# Ladies, tell me about birth control pills/spotting (TMI)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-tell-me-about-birth-control-pills-spotting-tmi/446719>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 24, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-tell-me-about-birth-control-pills-spotting-tmi/446719 "2008-04-24T18:14:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-tell-me-about-birth-control-pills-spotting-tmi/446719/1 "2008-04-24T18:14:35Z")

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I’ve been ridiculously regular my whole menstrual life, especially, of course, since I went on birth control pills years ago. I’m approaching menopause, and even right through the BCP’s, I started feeling some nasty emotional upsets. I went to my gynecologist, and she switched me from my low-hormone-dose BCP to a slightly higher one, and I’m about 2.5 weeks into this new dosage.

For the first time in many years, I have slightly tender nipples, and for the first time ever in my life, I’m bleeding a bit before my due date. I’m pretty sure this is my body’s way of reacting to the slightly different hormone dose, but given my utter inexperience with spotting, I thought I’d check in here.

And yes, I have a call in to my doc, and am awaiting her return call, but in the meantime I was trying to get an idea of what constitutes normalcy.

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**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-tell-me-about-birth-control-pills-spotting-tmi/446719/2 "2008-04-24T18:24:30Z")

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I tried about ten different brands of pills before I found one that didn’t give me side effects (spotting, cramps, zits, etc). They all seem to respond differently to different women’s bodies. I wouldn’t worry about it; if you’re still having problems in a month, you could try a different brand.