Questions on contraceptive pill

[Berry124]

Hi, I have just been given a contraceptive pill (not sure which one it is it says a brand called Gedarel-ethinylestradiol/desogesterel) but I am currently on my second day of my period and it's Thursday which is pretty much the middle of the week. I opened the pack and the days are labelled but which days pill do I take when starting them? There's 21 pills in a pack and it says to take them all then none for 7 days which is when your 'with drawl' bleeding will happen then carry on taking them again and so on; but which side of the pack do I start from? Do I start from the day that it is at the top of the pack or somewhere else? I wasn't told by the doctor and it's not on the leaflet that came with the pills.

Thank you

[Sam W]

Hi Berry,

Start from the top of the pack. I would also check out this article, since it had a bunch of info about how/when to start the pill:
Three questions about taking the birth control pill (and plenty of answers)

[Berry124]

Ok thankyou

[Berry124]

I read the article but don't understand when I should start the pack as this is the second day of my period and is a Thursday :/ Not sure if I miss read it, though I did read it twice but i'm still confused. Would the Sunday start be a good way for me as I started my period Wednesday?-"A Sunday Start is when you start the pill on the first Sunday AFTER your period begins (or, if it starts on a Sunday, on that Sunday). When you start with a Sunday start, the pill may be effective as early as within one week, but waiting one full cycle before going without a backup is strongly advised. The Sunday Start method was devised primarily for women who would prefer they have their withdrawal bleeds (your period wile using the pill) on a weekday, rather than on weekends, as it makes that more likely."

[Berry124]

Or could I just start today as my period started yesterday (Wednesday) and I don't want to mess up or change my cycle? The info letter that came with the pills says you can start it on days 2-5 of your period which applies to me, but will it have any effect on my period at the moment?

[Redskies]

That's okay, it can be confusing at first. I've had a look at the patient information leaflet online, and I agree it doesn't do the best job of answering the question you're asking here. As far as I can see, all 21 pills are the same, so there's no medical requirement to take them in a particular order (just the not-getting-confused-or-lost requirement ). However, I am neither a doctor nor a pharmacist, and those are the people who'll know best! So, my best suggestion is to take your pill pack and information to a pharmacist and ask them to show you on the pack, so you can feel most clear and confident about it. If all your pills have a day labelled, you probably don't want the confusion of always taking "Monday" on a Thursday, for example!

You can choose when you start taking the pills. It's best to start taking them within 7 days of starting your period, because that way your body will find it easier to sync up with the pills and is less likely to be jumbled for the first month or two. There's no guarantee that your body will adjust absolutely smoothly, but yes, it's likely to be smoother if you start your pills within the first few days of starting a period. Whenever you start the pills, you take all 21, one per day for 21 days. Then you have 7 days off. Then, start a new pack on the same day of the week that you started before, and take 21, etc.

Many people like to do a "Sunday start", which is what it sounds like That's because many people find Sunday a more obvious day to remember of when they should start each new pack, and many people also find that with that timing, their bleed is more likely to happen on weekdays than on a weekend, and more people prefer to avoid a weekend bleed. Would you like a Sunday start, or prefer a different day?

[Berry124]

I don't want to like mess up my bodies cycle if that makes sense but at the same time I don't want to miss any pills because that's pretty annoying, so I am not sure which is a better option, is it ok to ask you which would be easier for my body to adjust to as I have a pretty sensitive body, I mean I checked through my calendar for the whole year and the months I grew, my cycles were different and I want to have a pretty simple time taking the pills.

[Berry124]

Just realised you answered my question above ha-"It's best to start taking them within 7 days of starting your period, because that way your body will find it easier to sync up with the pills and is less likely to be jumbled for the first month or two. There's no guarantee that your body will adjust absolutely smoothly, but yes, it's likely to be smoother if you start your pills within the first few days of starting a period". I do have a question that's not been asnwered yet I think for sure, does it matter what time for each day I take the pills so like if I take one now at 18:58 then 6:00 tomorrow will this matter?

Also, because my body is being artificially introduced these chemicals, what things would I get so like I have never been on the pill before and about four days or less before my period, generally, I get breast tenderness and discharge changes to that of the 'less fertile' type. Will this change? Will I even get any PMS before my period so I know when to be prepared?

[Berry124]

The doctor was overall great but didn't tell me any of this as I am mainly using it for improving my periods.

[Redskies]

It doesn't matter what time of day you take your pill, but you should take it around the same time every day. It doesn't have to be precise, like 18.23 on the dot, just around the same time If you're asking about 18.58 and 18.00, that would be fine, as they're only an hour apart. If you were meaning six o'clock in the morning, that's not great, as it would be harder for your body to adjust to that irregular hormone intake; you'd be better off waiting and starting in the morning, if you're planning on taking it at 6 am every day.

So you can get used to pill-taking and to avoid forgetting, many people find it helps to set an alarm on their mobile phone for the time they want to take it.

There isn't a way of predicting exactly how your body will respond, because everyone's body is different. There's nothing useful we can tell you about any possible changes with the PMS, for example! You might also get some different effects in the first few months than you'd get in the long-term, because your body will need to adjust a little. It's unlikely to be exactly the same as you were without taking the pill, because the hormones in your cycle won't be exactly the same as they were before. One of the ways in which hormonal contraception works as a contraceptive is by making cervical mucous thicker, so you may well find that your discharge is a little thicker than before. You won't have the fertile part of your cycle any more, so any typical changes in your cervical mucous that you've previously observed throughout your cycle may well be a little different.

[Berry124]

Ok I will wait until tomorrow morning at 6:00 am as that's when I get up for college and take other medications as it's the first thing I do and so I don't forget. Ok yeah I can pinpoint where I am pretty easily from mucous alone as everything else is odd and appears at different times each cycle like breast tenderness. If mucous is thicker, then is that like it is when your 'less fertile'? I know it does that to make it harder for sperm to reach an egg or stay in the body until there's an egg though.

What if I normally take the pill at 6:00 am every day apart from once where I was say round someones house, and so didn't want them to know about it, would it matter if it took it at say 12:00 when I get back home? Is it fine in an 12hr gap for someone who's new to the hormone dosage?

[Berry124]

Same goes for taking it earlier if say I had to go out before the time I took them if I took them at night, so like 7:00 it was normally taken and I had to go to someones house, shopping etc and took it at 5:00?
Thx

[Berry124]

I have a question, just out of interest and curiosity, I started taking the pill on my third day of my period(as it was too late to take it the second night and got it on the second day of my period) and was wondering, does this not effect your body? I have had slight PMS since taking it or is it because there's progesterone in the pill? Just wondering because my doctor didn't say anything, although the guide in the pack says some side effects are things like PMS, but would it really be as effective in terms of taking it for two days when I got the PMS? My PMS goes after the first or second day of my period. It's strange, or is it just because you don't ovulate when your on your period so your less fertile and so you get PMS even though the levels of progesterone which cause PMS would have started to drop by the time you have your period? The guide doesn't say what to expect :/ I haven't had or plan to have intercourse but I just wonder what to expect from what I am putting into my body. Does it seriously start working after two days? Thought it took a month?

Thx

[Berry124]

Basically what I am saying is can the pill really start to work after just two days after being taken the third day of your period, my period lasted four days of bleeding ( although not sure if spotting the night before counts??) and nothing yesterday which would be the fifth day. Also, could the pill affect your period? My period was five days late and only lasted four days so was just wondering about that (don't worry not panicking about pregnancy, that's in the past I have decided).

[Heather]

Working in terms of what? You're not doing, or considering doing, anything where the pill can work to prevent a pregnancy, basically, because you're not doing anything that could. For people who ARE actually at risk of pregnancy, yes, when started on day one of a period or before the first Sunday after one, it can be fully effective immediately so long as the user keeps taking pills correctly after.

Have you already read up on our information on the site about birth control pills? If not, a lot of the questions you're asking are all answered in some of that content. How about you start here to learn more about your pill and use answers we've already written?

Birth Control Bingo: Combined Oral Contraceptives (The Pill)

[Berry124]

I just wondered because I am on the the pill mainly for lightening my periods and wondered how long it takes for it to like help if that makes sense. Oh I haven't seen that one, I will check it out, thank you

[Heather]

It really depends. It will not make periods lighter for everyone, only most people, so there's that.

But beyond that, if you are going to experience a change that is due to the pill, it can technically occur from the first pill you take to years and years after using it.

[Berry124]

Oh hope it works for me then. So your body can react to the hormones in the pill straight away then, as I have got breast tenderness and increase in spots literally the second day of taking it which I get before a period due to the progesterone. Also, do all birth control methods have both estrogen and progesterone type hormones in them? I get really bad spots and progesterone makes it worse for me, I did tell my doctor this though :/ Will there be any birth control that would be effective in many ways (like hopefully lightening periods) but not cause spots to prop up everywhere on my face? :/

Would me taking the pill on the third day of my period affect the length of my current period? It was quite heavy for three days, then slightly less on the fourth and stopped after that, yet my cycle was 33 days so surly the lining would have built up more and resulted in a longer period. Also, I can't post any more on my questions about periods post but was going to ask, is it true that you have an increase in the amount of urination before your period, because I've got that since taking the pills and it's odd(I know it's not pregnancy because I haven't actually done anything to become pregnant plus last time I did anything was manual and that was before my last period plus from what you guys say so whats this about?)

[Redskies]

Combined estrogen and progesterone methods: combined pill, patch, ring.
Progesterone-only: progesterone-only pill (mini-pill), injection, implant.
A hormonal IUD - Mirena - releases progesterone only locally in the uterus.
Non-hormonal methods, like barrier methods, are also birth control, although when some people (not us )say "birth control" in casual, everyday usage, they actually mean only hormonal methods or only the pill.

Some people find that their skin improves when they take a combined pill. Prescribing a combined pill is actually one thing doctors fairly commonly suggest when someone with a uterus is having bad acne problems. Again, though, each person's reaction is unique to their own body; each different combined pill formulation might improve one person's skin, make no difference to another's, and make a third person's worse. Like other possible side-effects of your pill, you're best off waiting a little while - 3 months is usually the suggested time, if you're not having unbearable side-effects - to see what happens when your body settles into it. If you get side-effects that you don't like that stay around, you can discuss it with your doctor, and together you and your doctor decide whether the benefits and drawbacks are worthwhile, or if it would be worth trying a different formulation.

[Berry124]

Thankyou I have been told to arrange an appointment to see them again after Christmas to talk about the pill but also with anxiety as I get stressed and am still paranoid bbout pregnancy because of how ill ive been which has caused this paranoia nd what I can do.

I noticed when taking a pillout the pack that some have the letters 'P' and 'G' imprinted on them and afew with 'R' and 'G' on them, yet the info booklet doesnt say anything about that :-/ It's a bit weird, do you know for any reason why this is present and what the letters stand for?

Thx

[Berry124]

I hope I havent taken the wrong side of the pack

[Mo]

The pack should at least tell you which pill to take first, yes? For rectangular packs that's generally the top-left pill; you'll take that and move left to right like a calendar. Some pill packs have the pills in a circle but again, they should be marked in some way. If you still aren't sure after looking at the pack and the info sheet, then the best thing to do is call your doctor or a pharmacist.

[Berry124]

It didn't say anything and my doctor didn't tell me and I started on Friday from the left of the pack, so think I have done something wrong but it doesn't say on the info booklet! I am getting white cloudy discharge which is a bit confusing as I swear I never get that and my chest really hurts, will it damage me if I take the wrong pills when starting? It's not helping my anxiety at all and I even looked up the pills on the companies website and it said nothing It's too late to talk to my doctor now as they're closed

[Berry124]

Would it be bad if I just stopped taking the pills now after taking them for six days? I don't want to cause any problems and I am getting PMS so think I have taken the wrong pills or something. I am starting to not like the pills as they are making me get PMS which makes me paranoid plus PMS is painful.

[Heather]

It takes a while for the body to get used to any new medication. And with hormonal contraceptives, common side effects due tend to feel like some PMS symptoms. But most often, within a few packs of pills, those effects mellow out.

Since you wanted to be on the pill, I'd suggest sticking with it, at least into another pack or two.

It sounds like you need more help taking them so you feel confident, so how about seeing if you can't go back to the pharmacy where you got the prescription filled and ask them to walk you through taking your pill?