I started my period 2 weeks early and the blood is a very dark brown color?

Question

I just started taking seasonale birth control two weeks ago after my last period ended. It's the type of BC where you only have 4 periods a year so technically i'm not supposed to have another one until July. Even so my period falls on the 6th of every month so I wouldn't be having another one until the 2nd week of may even if I wasn't on Seasonale. I did miss my pill 4 days in a row so I doubled up for two days which is what my doctor told me to do. Yesterday was the 2nd day I took a double dosage of my birth control to catch up on the 2 days I missed and i've been having terrible stomach cramps ever since the first night I doubled up. Then today I started my period (I think). I went to pee and there was really dark brown blood but just a small amount. What is going on???

Answer 1

The brown blood is just old blood and may be as a result of you missing those pills with the Seasonale and trying to catch up. Unfortunately I found out (because of the ads that used to run on tv for it) that spotting and breakthrough bleeding are a common side effect while on this medication.

Also, spotting is a common side effect when someone is trying to adjust to taking the pill. It takes the body about 3 months to fully adjust to being on the pill and because the Seasonale is the type of pill where you skip for 3 months (and this can be done with other kinds of birth control pills to treat medical problems such as endometriosis) it can take a bit longer.

I have also had to double up when I've had issues with the pill (I'm on a different brand) to see if that clears up my problem and when I have to double up it takes me about a week to have that bleeding stop.

I would definitely go ahead and call the dr back to double check and see what they think is going on if it isn't related to playing catch up with the Seasonale.