Will Birth Control Make My Period Stop
if I get on birth control will i stop getting my period?
It depends on what kind of birth control you use and how you use it. In general, women who use the IUD, patch, pill, or ring will have menstrual periods every month. Women who take the shot may not have periods often or at all while they use the method. Some women use combined-hormone methods the pill and the vaginal ring to skip periods.
Combination pills, for example, usually come in 28-day packs and are taken without interruption. The first 21 pills in the pack are called active they contain hormones that prevent pregnancy. The last seven pills in the pack are called reminder pills. Theyre inactive placebos that do not contain hormones. Theyre taken during the fourth week to let a woman have her period and to help her keep the habit of taking a pill on a regular basis.
Some women choose to skip placebo pills and go right into the next pack to avoid having a period continuously or during certain events like their vacations, for example. They may still experience some spotting light bleeding when they do this.
Tags:menstruation, periods, birth control
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Can Exercise Delay Periods
Exercise, of course, has many benefits, one of which is to subside cramps and other period pains, but it does not affect the timing of your period.
It is also commonly known that for some women, excessive exercise or low-calorie intake can altogether skip their period, but this causes other health problems and is not advised to delay your period.
Difficulty Identifying Accidental Pregnancy
Using birth control to skip or stop periods makes no difference to fertility. You will be protected from pregnancy in the same way as you would be if you had a period on birth control. It is safe and will still protect you from pregnancy.
However, skipping periods may make it difficult to notice if you do happen to become pregnant. If you notice symptoms such as breast tenderness or nausea, take a home pregnancy or consult your healthcare provider.
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Do Specific Foods Work To Delay Your Period
You may have heard certain foods can delay your period. Some websites point to things like lemons because of vitamin C, or bananas because of potassium, or some spicy food. Although some of these ingredients are good or can benefit a balanced diet, it does not affect your period timing.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutritionhas shown that while diet can be relevant to a woman’s period, there is no research on lemons, bananas, spicy food, or any other food as a way to delay a period.
The Truth On Apple Cider Vinegar And Your Period
People may tout all kinds of health benefits of apple cider vinegar, but the truth is, there isn’t enough medical evidence to support them. You may have even heard that apple cider vinegar could possibly help to delay periods.
However, similar to diet choices, there is no research confirming that apple cider vinegar has any effect on your period.
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Potential Health Benefits And Risks Of Stopping Your Period
So, now that you have an idea of why different people have different beliefs about stopping your period, lets take a look at the potential benefits and risks.
Benefits
According to the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, the following are possible benefits of using hormonal birth control to stop your period.
- Less pain with your period
- Less bleeding each month
Those all sound ideal, right? A life free from wondering when your period will treat you to a surprise visit, stained underwear, and PMS. It sounds great in theory.
Risks
Unfortunately, its not quite as easy to list out the possible risks of stopping your period. The reproductive cycle is complex, especially when you take hormones into account. There are more obvious risks and some that are not-so-obvious.
- The risk of pregnancyno birth control is 100% effective and, if youre taking a hormonal birth control, you may not see the signs of an accidental pregnancy early on
- Breakthrough bleeding as your body adjusts to the constant influx of hormone
- Spottingwomen who suppress their period are still subject to surprise spotting
Obviously, there are a lot of side effects, both positive and negative, associated with stopping your period. But it doesnt stop there
Can Other Hormonal Methods Delay Your Period
So, the pill is the most effective way to safely delay your period, according to experts. But there are some other methods that may work, as well.
One of those methods, according to Dr. Kelly-Jones, is the vaginal ring . This hormonal contraception method is FDA-approved for use through the same 21 days on, seven days off cycle as the pill. But Annovera has enough hormones to be left in for a full year without changing it, says Dr. Kelly-Jones. The NuvaRing, meanwhile, only has 28 days’ worth of hormones before it has to be replaced with a new one.
Keep in mind, though, this is not the FDA-approved use for these methods. “While it’s safe to do this, neither ring is FDA-approved for this method,” says Dr. Kelly-Jones.
Along the same lines, the birth control patch could technically be used in this way, as well. “Similarly, you can also use the birth control patch continuously by using a new patch every week, and on week four, place a new patch on your body to skip your period,” says Dr. Horton. However, it’s a great idea to keep your doctor in the loop if you plan to try any of these methodsnot only to get their go-ahead, but to make them away of any changes happening in your body.
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First: Is It Safe To Delay Your Period At All
So there’s some good news here: You absolutely can delay your periodand do it in safe way. But that can only be done with one specific hormonal birth control method: the combination pill .
“A birth control pill has 21 days of hormones, usually ethinyl estradiol and progestin, and seven days of a placebo pill that prompts you to have an artificial period,”Alyse Kelly-Jones, MD, an ob-gyn in Charlotte, North Carolina, tells Health. “To delay your period, you would skip the placebo and immediately start a new pack of pills.”
Doing this for just one cycle can delay your period by as much as another three weeks, says Dr. Kelly-Jones. The only caveat is that you need to plan accordingly and with plenty of notice if you’re not already on hormonal birth control to begin with. “If you come to me two weeks out from your wedding or vacation and aren’t already on birth control, I probably won’t be able to help you,” she says. “At best, you might be able to delay it in time, but at worst, you might cause all kinds of irregular bleeding, which would be even less appealing.”
That’s because, with your birth control pills already in place, your body is like a well-oiled machine, while starting birth control from scratch can sometimes be a lengthy process to find one that works with your body to your liking.
First Lets Go Over How Your Period Generally Works When Youre Not On Birth Control
During your menstrual cycle, your uterus builds up a lining made of blood and nutrients to nourish a fetus if you happen to get pregnant. If you dont get pregnant during that cycle, your body expels that lining in whats known as your period. You might already know that, but the exact way this happens is pretty fascinating and lays the groundwork for how to skip your uteruss monthly temper tantrum.
While you have your period, your pituitary gland makes more follicle-stimulating hormone , which prompts follicles to start to develop on your ovaries. Each of these follicles contains an egg. As your period finishes, one of these follicles continues to grow while the others are absorbed back into your ovaries. That maturing follicle gives off the hormone estrogen, which makes the lining of your uterus get thicker.
At this point, your estrogen levels top off and theres a rise in luteinizing hormone , which prepares the follicle to release the egg inside of it for potential fertilization. When this happens around the middle of your cycle, its known as ovulation. After ovulation, the follicle then produces the hormone progesterone to help your uterine lining get thicker and stabilize.
If you dont get pregnant, the egg breaks apart, and your levels of estrogen and progesterone drop. As a result, you shed your uterine lining, have your period, and start the cycle all over again.
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Are There Side Effects Of Using The Pill To Skip Your Period Continually
The main side effect of having long bleeding-free stretches is an increase in unpredictable breakthrough bleeding . The good news is that the frequency of breakthrough bleeding may decreases over time . Other than increased rates of breakthrough bleeding, taking your birth control pill consecutively, as opposed to having monthly pill-periods, does cause any additional side effects .
A concern about not having a regular âperiodâ is that you lose the monthly confirmation that youâre not pregnant. Although skipping your withdrawal bleed with the pill provides you with the same contraceptive protection as before, it also comes with the same risks if you donât take your pill on a regular daily basis.
We Dont Need To Bleed: Why Many Women Are Giving Up On Periods
With recent confirmation that periods have no health benefit, an increasing number of women are using contraception to stop them altogether
For some, it is about bringing an end to debilitating pain or dark thoughts. For others, it is as simple as being liberated from the sinking realisation that you need a tampon but you left them in your other handbag.
When a new wave of feminist authors and activists are calling on women to embrace their periods, the idea that some do not want a monthly bleed and are seeking to avoid having them altogether can seem radical.
The technology is there, in contraceptives. They dont only prevent pregnancy. A recent drop in tampon sales has been linked to women using contraceptive methods that stop, or lighten their periods. About a fifth of women using the contraceptive implant no longer bleed , while many who take contraceptive pills without a break often achieve the same result and they are not the only methods.
The impact can be life-changing. I started taking the mini-pill purely for the fact it would stop my periods, says Jaimi Kendall, 25, from Exeter. For years, I had extremely heavy periods that would drag on for eight weeks or so and left me severely anaemic to the point where I started experiencing pulsatile tinnitus. Not having periods any more is a blessing.
So, if women do not want a period, is there a medical reason that they should? Many may be surprised to learn that the short answer is: no.
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Is Skipping Your Period Safe
Medical studies have reported no significant negative health effects when you skip your period on the combined hormonal birth control pill . That being said, itâs still important to mention that there have been no long-term studies examining the safety of continually skipping your period. Sometimes medical repercussions take a longer time and/or need a larger population sample size to emerge.
If you choose to stop taking hormonal birth control, your natural menstrual cycle and fertility will usually return to normal after one month, regardless of how long you skipped your âperiodâ .
The Larger Cultural Impact Of Menstrual Suppression
The cultural implications of suppressing menstruation play a large role in why many people feel that women shouldnt be encouraged to stop their periods. In a society where women are shamed for having a period, the last thing we want to do is validate that not having one is better. This obsession with hormonal birth control and being period-free sends a message that having a period is not natural or acceptable. There has not been sufficient research done on the effect that stopping your period has on the way women feel about their bodies or the culture of menstruation as a whole.
One study by Robin Ashley Repta at the University of British Columbia, explored the cultural impact of menstrual suppression on women and found that their motivations to stop their periods were largely based on how society defines menstruation as embarrassing, gross, and taboo. Among the motivations to menstruate? Health concerns, distrust of pharmaceuticals, and wanting to have a natural cycle. Regardless of which side of the menstrual suppression coin you find yourself on, theres no denying that the motivations for many women to stop their period being due to shame around bleeding is cause for alarm.
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How To Stop Your Period: 6 Safe Ways To Do It
There are ways of delaying your period for a few days, or even months, if you take Primosiston, the contraceptive pill or use a hormonal IUD. However, none of these options can stop a period once it has started.
Even though some women take salt water, water with vinegar, the morning-after pill, or ibuprofen, to try and stop a period that has already started, these solutions are not advised because they can be harmful to your health and cause hormonal changes, deregulating your cycles. In addition, there is no scientific evidence that these methods are effective in stopping a period.
If you want to delay your period by a week, not have your period for a month, or even stop your period completely, the best thing is for you to speak to your gynecologist so that he can advise you the best way to do so.
Even though there is no safe or effective way of stopping your period immediately or even after it has already started, there are ways of causing it to come sooner or later by a few days or months, such as: