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Seasonal Oral Contraceptive Cycle
Aka: Seasonal Oral Contraceptive Cycle, Seasonal Contraception, Extended-Cycle Oral Contraceptive, Seasonale, Seasonique, Lybrel, Amethyst, LoSeasonique, Quartette
- See Also
- Oral Contraceptive
- Indications
- Menstrual Migraine
- Heavy Menstrual Bleeding
- Women wanting to reduce Menses to 4 times per year
- Techique: Seasonal, 84 day regimen
- Continue active pills (no Placebo pills) until:
- Breakthrough bleeding or
- 84 days pass
- When active phase completed
- Hormone free: 5-7 days
- Preparations
- Any monophasic Oral Contraceptive may be used
- Simply do not take Placebo pills
- Much less expensive with generics ($60 per 3 months, compared with $200-300 for trade name preparations)
- Typical monophasic Oral Contraceptive used in Seasonal Contraception (e.g. Loestrin 1/20, Alesse, Aviane)
- Low dose Estrogen (20-30 mcg Ethinyl Estradiol) and
- Progestin (e.g. Levonorgestrel, Norethindrone)
- Preparations marketed for seasonal regimen
- Seasonale (84 day regimen, same components as Levlen and Nordette)
- Levonorgestrel 150 mcg
- Ethinyl Estradiol 30 mcg
- Seasonique (84 day regimen + 7 low dose Estrogen tablets)
- Includes 7 additional pills containing only 10 mcg Ethinyl Estradiol
- Levonorgestrel 100 mcg
- Ethinyl Estradiol 30 mcg
- Lybrel or Amethyst (365 day regimen without Placebo pills)
- Levonorgestrel 90 mcg
- Ethinyl Estradiol 30
- LoSeasonique or Amethia Lo (84 day regimen + 7 low dose Estrogen tablets)
- Includes 7 additional pills containing only 10 mcg Ethinyl Estradiol
- Levonorgestrel 100 mcg
- Ethinyl Estradiol 20 mcg
- Quartette (84 day regimen)
- Four phase extended-cycle of varying Estrogen dose
- Includes 7 additional pills with only 10 mcg Ethinyl Estradiol
- Consider if breakthrough bleeding on Seasonal Contraception persists beyond the first 3 months
- Similar to LoSeasonique (differs only in the varying Estrogen dose)
- Levonorgestrel 150 mcg
- Ethinyl Estradiol varies between 20 mcg, 25 mcg, 30 mcg, 10 mcg over 4 phases and 84 days
- References
- (2013) Presc Lett 20(9): 52
- (2015) Presc Lett 22(10): 57