What is LYBREL®?
LYBREL is the first FDA-approved, daily low dose combination birth control pill where you won't have your regular monthly period for as long as you take it. Just like traditional low dose pills, LYBREL is also highly effective in preventing pregnancy when taken properly.
Breakthrough bleeding or spotting is likely to occur while taking LYBREL, most often during the first six months of use. For most women, this usually decreases over time.
How does LYBREL work?
Most traditional birth control pills provide hormones for 21 out of 28 days, preventing ovulation and decreasing the build-up of your uterine lining. During the 7 days you take placebo (nonhormonal) pills or stop taking pills, you experience your "pill period."
LYBREL delivers the same low dose of hormones every day, without placebos. The lining of your uterus does not go through the changes needed for menstruation, so you do not have regular menstrual periods or "pill periods." LYBREL provides women with more hormonal exposure on a yearly basis (13 additional weeks of hormone intake per year) than conventional cyclic oral contraceptives containing the same strength of synthetic estrogens and similar strength of progestins.
Learn more about how LYBREL works.
What are other health benefits of birth control pills, including LYBREL?
In addition to preventing pregnancy, some information suggests that the use of oral contraceptives like LYBREL may provide certain other benefits, such as:
- Decreased blood loss, and less iron may be lost. Therefore, anemia due to a loss of iron may be less likely to occur.
- Cramps may occur less often.
- Ovarian cysts may occur less often.
- Ectopic (tubal) pregnancy may occur less often.
- Noncancerous cysts or lumps in the breast may occur less often.
- Acute pelvic inflammatory disease may occur less often.
- Oral contraceptive use may provide some protection against developing cancer of the ovaries and cancer of the lining of the uterus.
Next: Effectiveness of LYBREL >>