vaginapagina | Stopping birth control pills abruptly/temporarily

I checked the archives as well as scoped out Google with no luck, although I must say I did come across some very interesting posts while reading the archives :)

On to my situation/question though, hopefully some of you could offer up some answers. I've been taking OTC-lo for close to a year, and I'm due for my period in roughly 5 days. The timing this month happens to be terrible, since I'm starting classes (summer school) in 6 days, and the first two days of my period are unbearable (I've spoken to my dr. about this and she deemed switching pills a bad idea for the time being). Sitting still for 4 hours, as well as comprehending what's being taught, and being sociable isn't seeming very likely.

Anyways, I was thinking of stopping my pills right now, which leaves two active pills and then the placebos. It's always been my understanding that stopping taking hormones usually results in a period... is this a correct assumption of mine? My hopes are that I'll get my period a few days early, so it'll be more managable/tolerable for when summer school starts. A second part to my question would be, should I wait until I stop bleeding (assuming I experience withdrawal bleeding) before starting a new pack, or should I only wait 7 days? Thanks in advance to anyone who might have some information/experiences/words of advice ♥

Edit: Forgot to mention that I'm on the pill strictly for menstrual reasons, so protection isn't an issue.

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Your period may or may not come early, it's really impossible to know for sure. Your period can start anytime during those 7 hormone free days, peronsally mine doesn't usually start until around day 5 or 6. However, you shouldn't go any longer than 7 days without taking an active pill. Otherwise, your effectivness would lower as far as I've been told. Even if you are still having your period, start a new pack 7 days after you last took an active pill.

And kind of random, but why doesn't your doctor want to switch your pills if you are having cramping problems?

thanks for all that. By effectivness did you mean as far as having a steady amount of hormones, or for contraceptive purposes? I forgot to mention that I'm on the pill purely for menstrual reasons, I'll go edit my post when I'm done here.

To answer your question (random = awesome, I don't mind answering your question, I just figured I'd leave that info out to shorten my post): My doctor is currently addressing sleep problems I've been having and we've discussed me getting on something to treat my depression in the near future, and she thought that playing with hormones might make things worse. She told me to 'take an ibuprofen' or any other similar over the counter pain med for my cramps and sent me on my way. I understand where she's coming from, but I don't think she understands how crippling my cramps can be and that I'm immune to otc pain pills. OTC-lo just doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to for me, and skipping periods is something that interests me but isn't possible (triphasics, gotta love em. I tried once and had a month-long period, urgh). I didn't want to push the topic though, so for now I'm stuck with OTC-lo.

Sorry for the mini-rant, lol. Thanks again for commenting

No problem...thanks for answering my nosey, random question. :) I can understand her reasoning I suppose (I have depression problems, so I also have to be careful about BC). I hope you can get switched over to something soon. I was on another pill & while it wasn't he main reason for switching, I had awful cramps each month & I hated it.

And by effectiveness I did mean contraceptive wise.

Thanks, I hope I can switch pills soon too. I have a few other reasons for wanting to switch, but my cramps are on the top of the list. Thanks again for all your help (I promise I'll stop thanking you now, heh, I'm just soo grateful for ladies like you)

You could always stack the pills. When you do this, you skip the placebo pills and begin a new pack on what would've been the first day of the placebos. You may get some spotting, but that's normal, and probably not as bad as a full-fledged period.

But she's on OTC-lo, which has different levels of hormones every week. It's almost impossible to skip your period on that pill.

ahh I must agree with moochar, it is rather impossible to skip periods with OTC-lo. I tried once and had a month-long period, that was... an experience. Thanks for suggesting that though <3

One thing that I've heard other women on triphasic pills doing is to take the third week of pills as the first week, when you skip. So you essentially take week 1 - 2 - 3 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 4, and then have your period. I've heard that it works for some, but not for all.

I dont think I've heard that way before. It just seems to me when you start the 2nd week pills after the second week of week 3 pills, since the hormone levels drop, breakthrough bleeding would start.

I've heard of some women trying to skip by doing two weeks of week 1, two weeks of week 2, then two weeks of week 3. That may have a higher chance of working, but I'd still be paranoid.

If you skipped your last two pills your period might come earlier, but it would compromise your protection. You have to take 21 active pills to be protected, but If you aren't worried about getting pregnant then it's certainly an option. If you decide to do that, you should only go off your pills for seven days and you'll have to take seven active pills to be protected again.

*kicks self* I definitely forgot to include in my original post that protection isn't an issue, I'm not sexually active (I edited my post but yea, sorry for the insufficient info on my part). Thank you for addressing that aspect though, and for letting me know I should start taking actives again after 7 days of stopping. You were a huge help, thank you!!!

Not a problem, I dropped a pill down the sink a few weeks ago and was well educated on the whole "21 pills or else" thing. I'm just glad I could help ^_^

Stopping birth control pills abruptly/temporarily

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