Dilemma!

[persian--girl.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a period in over 12 months. I was diagnosed with PCOS. The doctor told me to go back on the birth control I was taking (Diane-35). I asked how I was supposed to start taking it again, when in the instructions it says to take your first pill the first day of you period, and I'm not getting my period. So she prescribed me 'progesterone.' (I think. I am pretty sure this is the name of the pill I was prescribed - something she said I take for 5 days, then after a couple days I will start to bleed.)
Well apparantly progsterone is on back order and there wont be any in supply of all of Ontario (where I live) for at least four months.
I'm in this back-and-forth 'calling the doctor's receptionsist then calling the pharmacy game,' getting pretty fed up with it, and decided to ask you fine people before I call my doctors office back (because the lady on the phone was rude and I want to know more information before calling her again).
The doctor's receptionist already said, before I was informed by the pharmacy that the drug is need is out of supply for months, that my doctor said the 'other option' >insert some name I have no idea what she said< would not work in my case, so they didnt prescribe an alertnative.
Are there alternatives? The pharmacist said that there were other things they could give me, and to ask my doctor. *SIGH* So I guess I just want to know if anybody knows of alternatives, particularly the names so I can research them, or if anybody has any advice on what else I should be doing here.
I am pretty sure after a year of not having my period Im going to start putting myself at risk of something bad here.. so I dont want to wait another four months, if they even get it in four months (they arent even sure if it will be there in that time).

Comments

[gryphonwing.livejournal.com]

While there are some risks of building up lots of uterine lining, I wouldn't worry a bit about triggering a bleed. Just go on the pill and use it normally. Your first withdrawal bleed might be heavy (or not, hard to say - PCOS makes everything screwy) or you might have breakthrough bleeding, but it's ultimately not a big deal.

All you would be doing with progesterone is, essentially, triggering a withdrawal bleed. And your body does not care if you do that now or in four weeks. And triggering a withdrawal bleed with progesterone is not the same as having a period - it will not mean you're more or less fertile or having a menstrual cycle. It will just mean you bleed.

So there's no way to make sure you're at the start of a natural menstrual cycle because you don't have one. PCOS is good for that. Since there's no way to tell, just start your pill whenever you want to. Take your pills regardless of breakthrough bleeding.

I did a bit of research and even though Diane-35 is an odd sort of pill I'm pretty sure the 21/7 rule will still apply. You should be protected after 7 days. But you can always use backup for the first month, then consider yourself protected, if it would make you feel better about it.

The anti-androgen half of it is probably why you respond to it so well. PCOS means plenty of androgens floating around, which can cause acne and other fun symptoms. Some people say it works particularly well paired with spironolactone, if that's something you want to check out.

Anyway, short version: you don't currently have a menstrual cycle, so there's no way to make sure you start on day one, and even a triggered bleed is not a menstrual cycle.

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

I should have scrolled down before replying, you covered it for me!

[gryphonwing.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you know the actual pill, and I wasn't certain about the difference between this one and others. :)