[Coffee.]

I agree with seeing a doctor about your birth control habits; however, to my knowledge, skipping the placebo pills does not lower the effectiveness. I'm actually prescribed to do this. To explain, I'm an uninsured American who cannot afford to get back onto the implant right now, or can I afford to pay out of pocket for Seasonique. I talked to my gynecologist about this (as this is the actual reason I'm on birth control, beyond just contraceptives) and she prescribed me the cheapest combination method available to pay out of pocket ($6 per pack) and wrote my prescription to renew every 63 days (instead of every 90) due to my wish to skip my periods. When I spoke to her about this, she told me they are just as effective as long as you're taking them at the same time. Now, I do not know your exact birth control method (you might be on the progestin-only pill, which is very different than combination in many ways) or a combination that this would not be the case or could be dangerous to do this. But to my knowledge, you should be within the regular failure rate.

Regardless how conservative your area is, I do think that you should have access to better options for skipping your period. There are progestin-only methods that can skip your periods (the IUD and shot are best at this) and these methods are a lot more effective as contraceptive than the pill anyway. Plus they usually have less spotting than Seasonique. I'd talk to your gynecologist about it. I personally don't really think it's lowering the effectiveness, though. From my knowledge on birth control, I highly doubt it. But I'm not a doctor, so I'd ask them first. Your particular pill method could not be good to do this, so always ask before taking a prescription against directions. My doctor told me to do what I'm doing, yours didn't.

Last, back to your actual question. What's probably happening is that you're spotting due to skipping your pills and not implantation bleeding. This happens all the time on these methods, spotting is very common. As Lizzie suggested, take a pregnancy test just in case. I'd also suggest you use condoms along with your birth control to have double the protection and look into getting something more effective. If pregnancy is not in your plans, make sure that you're set up to be the most successful.