STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

calico · Kenneth Cole

birth control question

Kelly · Hermes

It depends on what you're taking. I assume you're taking monophasic pills, in which case you should be able to do that. You might have some spotting for the first few months, but you'd get that with Seasonale anyway. You might want to check with your pharmacist or gyno, but I'm 99% sure you can do that.

But if you're on tri-phasic, like Ortho Tri Cyclen, you can't do that. (That's what I take. Boo.)

Elle · Hermes

I agree with what ttara123 said.

Also, I Seasonale but needed to switch to something cheaper, so I started back to back packs with Alesse (which I'd had good luck with before). It's very low dose but has a similar chemical makeup to Seasonale. Unfortunately, it did not supress my period. I took it normally for 3 weeks, and then when I started my next pack I began spotting just when my period would have normally arrived. The spotting didn't stop for 8 weeks, until I started taking it normally again.

Moral of the story, you can try, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will work! It is safe however, unless like ttara123 mentioned you're on a tri-phasic pill in which case I'd definitely talk to your doc first.

jrhampt · Kenneth Cole

Yes, you can do this. I've been doing this with various brands of monophasic pills for years - the only tricky thing is getting your gyn to prescribe you a few extra packs per year. I don't think there's any reason you have to have your period.

lilmonkeyj · Nine West

My doctor said that taking whatever pills you're on consecutively (skipping the placebos) will have the same effect as Seasonale. I was doing that for a while and it worked fine. If you like the pill you're on, maybe that would be a better option since so many of them seem to affect people differently.