no period after NuvaRing removal Posted: 07-25-08 03:10am
I'm a 19 year old college student and was
prescribed NuvaRing last September. My
doctor told me that I could wear the ring
for 4 weeks at a time and insert a new one
immediately after taking out the old
(thereby skipping my period). When school
ended, I went off the ring around June 15
and began my period about 3 days later. It
lasted an unusually long time for me,
almost an entire week.
Anyways, I was going to go back up to
school around July 17 to visit my
boyfriend (who is up there doing summer
research). I didn't want to get my period
during that time, so I inserted a NuvaRing
on July 11, pretty late at night (11:30pm
or so). On the 17, we had sex twice, used
a condom both times. On the 18th, we
started having sex without condoms,
including once in the day of the 18th and
once in the evening. I went off the
NuvaRing again when I came home, late on
Monday the 21st.
Well, it's Friday morning now and my
period is nowhere to be seen. My worry is
that perhaps I did not wait the entire 7
days that it takes for NuvaRing to reach
its maximum effectiveness... Inserted it
on July 11 at 11pm, began having otherwise
unprotected sex probably a full 12 hours
shy of one week, in the morning of July
18.
I'm going to take a pregnancy test,
obviously, but I'm a bit confused how to
tell if this period is even missed,
considering that I was messing with my
cycle pretty heavy-handedly. My cycle off
the meds is usually fairly irregular, my
period coming 25-35 days apart. I have not
had two full cycles in a row for a year
now, so I don't know how my body usually
would react coming off the NuvaRing.
I know there's a chance that I'm pregnant
(condoms and hormones fail sometimes,
unlucky me), so I will take a test. But
I'm wondering how seriously having sex at
6 1/2 days of continuous NuvaRing wear
instead of 7 might have impacted the
effectiveness of the contraception. I also
do not know how using NuvaRing in the
admittedly irregular way I have been using
it could impact the timing of when I
should test in order to avoid false
negatives. I'm under the impression that
tests are most trustworthy after one's
period is officially late (~5 days) or
9-15 days after ovulation. I don't know
when my period (much less ovulation)
should be, so I don't know if it's really
late or not!
Anyways, if I'm pregnant, I'm likely only
7 or 8 days from conception. Should I hold
off on the test or can I take one in the
next day or two and get a fairly reliable
answer? If I am pregnant, I will terminate
(a decision I made before I started having
sex), but this is complicated by the fact
that I am going out of state for a month
for an internship starting on August 10
and will not really have access to
abortion services during that time. I'd
like to avoid surgical abortion, so I'd
like to know whether I'll need said
services as soon as possible.
Sorry for this tome. Thanks for your help!
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sundustriot
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 25 Jul 2008 Posts: 4
Posted: 07-27-08 14:36pm
I took a pregnancy test Friday night and
it came out negative. My period came on
Saturday (hurrah!), a full 6 days after I
went off the ring. Out of desperation and
to kill time before a pregnancy test, I
had been taking megadoses of Vitamin C
(about 7 grams a day for 2 days), but I'm
loath to ascribe any credit to that
unproven remedy. It seems more likely that
my body was confused.
Just goes to show that messing with your
menstrual cycle hormonally sometimes
throws your body off kilter for a while.
Perhaps other women in similar situations
can read this and take heart!