General Question

LeavesNoTrace's avatar

Am I still ovulating on Nexplanon?

Asked by LeavesNoTrace (5677points) June 19th, 2014

For those not familiar with Nexplanon, here’s what it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexplanon

Anyway, I was told that it’s supposed to suppress ovulation but I’m definitely still ovulating even though I don’t always menstruate. Is this possible? I know I’m ovulating because of the prodigious surge in sex drive and the tell-tale ‘eggwhite’ discharge.

Am I sufficiently protected or should I be concerned? I’m not very sexually active but I hope that this contraceptive is performing as advertised. Perhaps it just prevents a fertilized egg from attaching?

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5 Answers

Seaofclouds's avatar

You may not be ovulating. Having the surge in your sex drive and the “eggwhite” discharge just means your hormones are shifting. It does not mean for sure that ovulation has or is occurring.

That being said, you should discuss your concerns with your doctor. They are the ones that would be best suited for telling you if you are sufficiently protected or not. If everything went fine with the insertion and the rod is still correctly in place, you should be fine, but there are people that respond differently than most people and there is a failure rate associated with all forms of birth control. Call your doctor and speak with them. There are tests that can be done to find out if you are ovulating, but they may not want to do those.

JLeslie's avatar

If you have your typical tell tale signs of ovulation, I would assume it isn’t working. Especially if you actually menstruate a couple weeks after what you believe to be ovulation. Are you feeling the pain on your side also? The likelihood it isn’t sufficient hormones to stop ovulation is extremely low, but not impossible. I know when I ovulate and I believe you do to.

LeavesNoTrace's avatar

I’m 6ft tall and 175 lbs. Could my size be a factor? :/

JLeslie's avatar

@LeavesNoTrace Maybe? I really have no idea if weight matters for those types of drugs, but in general I think the average weight of a woman compared to man means women are often overmedicated. Many many drugs, if they are old drugs, were ony tested in men. Newer drugs are tested in both men and women, but they don’t analyze the women and men separately, so just recently the FDA is starting to realize often the recommended dose for adults overmedicated women and might be undermedicating men. They actually just changed dosage based on gender for Ambien. The belief is women metabolize the drug differently, and I would think weight might be a factor too. Basically the scientists were idiots, but I am off on a tangent now, but getting to a point. Obviously, your drug would be tested solely in women. The question would be what is the average weight of the women that were tested and did women who were much heavier than average have trouble with the drug? There certainly are plenty of women your weight, but are they the usual market for the drug? I don’t know the answer to that.

Your bleeding might be breakthrough bleeding. There certainly are women who swear the pill didn’t work for them and they got preggers, so there are certainly examples of the hormones not be 100% at preventing pregnancy.

When in doubt, try a different method. You can’t be nervous your birth control isn’t working. It will make you batty.

Talk to you your doctor I think.

ItalianPrincess1217's avatar

I think size can change the effectiveness of hormonal medicines but I don’t think you’re size is the issue in this case. How long have you had the Nexplanon? It only lasts 3 to 4 years before you need to get it replaced. Perhaps it’s time to replace it? Or if you just started it, maybe your body hasn’t fully regulated to it yet. These are just guesses and you should talk to your doctor to get professional answers. To be safe, use other methods of protection if you want to avoid pregnancy for now. Also, if you want to find out if you’re really ovulating, get some ovulation tests from the drug store. Maybe what you think is ovulation is really just your hormones being wacky from the Nexplanon.

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