Seasonique and Its Side Effects: Oral Contraceptive Makes Good on Its Claims

As a medical student and as a friend of those taking Seasonique, I've been able to study the drug and its side effects. Seasonique is an extended-cycle-combined oral contraceptive pill, or ECCOCP for short. Seasonique bills itself as a new approach to birth control designed to lengthen time between periods so you only have four per year. It makes good on its claim.

The secret behind Seasonique and other extended cycle combined oral contraceptive pills isn't in their formulation, but rather in its packaging. Seasonique is made up of the same stuff all combined oral contraceptive pills are, a combination of estrogen and progesterone. The two hormones responsible for regulating a woman's menstrual cycle. Altering the levels of these hormones in a woman's body tricks the body into not ovulating. Combined oral contraceptive pills are packaged in groups of 28, 21 actual pills followed by 7 placebos. Withdrawal bleeding occurs while a woman takes the placebo pills. Seasonique takes this one step further by also tricking the body into not having a period, or at least not experiencing withdrawal bleeding as often. It does this simply by only requiring the woman to take the placebo pills every three months. This means a woman only has a period every three months.

Effectiveness for COCPs and ECOCPs are virtually identical. Many women turn to ECOCPs for its convenience. It hasn't been shown to be any harder for women to take correctly and is no more dangerous for women than normal COCPs.

Seasonique side effects are the same as the side effects or normal combined oral contraceptive pills. The most common of these is breakthrough bleeding, or spotting. This is more common when first starting usage of Seasonique, and frequency of spotting should die down as the woman continues usage. A study has shown that59% of women experienced no bleeding in months six through twelve while 79% experienced no bleeding after twelve months. Even so, spotting is rarely dangerous and will probably only serve as an annoyance to those women it effects.

I'd just like to not here that even though the FDA says there shouldn't be any link between combined oral contraceptive pills and depression, some studies and personal experiences have shown a positive correlation between the two. It looks like women on the pill are more likely to be depressed than women off it. This warning should be taken with a grain of salt but its something you should know about nonetheless.

And remember, as always, consult your doctor before taking any advice you read here or elsewhere.