Questioni have been on the birth control patch for three years. I got pregnant in early june/06, and i miscarried at 4 weeks. Now in the second week of Aug i had experience heartburn for the first time. I had my period on Aug 11, and it started out brown then red. The doctor said it was all normal what i was feeling. On the last week of Aug, a week before my period was due, i experience a lot of watery musus, then a pink spotting on tissue. The next day i saw brown spotting i put on a pad. It wasn't a lot to fill up a pad but it was weriod to me. I thought it was old blood so i didn't think nothing of it. Now it's September, 3 months after the miscarriage. the first week of sept, the week my period is due, i experience brown blood. It has been going on for 5 days. it's normal for me to go 5 days but not normal for me to have brown blood. I am also experiencing extreme headache and my breast feels sore, but i get that before period, but now it hasn't gone away yet. I had my period on Sept 5 to Sept 9. The question is that i got off the patch the second week of Aug to try to concieve again. Is that the reason i have this brown blood, or could it be something else. I am not sure when i ovulated since i did had the miscarriage. I miscarried in June 4 and it was over that week. I had my first period in July 12, my second was Aug 11th, and now Sept 5. Help! what could it be?
AnswerHi Shaivonne,
Well coming off the patch can certainly send your hormones into a frenzy. Hormonal imbalances, are common when going on, or off the birthcontrol. And yes, irregular bleeding and spotting is common with this.
However, you cant rule out being pregnant either. Brown blood, usually indicates old blood. Hypothetically, if you were pregnant, spotting old blood could indicate implantion, often associated with early pregnancy. Also, cramping, breast tenderness, and headaches can be a symptoms of pms, but also, those symptoms are classic of pregnancy as well. Sometimes, it can be hard to decipher if what you are feeling is a period, or pregnancy.
Now, for the month of september I calcuated your ovulation dates. You are not susposed to ovulate till September 23rd. Thats just assuming, that you have a 28 day cycle. So technically, you have not ovulated yet ...HOWEVER since your periods are a little irregular right now, and you are spotting ..No one can determin EXACTLY when you ovulated.
Perhaps getting a home pregnancy test right now would be a good idea, to see what result you get. If you get a negative, then chances are that you are not pregnant, given you had a period on the 5th. If you get a positive result, you need to see a physican to have this confirmed.
The only way, to get a straight forward answer to this, is to go have a BETA HCG blood test done. Its pretty much conclusive when detecting pregnancy. If the test comes back negative, you can be rest assured that this is most likely a hormonal imbalance that is causing your spotty periods, and other symptoms.
Hope this was of some help.
-Kristy
