Expert: Norman Solberg - 3/26/2010

Question
Mr. Solberg,

My name is Nadia and I am seventeen years old. I have been sexually active since July 30th, 2008 and have had three sexual partners. I practice safe sex and have always used condoms.

Recently (3/18) I began using the Nuvaring for birth control. I inserted it on the first day of my period and four days later the bleeding appeared to have stopped. I had a little brown discharge, but that's usual for the end of my period. What was unusual was the flakes that appeared in the discharge. I removed the Nuvaring to take a look and it had brown gobs clinging to it. Upon running it under water, the gobs separated into what appeared to be thin filmy pieces of what appeared to be skin. It did not look like any old blood I have ever experienced.

This disappeared after a day or two (I then resumed my egular clear discharge) and I had sex for the first time since starting it on Tuesday. The brown flaky discharge then reappeared the next day. My first thought was that the ring might have chafed my vagina when I had sex with it in and caused some skin shedding, but that seems unlikely. My second thought was that my partners penis may have caused the chafing, though I have never had any problems with vaginal lubrication. That was the first time I did not use a condom for any period of time, although we did put one on part way through.

Do you have any idea what may be causing this unique discharge and flakes? I understand that I may have to visit my gynecologist, but I would like some idea as to what may be happening first. Could this be related to the Nuvaring?

Thanks

Answer
Hi Nadia,
I'm afraid I don't have a good answer for you.  I doubt that the Nuvaring would be chafing your vagina.  Since the discharge and flakes seem to occur when there is some bleeding, I suspect that it's from the blood.  A brown discharge means blood.  It's not unusual to have some spotting or bleeding the first month or 2 on the pill or the ring.  If this continues, you may want to see your doctor for a check, but I doubt that it's anything serious.  Best wishes.