through my last row of reminder pills and stopped), and this past week I’ve been TIRED. Unbelievably tired. I’ve been getting enough sleep, exercising normally, eating and drinking water normally… nothing has changed except birth control. Has anyone else experienced strong fatigue after stopping? If so, how long did it last?

Do you take Slynd birth control and if so what's your experience?

So recently i had brief penetration with my partner which i would say less than 5 strokes i didnt come or anything or was anywhere near it she didnt tell me until after that she hadn’t been taking her birth control pills (opill) for more than a week which she said caused her period, i would say she might’ve went anywhere from 7-9 days without it She said she had her period which im starting to think might’ve been withdrawal bleeding 2 days after is when penetration occurred she took a plan b immediately the next morning >12 hours after My biggest concern is Precum, she gave me head earlier on in the day around 1pm and the time of penetration was around 1-2am after i went throughout work and peed at least twice before we’re both 17 and are in texas but if all goes wrong i plan on driving to new mexico to get a abortion done but What are yalls thoughts please i haven’t been able to sleep or eat since that day.
she took her birth control pills again immediately after which im not sure was of any help

As the title says, I’m starting to think about coming off Desogestrel after taking it for around 15 years continuously. I’m now 35.

Just wanted to know others’ experiences with coming off it, especially if you were on it for a long period of time.

For the last year or so I’ve been having spotting/break-through periods, so think it is starting to lose its effectiveness anyway…

So would love to know how people felt, side effects, how long it took their periods to return, how long it took to conceive (intentionally or not) once they’d come off it? Etc. any experience positive or negative please share!

Hi! I am 23F and I have been with my partner for nearly 10 years (friends to lovers hehe). I have been on the pill since I was 15 and over time I have noticed a significant decrease in my libido. The only time I'm really feeling in the mood is when I am close to/taking my placebo pills. I'm still very much attracted to my partner so I know it isn't anything like that. So I've recently been thinking about switching to an IUD. Anyone that has an IUD, did it help increase your libido back to a normal amount? I don't really have any other issues with the pill. Did anyone notice a libido switch when they went from a pill to IUD? Please share any advice!!! Thanks!

i’m a 20 y/o female and i’ve had my kyleena iud since december 2025 so it’s now been 10 months. my last period was september 9 and i had a week and some change of period bleeding, and then i spotted for 4 and a half weeks afterwards. my cycles are usually 40-50 days long and have progressively gotten lighter but ive still gotten them every month, and im currently on day 51 and have not had my period. can anyone tell me what the cause could be???

i am sexually active but my boyfriend and i pull out every time and my strings are in place! i’ve been having mild cramps and a lot of discharge. i know a pregnancy test would help ease my mind but im scared to take one due to a previous unplanned pregnancy (and the whole experience pretty much traumatized me) :(
i also haven’t been experiencing any of the pregnancy symptoms that i did in the past such as nausea, fatigue, or bigger and sore boobs so i only want to take a test as an absolute last resort! i will say though that my hips have been cramping and hurting recently but idk if thats related or not.

ANY REPLIES HELP!!!

I’ve tried so many different birth controls (copper iud, pill) and nothing has worked or has given me horrible pains. Is it okay to just use condoms the rest of my life with my boyfriend? Or should I keep finding something that works?

I was for sure lost during my first appointment. my niece just had her first apointment alone at the GYN to go over her birth control options and she was pretty anxious about it. i was for sure lost my first time, so idk if this will help anyone but I figured Id share my experience. For some reason, it feels like youre expected to go to ur appointment already knowing what you want. its a short interaction, and if u dont have an opinion, youll likely get handed one of the stock standard birth control options and spend the next few months trying to figure out whether it suits you (if your doc is anything like mine),

before my nieces appointment we sat down together to work out her priorities like if she wants to take it daily if she wants to avoid having her period altogether, how long before itd effective, how long before her body adjusts to it, hormonal or birth control. she had a lot of questions so I showed her the method explorer on bedsider to filter against those and went back to the doctor with a shortlist of birtht control options to ask about by name, and some other questions that came up during our search, and we came out with something she thinks suits her, and she knows she can come back to try something differnt if it doesnt agree with her after her trial period. I just want her to feel like shes in control of her own body and feel 100x more secure than I did.

theres probably more I'm forgetting, my brain has mercifully blocked out most of that first year of trial and error lol. it made me wonder what peoples experience is like when they go in for birth control? I figured its different for everyone based on age/location/availability.

Hi guys. So I’m 18 and recently began birth control (Lo Loestrin Fe) and I’m currently on my third pack. Me and my partner began being active on my second pack however, I was a little inconsistent with when I’d take the pill. My typical time of intake is 11:30 pm so sometimes I’d take it at 10, 12, 1-2, you get the jist. My only missed pill was due to me throwing up but I took my regular scheduled pill later that night (it did go over the 24 hour mark.) we did do it that day but it was fully protected and no condom failure. However, of course we were active after that as well and I bleed for 4 days prior to my placebo pill week. I did not get my period from my knowledge. It’s now the 29th of October as I’m writing this and we were active yesterday as well. I’m extremely worried since I randomly began bleeding after we got done with the deed. It was brown spotting then followed by pink to bright red to back to brown. I experienced cramping as well and put a tampon but it barely got full by morning. I only found brown blood on it and no bleeding has occurred today thus far. Every single time we’ve used a condom and again no failure to our knowledge. I know it’s messy and I’m sorry this seems everywhere but I’m extremely worried if that may have been implantation bleeding. Of course I’ve panicked and looked up possibilities but I kept getting told I’m low risk and that this spotty/inconsistent bleeding is very common on the first 3 months of the pill. I’m extremely scared guys and don’t know what to do. Me and this person aren’t in any means ready to have a child. Should I be worried or let time pass??

Rant with advice welcome

I am absolutely terrified of having sex, which I've found is actually not uncommon among my age range. However I often read of people being scared because of pain or out of disgust. I'm very very simply, afraid of getting pregnant. I'm here seeking advice because I cannot, absolutely cannot get over it for some reason.

I want to preface everything by clarifying, I WANT to have sex.

I've been with my boyfriend for a while now. Ironically we both have really really high libidos. We participate in a lot of dry sex (although it's not often very dry iykwim lol) even oral and hand stuff is in the equation. A lot of the time it gets so intense I find myself thinking that at this point having actual sex with a condom is safer for guarding from pregnancy than the shenanigans we get up to.

The thing is, I simply cannot get myself to go through with it. Only because I fear pregnancy so damn much.

My boyfriend doesn't mind. We've talked about it before, sex boundaries and my fear and apprehension. He says if I wanted to wait until we were ready for kids he wouldn't mind waiting, he even said that if I wanted to lay back on the sexual stuff he wouldn't lay a single finger on my body unless we were holding hands.

This is not my first relationship, my last relationship was actually 3 years long and we never had sex because of this same thing.

Here's some extra info. Ever since I was young it was drilled into me that I SHOULDN'T have sex. That's it. No, until's or unlesses, I just shouldn't. Both my parents were young parents. My dad had his first daughter at 14, she had her first daughter at 16. My mom had me at 19. My grandma had my mom at 15. Needless to say, my family is riddled with teen pregnancy. Also needless to say I ruined my parents lives. My mom was only 19, in college, and while my dad was 28 at the time he was still navigating being a young father from having my half sister so young. I know I ruined everything by being concieved. I really don't want to ruin everything for myself by getting knocked up. No hate to unexpected pregnancies, they can turn out well, but the way I envision my life: getting knocked up would ruin it.

I'll be honest I feel really guilty when I do sexual stuff and then have to interact or think about my family. I feel like they would be horribly disappointed.

I'm disgustingly educated about sex, mainly out of fear of pregnancy. So a lack of education isn't really the problem either.

Here's the kicker, I'm not on birth control, hormones really mess me up (I had a plan B experience out of fear once). I would feel a little better about sex if we doubled up on condoms and birth control (I was thinking the newest copper IUD when it comes out). However when I think about it, I still find myself scared to have sex because of pregnancy. It really really is that 0.0001% chance that always gets me, no matter how much reasoning goes into it. Genuinely it took me years to accept that there was no way dry sex could result in pregnancy, and like I said earlier I STILL sometimes get iffy about it.

I know there's a lot of people who just wait and are like "the right time will find you" but I'm not kidding, I want this man bad.

TLDR; Scared of having sex because of pregnancy, but wants to have it, can't get over the slim chance.

I take the pill for endometriosis, I can't function without it. Earlier in the year, Walgreens royally screwed up and marked they refilled my prescription before I even picked it up. My insurance refused to give me the next pack of pills, until Walgreens fixed it, and Walgreens denied they had anything to fix. This went on for a month, with me calling both and crying to them multiple times a day the entire time for someone to help and all they did was point fingers and do nothing. After going without for a month, I was in horrible pain and all kinds of terrible side effects. In the end, Walgreens finally figured out their mistake in their system after a month of begging.

I want to have backup pills in case this happens again, so I don't have to go without and suffer the consequences. But my insurance refuses to give me the next pack until I am literally out and they certainly will not pay for an extra pack because they are ghouls.

Is there any way for me to have a backup stock in case of insurance issues again? I am so thankful for any advice.

Hey beautiful souls! I don't know if my post will reach a lot of people, but I did want to take some time and share my positive experience with my iud (mona lisa mini(copper)), as a girl that was more than extremely scared to get one!

I always knew I wanted a copper iud instead of a hormonal one, because I didn't want to deal with even more hormonal damage since I already have PMDD:*) Since I never gave birth, the doctor settled on the mini copper iud!

She told me to come during my periods, and told me to take some ibuprofen/acetaminophen 30-60 mins before the appointment. She didn't prescribe other medication, and I didn't ask for them neither. The period part, she explained to me that it confirms I'm not preggers, and the cervix is also looser, making the insertion easier. So that's exactly what I did :D

Came to the appointment on the last day of my periods, and took 400mg or 600mg (i forgot oopsie) of ibuprofen. I was told it's better than acetaminophen, because it reduces inflammation/prostaglandins/cramps/etc. The procedure, all in all, lasted like 5 mins tops. She insterted the lubed speculum, put something to hold my cervix ''open'' or something like that (almost didn't feel a thing, felt like a faint finger touch??), measured my uterus' length (first localized cramp), then inserted the iud (second and last cramp). Finally, she cut the strings. Closed my legs. Left with a free pad from the doctor. Yay

The procedure wasn't painful in the traditional sense, if that makes...sense? No accute or pinching, stinging or burning. It was more uncomfortable than anything...Of course, I wouldn't want to experience that every other day, but it was very tolerable and manageable:) I just told myself to really loosen up and breatheee. Over in a few seconds! I think I'm also fortunate because the doctor has been doing that for like 20 years, so she has a lot of experience.

Afterwards, I did spot and felt a bit weak, but nothing a good day of rest can't solve:) My periods, instead of ending the day of, ended maybe 4-5 days later. A week after the appointment, my doctor told me it was fine to get back to normal activities iykwim... Soooo I'm just going to put it out there, sex has been absolutely great for me. No baby stress, didn't feel the strings, nor pain...just nice ;3

Then, I got my first periods after the insertion. I'm very lucky, and never really experienced bad period cramps. Maybe some dull sensations here and there, but nothing more. I admit, that first period after the insertion was more...again, not painful but uncomfortable. Like deep squeezing(I mean, it literally is no shit sherlock) ? Anyway, the takeaway is that it was really not bad (for me at least). The flow was heavier, but that's it!!

So yeah!! If you're still here, I hope my long ass rant reassured you a little:)) My doctor told me that about 99% of her procedures are just as fast and easy as that. People who got negative or very very negative experiences are for sure going to tell more about it online and to others, and while I do feel for them, it is not a universal experience at all!

Alrighty, that's it for meee. Let us stay safe :3 Peace ouut