Is It Bad For Birth Control To Stop Your Period

How Can I Safely Skip My Period On Birth Control

There are many different combined hormonal birth control pills containing different types of synthetic hormones and doses. Some pills are monophasicâmeaning they have the same dose of hormones in each pill. Other pills are multiphasicâmeaning that the number of hormones in the pills changes throughout your pack. Your birth control package will indicate which kind of pill you have. You can choose to skip your âperiodâ on either type of pill, but itâs best to consult with your healthcare provider before you start.

If you are taking a monophasic combined hormonal birth control pill

One study found that if you experience three days of consecutive breakthrough bleeding, choosing to start your period at that time would result in fewer bleeding days throughout the entire year .

If you are taking a multiphasic pill:

What If I Want To Get My Period Again

First, some important information: If you want to take birth control and suppress your period for years to come, thats totally OK.

Frankly, if someone never wanted a pregnancy and never wanted to have a period, they could safely suppress menses from puberty to menopause, Prager says.

If youre wondering how youd know youre entering menopause if youve been suppressing your period, well, there are other ways to tell, such as if you start getting hot flashes or night sweats or are at an age where menopause typically starts).

If, however, you want to have a baby or arent enjoying the side effects from taking birth control, you may decide to start getting your period again, which is also totally safe.

There isnt anything special you need to do to bring your period back other than to adjust or stop your birth control. If youre taking pills, this means starting to take the week of inactive pills again. If you have gotten a shot or an IUD, it means not getting another shot or getting your IUD removed by your doctor.

Its also important to recognize that, while your period may return exactly as it was before you stopped it, it may also change. You could get new symptoms or different period severity or duration than you had previously.

Prepare for it to be as unpleasant or more than it used to be. It might be totally different from how people remember it. Its important not to have expectations for what it will be, Prager says.

Will Starting Birth Control On The First Day Of My Period Stop It

You should have your period during your fourth week on the pill. When you start a fresh pack of tablets, your menstrual period will end. However, this does not mean that you cannot get pregnant while on the pill it is only because there are no new hormones in your system yet that prevents ovulation from happening again so quickly after your last period.

If you want to avoid getting pregnant but still need to take care of other health issues, such as diabetes or heart disease, we recommend that you see your doctor who may be able to prescribe you another form of contraception. Even though your period is off schedule, this does not necessarily mean that you are unable to get pregnant.

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Are Birth Control Pills Considered Hormone Therapy

No, birth control pills arent used as hormone therapy . The hormones in birth control pills are used to stop ovulation, so theyre at a much higher dose than the amount of hormones you find in HT.

The goal of HT is to get your postmenopausal hormone levels close to what they were before menopause. Typically, lower doses of hormones are used during HT. And the dose of hormones given during each HT session often varies depending on your individual needs.

Learn Which Forms Are Most Likely To Stop Menstruation And If It’s Safe

• Frequently Asked Questions

There are many reasons for people to want to delay or skip a period. Some experience very heavy bleeding, painful cramping, or other severe symptoms during their menstrual cycle that they want to avoid. Other people choose to delay their monthly cycle for the sake of convenience, due to travel or other personal events.

But is it safe to skip a period? The short answer is yes, in most cases.

In this article, we’ll review which forms of birth control can help prevent a period for days, weeks, months, or even longer, how to so safely, and other concerns.

Mindful Media / Getty Images

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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.

When Can I Use The Contraceptive Pill To Delay My Period

Most brands of the combined contraceptive pill can be used to delay your period if you have already been taking it for several weeks. You should not use the contraceptive pill to delay your period by simply starting to take the pill shortly before your period is due.

Taking two packets of the pill back-to-back artificially sustains the levels of hormones in your body. This delays the shedding of your womb lining, and therefore the onset of your period.

You can take up to 3 packets back to back. However some women do experience breakthrough bleeding or spotting and can feel bloated.

Most combined contraceptive pills can be taken back-to-back to delay your period, including Microgynon, Rigevidon, Cilest and Yasmin. Phasic pills, however, contain different quantities of hormones in each pill, and you should consult your doctor before taking more than 1 packet in succession.

Women on the mini pill normally take one pill every day, with no 7-day break. It is therefore impossible to use the mini pill to delay your period.

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When Do You Get Your Period On Birth Control

So the pill was designed so youd get your period during the time you take the placebo or sugar pills, also called inactive pills. This commonly happens for a week at the end of a standard pill pack. Though you may be supposed to get a period during the placebo week, it doesnt always happen. You can be late or early, or never see it come at all.

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Is It Safe To Stop My Period

There isnt really anyone who couldnt safely have menstrual suppression, Prager says.

Naturally not having a period can sometimes be an indicator of a health issue such as in people who have eating disorders, for example but if you intentionally and safely stop your period, it isnt risky, Prager says.

Pragers logic is this: 200 years ago, for example, women tended to have more children and so spent much more of their life pregnant or breastfeeding .

Modern people with uteruses have many more periods than people did then, she explains.

In some cases, using an IUD, shot or other form of birth control may be safer for someone than using birth control pills. While rare, birth control pills can increase stroke risk in some people who smoke and are over age 35, have high blood pressure, get migraines with aura, or have a history of stroke or heart disease.

While menstrual suppression isnt dangerous, initiating hormonal birth control can be uncomfortable at first, depending on how your body reacts to the type of birth control youre using. Some people experience mood changes like anxiety and depression, nausea, breast tenderness, migraines, weight fluctuations or other unpleasant symptoms.

For many people, these symptoms will go away within a few months. But some people may need to try a different form of birth control if their symptoms are too bothersome.

On the plus side, there are also benefits to taking birth control and stopping your period, Prager says.

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Safety Of Skipping Your Period

There are a number of reasons why you may want to skip your period.

Its generally safe to do so if youre on birth control pills. However, its best to check with your doctor first. Youll want to make sure that theres no medical reason for you to continue with your current menstruation schedule.

Taking birth control pills to reduce or eliminate your period is just as safe as taking them in the conventional way, says Gerardo Bustillo, MD, OB-GYN, at Orange Coast Memorial in Fountain Valley, California.

Menstruation isnt physiologically necessary. In general, women today experience many more menstrual cycles over their lifetime compared to women of previous generations, says Bustillo. There are a few reasons for that, including the following:

• Many women today start menstruating at a younger age.
• Women today have fewer pregnancies on average.
• Women today dont breastfeed for as long.
• Women today generally reach menopause later in life.

According to Lisa Dabney, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the monthly period that traditional birth control pills allow for may have had more to do with marketing than anything.

When the birth control pills first came out, they were designed for women to get their periods every four weeks like a natural period, she says. This interval is really set up by the cycle of the pills and was set up that way so women would more readily accept them.

At What Age Should You Stop Taking Birth Control Pills

I recommend that most women stop taking birth control pills in their early 40s. Birth control pills, sometimes called combination birth control pills, contain estrogen and progestin. Estrogen increases your risk of developing blood clots, high blood pressure or other heart conditions. Other factors like your weight, pre-existing conditions, medical history and whether you smoke can also increase your risk of complications from birth control pills that contain estrogen.

If youre on the pill, consider talking to your primary care doctor or OB-GYN when you turn 40 to make sure its still a safe option for you. If combination birth control pills arent recommended, the mini pill might work best it only contains the hormone progestin, making it safer for women during perimenopause.

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Other Side Effects Of The Pill

Despite all of what has been discussed above, many will argue that taking the pill improves quality of life. It relieves monthly pain and therefore, must be good. However, for some women quality of life may actually be diminished where mood and libido are concerned.

There is data supporting a correlation between birth control and depression. Depression, which is a symptom woman have complained about since its adoption in medicine. With a significant increase in the number of Americans currently taking anti-depressants , it should at least give us pause before beginning the birth control pill.

For many women, resolving the underlying cause of their menstrual symptoms is a far more favorable option compared to the considerable impacts birth control would create in their intimate relationships, not to mention their long-term fertility.

The birth control pill isn’t necessarily an upgrade in quality of life for many women. Does birth control stop your period? It can. That seems like an upgrade, but it is important for women to weigh these risks before opting in.

Are There Any Side Effects Of Skipping Your Period

While it is considered perfectly safe to delay or stop your monthly menstrual cycle, your body may not always follow the plan as youd hoped. One side effect of skipping the placebo week while on the Pill is called breakthrough bleeding. Breakthrough bleeding is bleeding or spotting that can happen in between periods when you use hormonal birth control to delay or stop your period. However, this typically decreases over time when your body adjusts to the new routine.

Other forms of birth control can have a number of side effects on their own. So all of this is why Dr. Shepard emphasizes the importance of talking to your doctor about your options. Contraceptive counseling is so important because there can be a medical problem, there can be lifestyle factors or preferences, so I think being able to discuss those features with a healthcare provider will allow you to find the birth control option that is best for you, she says. Everyone is unique, and choosing birth control should be a really individualized conversation.

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Is It Unhealthy If You Skip Your Period While Using Mirena Or Other Birth Control Methods

does having an IUD in and not having a period affect your body in negative ways?

Hormonal IUDs like Mirena, Skyla, Liletta, and Kyleena can lessen the number of periods you get, or stop them altogether. For some people, thats a huge benefit to using one of those methods. The implant and shot can also have that effect, as well as the pill and ring if used a certain way.

If youre thinking about using one of these methods to avoid having a period, you may be wondering if its healthy to not get your period every month. The answer is that its actually totally safe to not have periods because of birth control.

A lot of people believe that their period is a way the body “cleans” itself, or that period blood will “build up” over time if they don’t have a period every month but that’s not true. Your body only needs to menstruate to shed the uterine lining that it makes every month to prepare for a possible pregnancy. But hormonal birth control safely helps stop that uterine lining from building up in the first place, so there isnt anything to shed or bleed out. And this isn’t permanent when you stop using your method of birth control, your period will go back to what’s normal for you.

So don’t worry: it’s totally safe, healthy, and normal to not have a period while you have a hormonal IUD.

-Emily at Planned Parenthood

Tags:birth control pills, birth control implant, Mirena, IUDs, no period, ring, skip period, Skyla

Whats The Difference Between Perimenopause And Menopause

Perimenopause is menopauses opening act. Its the time leading up to menopause when your hormones begin to change. Youll still have periods during this time, but they become more irregular. Perimenopause usually begins about 4-8 years before menopause. For most women, perimenopause starts in their 40s, but some women experience perimenopause in their late 30s.

Menopause is the final period you have its the curtain closing, so to speak. When you havent had a period in 12 months, youre in menopause. The average age women experience menopause is 50, though some women may go into menopause in their late 40s. Everything after that is post-menopause.

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Birth Control Pill Is Nutrient Depleting

Many patients are not informed of the numerous studies showing the nutrient depleting effects of oral contraceptives.

In 2013, the European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Studies called for all women to be on a multivitamin while taking oral contraceptives due to the known nutrient depletions, most notably magnesium, zinc, selenium, folic acid, vitamins B2, B6, B12, vitamin C and E.

Birth control depletes the body of folic acid, which is vital in many metabolic processes and is absolutely essential should you become pregnant. Folic acid is necessary to prevent neural tube defects in a developing fetus. Unfortunately, the critical window for folic acid in development occurs before the majority of women know they are pregnant in just those first few weeks.

Now imagine if you do become pregnant while suppressing your period youve depleted your nutrients, are oblivious to the early signs of pregnancy, and the damage has taken place before you ever realized you were pregnant.

And yes, pregnancy does occur while taking birth control pill.

It is the doctor’s responsibility to provide a true informed consent and guide women in understanding the pros and cons of the medical decision they are faced with. This is the only way in which women can make the best decision for their body and it is their right to know that while the pill may help relieve symptoms, it may also have unwanted side effects with long term consequences.

Effectiveness Health Risks And Benefits

Lybrel is one of a few safe medications for people who would like to stop their periods.

From a safety perspective, OCPs like Seasonale or Lybrel are options for most women. If your health care provider has determined that you can take birth control pills safely, you can probably take these. It is important to keep in mind that people trying to suppress their periods using the pill will take a few dozen more active hormone pills over the course of a year than someone taking the 21-day version of the pill. However, there does not seem to be a meaningful increase in health risk although no long-term studies have been done. The small risk of stroke or blood clots associated with traditional oral contraceptives – increased in women who smoke, are over 35 years of age, or have high blood pressure – are similarly associated with extended use pills. In addition to the time limitations, another hurdle appears to be the dropout rate and sample size of the related clinical trials. The FDA approval for Seasonale, for example, was based on a one-year study involving only 809 women.The main study supporting the efficacy of Seasonique began with 1,013 participants but concluded with the data from only 534 due to dropout from adverse event and lost-to-follow-up.

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