Expert: Norman Solberg - 7/26/2009

Question
Hi. I have a question. The month of June I was on the Nuva Ring; but I stopped it after I had to take it out because I saw on TV it cause some pulmonary stuff and other stuff. I was on the Nuva Ring a couple times before and I noticed my periods never came when I took it out, it always came 3 or 4 days after so it was always late. I took the Nuva Ring out on June 28th and started my period July 3rd. I started  Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo (I’ve never taken this method before) on July 6th. I did miss a Wednesday pill  of the 1st week (but only once) and took it on Thursday on Friday I realized I missed Wednesday so I took Thursday to. I had unprotected sex with my boyfriend (I asked him if he cummed in me and he said yes once) on July 11th. On July 15th I started spotting and haven’t stopped since. It’s been about 14 days now. I looked some stuff up on Ortho Tri-Cyclen and it said spotting is one the side effects. Should I be spotting that long. Am I pregnant if I only missed one pill? What’s going on?

Answer
It's not unusual to spot on the pill, especially low dose pills like Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo.  It's much more likely that your spotting is break through bleeding than that it's from pregnancy.  That said, whenever you miss a pill, both pregnancy and spotting are more likely.  Usually spotting will clear up after you've been on the pill for several months.  I would keep taking the pill and try hard to not miss any pills.  Best wishes.