What Happens To Your Body When You Purposely Skip Your Period
According to the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, most women will have an average of 450 menstrual periods during their lifetime. Additionally, according to a recent survey they conducted, over 80 percent of respondents reported adverse, period-related symptoms including bloating, moodiness, cramps, and irritability.
But there’s good news! Get ready to throw away your pads and tampons, because you can use hormonal birth control to skip your individual periods whenever you need to or stop menstruating altogether. You can do this on the pill by skipping your placebo pills every month, or you can opt to halt your period entirely with an IUD, injections, implants, and more.
Even if your period isn’t so bad, you can still suppress it for the sake of convenience. So if you’ve been approved for hormonal birth control by your doctor and haven’t had any problems with it, read on! This is what happens to your body when you purposely skip your period.
Why Isnt This Talked About More
Dr. Shepard explains that, because the standard birth control pill is designed to have a placebo week, doctors will often just prescribe it to be used as intended, unless someone specifically mentions wanting to skip their period. However, its worth noting a long history in which information surrounding menstrual health has remained elusive. Not to mention that policing of the female body, especially when it comes to birth control, is nothing new, so its not all that surprising that the many options to skip periods and suppress ovulation arent super out in the open.
Just know this: People who menstruate may have a number of reasons to choose to not, you know, menstruatewhether its to avoid painful periods, gender dysphoria, or just make life a little easierand each reason is valid.
Is It Safe To Use Birth Control To Skip Your Period
Take a moment to do a little happy dance because, according to Dr. Shepard, the answer is yes, its totally safe to use birth control to skip your period. One simple way to do this, if you use the birth control pill, is to skip past the placebo week and go straight to starting your next pack of pills. Dr. Shepard explains that this is okay to do because the birth control pill is already designed to suppress ovulation and manipulate your natural cycle. So the bleed that you have on a birth control pill is not a real period, she explains. Thats why if you skip, youre not doing anything to your body because youre never really having a normal cycle anyway.
So, if you have a trip or a date planned and you dont want to deal with your period getting in the way, youre probably okay to postpone it. That said, its still best to discuss this option with your doctor to make sure youre creating the plan thats right for youespecially because there are multiple ways to skip your period with birth control.
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How Much Bleeding Is Normal After A Positive Pregnancy Test
Implantation bleeding is generally light and short, just a few days worth. It usually occurs 10-14 days after conception, or around the time of your missed period.
Can you get your period and still be pregnant in the first month?
The short answer is no. Despite all of the claims out there, it isnt possible to have a period while youre pregnant. Rather, you might experience spotting during early pregnancy, which is usually light pink or dark brown in color.
What are the signs of pregnancy in 1 month?
Common Pregnancy Symptoms at One Month Pregnant
When To Expect Your Period
The birth control pill birth regulates the menstrual cycle. Most types of pill work in 4-week cycles. A person on one of these pills can expect a period about every 28 days.
Depending on the type of birth control, some people may experience periods more frequently than usual. For others, periods may stop.
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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.
How To Skip Your Period On The Pill
Its simple: You can prevent your period by skipping the placebo pills in a pack of birth control and starting the active pills of the next pack the day after finishing the active pills of your current pack, or by using a type of pill packaged for having a period every three months. Note that triphasic pills do not work well for period skipping.
Although the patch and the ring arent FDA-approved for skipping periods, many women do use them this way. If you use the birth control patch apply a new patch for the last week of your cycle, when you would ordinarily go patch-free . If you use the Nuvaring, leave your ring in for four weeks instead of three, then immediately replace it with a new ring.
Note that if you use progestin-only pills you cant skip periods in the same way, because there is no placebo week with these pills you are already taking an active pill every day. But women on progestin-only pills usually experience much lighter periods, and sometimes stop getting periods altogether.
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But Ok Its Actually Possible To Stop Your Period With Birth Control
Hear us out, because there are a few different ways of doing this. First, you want to talk to your doctor about your period, your general health, and your options when it comes to skipping your period. There are a few things they might suggest:
The hormonal IUD
The hormonal IUD is a little T-shaped device that is inserted into the uterus. Hormonal IUDs contain progestin, which works locally to thicken cervical mucus and reduce the lining of your uterus. For some people, this results in such little uterine lining that their period straight up poofs and goes away. Since you can keep hormonal IUDs in for between three and five years , that can mean whole years in which youre not getting a period.
Heres the thing: Youre not guaranteed to not get a period with an IUD or implant. Taraneh Shirazian, M.D., an ob/gyn with NYU Langone Health, tells SELF it totally depends on the person. If you tend to have lighter, shorter periods when youre not on hormonal birth control, youre more likely to have no bleeding on a hormonal IUD, she says. But if you have heavy periods, its less reliable, she adds.
If youre interested in getting an IUD to potentially stop your period, explain that to your doctor. They may recommend an IUD with a higher level of hormones. Either way, you may experience some spotting when you first get a hormonal IUD. This typically abates after a few months but may be annoying in the meantime.
The contraceptive implant
Taking Only The Active Combination Pills
If youre using a combination pill pack, you just need to take only the active pills with no breaks in between. You should talk to your doctor or pharmacist so they can show you which pills are active and which are the placebo pills. Youll want to throw out the placebos.
If you take the active pills continuously, you wont get a period until you stop them.
If you stop taking active pills, you may experience a withdrawal bleed, which is similar to your period. Dabney recommends that you allow this to happen once every three to four months.
Dabney says some birth control pills have a higher risk of abnormal bleeding than others. You should check with your doctor if you want to start skipping your period. They may recommend that you change the type of pill you take.
Youll also want to check with your insurance provider to make sure theyll cover more pills in less time, since youll be going through pill packs faster.
You should not be off of the birth control longer than 7 days, or you will lose contraception efficacy.
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How Do I Take My Pill Continuously
There are a few different ways you can take your Combined Oral Contraceptive pill, depending on your lifestyle and what works best for your body.
Usually, when you take the pill, you take 21 hormone pills, and then 7 inactive non-hormone pills which causes you to get your period.
When you take your pill continuously however, you only take the hormone pills, and you skip the inactive pills, meaning you also skip your period. You can continue to take the hormone pills for as long as you like.
Some people like to take the hormone pills for a few months at a time, and then take the inactive pills to get a period, before going back to the hormone pills.
Its up to you to decide how you want to take your pill.
These videos can help explain how to continuously take your pill.
The Basics Of Birth Control Pills
When you swallow birth control pills, youre ingesting one or more synthetic hormones. This could be a combination of estrogen and progestin, or just progestin, depending on the type of birth control that youre taking. These hormones work to prevent pregnancy in three different ways.
First, they work to prevent your ovaries from ovulating, or releasing an egg each month.
They also thicken the cervical mucus, which makes it harder for sperm to reach an egg if one is released. The hormones can thin the uterine lining, too. This means that if an egg does get fertilized, itll be difficult for it to attach to the uterine lining and develop.
Birth control pills are over 99 percent effective when used correctly. This means taking the pill at the same time every day. If you miss a day or youre late taking your pill, the efficacy can decrease. With typical use, the failure rate is about
Several different types of birth control pills are available.
Some are similar to the pill packs that were first made available in 1960. They included 21 days of pills with active hormones and seven placebo or inactive pills. When you take an inactive pill, it allows for bleeding that mimics normal menstruation.
There are also packs that allow for 24 days of active pills and a shorter menstrual-like bleeding period.
Extended-cycle or continuous regimens consist of a couple of months worth of active pills. They can either reduce the number of periods you have or eliminate your period entirely.
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So To Recap Using A Method That Lightens Or Stops Your Period Is Okay Because:
- There is nothing in the uterus to clean out.
- Having a thin lining of the uterus is healthy and happens naturally at several times during a womans life.
- Many of these methods are extremely reliable, so you probably dont need to worry about being pregnant if youre using them correctly But if youre concerned, you can always take a pregnancy test.
Women who use the Mirena IUD or the shot are most likely to experience lighter and less frequent periods. Some women who use the implant or the Skyla IUD may also have lighter periods or no period. Its also okay to use the pill or the ring continuously. With any of these methods you may occasionally get some breakthrough spotting. If your periods are heavy, painful, or particularly annoying, the trade off might be worth it!
No More Intimacy Anxiety
Even if you don’t suffer from painful headaches or horrible cramps, your period can still be an unwelcome, unexpected visitor at the most inopportune times. What if you’re planning a weekend getaway with your sweetie, and don’t want to have to deal with your period while away? What if you’re heading to spring break, and you don’t want to stress at the beach? What if your honeymoon is coming up, and you don’t want to be menstruating during the most romantic trip of your life?
You can skip your period for that, too, according to the Cleveland Clinic and it’s totally safe for your body. Dr. Mercer affirmed this, telling me, “Different women may have different goals or reasons why they want to suppress their periods. For some, not having a period is simply convenient and easy .”
So it can make a huge difference to leave the period stress at home.
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What Are The Benefits Of Delaying Your Period
Delaying your period can help you manage various menstrual symptoms. It might be worth considering if you have:
- A physical or mental disability that makes it difficult to use sanitary napkins or tampons
- A condition worsened by menstruation, such as endometriosis or anemia
- Breast tenderness, bloating or mood swings in the seven to 10 days before your period
- Headaches or other menstrual symptoms during the week you take inactive birth control pills
- Heavy, prolonged, frequent or painful periods
In addition, menstrual bleeding is sometimes simply inconvenient. You may want to postpone your period until after an important exam, athletic event, vacation or special occasion, such as your wedding or honeymoon.
First Is It Safe To Skip Your Period
The short answer is, yes, you can safely skip your period by either ditching the placebo week and going directly to a new pack of pills, ring, or patch. Some people may naturally just stop getting their period over time while using certain forms of birth control.
The long answer, however, is a bit more involved. First, the period you get on hormonal birth control is not even really your period, its actually withdrawal bleeding, according to the Mayo Clinic. During a menstrual cycle without hormonal birth control, your endometrial lining thickens in anticipation of an embryo implanting. If pregnancy does not occur, your body sheds this lining, and you get your period. Since hormonal birth control works by suppressing ovulation , theres nothing extra to shed if you dont become pregnant. The bleeding is simply your bodys response to stopping the hormones.
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Is It Safe To Skip Your Period
It was once thought that using birth control to skip a period would cause all sorts of problems in the long-run. Women were told not to skip their periods because its unnatural, unhealthy, and may cause fertility issues, breast cancer, or cervical cancer. Thats the whole reason why traditional birth control pills were originally designed to mimic the female hormone cycle.
Now, we know that this is not true. Most doctors agree that it is perfectly safe to skip your period using hormonal contraceptives. While youre on the pill, your uterine lining is not building up, so theres no real reason for it to shed each month. Besides, you dont even get a real period when youre on birth control youre just skipping or delaying the withdrawal bleed.
What Happens When You Skip Your Period
To understand what happens when you skip your period, its important to get a run-down on how birth control pills work.
Your hormonal birth control pills contain a combination of estrogen and progesterone. The steady releases of these hormones in your body prevent ovulation and cause thickening of the mucus in the cervix, making it almost impossible for sperm to get through.
A regular period arrives due to changes in hormone levels after ovulation . Since you arent ovulating, the bleeding that you experience while on birth control isnt your real period its actually called withdrawal bleeding. By taking away the estrogen and progesterone, youre causing a hormonal withdrawal from your body, triggering a period.
Instead of withdrawing those hormones from your body, youre continuing to supply them by immediately starting a new pack of birth control instead of taking the placebos or skipping a week. So, skipping your period isnt actually skipping your period at all its delaying hormonal withdrawal, thus preventing withdrawal bleeding.
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Are There Any Advantages To Skipping Your Period
Many women choose to skip their period with birth control to help manage menstrual symptoms, such as headaches/migraines, cramps, mood swings, and painful periods. It can also be very beneficial not to have a period if you have a condition that is worsened by it, such as endometriosis, PCOS, ovarian cysts, or anemia. Plus, skipping your period saves you money on menstrual products and is just more convenient for life in general.
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