I am 20 years old, and have menstruated since age 13. I have never had a pregnancy. According to this website: my BMI is 26.6 kg/m^2. I do not exercise regularly, although I am a student and I have a twenty minute walk between my dormitory and classes which I make at least twice, but more often four, times a day. I take oral contraceptives, currently Ocella, and have been taking various oral contraceptives since I was 16 or so. My periods are generally heavy with medium pain, but they are very regular, especially since being on Ocella.
However, I finished last month's period on about 6/5, which was about day 2 or 3 of my new pill pack. Today, 6/24, is the first day of the placebo pills for this month, and usually it takes about a day or two of placebo pills for my period to start. However, I started having breakthrough bleeding on about 6/14 or so, and haven't stopped. The flow has been varying in amount from extremely light to medium, with no real consistency even throughout the same day. I have experienced mild cramping, but it's not been nearly as bad nor recognizable as it usually is. However (I'm not sure if this is relevant, sorry), I have experienced unusual constipation and diarrhea throughout this time. I haven't skipped pills, and the last time my parner and I had sex was like three weeks ago, but (as always) it was with a condom. I'm not concerned that this is a pregnancy, but I am concerned in general because this kind of irregularity in bleeding has not happened to me before now. Also, it's extremely uncomfortable. I have no way of being able to tell when it's going to stop, because as I mentioned, on various days it has been lighter, then heavier, then lighter, with no general trend in either direction.
The only cause I can come up with is stress. I am usually under a lot of stress, but I just started an intensive immersive summer language school which is far from home. The start of classes coincided with the start of the bleeding. But I have settled in now (it's been two weeks), and I don't understand this much bleeding. I'm pretty sure it's just stress, but does anyone have a different theory, and/or a conjecture as to when it will stop?
I appreciate your help!