hey ladies, i started junel fe 1/20 about a month ago and had little side effects besides being irritable and moody (which i expect the first couple months). i just had my first period on junel and it was quite brown. i was worried but my best friend's sister is a nurse practioner and said its normal. have any of you experience brown periods and brown discharge on your birth control pills? i should mention i've never taken birth control before this. thanks so much for any help!
i did speak to a dr.. well nurse practioner, its the same thing basically and i trust her opinion as she is a close family friend and would tell me if there was reason for concern. my roommate said she also sometimes gets brown discharge before her period and sometimes even spots brown. i found several other message boards in which women responded and said they had similar experiences on birth control.
To be honest, your nurse friend is not qualified to tell you about it. If a woman womb was that easy there wouldn't be doctors that only deal with that area. Go to your doctor, a real doctor.
It's happened to me while I was on Seasonique. It's thick blood, which is why it gives the appearance of a brown color.
she works in a gyno office so i think she's reliable. thanks for the advice tho. i'm glad i'm not the only one. my period came and went on the normal days so i know everything is fine. ive just never had brown before my period, usually its after. i'll see how next month goes and then decide if i need to see my doc.
A nurse practitioner is PERFECTLY qualified to answer those questions. Many nurse-practitioners have their own practice. Anyway, as your hormones level out you may have spotting and such from the endometrium your uterus has built up from the time prior to the pills. You do not get periods on HBC, only withdrawl bleeding. This is because it does not allow the endometrium (what you shed) to build up prior to ovulation (which generally does not occur on HBC). The bcp change the pattern of your hormones and throw your cycle off, and you will need time to adjust. Also, even if you've taken HBC for long periods of time and skip the placebo pills in order to not bleed for a month, you still may spot. It is pretty much absolutely normal in the beginning to have some bleeding. I would use backup protection until it stops. That is because if it continues long term your dose may be too low. I wouldn't suspect that from what you said though.
It's pretty normal but tell your prescribing doctor about it if it continues. There are other birth control pills after all.
I just started the pill today so I can't compare just yet.With normal periods its usually brown towards the end so I don't see the problem.
I find it incredibly sad that someone would say that, and truly hope you are 1) quite young, and 2) capable of growth. I say that sincerely too, I'm not trying to be mean. Society is crap enough without men telling us that what a woman's body does is gross. Oh wait, society does tell us that. I'm so very glad that society is getting it's message out, I'd hate for it to go unheard.
