Yes, even during the clean days you may purposely check for staining by wiping externally with toilet paper, as long as some time elapsed after urinating. (There is a range of opinions among Ashkenazi halachic authorities as to how long you need to wait. The halachic supervisor of this site, Rav Kenneth Auman, recommends 15 seconds but considers even a few seconds sufficient after the fact.) Any stain you find on the toilet paper may be disregarded and does not invalidate the clean days. If the toilet paper is clear, go ahead with the bedikah. If it is stained, you can try again later in the day (before sunset), or for the bedikah on the “middle” day, wait until the next day to try again.

A bedikah must be performed on days 1 and 7. If you don’t think it will be possible to get a vaild bedikah on day 7, you can delay the bedikah–and mikveh–by extending the clean days. For the clean days to be valid, you need bedikot on the first and last days, and no more than five days can elapse without a bedikah. Thus, for example, clean days with bedikot on days 1, 3, and 9 would be vaild, and you would go to mikveh the night following day 9.

Irregular bleeding is common during the first 1-3 cycles on the pill. If you are still experiencing frequent staining even beyond that point, we recommend speaking to your doctor about trying a different type of pill (possibly one with a higher dose of estrogen). Different pills affect women differently so you may find you will have less staining issues with another type of pill.

Please feel free to get back to us with any further questions.

B’Hatzlacha!

This response was updated on 12 February, 2024.