Mixed up pill days

[redjackcash.livejournal.com]

Hey guys! I have a quick question and must once again turn to your wisdom.

I take ortho tricyclen lo - a triphasic pill, which means I take 7 white pills (least amount of hormones), 7 light blue pills (more hormones), 7 dark blue pills (most hormones), then 7 days of placebo for my period.

I was supposed to take the 7th day of my light blue pill, but instead I took a white pill from an other already started pack. I took my first dark blue pill regularly today.

EDIT: I've just looked and seen I did NOT take my first dark blue pill, instead I took my last light blue. I've edited the rest of the post accordingly.

We know we have to use back-up birth control (condoms) until the end of this pack. My question is this - my next pack essentially contains 6 white pills, 7 light blue pills, and 8 dark blue (instead of 7-7-7), since I will be taking the dark blue pill I missed in place of the day 7 light blue pill. Will this be ok?

Also, how long should we wait before we no longer have to worry about back-up birth control? We were thinking to wait until this pack is done and then wait until 7 days after we start the new pack (or hoping, at least) - but wanted to check on it.

Thanks for any and all help you can give!

EDIT 2: Also, can anyone recommend a good birth control help line/phone number/something I can call if some sort of thing like this happens again? I use Planned Parenthood and get a different doctor every time I go in, so I have no "regular" gynecologist (and so don't know who to call).

What's up?

[http://users.livejournal.com/--trying/]

I smell. It hasn't always been like this, and it's definitely not due to the fact that I do not wash. Because I do, so much. But, for some reason it just does not smell like roses down there. I have sex every day, or every other day. Could it be because I'm not going pee after I have sex? I am clueless as to why it is such a bad odor. And, am embarrassed. Please help, suggestions?

Possible UTI/Kidney Infection?

[rebeccatron.livejournal.com]

At the end of August, I had what I assume is a UTI. I had no symptoms, no burning whilst urinating, nothing, until one morning I was sitting on the couch after having just gone to the bathroom and all of a sudden I just HURT. I was in so much pain I was on the floor crying. It felt more like an "explosion" so I thought it was my appendix. I was brought to the hospital and waited for about 7 hours before I got to a doctor. The pain did manage to ease up and while trying to pee in the cup, I experienced more of the pain associated with a UTI. When I finally saw a doctor he poked me in the stomach, I told him the pain was lower and he perscribed me an anti-biotic to get rid of the UTI. Thats it.

Fast forward a week, I'm covered head to toe with beautiful red dots. I'm allergic to the anti-biotic. When I go back to the hospital and get a lovely steroid shot in the hip, the doctor asks me if my UTI symptoms are gone and I told him yes so he never re-perscribed anything even though I wasn't done with the first set of anti-biotics.

Since then, and I may be overreacting, I feel like it has never really "gone away". It doesn't burn intensely when I pee, but sometimes there is a little "shock" and I find that my urine has had a much stonger scent. Sometimes I would describe it as almost rotten eggs and at other times, its a much different scent. I noticed in the past few days that my lower back (what I assume is my kidneys) has been sore, my urine a bit darker, and it appears to be a little cloudy with the same strong scent, but no pain.

I was not sexually active when all of this began (I was going through a messy break-up with my ex) but around the beginning of October I started having sex again. Could this have anything to do with it? All I want to know is whether the smell is normal, if I'm just dehydrated, if I'm overreacting, etc. If it does sound like a UTI or kidney infection, will drinking a lot of water/cranberry juice help?

birth control

[miss-providence.livejournal.com]

Hi everybody!

i have an EXTREMELY hard time losing weight. That said, I was very happy with my progress at the end of the summer.

I started taking Mircette the first week of November. It's been one month and i've gained 8-10 lbs on the d**n things!

I dont know what to do! I love the freedom they give me, but I really don't operate well with this extra weight. I have a seriously difficult time accepting the way I look now, partially bc it took me SO long to get 5 lbs off this summer.

What do u guys think? Should I give it a couple more months? Should I just accept that this is how my body reacts and ditch the pill? I've read articles that say over and over again that you don't gain weight on the pill but I think thats just plain not true! LOOK AT ME!!

Any suggestions?! help!

Visiting Planned Parenthood

[diamondxavenue.livejournal.com]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about making a trip to the local Planned Parenthood for an HBC prescription, since my school insurance no longer covers the NuvaRing and I'd prefer not to take the pill. I just wanted to ask if PPs charge for the first visit, and if so, about how much I should expect. Thanks :)

How I feel about sex..

[tisha313.livejournal.com]

not trying to offend anyone but just the idea that having unprotected sex creates a vaginal odor down there is really gross to me.  Please do not take an offense to this these are just my own personal opinions.  Growing up nobody ever told me that much about sex and I had to figure things out on my own and I am still learning.  I just cannot imagine myself having unprotected sex and letting a guy ejaculate inside of me if its going to create a loud odor down there unless I really want children.  And then learning that semen leaks out of the vagina for days after that makes me feel uneasy. 

I remember when my sister got a boyfriend at 17 and my mother discovered she was having sex she chastized her about it all the time.  Everytime she left the house she would make remarks like "i bet you are going to get laid tonight" and when she came home from a date my mother would barge into her room and start cursing her out about everything.  Just saying all kinds of lude things to her that I don't even want to repeat. Seeing my sister go through that as a kid didn't necessarily make me think sex was bad all together but not necessarily all good. 

Ever since then I made a vow to myself to not ever EVER let my mother know about any boyfriends or give her any ideas in her head that I was having sex as long as I was living in her house.  I try to appear as asexual as possible to my mother. Almost virginal.

I don't know if this is why I don't enjoy sex or not.  I'm not sure if it would make a difference if my mother acted any differently.  I just know that my mother till this day still thinks that I am a virgin and she will not believe any differently until I am married with children.  My mom is just so damn nosey.  If I told her I had sex before then everytime I leave the house she will think that is what I am going to do. Even though I don't even have sex on a regular basis.  It's something I do every now and then because I don't have a steady partner.  

I must admit that the few times I had sex(intercourse) I would hurry up and run into my room and shut the door when I got home.  I was scared that my mother was going to run into me & sense that I was doing something.  She always told me growing up that a mother can just look at her daughter and tell that she's had sex--so "don't ever think you can hide it because i'll always know" it did cause me to have mild paranoia. 

Ironically, I never felt this way about oral sex.  I did it all the time with little to no guilt.  It's weird. I just thought I'd share this because I've never told anyone all this before..since ppl are wondering why I always seem negative about sex...so I guess now you know why..

a little worried/pregnancy question

[https://users.livejournal.com/---sorrow/]

I am currently on YAZ, and I have been on it for over a year. About a week and a half ago my boyfriend and I had sex. I can't remember if it was the day before or that day specfically, but sometime in that 24 hour time period I forgot my pill and didn't remember to take it til the next day (a full 24 hours). Normally I wouldn't be worried about being pregnant, but I've been getting lots of stomach aches this week, and yesterday my breasts hurt. Is there a chance that I could be pregnant? I don't want to buy a pregnancy test b/c I am home from college right now and my mother would have a heart attack.

Need some reassurance about late period

[pezpyre.livejournal.com]

Long story short: I'm sexually active, my period is late by a week, I've been uner a lot fo stress lately, took a pregnancy test adn it came out negative, but I'm still worried for some reason.
Any freakin' input? WTF moon cycle? It's freaking me out... 

Rough sex or spotting?

[aesoploveee.livejournal.com]

 Hello fellow VPers! I'd just like to say, to start off, I'm on HBC and I always use condoms.

So Saturday night, my boyfriend and I had some rougher sex than usual. My vulva area kind of grated against his pubis and thus, pubic hair. It didn't bother me during the act but afterwards, I noticed was a bit tender while wiping when I used the bathroom. I couldn't tell otherwise, though, and when I went to the bathroom again later, the feeling was completely gone. 

Yesterday night, we had sex again. The foreplay was more intense than usual and he fingered me, which is sort of new because we've only done it a few times before, and it felt a little deeper, but not painful. After we had sex and I used the bathroom, I noticed some blood mixed in the discharge and I was a little sore. It didn't concern me much, since it didn't appear to be bleeding hard or ripped anywhere, when I checked around.

However, today when I woke up, I'm still sort of tender and there's been light spotting, like the beginning of a period. I bleed out onto my pantyliner and had to change it twice. I start my placebos tomorrow, though, so I'm wondering if this might be just my period spotting early along with being too rough?

We're laying off the sex, as I want to make sure that if something did get irritated, it'll heal up. But any input as to what might be going on? Thanks in advance! :)

masturbating...

[the-last-detour.livejournal.com]

How do you masturbate? Whatever I do never fucking works! Tips/suggestions? I'm really really in the mood now and I hate not knowing how to do it properly

DivaCup issues :-/

[loonylupinlover.livejournal.com]

So, since lately my vulva gets irritated on my period no matter if I use Always pads, regular tampons, or pads/tampons that are bleach-free and made from organic cotton, I decided to take the plunge into reusable menstrual products and picked up a Gladrag and a DivaCup from my local Whole Foods. It's been a day of use/attempted use with both and here are my issues:

- At first I was having issues getting the cup in and out without it opening up all the way and punching me in the vulva, but I think I've got that part down now, thank goodness. Some combo of punch-down/7-fold/origami/some weird thing I made up seems to get the job done, and I can now get it out most of the time without my vulva being attacked.

- When I get the cup in, I can't really tell if it's sealed or not. But, seeing as I filled it a third of the way up today with zero leakage, I'm guessing it's sealed. When I run a finger up around it it seems like in order to not be squished flat it has to engulf my cervix. My cervix is always pretty low, I've never not been able to find it, and during my period it's only an inch or two up there, so the cup has to sit all the way around it. I assume it's sealing since I had no leakage and it caught my flow beautifully, but I'm not sure how to tell for certain? Even when it's around my cervix the cup still doesn't feel very round... more like a squashed oval.

- IT'S TOO LONG. I cut off the stem entirely and can't really go any further without possibly damaging the cup's integrity. (I didn't use the stem at all to remove it earlier, I can remove it very easily by getting a finger around the top.) The cup feels totally fine if I'm sitting down being still... but then I stand up and out pokes the bottom. It can't really be slipping down if it's catching EVERYTHING with no leaks, right? Yet when I bend all the way over I don't feel it poke out, but as soon as I stand up straight out it comes again. Walking down to the bus stop today was torturous! As soon as I left my house I realized "Shit, it's stabbing me!" but had to walk the five blocks down or be late. At the bus stop I was a total perv and faced away from everyone waiting and surreptitiously snuck my hand down my pants to push up on the bottom of the cup, roflmao, I was that desperate.

- WHAT CAN I DO. I can't return it because a) I didn't buy it from the website and b) I cut off the stem, right? ;_; ;_; ;_; I really, really, really don't want to have to buy another cup. The cup is supposed to SAVE you money, not make you sink $60 or $100 into it until you find a cup that fits, right? I will seriously cry if that's the only answer. I'm so excited about how beautifully it caught everything and I don't want to have to throw the damn thing out. I've posted here before about Insteads sticking way the fuck out of me too. Damn you vagina! :(

- It's difficult to pee with the Diva in. It feels like I have to pee very gingerly and with a weaker flow than normal. Am scared to take a crap while wearing it, lol, it just doesn't seem like it would work.

As to the Gladrag: it's pretty bulky, even though I only put in one of the two inserts it came with, but all right. However, it started feeling all bunchy and potentially irritating by the end of the day, just like disposable pads. I was grateful to have it though because I wore the Diva to work and half an hour into it I had to duck into the bathroom and tear it out because the damn bottom -- which still feels just like there's a huge massive stem on it, despite cutting it all off -- was poking me no matter how I shoved it up.

So. Any advice on any of that? I checked the Vulvapedia's memories on the Diva, and I'll probably post to menstrual_cups later, when I'm not supposed to be studying for my finals tomorrow/the next day, if I haven't figured it out by then. I'm not a member of the comm yet though aaaaand I really should be studying. But I've read a fair number of entries there over the past couple days and am still not sure what can be done.

Please work for me, DivaCup!

Birth Control, no period

[romanceaglow.livejournal.com]

I know how you guys hate repeat questions,
but I went through the searching and reading and all of that mess 
and I couldnt find anything to soothe my uneasy soul so I decided to post.
[I can delete if you want.]


I started taking YAZ about four months ago.   I did not like it at all.  I was previously on YASMIN and loved it but when I went to my OBGYN I told her I wanted to try YAZ because of all the reviews I have heard about it.  Needless to say I seriously did not like it.  I hated not knowing exactly which day my period would come.  After my Three month trial was over I called and got my YASMIN refilled.  I had a normal period.  I got my YASMIN late so I was told to wait until my next period to take it.  I waited...and waited...and waited some more.  It never showed.  I had some unprotected [and quite irresponsible] sex while not on the pill.  I took a pregnancy test on the weekend that my period had come the previous month.  It came up negative.  I waited two more weeks.  I got all the signs of my period [tender breasts, ill mood, you know all the good stuff.]  but no period.  I took another pregnancy test.  It also came back negative.  A few days after taking it I got some light on and off spotting for a few days.  I susually only have this the first day of my period, sometimes the day before.

So my question is...
What the heck is going on here!?!

Ive taken the pregnancy tests.
I honestly dont think that I am pregnant.

What is going on, because this phantom period is really ticking my nerves.

Any response is appreciated.

[oh and mind you, I have started my YASMIN.  I started once the slight bleeding occured.]

should i be concerned?

[feistymuch.livejournal.com]

Okay I know this is probably a really annoying question. But hopefully y'all can help me out.
I'm on Orth-Tricyclen Lo and have been for about a year. I'm  usually REALLY good about taking my pills on time. I think I've probably missed one or two ever and I usually remember within 10 hours or so.
However, last night (I take my pill around 10PM) when I went to take my pill, I popped it out of the annoying little plastic-y capsule thing and it disappeared. I looked for it on my obscenely messy floor but soon gave up. I took the next pill in the pack because it was the same color (last phase of the 3) and went to sleep, figuring I'd just change to a new pack the next day and carry on from the same point in the phase of pills so I didn't stop taking them one day early. Peachy keen, right?
Well, tonight I go to take my pill and realize that I have two left after tonight's. My last active pill is on a Wednesday, so that is the amount I SHOULD have.. but I dropped one! I thought! But I could have just been tired and hallucinating (it happens. my brain hates me.) So if I did lose last night's that means I missed one  at some recent point and never realized it.. but this seems unlikely because that usually does not happen to me.
Now, the question is, what should I do? I had sex, condomless, on Friday and I know sperm can stay in your system for like five days or something. And I'll probably be having sex again tomorrow. Should I use a condom? Should I be worried about pregnancy? Should I take another pill from this phase to make up for the one I guess I missed maybe? Is it possible I am reacting to nothing and some weird brain-fart caused me to think I lost an invisible pill? AAH! I am shit at figuring out hormonal stuffs like this. Please help me!
Thanks!