During the fourth week, you may take inactive pills called placebos or no pills at all. With Seasonale, you take the active pills without stopping for three months, or 84 days. After this three-month period, you take one week of inactive pills. You should have a period during this week of inactive pills. The periods you do have should be lighter than normal.
If you take it at the same time every day, you have a 1 percent chance of getting pregnant in any given year. Seasonale can also be used as emergency birth control. If you take four pills within hours, or five days, of unprotected sex, and another four pills 12 hours after the first set, it can prevent a pregnancy. About one out of every three women has 20 or more days of bleeding or spotting during their first cycle.
The spotting should eventually slow or stop once your body adjusts to the new level of hormones. Because you get so few periods while taking Seasonale, it can be hard to tell if you do get pregnant. If you suspect you may be pregnant, take a home pregnancy test or schedule an appointment with your doctor to find out for sure. Seasonale shares many of the same side effects as traditional birth control pills. These include:. All birth control pills, including Seasonale, can also increase your risk of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.
Smoking further increases these risks. If side effects persist, you should schedule an appointment with your doctor. Your body needs time to adjust to the continuous dose of hormones, so you may experience breakthrough bleeding. This may also be because your uterine lining is gradually thinning. Birth control pills also increase the amount of clotting substances in your blood.
This makes you more likely to get blood clots. Use back-up birth control for at least 7 days following the missed pills.
If you miss three active pills in a row, do not take the missed pills. Continue taking 1 pill per day on schedule according to the pill package and leave the missed pills in the package. You may have some bleeding or spotting if you miss three pills in a row. Use back-up birth control for at least the next 7 days. If you miss a reminder pill, throw it away and keep taking one reminder pill per day until the pack is empty.
You do not need back-up birth control if you miss a reminder pill. If your period does not start while you are taking the reminder pills, call your doctor because you might be pregnant. Seek emergency medical attention or call the Poison Help line at Overdose symptoms may include nausea or vaginal bleeding. Do not smoke while taking birth control pills, especially if you are older than 35 years of age.
Using a condom is the only way to protect yourself from these diseases. Get emergency medical help if you have signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects.
Other drugs may interact with birth control pills, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products. Some drugs can make birth control pills less effective, which may result in pregnancy.
Tell your doctor about all your current medicines and any medicine you start or stop using. Your pharmacist can provide more information about ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel extended-cycle.
Remember, keep this and all other medicines out of the reach of children, never share your medicines with others, and use this medication only for the indication prescribed. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided by Cerner Multum, Inc. Drug information contained herein may be time sensitive.
Multum information has been compiled for use by healthcare practitioners and consumers in the United States and therefore Multum does not warrant that uses outside of the United States are appropriate, unless specifically indicated otherwise.
Multum's drug information does not endorse drugs, diagnose patients or recommend therapy. The absence of a warning for a given drug or drug combination in no way should be construed to indicate that the drug or drug combination is safe, effective or appropriate for any given patient. Multum does not assume any responsibility for any aspect of healthcare administered with the aid of information Multum provides.
The information contained herein is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, warnings, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse effects. If you have questions about the drugs you are taking, check with your doctor, nurse or pharmacist.
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated, disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use.
Learn how we develop our content. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
Updated visitor guidelines. If you want to avoid painful or heavy periods, or if you just don't want a period every single month, Seasonique may be a birth control method to consider. Seasonique is an FDA-approved, continuous-cycle birth control pill containing estrogen ethinyl estradiol and a progestin levonorgestrel. It has been known for a long time that skipping periods with birth control pills is safe, and there are currently no known risks associated with only having four periods each year.
Like other birth control pills , Seasonique prevents pregnancy by stopping ovulation so that an egg is not released to be fertilized. Combination birth control pills also cause the cervical mucus to be thicker making it more difficult for sperm to pass through the cervix and change the lining of the uterus so that, if fertilization does occur, implantation is unlikely. Birth control pills often help women with problematic periods to manage their symptoms, and continuous cycle birth control that lasts over a three-month period can sometimes be preferable to traditional pills that have a period monthly.
Women who have dysmenorrhea painful periods only have to cope with related symptoms a few times a year if they take Seasonique. This may be particularly helpful for those who have painful cramps due to endometriosis. Heavy periods, referred to as menorrhagia , are not only limiting physically but can contribute to anemia in some women. Periods are typically lighter and shorter while using oral contraceptives. Before taking Seasonique, it's important to let your healthcare provider know about any medical conditions you have had, now or in the past.
You should also tell your healthcare provider and pharmacist about any other medications or supplements you are taking, as combination oral contraceptives COCs can often have interactions with other substances that can make Seasonique or your other medications less effective. For the first seven days of using Seasonique, you should use a second form of birth control, such as condoms.
Although Seasonique helps prevent pregnancy, it will not prevent sexually transmitted infections. Women who smoke and are over 35 years old should not take combination oral contraceptives, as they are at higher risk for serious cardiovascular events, like blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes. In addition, you should not take Seasonique if you:.
Combination oral contraceptives COCs have synthetic estrogen and progestin, mimicking women's natural hormones. Only people who can tolerate estrogen should take COCs. Although there are many different kinds and doses of COCs, they are collectively usually referred to as "birth control pills" or simply "the pill.
Combination pills are monophasic where the active pills all have the same dose or multiphasic where the dose in the active pills varies by location in the cycle. Seasonique is monophasic, with 84 active pills and seven inactive pills. Other monophasic oral contraceptives include:. Unlike day combination birth control pills that include 21 days of hormones and seven days of placebo pills, each package of Seasonique contains 91 pills. The first 84 pills are light blue-green and contain 30 micrograms mcg of ethinyl estradiol and 0.
The extended hormone dosing is what leads to periods only occurring quarterly. In clinical trials, one to three women out of who used these birth control pills got pregnant in the first year of use. Possible reasons for failure include:.
Store Seasonique at 68 to 77 degrees F 20 to 25 degrees C. It's important to take your pill at the same time every day, so you should decide at the outset what time of day will be easiest to incorporate the pill into your routine. You should start Seasonique on the first Sunday after you start your period, even if you are still bleeding. The pill packets are labeled with the day of the week, so that will help you stay on track.
You should use an alternative form of birth control like condoms or spermicides in addition to Seasonique for the first seven days. Seasonique takes a week to become fully effective. In addition, the effectiveness can be compromised if you miss two or more doses at any point in the pill package.
Here's what to do if you miss any doses of Seasonique:. If you miss one light blue-green pill : Take it as soon as you remember, then take the next pill at your regular time. This means you may take two pills in one day. If you have only missed one pill, you do not need to use a back-up birth control method. Taking more than one pill a day can make some women nauseated; taking the pill with food can help. If you miss two of the light blue-green pills in a row : Take two pills on the day you remember your scheduled pill and one of the missed pills , and two pills the next day your scheduled pill and the other missed pill.
Then, you'll take one pill a day like normal until you finish the pack.
0コメント