Estrostep Fe was the first pill i ever took, and I had the same problem. Unless I took them all at IDENTICAL times every day, like on the dot, I'd have breakthrough bleeding issues every month that lasted two weeks.
Talk to whoever prescribed your pills and look into getting a slightly higher dose of hormones. The breakthrough bleeding was a symptome of having the levels of hormone not quite high enough for me, and I ended up switching through almost all of the pills that the company who makes Estrostep makes (Loestrin, etc) before finally trying one that worked for me, one that wasn't made by that brand.
Keep in mind that synthetic hormones are varying strengths and dosages in each type of pill. Not all combo pills will affect you this way. Trying a different dosage of the same synthetic progesterone could help you (taking loestrin or something like that using the same progesterone type), though it didn't help me with this particular problem. Or this type of progesterone could be not working for you (as it didn't with me).
Also, Estrostep is a triphasic pill, and your body may work well with a lower dose (like estrostep) pill that is a monophasic (have the same amount of hormones in each pill during the month) type pill. I had this problem as well.
I ended up switching to Desogen, and I can't support it enough. When I took the pill that was by far my favorite I ever tried. I NEVER had bleeding issues on it, and I could skip my period without spotting problems for prolonged amounts of time.
Basically, to sum up what I'm trying to get across: Talk to your doctor or nurse practitioner and discuss what is going on. I'm not a doctor, but i've switched through a lot of pills and i think they'll just change what kind you take. If you have a type of pill you want to try you can suggest it, or you can let them guess and pick one out for you. Only they can really figure out what's going on. I recommend Desogen if you don't mind going on a monophasic (instead of triphasic, which you're on right now).
no subject
Talk to whoever prescribed your pills and look into getting a slightly higher dose of hormones. The breakthrough bleeding was a symptome of having the levels of hormone not quite high enough for me, and I ended up switching through almost all of the pills that the company who makes Estrostep makes (Loestrin, etc) before finally trying one that worked for me, one that wasn't made by that brand.
Keep in mind that synthetic hormones are varying strengths and dosages in each type of pill. Not all combo pills will affect you this way. Trying a different dosage of the same synthetic progesterone could help you (taking loestrin or something like that using the same progesterone type), though it didn't help me with this particular problem. Or this type of progesterone could be not working for you (as it didn't with me).
Also, Estrostep is a triphasic pill, and your body may work well with a lower dose (like estrostep) pill that is a monophasic (have the same amount of hormones in each pill during the month) type pill. I had this problem as well.
I ended up switching to Desogen, and I can't support it enough. When I took the pill that was by far my favorite I ever tried. I NEVER had bleeding issues on it, and I could skip my period without spotting problems for prolonged amounts of time.
Basically, to sum up what I'm trying to get across: Talk to your doctor or nurse practitioner and discuss what is going on. I'm not a doctor, but i've switched through a lot of pills and i think they'll just change what kind you take. If you have a type of pill you want to try you can suggest it, or you can let them guess and pick one out for you. Only they can really figure out what's going on. I recommend Desogen if you don't mind going on a monophasic (instead of triphasic, which you're on right now).