Oral contraceptives have been used for decades by women to prevent pregnancy. They work by blocking ovulation using estrogen and progesterin hormones. They are taken in daily pills and come in many different dosages and cycles. Monophasic and triphasic pills are very popular but are quite different.
Monophasic Birth Control Facts
1. Basics
Birth control pills are pills that contain the same levels of estrogen and progestin in each pill. They are much less likely to cause any side effects in the body that could be caused by varying hormones.
2. Dosage
The amount of estrogen that is in monophasic birth control pills vary depending on their strength. Low dose pill have 20 mcg of estrogen while regular dosage pills have 30-35 mcg and the highest doses contain 50 or more mcg of estrogen.
3. Benefits
Monophasic birth control pills have some pretty hefty benefits due to the consistent amount of hormones being put into the body. Less bloating, breast tenderness, and headaches related to hormones have been reported with monophasic birth control.
4. Side Effects
Birth control pills do not protect against HIV or any sexually transmitted diseases, this is very important to know! Birth control changes the way your hormones work in your body, which cause some unavoidable side effects. Weight gain, mood changes, spotting, and breast tenderness are all possible side effects that may be experienced with birth control pills.
5. Examples
Here are some examples of commonly used monophasic birth control:
Alesse
Balziva
Mercilon
Micrette
Necon 1/35
Trivora
TriNessa
Errin
All About Triphasic Birth Control
1. Basics
Triphasic birth control pills are characterized by 21 pills that contain three different dosages of hormones. The hormone combination changes every seven days throughout the month. Either the amount of estrogen, progestin, or both will change. They change with a gradual increase of these hormones.
2. Why?
Triphasic birth control is a form of multiphasic oral contraceptives that where developed in the 1980’s. They where made to mimic the female body’s natural menstrual cycle and hormone distribution and to reduce the amount of break through bleeding that may occur.
3. Problems
The biggest problem with triphasic birth control pills are that they can be somewhat tricky to take. If you miss a day it is much more complicated to understand what to do in order to make up the hormones. Also starting the next pack late can have very bad effects. It deprives your body of the hormones that it is used to cycling on and makes pregnancy much more likely.
4. Examples
Some examples of commonly taken triphasic birth control pills are
Triphasil
Trivora
Enpresse
Ortho Tricyclen
Nortrel 7/7/7
Differences Between Monophasic and Triphasic Birth Control
1. Dosage
The dosage amount is monophasic compared to triphasic oral contraceptives are the biggest difference. In monophasic pills the dose of hormones remains the same in ever pill, every day. With triphasic pills the amount changes ever 7 days to a higher dosage until the pack stops and then it starts over.
2. Complications
There are some complications associated with the triphasic pills. If a day is missed or a pack is started late it is much more difficult to just continue because of the hormone cycling that you body is used to. In monophasic birth control pills if you miss a day you simply just take the next pill and continue your pack.
3. Effectiveness
This is not so much as a different as a similarity, however it is a very important thing to understand when choosing what type of oral contraceptive is right for you. Both triphasic and monophasic pills produce the same protection against pregnancy. No studies have proven if one is more effective than the other.