Brown Meltdown

Young woman wonders why she’s experiencing brown discharge the week before her period. She has recently stopped taking birth control and wonders whether the discharge is caused by the birth control or something else.

Case #: 591

Concern：

I’m 21-years-old and had been taking birth control for three months. I haven’t refilled yet, so I have been off the pill. My period should be coming next week, and today I noticed heavy brown discharge. What could the discharge be attributed to?

Discussion：

First things first: Relax, this is nothing to worry about. It is completely normal for you to have brown discharge both before and after menstruation. The problem you’re describing is usually referred to as “spotting”—it just means that you’re discharging some blood at a time that is not your period.

It can be as little as a few drops of blood that you notice while wiping to a light, but steady discharge. It might occur only once, or it could occur monthly. The spotting might sometimes appear light pink or even bright red, but again, it’s nothing to stress over.

Unbalanced Body

After taking birth control for three months, your body is still readjusting to its normal hormone levels. It’s actually very, very common for women to experience premenstrual brown spotting after stopping the use of birth control. The reason has to do with how birth control hormones function as opposed to your own body’s hormones. Birth control is designed to take you up and down a slope, slowly increasing the levels of estrogen and progesterone in your body, before suddenly cutting the dosage—this time is when you take your placebo pills.

The drop in progesterone tells your body that you’re not pregnant and to shed the lining of the uterus. That’s why, if you decide not to take your placebo pills, you won’t have a period—because the basal level of your progesterone doesn’t drop low enough to stimulate the body into menstruation. Your body, however, is trying to reassert its own hormones in place of the artificial ones provided by birth control.

When you had your last period and stopped taking birth control again, you confused your body. Not dangerously, but enough so that it leads to some moderate damage. Now as the body attempts to start menstruation, but it’s unsure as to when to start.

Brown spotting is an indication of old blood left from your last period—maybe your last period ended earlier than it should have, so some blood was left inside you. This issue should clear up within the next three months while your body restores and regulates your menstrual cycle, but if you wanted to help it along and clear it up faster, I would suggest trying a detoxifying herbal course (See: Vaginal Infection Relief & Detoxification Formula)

Flush that Brown Down

By taking a supplement high in plant estrogens, your body will quickly naturalize. These herbs help balance estrogen and progesterone in the body without any negative side effects. They also help your liver to filter all the excess hormones left in your body after birth control, and the more quickly your body can process and expel the overflow of hormones, the faster you can return to your normal cycle. Don’t worry anymore!