Ovulating on pill

[factorywannabe.livejournal.com]

So I've had this brownish discharge for about a week or so while on the pill. I hate this pill with a passion because it doesn't work in my opinion and I have breakthrough bleeding every month. I'm seeing a new doctor on Friday for a new HBC, but I've been wondering: can a pill not be effective for the treatment of PCOS and still make me ovulate? Is it just my ovaries having a hissy fit and making me breakthrough bleed?

Comments

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Breakthrough bleeding alone isn't a sign that a pill isn't effective against pregnancy -- it's not uncommon that some brands simply don't control bleeding with some users. Sometimes a higher estrogen dosage will help with that, sometimes it's switching to a different type of progestin. How long have you been on this brand? If it's only a few cycles, you may still be within the adjustment period; if it's been longer than that, it would definitely be a good idea to speak to your health care provider about trying a different brand.

[stormbringer986.livejournal.com]

Seconding this. I was on Femcon for a while and didn't have problems for a long time. Then I stacked two packs to skip an inconvenient bleed, and every month after that was a misery of breakthrough bleeding and frustration. I'm not really sure why it started doing that. But considering I didn't end up pregnant while I was using Femcon, I assume it was still doing its job despite the annoying breakthrough stuff.
When I mentioned it to my gyn a few months later she said I probably needed a different dosage and switched me to Loestrin. I haven't had any more breakthrough problems since then.

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

Have you missed any pills, taken any late? Some users find that if they're *super* consistent with pill timing, they have less breakthrough bleeding, as they're able to keep the hormone levels more constant.

[gryphonwing.livejournal.com]

PCOS makes everything hormonal pretty screwy, but I highly doubt you're ovulating while on HBC... PCOS often means not ovulating at all anyway, and HBC prevents ovulation. Well, estrogen-based pills do, I think POPs don't always? Anyway.

Could be that your uterus is just not used to the hormonal doses it's getting and is reacting to even tiny fluctuations in hormone levels with a bit of blood. When I started HBC, I had morning sickness for about a week and if I didn't take my pill at the same time every day I would spot. A few months in that stopped.

Hopefully you can find a pill that works better for you. :)

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

I've got PCOS and being on the pill is the only thing that makes me ovulate. If I hadn't seen it on a scan I wouldn't believe it myself. The poor ultrasound tech was looking from the screen, to on notes, back to the screen, and looking very confused. She showed me what was happening, and said she'd only seen it once before. When I told her I had a girlfriend she seemed relieved!

[gryphonwing.livejournal.com]

Hah! Okay, well, you're definitely on the tail end of the curve, there, I think. Isn't it kind of amazing, the breadth of human variation? And how little the... complex interplay?... of our various internal systems is understood.

For me, going on a POP made me have normal-ish menstrual cycles... which two different doctors have told me shouldn't have happened if I wasn't having them before that. And now, off all forms of HBC, I'm having normal-ish cycles and at least sometimes probably ovulating - PCOS and all. **cheer**

I often think the women's health provider people look relieved at the "lesbian" word... I suppose because we're at pretty damn low pregnancy risk and it kind of cuts out one whole chunk of their job.

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

I've been forced into a pregnancy test despite being on the pill and having a Mirena at the same time. One doctor in an emergency dept told my girlfriend I was having an ectopic rupture due to pregnancy, and told her "She could be getting up to anything while you're at work". Cos apparently only one woman per house can have a job or something...

But yeah, my body is totally weird. I use two forms of HBC in parallel, and I still have enough testosterone in me to actually aromatise back to oestrogen. I apparently have consistently adult male levels of T (albeit in the bottom 20% range), despite consistent use of added female hormones over the years. Oh and pretty much a femme too, which is hilarious. It's interesting to think how I might be without the endocrine weirdness! For now I'm a bearded fat femme in a frilly skirt and doc marten boots, and it's fun to finally be able to enjoy that.

[gryphonwing.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's hot. Definitely the sort of femme I can appreciate. :D

I'm actually on the soft butch end of things (men's button-downs and fedoras are everyday work clothes), and I play with gender sometimes... what's hilarious is that if I really want to do drag, I end up gluing facial hair onto the chin I've shaved. AWESOME.

Also, I love the "she could be up to anything..." comment. Points for sensitivity, huh? Idiot. In positive health care stories, though, I went with my girlfriend for her annual recently and the nurse practitioner was beyond awesome to both of us. We couldn't figure out why they kept pushing birth control, though, since they knew we were together... eventually we found out that there was a state program that would cover the cost of the pap, but only if she needed family planning services. She has now been informed that if she's trying to prevent pregnancy, strict lesbianism is really very effective. ;)

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

Just a quick note in case you weren't sure, but HBC doesn't do a thing toward treating PCOS. It can mask some of the symptoms, induce bleeding once a month (although not periods), but that's it. Despite it's name it's actually an endocrine disorder, and the only thing that'll often make it go into remission is treatment with a drug like metformin that can tackle the underlying processes of the syndrome.

[gryphonwing.livejournal.com]

Yeah - some people have good luck with diet & exercise changes targeting blood sugar, others need metformin, but just filling us with the hormones our ovaries aren't making doesn't fix the problem.

I wish to hell this bizarre endocrine disorder had initially manifested in anything other than a "women's health" issue - they're so easily dismissed and ignored. I suspect an increasingly prevalent environmental trigger, but there just isn't a ton of research, at least not that I've seen. I admit I haven't looked recently.

On a fun note, I have F-to-M friends who are super jealous that I get free what they have to pay for. **grin**

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

Oh you are so right. The times I've wished for it to be rectal bleeding, or lumps somewhere, anything but ovaries. Then if you're 'lucky' enough to be fat because of it, every fucking thing from a sore throat to ooh... potentially fatal autoimmune disorders and neurological issues is just the fat, it's all just depression because you're a big fat fatty who isn't ill at all.

Bitter? Me? Nooo. Heheh sorry for that. Learned yesterday that the nerve fibres in my feet and legs are permanently damaged because of the clusterfuck of medical ignorance caused by the fat+woman+poor+queer thing. Yesterday's doctor was amazing though. Never, as a fat person, have I been asked "Are you making sure you're eating enough?" (which no, never am) but me and my gf just looked at him and each other in utter shock! She's got PCOS too, and has had much the same maltreatment I have.

I think they're all just jealous of Jason, my beard. :D

[gryphonwing.livejournal.com]

I should totally name my beard! I never thought of that!