Hi Mommies!
I have what is possibly a silly birth control question. I was trying to find a good place to ask this and I really like the looks of this site. :)
I've heard a lot of different answers about this from various doctors and now that I will be starting BC again I want to see what other women have heard. My first gyn told me I could skip my sugar/placibo pills for birth control, and just continue on to the hormone pills. In the same vein, when I was on NuvaRing, I could skip the whole take out for a week and just put a new one in after 3 weeks.
A few months back I ended up with some serious stomach pains and a nurse practicioner said it was because my body was trying to have a period but the hormones wouldn't let it. Is this true?
My understanding is that bc tricks your body into thinking its pregnant. You do not have a "real" period (no egg is flushes since no egg was released) when you stop taking the birth control and take the sugar pills. The bleeding is just a reaction to not being on the medication, a reaction to hormone withdrawl.
Thoughts?
Considering I have several stomach conditions, I thought the NP was nuts. I didn't want to bring it up with my GP, but perhaps I will next time. I'd never had those kinds of pains before and have never had them again. The only problem I've ever had with birth control, specifically NuvaRing, was I started bleeding randomly in the middle of one of the courses, which I believe was due to rapid weight loss from previously mentioned stomach conditions... I'll ask my GP before staying on it regularly, but I'm glad my overall opinion was correct!
Well messing around with the period is not something you should do...but sounds more like you might have an ovarian cyst
I was on bc pills for years, and that is exactly how I understood it. I had another friend who was on the same prescription, so we would swap out packs when we were running short....so we could skip the placebo weeks and not have a period.....or plan a period around an event.
They now have made the prescriptions available to do that....Seasonique is one of them. You only have 4 periods a year.
Maybe you hadn't been on the pill long enough for your body to be used to it yet? I know when I went back on the pill after having babies, I went on the Seasonique version, and it took about a whole month for my body to adjust.
I don't know what the stomach pains were from, only a doctor could really tell you that (maybe), but I do know that yes, you can skip the placebo pills and move right into the next cycle of hormone pills and yes, it will cause you to skip your period. Is it safe? Does anybody really know? I have heard that skipping periods causes a higher risk of uterine cancer, among other things. But then again, so would standing in front of your microwave, apparently. Everything is a risk. You have to find a doctor you are able to trust and take their advice, or research and weigh the risks. In my opinion, I think it's safe to skip periods on birth control, because you're not ovulating anyway. Birth control works by preventing ovulation. If you're not ovulating there is absolutely no medical reason why you would need to have a period. But again, I'm not a doctor, and that's just my two cents.
Sounds like the nurse had no clue what he/she was talking about! I know oodles of women who do that on a regular basis. Talk to you doctor and get his/her take on what the nurse practicioner said. My guess is that you will be told that the NP was ful of it....
My OB has told me I could skip the placebos as well and I am on the generic of Seasonale. When you think about it Seasonale is the one month pills packaged in threes with two cycles of placebos removed.
I have been on Seasonale for around eight years, maybe more, pretty much since they hit the market. I have never had stomach pain except from food poisoning and a couple stomach flues. I do occasionally skip the placebo week if it falls when I am just not in the mood so that doesn't effect me negatively as well.
I was soooo excited bc I thought you were talking about British Columbia (BC) and I'm in Alberta...
GL with the other BC!
On a personal note, I started back on the pills last year and asked if I could do what you describe, by skipping the week off, or 'sugar pills' and starting the new month in it's place. Well, it did not work for me. It put me into a state of permanent light period. So I'm on self-imposed break trying to get my cycle back to regular. Then I plan on restarting the pill and just taking normally prescribed break.
It looks like you got the answers you were looking for but, as usual, I wanted to add my two cents! ;) I did that with my regular BC, which is what I think you're asking, as opposed to the prescription Seasonale (or whichever one) that only gives you one week of placebo in a 4 month pack and it worked just fine. I basically just took 3 packs in a row and then had a period and did it all over again. It worked out great for me! My periods weren't any heavier or worse and I never did have breakthrough bleeding, so I'd say go for it.
Also, when The Pill was first invented the original method was to never give a placebo week and to continue on with the hormone pills but drug companies and researchers decided that women wanted that week of having a period to really "make sure" they weren't pregnant. Just a little fun fact. I know that medical science has come a looooong way since then, but overall I think you're right on about your thoughts!
We learn to mess with our uteruses at a young age, it's really a shame.
I wonder what the REAL answer is.
Sorry, this is not helpful.
Forcing your body to do something it never was created to do is bound to have some side affects. I wouldn't find what the nurse said to be surprising.
Stomach pains? I'm puzzled, as you didn't mention uterine pain/cramping.
I take the LoSeasonique and found that I really do need to take the one-week of placebos that are packaged with the three one-month packs. My body needs this, but other people might not. However, stomach pains sounds like unusual indeed. If it occurs again, see if you can find another person and get that all-important second opinion.
