Hello,

i've been on the pill for a few years now and I have not experienced any change in terms of breakthrough bleeding. When I started on alesse I had the normal spotting a few days before my period as is to be expected when just starting. Everything was fine (my periods were coming much lighter and I had no spotting in between) until 6 months later when I started bleeding the week before I was due to finish the pill pack. This bleeding continued on my off week and stopped when I started a new pack. This was not due to missing pills or taking them at odd times, i'm very consistent with this.

Ever since then it has been the most irregular cycle where sometimes I bleed before i'm done a pill pack (usually around 1 week before and the week off of the pill pack) and other times I don't get it for a few days until after having stopped. I have been switched to ortho tri-cyclen lo and even nuva ring. Nuva ring was fantastic (no spotting, very short and light period), but did not work with me anatomically (apparently my bladder sits low and pushes down on the ring so it was always lower in my body than it was supposed to be) so it had to be stopped. Presently I am back on tri cyclen lo wondering if i'm going to be having these long periods of constant bleeding again. I'm not sure what else to do other than ask for higher dose pills, but I worry since I have painful fibrous lumps in my breasts that get worse with the increase of hormones.

I feel that the hassle and irritation this is causing is starting to outweigh the benefits of the pill. My period has not been shortened (not often anyways), my cramps though lessened are still terrible, and I get very painful breast around the time of my period. Has anyone had a similar experience? If so what have you done to resolve it? Is my only option to ask for a higher dose pill regardless of the pain I get or should I be forgetting about the pill all together?

Thank you to those that read and/or give some feedback! It is appreciated.

-aliera