Seasonale/Jolessa

supermouse · 05-12-2009, 05:51 PM

Hello-
I've started taking Jolessa (generic version of Seasonale) and the only side effect I have noticed is breakthrough bleeding. However, it's very annoying---I have two weeks left on this cycle (AF due early June) and have been bleeding for 2 weeks already.

I take the pill around 6pm. The bleeding starts around 6am every morning, stops by 5pm in the evening and starts up again the next day. I only need a pantiliner, so it's not a lot of blood, but still....I want to be on BCP, and I like the idea of only getting 4 AF/yr, since I get migraines with AF. I guess I'd rather wear a pantiliner for every third month, rather than get 13 migraines/yr.

Has anyone else taken this pill and had this side effect? If so, did you have breakthrough bleeding every cycle or only the first one or two? Did it follow a pattern (point in cycle when bleeding started, time of day of bleeding?)

carrottop · 05-12-2009, 07:13 PM

I was put on Seasonale approx 3 years ago for the very same reason (Migraines w/ AF) and told to not take the inactive pills. Every time I would get to those I would throw the pack away and start a new one. I LOVED not having to deal with AF but over the last few months I have started having more problems with it. If I accidentally missed 2 pills I would start spotting (only last a day or two). Several months ago it happened and lasted for 1-2 weeks and had to go to the Dr about it. They told me to finish the remaining pills in the pack then take the inactive pills to give my body a chance to reset itself. That was not what I wanted to hear at week 4 in the pack. I ended up just stopping the pills for a week to let everything fix itself then picked back up with the pack.

I was put on met about 4 weeks ago and after starting it I missed a couple of pills (traveling, funeral, etc) and started spotting. It turned into a full AF that was very heavy and lasted 16 days. I ended up going to the Dr who prescribed Provera to make it stop and I am going back tomorrow for her to change my BCP.

I have been told you can skip the inactive pills in any brand of BCP and get the same results of fewer periods a year. You do not have to just use Seasonale for it. Some of my recent research about Seasonale indicates it is probably not a good pill to be on if your are IR.

The only other BCP I had problems with was Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo. I constantly had a headache and/or migraine while on it. The Dr. thinks it was due to the estrogen dosage being to low for me.

Also, before I was put on Seasonale for the Migraines the Dr. prescribed Beta Blockers (inexpensive heart medicine) to take along with the inactive pills only. This did a great job of preventing the AF migraines assuming I remembered to take them as prescribed. On months when I did not take them I was guanteed a migraine.

Hope this helps!