was my dr right to prescribe me a triphasic pill?

[furbs22]

just had a phone appointment with my dr and I told her that on my current pill (cilest-monophasic) I was spotting towards the end of the packet (before the 7 day break) and that I would also spot if I took the packets back to back. She said that I would need a pill with higher estrogen and that she was going to prescribe me a triphasic pill with varying hormone doses throughout the month. She told me that I could also take this back-to-back and I asked her again for reassurance. However, information online completely contradicts this and im not quite sure what the benefit was to putting me on a triphasic. It seems logical that the varying hormone doses are more likely to cause spotting than the original pill and when taking back-to-back I would be going straight from high dosage of hormones to a low dosage which is more than likely to trigger my period anyway due to this big fluctuation. I really cannot see the sense in prescribing this given what I told her in my appointment. Would it not have been more logical to put me on a higher strength monophasic pill?

Anyone with experience of triphasic pills/taking them back-to-back your answers would be greatly appreciated!

[EllaMari]

I agree with you, this does not sound correct. Might be time to get a different doctor.

[furbs22]

thank you for your reply, the more I think about it the more angry i get as I really don't see any benefit in a triphasic pill and I really don't see the sense in her prescription. I was already hesitant when she said that she was going to prescribe this as I know that there are still so many different brands of monophasic pills that she could have prescribed given that I have only tried 2 so far!

[Chima7]

I agree with you 100%.  A triphasic pill is a really bad idea for someone who is having problems with spotting AND it is the worst idea for someone to take back to back because that will for sure absolutely cause spotting.  Only if you take the pack out of order can you possibly skip your period (and I'm not sure of the order because I was only on it for a short time and it was like 15 years ago) but the issue is that with triphasic your chances of spotting when trying to skip are pretty much 98-99% certain.  

On the other hand, with a monophasic pill, skipping works a lot better taking packs back to back, because there is no fluctuation in the hormone levels and most women are able to tolerate that much better.

It sounds like your doctor is an idiot. If I was in your shoes, I would call her back and tell her that I completely disagree with her assessment and I would ask her if there's any other doctor that you can speak to who actually knows what they are doing.  She must be a GP or a general internist and not an OB/Gyn because she doesn't have the first clue about the pill.

You are correct that a higher dose monophasic is the better option to help with the spotting issue.