It’s a Bloody Business

She’s been on birth control for almost a year and has been experiencing huge issues with spotting and bleeding. She seems to bleed all the time, no matter what. Some days the flow is light, other days it’s heavy. Why can’t she stop bleeding?
Case #: 1237
Concern：
I am on birth control and have been on it for almost a year. At one time I was bleeding for 3 weeks straight, but was given pills to make that stop, which worked. About a month ago I had the same problem, I was given an antibiotic, which made the bleeding stop, but a few days later the bleeding came back and I was put on a low dose of estrogen pills. Some days I will stop bleeding, some days I won't bleed for a few hours, but then I start again and it's red heavy and other days it's just a brownish and light. I’m not sure what is wrong with me. Can you please help?
Discussion：
Hormones are what are causing your continual bleeding. I honestly can’t believe you’ve put up with this problem for so long! It sounds to be as though you have an atrophic epithelium—meaning the lining of your uterus is too thin to resist being constantly removed by the uterus. There are a few options for you, but for all of them you’ll need to consult a doctor. You ought to have your hormone levels ascertained, and the effects of the technique you choose will need to be monitored.
Which Way to Go?
At this point, you can either begin birth control with a higher concentration of estrogen, you can stop using hormonal birth control and try another form of contraception, or you can try to supplement your body’s need for estrogen in some other way. It definitely seems as though the estrogen supplement isn’t working, so you either need a higher dose, or you need another option.
Hormone Help
Did your doctor discuss why she was giving you estrogen for your breakthrough bleeding? The hormonal makeup in most birth controls is high in progesterone and low in estrogen. This is because estrogen has been linked to breast, cervical, and uterine cancer because of its ability to stimulate tissue growth in those areas. Thus, your body is flooded with much more progesterone than estrogen, and begins to react accordingly.
To your body, the preponderance of progesterone signals the need to flush the lining of the uterus. Usually, the presence of estrogen inhibits this response, and also physically controls it, by the growth of a thick, healthy epithelium that is not easily removed. The thinning of the epithelium is one of the mechanisms which hormonal birth control uses to prevent pregnancy—a thin epithelium is not an epithelium that a fertilized egg will be able to attach to or live off of.
Thin Skinned
However, this thinned, “atrophic” epithelium that you’re sporting is very easily shed, and because the minute amount of estrogen in your body is continually trying to build it up again, sometimes your flow is heavy and sometimes it’s light. If you had high enough levels of estrogen to grow a large, strong epithelium, and also to let your body know that it’s not a “drop the load” time of the month, you wouldn’t be having this issue with flow.
Try Something New
As it stands now, the best thing I can recommend for you is to pursue another type of birth control. You gave it a good try, but I can’t imagine how this is worth it for you. Condoms are cheap and work well if used with sense, an IUD is good for twelve years in many instances, and female condoms are just as good as male, with better male reviews.
Realignment
If you are determined to maintain your course, I recommend you begin an herbal supplement that features high levels of phytoestrogens. (SEE: Vaginal Restoration & Detoxification Relief) These estrogens will further increase your body’s levels of estrogen, but without the danger of cancer which I mentioned above, as the phytochemicals are able to degrade in a way that native and synthetic hormones can’t, as the phytoestrogens are derived from plant compounds and can be processed as such by the body.
This herbal formula also contains herbs that stimulate the body’s natural production of hormones. Your body needs to rebalance in order to stop continually bleeding. Encouraging the natural duality of estrogen and progesterone production will eventually cure your continual spotting. I wish you the best of luck!

What to do

Vaginal Infection Relief & Detoxification Formula

Antibiotics and birth control pills can alter the balance of the ‘friendly’ micro flora that subsists in the vagina. Pathogens from these drugs can result in yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis, with symptoms ranging from abnormal discharge,...