Do I keep taking my pills through breakthrough bleeding?!

Do I keep taking my pills through breakthrough bleeding?

I tried skipping a period using my birth control, and it worked for the week I wanted it to, but when I woke up this morning I found unexpected bleeding a week and a half after I should have gotten it. I'm not sure if it's the beginning of a period or if it's just breakthrough, but it appears to be more than just spotting. Should I keep taking my birth control pills through this bleeding, or do I stop? Otherwise I'm not sure when I would be expected to start them again. It's such a pain to get an appointment with my doctor, I was hoping someone else had gone through this. Help?

If you haven't missed any pills in the interim, then it's breakthrough bleeding.

Do NOT stop taking the pills. All you'd do then would be to leave yourself open for MORE irregular bleeding, on top of risking pregnancy.

This is an unfortunate but pretty typical side effect of trying to mess with your body's chemistry and the artificial chemicals you're taking to modify your cycle. It will eventually stop - even though it may range from spotting to full-on bleeding.

You will get your period at your regular time (during your placebo week) when you finish out your pack.

If this is a tri-phasic pill (different chemicals all month long), I would recommend NOT doing this again, as breakthrough bleeding is more common with this type of pill.