Obviously a lot of the gals taking this hormonal formulation need...

Obviously a lot of the gals taking this hormonal formulation need to get a totally different one. What surprises me are all the first-time BC users whose doctors are putting them on a rather high-dose pill (not technically high dose, but it is the highest you can be under the "Low Dose" heading). I would think their doctors would've put them on something very very low and go from there. Anyways, I was on BC pills for 8 years before we decided to start a family. However, ever since having my first child 4 years ago, I couldn't find a pill that could control my period. It seemed that when I was off the pill, I was fine, but as soon as I started a pill I would bleed 3 weeks out of 4. It was awful--plus insurance wouldn't pay for other methods besides permanent BC methods. I went through at least three different types of pills with no luck. Then we decided to have our second child...so off the pill and my periods were normal and regular up until I conceived. After my second child was born and I was done breast-feeding, my doctor put me on a pill (loestrin, I think?) and back to the same thing...3 weeks of heavy bleeding out of 4 and it made not only me, but my husband, crabby. I tried another pill, then finally got very firm and specific with the nurses and my doctor...they needed to put me on something completely different than the other formulations I'd been on and/or a higher dosage. First month on Femcon FE and only 1 day of light spotting; lighter-than-normal period (thank goodness!); but I did have some weird abdominal pain in the upper right quadrant of my abdomen. Thankfully that pain went away after eating, particularly high-fiber meals or large meals. Since I had a stomach bug the week before I started the pills, I didn't think too much of it; figured the stomach virus had moved south and was just irritating my gut. It went away by the time I had my period...but it started again after 5 days on my next pill pack, though the pain is considerably less than last month. However, after seeing someone else's comment regarding estrogen's affect on the gallbladder (and that's about where my pain was), I'm going to at least talk to my doctor on Monday. I have had no other side effects other than the abdominal pain and very very slight breast tenderness (although after pregnancy and breast-feeding, the breast tenderness is barely noticeable in comparison). So I'd like to stay on this as long as I'm not developing any gallstones, etc.