birth control period?

[miabarry46]

Last month i had a pretty severe pregnancy scare but everything played out normally and now this month its happening again. last month i had taken antibiotics and i'm pretty sure it delayed my period a few days but everything resolved and it came, but now its even later.

My boyfriend and I only had sex a few times this month but it fell upon my period trackers predicted ovulation week ( three weeks ago). and we were safe every time, used and tested the condoms to make sure there were no holes, and i have been on birth control for over a year now and i have never missed a pill. i'm sorry for excessive background i want to make sure i'm thorough for my answer.

My periods have always relatively been the same and i have never missed one including after i started birth control. I take estarylla - and my period always came on the third placebo pill but and over the past six months my period started to get lighter. after my first time having sex i noticed my next two were decently lighter in blood flow but they occurred around the same time of week as my period usually started . and then the following month it came a day later than it usually does, and then last month it was delayed by 2-3 days with abnormal discharge but i chalked it up to the antibiotics ( i was told by a doctor they would mess with my birth control for the week i took them). but now this month there has been no antibiotics and no close calls i can think of, but i got what i thought was the start of my period on the fifth day of the period pill week, then by the sixth day it changed. It has just been red/brown egg white textured discharge. I had my normal cramping i usually do on my first day so i thought i was in the clear.

Is this implantation bleeding? - should i test? AND is this normal for the pill i take for my period flow to sort of ween off like this? i know its common to not have a heavy period or one at all on birth control but i have always had one on the pill until it started to vary 6ish months ago. sorry for so much detail this has just been causing me extreme anxiety and i dont have another adult to talk to about it.

[Sam W]

Hi miabarry46,

So, since you used condoms and the pill together, and you don't have reason to think they failed at the same time, then there's no reason to assume you're pregnant. Those to methods are both very effective on their own, and even more so when you combine them. Given all that, you can assume the bleeding you've noticed is your withdrawal bleed (the "period" you get on the pill) and not implantation bleeding.

Being on the pill can certainly influence how your withdrawal bleeds look and how long they last, but periods and withdrawal bleeds can also be influenced by a bunch of other factors, and it's normal to notice variation in them over the course of your life.

[miabarry46]

Besides the pregnancy scare itself do you think the stress/anxiety from the scare could be the cause of the lighter flow? because i don't feel like much has changed in my every day life otherwise - eating, exercising ect. are all the same and i'm just trying to narrow down a cause to hopefully cancel out this anxiety.

[Sam W]

It's certainly possible that stress could be a factor, but this is one of those times where we can't say for certain what's behind the change in your withdrawal bleed. It might help to focus less on finding the specific cause of that and more on figuring out what you would need to feel more confident in the birth control methods you chose, or if you and your partner need to take a step back from this kind of sex.