Birth Control question

Hello doctor. I posted down below so you can read my history there. It was posted Long period. I went to teh doctor on Tuesday and she prescribed birth control. Ortho Tri Cyclen. I started it the next day. Within 1 day off taking it the bledding stopped. I was estatic after having a period for 2 weeks. I just have VERY light pink discharge the deminished with each day. The only thing is I now have mild joint pain, muscle aches, and fatique with taking the pill. I am so upset. I dont want to stop because I am afraid I will start bleeding again adn I at least wanted to take it a month to try and get my cycle back on track. But i hate feeling like this. I read about the side effects with the pill such as blood clots and it scares the heck out of me. Im a bit paranoid anyway so now every little pain I have I feel like I am have a clot that is going to kill me. Then i read women over 35 are at higher risks. I turn 35 in 3 days. I dont have insurance so I pay for all my doc visits and meds out of pocket so cant keep running back at every little thing. At least when I was bleeding everyday I felt good! I feel bad now. I have a history of anxiety and panic attacks so all this worrrying is really going to set me down the wrong road Im afraid. I also have pins and needle feelings sometimes in various parts of the body. I guess that could be anxiety. It seems within an hour of taking the pill this all sets in. Ugh! Is theer anything else you may suggest. And if I stop the pill will i go straight back to bleeding? ANY info woudl be greatly appreciated!

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi! and Happy Birthday! The over 35 thing is for women who smoke, so unless you are a smoker, you can disregard that particular worry.  If you could continue the pill for a month, you would be more likely to get rid of the bleeding--if you stop in mid cycle, you will very likely start bleeding again.  
I usually advise my patients to take their pills at night so that the side effects hit while they are asleep, and are milder while awake.  Yes exercise weight control and baby aspirin are helpful in reducing the risk of clots. Also, the risk is on the order of 3 women per 100,000 pill users--so extremely low, and usually occurs in people with a family history of blood clots.  

If you are a smoker, or have a positive family history of clots, you should probably consider an alternative, but if not--I would advise a patient of mine to try to stick it out to the placebos!

Good luck!
Dr B

[danielleb35]

Does keeping a healthy weight, diet and exercise reduce the blood clot risk. And would taking a baby asprin daily reduce the risk even more? Also, it seems as the day passes the symptoms get better. So should I take it at night so I will sleep through most of them?