Brands > Seasonale

Seasonale is a 90-day birth control pill that allows you to get your period once every 13 weeks. It has significantly helped me with my PMS symptoms, and although some are better and some are worse, on the whole it's a plus.

I used to get eczema on my legs and toes on a regular monthly cycle. With scratching, sometimes this led to monthly fungal infections of my toes. Strangely enough, altering my monthly cycle so that my period comes only once every three months has broken the itchy cycle my skin used to go through. If I do get a bit of eczema, it is milder.

One side effect I also used to get with monthly PMS was a headache right before my period would come, which dispersed when my period arrived. The first couple of months I was on Seasonale, I got headaches when my period would have normally come, but MUCH more intense - so that I couldn't sleep, felt a bit nauseated - basically felt like something was boring into my skull. Two extra-strength Tylenol did relieve the headache. Thankfully, this has dissipated with time on the medication and I no longer get severe headaches, I was not sure after the first couple of months if I could continue.

One side effect that my doctor did warn me about, which is true, is that you really need to take this medication at the same time each day. Particularly toward the end of the three-month cycle, if you miss even by a few hours, you will have spotting. I missed a dose by 12 hours at week 11, and I ended up with spotting that didn't go away through weeks 11 or 12 and lasted until my period came at week 13. If this happened again late in the cycle I would just skip to the week 13 placebo pills, get my period over with, and start again with the regular pills after another seven days.

Overall, I highly recommend Seasonale, but be warned that it takes probably 3 months for your body to adapt. I have been taking it for nine months and am now very happy with it.