Constant Brown Spotting

Hi,
I have the same thing...constant brown spotting which is getting worse and worse each month.
Has anyone figured out more about this topic?
Or has anyone been able to conceive while going thru this?

I can't believe i'm not the only one! I have had brown spotting for about five years now. I had been on birth control for a couple of years before the spotting began so I assumed that the birth control couldn't have caused it. Its the same thing for me, I have my period followed by a week of regular discharge and then the spotting begins and continues until my next period. I have had different tests but they all come out fine. A few doctors have also told me that I have low progesterone and prescribed a yam cream. I was also told to try going off the pill and I have been off it for a couple years but it doesn't seem to make a difference. After awhile you just kind of want to give up because it seems like the doctors don't really care or they have no clue. Some doctors say just not to worry about it but it is so frustrating to be spotting all the time. I'm 22 years old and am desperately hoping for their to be a definite solution.

I've had the same problem for about 3 years. It's starting to get extremely annoying. I've only talked to my doctor about it once about a year ago. She prescribed me birth control to try but I never took it (I don't like taking medicine unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary). Right about that time, even though I didn't take it, it cleared up for a few months, but it came back late last fall. I can't think of anything that would have changed during the time that I didn't take it.

There are 2 factors that I wondered if they might have anything to do with the problem. I mentioned both to my doctor.
1) A few months before the brown spotting started 3 years ago I stopped eating meat. I've heard a few times that vegetarians have slightly different periods (usually lighter). I've never heard of it causing this though. I mentioned it to my doctor and she said that it was probably unlikely. Also, I watch what I eat pretty carefully so I shouldn't be deficient in anything (if I were, it would be Iron)

2) When I was younger I took zoloft for OCD. I stopped taking it right about the time the brown splotting started. My doctor said that this is more likely to be what caused it because of something to do with the medicine affecting hormones. She sent me to get a blood test done to check hormone levels and my iron but I never heard back, so I assumed that meant my results were all normal.

I hadn't seen any posts that mentioned either of those types of factors so I just wanted to bring them up. Maybe some other people here stopped taking a medication that caused it?
I'm only 18 so I haven't been too worried about it yet aside from how annoying it is. I'm getting sick of dealing with it though and I'm afraid of the possibility of it causing problems in relationships in the future.

Zandra- Thanks for registering. It makes it a lot easier to understand who's saying what. You have a beautiful name, by the way. Look forward to hearing more from you!
Pat

I was the one that posted on July 6 and also on May 22, 2010 - 3:51am. Those two posts are mine. I am the only one I guess who has had spotting instead of a first menstruation. So 11 years of spotting for me.
I apologize if we are creating a confusion under this one question but it's kind of helpful having all these women with the same or similar issue in one thread. I think.
To answer your question, I'm not taking any hormonal contraception. I did for 6 months, last year. But I stopped and my situation got even worse.

warm regards,
Zandra

To all of the "anons" posting questions on this long thread: If you would like your question answered, please know that your question is important enough to warrant its own separate ASK question! You do not need to piggy-back on another's question in a long thread; your question is valuable by itself.

It is confusing to read incomplete questions with tidbits of information over multiple comments, spanning multiple pages, all authored by "anonymous". Your health questions are very important to us; we want to provide you with accurate and complete information.

In order for us to provide you with the most timely, accurate and detailed information for your specific health question, please post your complete story and question in one post by clicking on "ASK a Question", and submitting it as its own question. We would be more than happy to help you!!