abaya

I could use some help from the ladies here. My apologies for the gory details, but you all know that's what happens when you have a vagina.

So my regular period ended two weeks ago, and I put a NuvaRing in (as scheduled) two weeks ago Sunday. I have been on birth control for 3.5 years, Nuva Ring for 2.5 of those years. So nothing has really changed for me lately, except that we're no longer using back-up birth control (condoms) in the last month or so... which we had been doing for the previous 3.5 years.

Last night, totally randomly (we were just watching a movie or something), I started bleeding... as if my period was starting, in full force. It was not brownish, it was not "spotty," it was full on bright-red bleeding. I thought this was pretty weird... I put on a pantyliner and figured it was some kind of spotting, not that I had ever spotted before. Went to bed, woke up in the middle of the night... more blood. I put on another pantyliner and hoped it would stop. Nope, woke up a few hours later, blood everywhere. I had to wash the sheets. I put on a pad, and have been bleeding as if I'm on my period all morning.

What the hell is going on?! It's Saturday, so I'm a little hesitant to try and find a doctor (not to mention my whole weekend is packed with research events that I really need to attend)... and in Iceland, I think I'd have to go to the ER on the weekend (and this doesn't seem like an emergency). I'm supposed to have a pap on Wednesday, which I thought would be fine because I would usually have another week and a half before my period... but now I might have to cancel it due to the bleeding. Soonest I could get to a GP would be Monday.

If anyone has some experience with this, I would be grateful to hear it. I suppose I'm most alarmed by the possibility of being pregnant... I mean, we did stop using condoms because we felt we would be okay with accidentally conceiving at this point (though I'd like to trust the 99% safety of NuvaRing!), but now I'm a bit scared.

Thanks for your help.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

StellaLuna

I don't think you're pregnant (not being a doctor and not being close enough to your wombish regions to tell makes this all a guess) but I've never in my life heard of pregnancy being heralded by crazy amounts of blood. Miscarriage, yes, but not a full-on pregnancy. From what I've read, it's not uncommon for you to have breakthrough bleeding on the ring, but that does seem like a lot. I'd call your gyno on Monday and see what they suggest. I wouldn't recommend the ER unless your legs start to hurt or you start having dizzy spells... if that happens, haul ass over there.

Have you skipped any periods on purpose lately? I did that twice in a row on my bcp's and my body decided it was going to have a period whether I liked it or not.

__________________
Screw tradition!

snowy

It sounds like mid-cycle breakthrough bleeding. It happens when you ovulate--even if your birth control prevents actual ovulation, you can still bleed because of the slight hormonal changes.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If your ring is still in and where it should be, you should be okay. If you're still bleeding profusely come Monday, go see a GP. Otherwise, just wait for it to stop.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

*Nikki*

I was on the ring for about 2.5 years also and never had that happen. I find it very odd and wish I had a suggestion other then the obvious ones.

abaya

Thanks, ladies. Yeah, this is just really baffling to me. The only reason I mentioned pregnancy is because I've heard of implantation bleeding (5-6 days after fertilization), but I think that's supposed to be very light. This is definitely NOT light... this is a full-on period.
I haven't skipped any periods, per se, but for the first 6 months we were in Iceland (we've been here just about 9 now), I used my rings on a 5-week cycle instead of a 4-week cycle, since I didn't want to have to buy them before my state-subsidized health care set in (which is after 6 months). So I wore my rings for 4 weeks at a time, then took them out for 1... which is perfectly fine, I've been told by my doctor before. But I did notice that my periods would linger a lot longer then, usually brown-spotting for up to a week afterwards. But NOTHING red or remotely resembling a real period, like this one does.

So this is my 2nd month on the normal, 4-week cycle, and I figured it would be okay... but apparently my body is freaking out. I wonder if this means I am going to just bleed straight into next week, when my real period starts. I tend to get anemic anyway, so slightly worried about that factor... uggh. I just don't understand how this happens... there must have been a drop in hormones to trigger this bleeding, no?... but my ring hasn't moved at all, still in the right place.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

JustJess

Not necessarily a drop in hormones - but if you've been messing with the cycle a bit, it could just be your body sort of "overreacting"... like when you got back from Africa, I'd bet your cycles were pretty heavy and lengthy, no?

I doubt very much that 3 wks vs. 4 wks would make that much of a difference, but perhaps your body is just more sensitive. Like I said... unless it involves heavier than cycle bleeding and/or weird pains/sensations/syncope, go check it out on Monday. Might even be gone by then, eh?

__________________
My heart knows me better than I know myself, so I'm gonna let it do all the talkin'.

ShaniFaye

I cant address anything related to this ring thing because its not something i ever used, but pertaining to your implantation bleeding belief....when I got preggie with manda I had a full on period for a week, as I'd only been off the pill for a month when I got preggie it was very heavy, much heavier than any pill period I ever had...it was so bad I actually thought I was miscarrying, when I finally got brave enough to go to the dr i found out about the fact that when some women get preggie their uterus cleans itself out totally to prepare a proper enviro for the baby.

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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

abaya

Shit, Shani. I was just starting to calm down about it, lol. It really is quite a heavy period... and I'm ON birth control, right in the middle of it. I just don't get it. Yeah, my thought was, "This is too heavy to be implantation," which I've heard is rather light/pink. That's really strange about the uterus cleaning itself out. We'll see how things are going on Monday... perhaps I should buy a pregnancy test, just to be safe?

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

ShaniFaye

well I didnt mean to wind you back up again lol Im sorry

I think we all know by now that some of use are never "text book cases" when it comes to the things our body does to us, some women might be "light and pink" some other of us....well I dont think that needs further comment lol

Id never ever heard of implantation bleeding back then....so I certainly didnt know about the "cleaning out" and not all women do it...all I know is thats what my OB/GYN told me

I dont know anything about the ring and what happens if you have it in and are pregie, but taking a test might not be a bad idea, if only for your peace of mind

__________________
I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

abaya

Yep, I'm gonna go ahead and do that tomorrow, I think. It's certainly not the first time I've taken a preggo test for peace of mind... but it's been a long time since I've even remotely worried about it. since I love the NuvaRing and it's been really good to me so far. I suppose the timing of us no longer using condoms as back-up (as I mentioned earlier) is what's worrying me a little bit more than I would otherwise.

Thanks for all the feedback, though.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

*Nikki*

When I got preggo I had implantation cramping (just the same feeling as if you had your period) but NO BLEEDING.

Don't scare yourself so much, otherwise you will really mess your body up.

abaya

Well, I'm still bleeding, rather profusely (especially given that this is the 3rd day of this so-called "period," and I never bleed this heavily on the 3rd day of my usual birth-controlled period). Thanks to the serious lack of centralization in the Icelandic health care system, I'm unable to get a women's health specialist, and am resorting to an evening appointment with a GP who probably knows very little about what's going on with my hormones. Oh well. Better than nothing.

EDIT: Also just took a drugstore pregnancy test, and it came back negative. So there we go, that one is out of the picture. But you'd better believe we're going back to condoms + birth control for a while!! Stupid hormones.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran