Expert: Drea Jean H. - 5/20/2006

Question
First of all my name is Tony. And im kind of worried about something. Look my girlfriend is taking the birth control pills and yesterday May 19 she started a new pack. BUT she didn't get her period during the non active pills (the pack that she finished on May 18) and this has never happened to her because she always get her period on the 3rd day of taking the non active pills. Now me and her are very nervous about this. I mean we don't know what's wrong with her because the last pack of pills that she took, she never missed 1 pill. Well at least not a whole day because she told me she took 3 pills like 3-5 hours after she was supposed to. But she told me it wasn't 24 or even 12 hrs later. Now we had sexual relations last saturday and sunday and she bled a little bit. The blood was kind of the color coffee. But it wasn't red and she stopped the bleeding not so long afterwards. And she says that she gets signals as if she was to get her period but she says its weird because she gets the signals but no period yet. SO PLEASE HELP ME AND TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD DO?!

Answer
Hi Tony,

Sometimes women will miss a period while on the pill, and it won't mean anything. The pill can do that some months for no reason. So, this could be the case for her.

Now, a very small percentage of women will become pregnant on the pill, less than 1%, but it can happen. So what she should do is take a pregnancy test now, and one again in another week. If they are both negative, she should continue with the pills. If she doesn't get her period next time, she should follow up with a DR. She may need to switch pill brands so the problem will be fixed.

Good Luck and Thanks,

Drea Jean