The irregular bleeding may occur with the first few months of taking any birth control. It should lessen in a few weeks. As far as skipping your period, you can be on any type of oral contraceptives for this to happen. As your physician told you with the ring to take it out after the third week and then put the new one in without a break. You can do this with pills also. You simply do not take the last week (placebo/sugar) pills and simply begin your new pack. By doing this, you will not have your bleed week. It is not crutial to have your period while being on birth control simply because you are not ovulating and therefore your body does not need to expell anything. It is up to you on whether you switch to pills or stay on the ring, but to make sure if you do want to skip your period, begin right after that third week. You will be completely covered as far as hormones go. Regardless of which type of oral contraceptive you switch to, they all have the same types of hormones that control the same thing. You are safe to become sexually active after 1-2 weeks of beginning hormones.

That helps a lot. So the bleeding is a result of the hormones, not the type of contraceptive i'm using? That makes sense. Hopefully it goes away soon. Thanks!