HBC Question

[lauraluv.livejournal.com]

Hello VP!

I've been on HBC for about 6 years now (maybe more, because I can't remember if I started HBC before or after I started dating my boyfriend). I took Alesse for the first 6ish months, and then switched to Marvelon, and about two years ago to the Apotex brand Apri (which is the generic Marvelon). Soon I'm going to start Yasmin.

It was kind of unclear at the very, very start as to what day I was supposed to start taking the HBC, so I defaulted to starting on Sunday, and I've done that ever since. After ending my 21-day pill cycle on Saturday, my period usually starts on Thursday (a couple of times it's started on Wednesday or Friday), and I resume my pills the following Sunday.

Is this normal?

I've honestly never known if it was or not, and I've always been curious. I figured it would be because my menstrual cycle never adapted or changed in all the years I've been on HBC. I got some conflicting information from a Pharmacist (after getting the first month of Yasmin) when he told me to start the new pack the very first day of my period. But after telling him about my cycle he said to continue on with what I was previously doing with the HBC I'm on right now. So after I mulled it over, I thought I would try to get some more information from others, and VP is a great place to go for this.

Comments

[somniumdraconae.livejournal.com]

Perfectly normal.

The day you start your withdrawal bleed will depend mostly on how quickly your personal metabolism is capable of clearing the hormones out of your system (thus creating the hormone drop your body needs to shed the uterine lining).

When I would Sunday start I would bleed the following Wednesday usually, sometimes Tuesday. But like I said, everyone's metabolism is different and if you polled enough people I'm sure you'd find at least someone who starts bleeding on each day.

[archangelbeth]

A while back, there was such a poll on VP! Every day of placebos was represented.

[archangelbeth]

I can explain the pharmacist, I think.

If you are starting HBC for the first time, then it takes 7 days of active pills (on nearly all combined HBC pills) to hypnotize your ovaries into not ovulating. If you start on the first day of your natural period, then those 7 days overlap with days when the ovaries are least likely to ovulate, so you can consider yourself protected from the first pill.

If you are just changing brands, however, you go by the 21/7 rule. 21 or more days of active pills, and 7 or fewer days without them, and your ovarian-hypnosis protection is maintained. (The withdrawal bleed is triggered by a drop in hormones, but while your uterus is bleeding, your ovaries are waking up. This is why missing pills around your no-hormone week can be a bit risky, if you have really gung-ho ovaries that wake up fast.)

So the pharmacist was first giving you "am not currently on HBC" instructions, then switched to "just changing brands" instructions.

[jennifer0246.livejournal.com]

Totally normal.