Breakthrough Bleeding?

For the last two weeks I've had brown discharge which I belive is breakthrough bleeding. I was wondering if there is anyway to stop it?

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi!
If you are on the pill, then it is breakthrough bleeding. If my patient called me with your question, I would tell her to increase her pills to two per day until the bleeding stopped and then back down to one per day to finish out the pack. If she did this, she would end up starting her new pack earlier than usual.
If you are not on the pill, then it may be more important to get a check up to discover the cause of the bleeding.  If my patient called me with your question and was not on the pill, I would want to see her in the office to find out more about her cycles, and to do an exam plus/minus a biopsy or ultrasound.  I would then probably prescribe progesterone to cause the uterine lining to slough off and clean out--sort of like the old D&C procedure, but done with medications instead.

I hope this helps!  
Good luck!
Dr B