Desogestrel - Mini pill side effects

[Jersz83]

Hi, Did anyone have prolonged spotting while on mini pill ? I didn’t have any period at all when I started and after 4 months I am getting prolonged spotting. Anybody had anything similar?

Spotting for a month and then no bleeding for over a year so far!

Yeah. I had 6 months of constant spotting/bleeding when I first started taking it. It was one of the many reasons I stopped taking it.

I am 14 months into taking it and I’ve just very recently had my first bout of spotting. It lasted 8 days.

DD is on Desogestrel and has constant breakout bleeding

I've been on the mini pill for 5+ years now and I have times on it when I have no bleeding for ages and others where it's constant on/off spotting and sometimes the bleeding is more like a regular period.

However, as annoying and inconvenient as it can be at times, I don't get the pain or heaviness that I got with my irregular periods at times when I wasn't on the pill, so it's the lesser of 2 evils for me. My moods are more stable too....I often would get bad mood swings pre-period but that doesn't happen so much now either.

I’ve been told it helps people with heavy and irregular bleeding, but not sure why it causes side effects like spotting/constant light periods!

I spotted on and off for about 4 months. Nearly gave up but stuck with it and haven't had a bleed now in 16 months.

Yep! I had constant spotting when I started it years ago so came off it. Went back on when DC2 was 6weeks (had to be mini pill because BF) didn’t have any spotting and thought I’d dodged it but I’ve cut down of BF a lot due to DC taking more solids and now back to bleeding everyday, sometimes a lot sometimes a tiny bit. Need to make a GP appt because I don’t think this is for me unfortunately :(

I had the constant spotting for about 6 months. Then it stopped and I haven't had any bleeding since. I had awful heavy periods before. That was about 3 or 4 years ago. Also stopped perimenopausal symptoms like headaches, rage.

Another side effect is that it is that it completely lowered my libido, not sure if that is a common effect.

Does changing brands help ? Read somewhere that some brands are better than others, but unsure if it helps, as it’s the same component in all of pills !

I’ve been on it for about 2 years now and was given it for perimenopause symptoms that were driving me crazy.

In the past I’ve always reacted badly to hormonal contraception, so was really reluctant, but also desperate because my GP said I was too young for HRT at 39 and basically didn’t believe I was perimenopausal🙄.

For the first 6 months, I bled pretty much constantly, with maybe the odd couple of days here and there, but then it started to level out.

I do 3 weeks on and a 1 week break, as I’ve found that works best for me. During the week off I get my “period” which is relatively light and not painful, but no other side effects.

It has definitely helped with the perimenopause symptoms, so that’s why I stay on it, but recently read on Mumsnet that it’s not really recommended for women over 40, so I plan to make another GP appointment to discuss it because I’m 42 in a few weeks and I know for a fact that if I stop taking it, those symptoms will come back. I even start getting hot flushes towards the end of my 7 day break.

I think the low libido thing is quite common with this pill and a number of others. It definitely lowered mine, though it’s always been on the lower side anyway.

I’m in my early 40s and have been taking it for about 2 years. There was quite a bit of spotting to begin with and then I went months at a time with nothing. I last bled 2 months ago and that was just one day of spotting. It was about 3 months with nothing before that.

No symptoms. I feel fine. Libido is fine.

I went on it because my cycles had been shortening and I was bleeding for a full week every 3 weeks. Once the initial spotting had settled down it’s been great. I often totally forget that periods are a thing which is lovely!

6yrs no bleeding no side effects for me

Yes me too. i bled every day for many months it was a total pita. i also developed a cyst in my bust. I also stopped taking it and went back to the combined pill microgynon with no issues

I’ve had no side effects regarding spotting since I started taking them 8 months ago and before then my periods were horrific.

@IDrinkTeaAllTheTime i was 48 when I got prescribed them and dr said this pill you can be on until 55 depending on your blood pressure because I did question whether I was too old .

I can't have the combined one, unfortunately. We're TTC our 3rd child this year, then after that my husband is having the snip. I've found all hormonal contraception to be a massive pita.

Thanks, that’s good to know. I find this pill really suits me and I don’t have any negative side effects at all, so I would only come off it if I really had to and there was something else I could take to keep me balanced.

Periods every few months for years, just for a week. I've so far been on my period for all of February, a proper full on period. Waiting it out to see what happens!

Desogestrel can be taken well into your 50s according to my GPs. I'm also on hrt at 41 so they're wrong on that as well!

I've been on it for about 2 years after my GP couldn't get a replacement coil back in. I tried many different mini pills between my kids but none of them suited me. I was reluctant to take desogesterel but it's been totally fine. No bleeding or spotting of any sort.
I've taken lots of different brands, I just take what the pharmacy dispenses. They're all the same to me.