Period for two months?

[pacinpews.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone. :) I'm so happy to have found this community!
I'm seventeen years old and I've had my period for something like two months now. I got started on birth control three weeks ago. I'm on Aviane (the generic form of Alesse) and while I know I've definitely reacted to the BC (increased anger, decreased acne, etc.) I don't see it doing much for my period. It DID for the first four to five days of my taking it (it was all dried blood) but it's steadily gotten worse.
At times, when I lean forward when sitting down, I feel a gush of blood...sort of like I'm peeing myself. I think today (from the time I woke up) I've used something like four to five pads. I've been clotting like crazy, though. When I went to the doctor three weeks ago, I had my blood taken and all was well concerning that.
I think I should note that I am fat (always have been, though) but have lost about thirty pounds, perhaps a bit more, within the past two months or so. I've lost weight before though and this hasn't happened.
A lot of people are saying that they've had the same thing happen to them. Does this sound normal or should I get checked out by an actual gyno? The woman I saw was a FNP, not a gyno. She didn't give me a gynecological exam either.
Thank you so much everyone!

Comments

[archangelbeth]

Are you going through a pad in an hour or less, for multiple hours? If so, or if you are passing clots golf-ball sized (or larger!), then definitely get a responsive doctor to check. (And if you start feeling dizzy, unreasonably fatigued, chilled, clammy, or looking pale, please contact a doctor immediately.)

Heavy periods and difficulty losing weight can be linked to hypothyroidism. Since I was undiagnosed for about a decade, maybe more, and thought I was "just lazy," I am now a fanatic -- have you had your thyroid checked, and what were the numbers?

Emotional stuff may be helped by taking a Vitamin B complex above and beyond any multivitamins you take, 4-5 days a week, every week.

Aside from all that... It might be within the range of "normal" for breakthrough bleeding, but... it definitely has been going on a lot. Hopefully when you go back on the next pack of pills, your body will go, "Oh, okay, maybe it is time to stop bleeding now." (Do you know if you have any estrogen/progesterone issues, from your blood test prior to going on HBC? Did they give you the numbers?)

...I fear I don't know a lot more, but hopefully someone else will!

[pacinpews.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it, I have been feeling a lot more cold lately. I'm tired, but I thought I was just depressed.
My parents said that they had my thyroid checked when I was younger and that there was nothing wrong with it.
I never received any sort of numbers. I had this bleeding prior to taking the birth control; before that, I had been bleeding oddly. I'd go for three months or something without a period and then have two weeks or so of heavy bleeding (but not as heavy as this).

[pacinpews.livejournal.com]

Ah, and when I say lately, I mean pretty much yesterday and today.

[archangelbeth]

If you're feeling cold and tired, I would call the doctor now. It may be as innocuous as you going slightly anemic from losing all the blood, and should go out and buy some iron pills tomorrow, or it may indicate that you're losing enough blood to have other health problems that need to be taken care of ASAP.

From the irregular bleeding patterns... Please get your thyroid checked! Not all wonky periods are thyroid-related, but it's really worth a try. Further "nothing wrong with it" means... Um, well, nothing without numbers to tell whether the doctor is using outdated numbers or not.

For instance, my doctor -- who is pretty good about wanting my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) down around 1 -- said my thyroid was "fine" last visit. I assumed that meant it was still at 1. I was feeling draggy and wanted to raise my dose to get a bit under 1 (though not down to hyperthyroid levels -- maybe a .75 or so), and turns out? It'd gone up to 2! And I was feeling it.

You can't trust "fine" till you know your numbers.

I'd call the doctor sometime and ask for your test results, so you can check them on the web.

Good luck!

[thenuddpants.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hijack, but what reference level does your Dr use? My TSH was at 3.64 and I read on the 'net that some people suggest the upper limit of the ref rate at 3, but my lab uses 4.5, so my Dr. at Student Health brushed off my concern. I have insurance, so I could see an endocrinologist, so it's just a matter of whether or not I should...

Feel free to... LJ message me? (I've never used LJ messages, don't know how they work) or email me at nuddypants at gmail dot com as to not totally derail this thread.

[archangelbeth]

Emailing now!

[dlb5367.livejournal.com]

If you bleed through one pad in an hour OR pass a clot larger than a golf ball, go to the ER / Call your Gynecologist.

[pacinpews.livejournal.com]

What does bleeding through mean? Bleeding to the point where you can see the blood on the other side or it actually somehow going through the pad? I've never been able to actually have blood pass through the pad and onto the underwear...

[archangelbeth]

It means being at the stage where you kinda need to change your pad, I think. Not actually going through the pad -- the backs are generally waterproof plastic and you can't get through them.

So if you can see blood on the other side, and it's reasonably saturated, that probably counts. (Thin pads blur the "see blood through the plastic back" boundaries.)

[lilyofthewest.livejournal.com]

"Bleeding through" means completely saturating/filling the pad. Not that you want to change it because it is gross to still be sitting on it, but that you're really not sure if it will hold any more.

[pacinpews.livejournal.com]

I've been bleeding for two months; I saw them about three weeks ago and have been taking the BC for three weeks.
When they took my blood three weeks ago, it was all apparently fine.

[pacinpews.livejournal.com]

That's the thing though, I don't even know if everything else checked out because I was never given an exam. :/
Is that normal? She kind of just said it was probably just stress (but I'm always stressed) and gave me birth control.

[marionravenwood.livejournal.com]

There's not much an exam could tell you that would have anything to do with bleeding. A blood test would be more helpful, and it sounds like you had that.

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[poppleshatesyou.livejournal.com]

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[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

have you missed any pills or taken any late? when you take them, is it at the same time each day? aviane is a pretty low-dose pill, and that's a good thing ... but it also means it has little patience for drops in hormones, and can result in breakthrough bleeding then.

as far as not having an exam, there's actually not much that can be learned via a pelvic exam on someone who's having dysfunctional bleeding. she could've collected swabs to check for bacterial infection, but the biggest thing is to check your blood pressure and do some blood work for hormone levels.