cross-posted...

[ravenfyre.livejournal.com]

I am at war with Cosmo magazine ;)

Alright... girls who have ever been on birth control pills... lemme know if i'm right or if they are. Because their insistance is making me kind of angry.

They had an article last month, where a doctor stated that the Sunday Starter rule was made so that girls would not get their periods on the weekend. What they failed to realize is that a period on BCP is actually withdrawal bleeding, and it takes a couple of days for the hormones to get out of your system to cause that (right?). So if you end your active pills on saturday (for a sunday starter), then you won't get your period until tuesday or so. In which case, unless it's shorter than two or three days, you WILL be on your period through the following weekend. Right? Am I totally off my rocker here?

The lady who wrote me back (who didn't sign her name. big surprise.) INSISTED that if you start your pack of active pills on a sunday then 21 days later you get your period. What the hell. So I wrote back and yelled at her some more.

Now, what I don't get is that this doctor works in the OB-GYN department of research at Pittsburg U! You would think she'd know something about this! Unless it wasn't her that wrote me back and just someone who works at Cosmo. blah.

Anyways, just needed to vent ;) I don't think I'm wrong here. Any opinions about this?

Thank you to everyone in this community who helped me learn more about my body and the things I was putting in it. Maybe more people should join ;)

Comments

[righteousbean.livejournal.com]

i am on a sunday start .. my period often is done by the weekend, sometimes on saturday morning i will have *some* spotting. that is just my experience though

[ravenfyre.livejournal.com]

*nod* fair enough.
i'm just going by the average 5-day period thing... i know some people's are shorter and some are a week... but i was just mad that they insisted you get your period the day after you finish your pill pack.

[righteousbean.livejournal.com]

yeah, understood. i don't get mine till tuesday night

[sarahliz.livejournal.com]

When I was a sunday start my period would come Tuesday evening, like clockwork. In general, though I don't remember for sure, I suspect that my period continued (very lightly) into the following weekend. So no, you aren't nuts.

[like-fire.livejournal.com]

i start my pills on thursdays and i have never gotten my period on the day i started the inactive pills, or the friday after or usually the saturday. for me at least, it takes until sunday morning to start my period and then lasts until wednesday or thursday. so yeah, i'd say you were right. maybe the woman who wrote you back has just never been on the pill and doesn't know. (she probably should have found out though).

[ravenfyre.livejournal.com]

just, i mean, if they put it in print then they should at least back up their information, no?
again, like i said, i don't know who it was that wrote me back though, so...

[toomuchwine.livejournal.com]

So then wouldn't Friday be the optimal start date? At least for you? That way your period wouldnt start until Monday and be done by Thursday or Friday. :) You really never would have a period on the weekend ;)

[mooflyfoof.livejournal.com]

i've been on the pill since 8th grade--with a couple of years of not being on it thrown in there--and my period has never started the day i started taking the sugar pills. it always takes a couple of days. sounds like this lady doesn't know what she's talking about.

[pezessed.livejournal.com]

I'm a sunday starter and my period doesn't show up until Wednesday. It's usually light during the weekends, but it's still there.

[r0achie76.livejournal.com]

i'm in the middle of my second month of (mircette) pills-so my body hasn't yet developed a pattern.

however, last time i was on bcp (ortho) i was a sunday starter and my period came every wednesday around the same time like clockwork. it'd last about 3 days, with the weekend being very light, but still there.

[simba20.livejournal.com]

I'm a Sunday starter. I usually start my period on Wed. night or Thurs morning. It will end then following Monday or Tuesday, with gunk coming out until thurs or Fri.

Lately though, it has been light on Saturdays and Sundays.

[misfit.livejournal.com]

Just my $0.02... I'm a Sunday starter, have been for four years. My period arrives 99% of the time on Wednesday and continues until Monday or Tuesday, thus my weekend is full of period-wonderfulness. Maybe she was referring to a specific type of pill?

[ravenfyre.livejournal.com]

they didn't mentioned any specific brand/type of pill, so...

hmm

[sunspoteyes.livejournal.com]

if her logic was right in starting your period the day you took your first placebo, wouldn't everybody who accidently missed a pill start bleeding...?

[harpseal.livejournal.com]

very good point!

Yeah I think that who wrote that don't know anything real, personally i'd rather have my period during the weekend than during the week because i can stay in bed on weekends and rest. During the week i don't have time to deal with my period!

[sunspoteyes.livejournal.com]

yea, exactly. i don't have to be running around between classes and meetings bent over from cramps if i don't want to, and i don't have to have it on the weekend if i don't want it then, either. yay for period-tweakage.

[brokenbabydoll.livejournal.com]

.. if i miss a pill i don't start my period.. i'd have to miss about 3 for that to happen to me.. i'm a sunday starter. period starts late tuesday and goes into sunday or monday of the folliwing week.

[thevargasgirl.livejournal.com]

sunday start here. get my rag on tuesday but by friday night its usually gone.

[omystars.livejournal.com]

In short: the woman who wrote you back is full of shit.

I was on the pill for five years and never - and I mean NEVER - started bleeding bleeding until Tuesday night at the very earliest. Sometimes I didn't start until Friday.

I like being off the pill a lot better.

[simian.livejournal.com]

I'm a sunday start & I usually don't get my period until thurs, fri or sat, so of course, my period is always on the weekend.

[puttysan.livejournal.com]

Until I started skipping my periods, I was a Sunday Start, and got my pill on Friday, three days before the end of the inactive pills.

[elfbabe.livejournal.com]

Sunday start, Wednesday bleed. She sure is full of shit!

Personally, I think Sunday start was invented because the calendar week starts on Sunday. That makes a lot more sense to ME.

[goddessofmania.livejournal.com]

I've taken Zovia for two years and also a Sunday starter: I always start Tuesday and end it either Saturday or early Sunday. So, yes, I agree, this woman is slightly off on her information.

[ravenfyre.livejournal.com]

thanks everyone for responding... just wanted to make sure i wasn't crazy ;)

i do realize though that some people have short periods, so theirs may be done by the weekend.
i just didn't understand why she said that you'd get your period as soon as you finished your active pills. hmff.

[silverfiligree.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly puzzled by all this because this is not standard practice in the UK. When you start for the first time, you are told to take the first pill on the first day of your period (some brands it's the 5th day). After years of experience I start the new pack on a Thursday, my period lasts Monday-Thursday.

All women are different and it's ridiculous to make such broad assumptions and ignore individual testimony!

[sismith42.livejournal.com]

in my experience, it takes a few days to start bleeding... I just shifted back to starting the pill on saturdays to avoid weekend bleeding.

Also, since they DIDN'T sign their name, you have no way of knowing who answered-- it could have been the janitor, and was probably some editior-type who doesn't know anything...

If you want to correspond with the researcher at Pittsburg U, go to their website and find her email directly (most Unis have a search directory these days...)

[ravenfyre.livejournal.com]

good idea

i'm just more upset that they printed that when nobody obviously did their homework; they're giving their readers false information.

that's what i said, yeah, i don't know who wrote back - i doubt it was the doctor. but they haven't written back again since i wrote them the second email correcting them :P

[crankygirlie.livejournal.com]

my doctor told me the same thing, but my period always came on thursday, hung around for friday, saturday and sunday, then trailed off on monday.

So I ALWAYS had my period on the weekend.

it sucked.