Hello,
My doctor is on maternity leave, and I'm not able to go to a walk-in clinic for a couple of days; your response will be greatly appreciated!
I've been using Evra birth control patch for exactly a year, and have experienced early bleeding/spotting before taking off my 3rd patch. Normally, the bleeding would start 2-3 days before my patch-free week. I would not take the patch off early,however, and will still take it off on the same day despite the early bleeding. My doctor says not to worry about it (I've consulted them twice on this). However, this time I started bleeding while on my 2nd patch (a whole WEEK early) and was wondering if I have to keep my patch on and apply the 3rd one despite such early bleeding. I'm also worried if this is actually my period and not "breakthrough" bleeding people would usually get between periods. If I do apply my 3rd patch while I experience bleeding/spotting (right now it's hard to tell), am I still protected? Do I go into a patch-week after that?