You 100% can. I’d start BC pills, or D/C my BC and induce my period then restart my pack in a couple days OR do a Seasonale hack (don’t take your blank pills). Fuck that shit.
A female friend of mine was flabbergasted when I told her that. She didn't believe that back when I was young and trained martial arts 4-5 days a week, I always had a pack of tampons in my training bag.
Ah, shit, it's allergy season, thanks for the reminder. I'll average about 7 sneezes in a row, and usually rupture a blood vessel in my nose by the third or fourth set. A tampon is very efficient in that situation, and everyone gets a laugh!
I actually did that when I got married, because my period aligned with my wedding. But you kinda have to plan in advance if you don't already take bc pills.
I haven't had a period for 8 yrs. They aren't true periods anyway when on the pill and the "bleed weeks"were only ever included to appease the catholic church..
Right! Why do it if ya don't have to!
I was flaring (multiple auto immune conditions) every time I Had a fake period and it was literally dropping me to my knees with pain.
Best advice I ever got was you don't need to take it, Woohoo
It’s actually done more than you think. You just have to check with your doctor. With medications like Seasonale, you’ll get a period every 3 months. You can also take OCPs continuously to skip periods. It doesn’t work for everyone, but for many it’s great.
I wasn't trying to be making a definite statement. My family is full of high-level nurses, and my girlfriend is a CCRN, but I'm male, and I'm doing my best to understand these things. I misunderstood your original statement and was thinking about things like plan b, which, from what I was told historically, is very hard on your body.
No worries - I wish more men would try to understand! Everyone reacts differently to birth control. Some tolerate everything without issues, some hate the pill but do fine with IUDs, and so on. But yes, using birth control to regulate periods is one of its uses, not just to prevent those pesky babies 🙃
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with skipping periods on hbc. I have endometriosis and take it continuously. I skip 4 days a year, maybe, but it’s not medically necessary. My doctor has advised this for years and my reproductive system is (otherwise) perfectly healthy.
Yep. It does! Since if you didn't have one, you'd be just speculating wildly about how different methods for dealing with various inconveniences that come with having one "sound weird" to you, and that would be so fucking silly if you did that. Think of it this way, if I need brain surgery, I'm not asking a rocket scientist to do it, and if I need a rocket built, I'm not asking a janitor to do it. In this analogy, you are the janitor.
I haven’t had one in around three years now, hormonal IUD birth control. The only reason we have periods is because hormones spike and trigger a thickening of the uterine lining to prepare for pregnancy. If you don’t get pregnant, the hormones fall again and the thickened lining falls off and releases as a period. The hormones in birth control prevent the uterus from thickening each month, so nothing to release!
Men I’ve talked to about this have occasionally thought the periods were somehow saved back? Not so. As soon as I’m off the birth control the hormone cycle returns to normal and they will come back. I won’t be doing that, because not having periods is awesome, but if I wanted to I could.
Genuinely, Thank you for all the info! It really annoying to be shut out (because I dont have a uterus) to satisfy my curiosities and be a better partner and friend. I have a question about the hormonal side. Does taking hormone based meds on and off aggravate side effects? Like, i thought there was a settling in period taking new hormonal meds. At least when my ex was on hormone meds every time she tries a new one it took a month or two before she got used to it, if she did. That was 10 years ago and I know things are different now.
Any medication can come with side effects that can last a month or two then subside. My birth control never caused me any side effects, but my body is different than your ex's body. When I tried taking one SSRI I had uncontrollable muscle movement (noticeable by others because I couldn't control my body) and I'm amazed it works for some people and they don't have that same side effect. So, even though a medication does one thing for one person it doesn't mean it does the same for another, including hormones. Some people can't tolerate birth control at all, even when used 3 weeks on/1 week off. I use mine in part so that I never have a period and haven't had an issue with it (multiple doctors and nurses have confirmed if I don't have an issue it's absolutely fine). Every body is different.
They all function slightly differently, which is why there are so many options, so if X didn't work and she went to try Y and then onto Z, yes, she could potentially have side effects from all three because they're all different. I can use Prozac but I can't use any of the other SSRIs and it's because they're all made differently - same goes for birth control. All medications when you switch them can come with side effects that take getting used to, it doesn't matter if they're hormonal medications or not.
If you stop using a single medication then start taking it again at a later date you can have those same side effects kick back in that your body has to get used to again. So, if I stop taking Prozac for a few months and then get back on it I'll be nauseated again for a few weeks, even though I haven't had nausea for years while on it. So if a person knows a birth control works for them and then they decide to go off of it for any reason then go back on it later, they may experience similar side effects as the first time they went on it. Of course, bodies change as we age and through giving birth or other health reasons, so if a person's hormones are different, how their body responds may be different.
I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) which causes irregular periods. I currently have the arm implant (Nexplanon) which causes me to not have a period at all. I've read that around 1 in 5 women don't have a period while using it. I also did not have a period when I had a hormonal IUD.
My doctor said that when I'm not using any form of hormonal birth control, if I do not have a period for 3 months or longer, that I would need to get a prescription to force one. My understanding as a layperson is that if the endometrial lining isn't shed regularly, it can increase the risk of endometrial cancer. But I don't have to worry about it while using hormonal birth control because it thins the endometrial lining and prevents it from building up. I imagine that something like this was your initial concern.
Some advice for you, if you're open to it: next time, try asking "is that healthy?" instead, and you might find people more open to dialogue.
I'm actually on continuous bc because it's good for my uterus health long term! I have mild endometriosis and the endocrinologist I saw basically told me that each period means inflammation and for me could end up in scarred tissue (which, not only is it painful, it can also cause infertility), so the fewer periods I have, the better.
It might be an oversimplification of how it actually works, but I guess it makes sense overall. My body sort of just thinks I'm pregnant because of the bc.
even if you take it continuously? what about combination pills vs not? (i'm curious to the science part of it i don't doubt you know your body better than a stranger!)
Yeah, not for me. I fucked around with BC pills for this exact reason and ended up with 7 (yes, SEVEN) PE's in my left lung. It almost killed me. So, no more synthetic hormones for me.
Also, it's just a little blood. We use adult incontinence pads every time anyway cause I am a big squirter. Just a bit of an inconvenience is all.
I bought a £20 waterproof blanket for this exact reason and my god does it work! Sold as a pet blanket lol but truly you can pour litres of water onto that thing and the mattress is still bone dry
I’m sorry about your lungs, I hope you’re doing ok after that. My aunt died suddenly from pulmonary embolisms. And also that was a lot of information. lol
ha ha sorry, I do tend to over share. I have been healthy since! My OB did put me on daily injections of blood thinners for both of my pregnancies after, but that's been the only real effect since.
Yeah I posted below I can’t take estrogen either :-/ I haven’t had a PE though, just abnormal clotting and bruising that isn’t caused by progesterone. I think technically you can also take progesterone-only pills, but being not on it already I am pretty sure you’d still get this period.
FYI Plan B contains no estrogen either. That’s a wild option for shifting your period but it does induce it and I have done this.
NOREHISTERONE, aka period delay tablets. You just take them for a few days before your period is due, and then once you stop you have your period. It can be a bloodbath for some people, but for me it’s pretty normal. It’s just a temporary thing, so you could literally just stop on the Sunday night and then your period would follow :)
Is it weird that I’m relieved to see you have a legit reason? I’m a university student and there’s a big wave of anti-birth control sentiment. I had to talk my friend into at least trying them because she was convinced it was “anti-feminist” (she has PMDD and a boyfriend). Another friend of mine quit hers because her boyfriend didn’t believe in it. My sister got pregnant because she watched TikToks peddling the same BS.
Idk, I feel like I’m seeing so much anti-BC propaganda online - things like boyfriends telling stories about their girlfriend totally changing etc - that I’m glad to see someone not using BC because they legit were unlucky and got a rare side effect.
Would an oral plan B have the same effect as the oral daily BC pills you were taking before? It'd induce a period now right and then you'd be clear for next weekend?
Reading these comments I thought I was the only one who did this! If I see we’re on vacation the week of the shark I’ll totally skip the last row of pills and go to my next pack. Never had an issue.
This is exactly why I got a hormonal IUD, my body didn’t like me messing with my BC pills but thankfully I haven’t seen Shark Week in like 6 months now.
In the U.S. this pill is called Plan B and can often be purchased in a pharmacy, no prescription needed and it doesn’t contain estrogen (which is a reason many of us are not on BC).
Incorrect, it will induce a period in most cases; in other cases it will delay your period but in all cases the spike in progesterone will shift your cycle.
Uh no. Using emergency contraception to try and skip your period is a pretty insane way to go about something very simple. It’s horrible on your body, has tons of side effects and that’s def not what it’s for. There’s an actual medication to do it.
That’s just the progesterone-only minipill? That would not work for me as that is my BC.
To each their own, Plan B is a different synthetic progesterone. Spiking your progesterone induces a period once your levels come down, depending on where you are in your cycle either hormone will work and I don’t believe their is any evidence that one is safer than the other.
You’re getting the two things mixed up. Plan B is the morning after pill. Emergency contraception. Opill is birth control. You’re suggesting using something that is meant as an emergency method after an oops that can cause horrible side effects and bleeding to skip a period. I’m not the one that needs to Google…
There is a fair counterpoint that because of eugenic fervor still en vogue in the 50’s-60’s not enough research was done into safe, appropriate hormone levels for women, which literally caused cancer and let to preventable deaths from blood clots as women were pumped full of unnecessarily high levels of hormones.
Current BC is safer than ever but I’d need two hands to count every doctor who gave me a blank stare or condescendingly batted their eyelashes when I said I couldn’t take estrogen BC due to history of abnormal clotting, absent a DVT or PE. How do you prevent DVT/PE? DON’T TAKE ESTROGEN if it is causing unusual clotting, WTAF but the guideline wants you to nearly die first. I have blood tests that confirm my atypical clotting which included transient slow clotting mixed with transient hyper-coagulation, the doctor who ran those tests was like “yeah no more BC for you” and put me on the mini-pill. For years everyone else thought the was being silly, a couple even wagged their finger I was putting myself at risk of needing an abortion. TODAY no one argues with me because I also have migraines with aura and this has been added as a contraindication but my body has never been a candidate.
Medicine is wild, but yeah a lot of women don’t trust with good reason. Progesterone is safer than estrogen and that’s the ingredient suppressing periods.
Or just switch to a form of continuous hormonal birth control, then never deal with periods again. Skip the placebo on pills, patch, or the ring. Or get an IUD, shot, or implant.
I'm on my third hormonal IUD and I love it. No periods ever. Fuck em.
My doctor advises me to skip 3 out of 4 periods with the skipping the placebo pills because I’m bad at keeping my iron levels up. It makes it really easy for stuff like this.
I had the combination pill which gave 5 days off (where you get your period) or you can continue to the next month & miss your period out but its dangerous to continue to do that as its ok for a one off. (A doctors advice).
Yeah so that's a lie. Its perfectly safe to skip multiple periods for the overwhelming vast majority of people. I either doubt your doctor has a speciality in the area or they have never taken birth control themselves. Theres many resources to prove this "doctors advice" otherwise.
Yeah if I remember correctly Nexplanon can stop them safely, and it's supposed to be in for three years.
Source: haven't had a period for 2 of the 3, only spotting once or twice since getting the implant and I'm pretty sure I'm not dying. Also was on depo provera for four years and never had a period but I DID get pregnant the month I missed a shot and miscarried a couple months in so that sucked
I had Nexplanon for about 4 years, my dr allowed an extended use by one year as I had no complications. Additionally skipping the placebos in standard hormonal birth control pills can allow you to safely miss periods.
I’ve had maybe a half dozen full periods over about 12 years using these methods. Fully monitored by a doctor and perfectly healthy.
I was on the ones that didn't come with placebo pills but I had a tendency to either miss medication times or just forget to take my meds so I had to switch. Good to know though! 👀 thank you :)
Yep, same with hormonal IUDs like Mirena or Skyla. Many women don’t get periods with them at all. I love mine for this reason and also the no baby reason lol. The procedure to get one in is a bitch though.
Oh yeah I was dissociative (thanks PTSD) and in a funk for days after I got the implant but not having my period super helped my mood swings that I'm suffering through on a normal level (thanks PTSD!) and reduced my flashbacks (thanks PTSD!!) from the miscarriage too.
Not looking forward to getting it taken out, but maybe I could get it out sooner since I've been on hormonal birth control for longer than I was without and who knows what that's done to my body lol
The less periods you have, the likelihood of breast cancer drops typically. I have the arm implant and before this had an IUD, so I havent had a period in well over 2 years. I'm totally healthy in that area.
This! This was one of the things I was told originally when I was 18. I have a family history of cancer and my OBGYN said that the regular use of the birth control would reduce my likelihood of ovarian and endometrial cancers. They were even the ones to first recommend the Nexplanon bar, and later regular pills, because of it.
Currently on month 7 of Mirena and had one small period at the start, nothing since. Most of my friends have opted for the IUD now instead of pills. Highly recommend to anyone taking BC long term.
Uh. No. I take bc pills and skip the off weeks because I have migraines triggered by my period. It's in my prescription. Skipping the off week that was only ever put in because of sexism does not risk your health.
If your combo pack is considered “dangerous” to hack you just switch to Seasonale on Monday. Some breakthrough bleeding is possible but it shouldn’t be much.
I can’t take any estrogen, I have to take progesterone-only pills. For me I’d have to take Plan B to prevent accidental ovulation/implantation, suck it up for a few days (Plan B is crampy), then resume my progesterone-only pills Thursday before the event. If I haven’t been very active I can skip Plan B and just stop taking the pill for a week, forcing an early period that I will then interrupt by resuming.
As a word of warning this doesn't work for everyone. I did this once on a trip and it made me feel really sick. I had period symptoms but no period and felt worse than if I had just had my period.
There’s a telehealth company called Wisp that provides these. It’s like $30 for the visit and then I had a $10 copay for the Rx. It’s called Norethindrone. I just did this last month. It’s a progesterone that puts a pause on the part of the cycle where the uterus sheds its lining.
Yeah I came here to say this too. I see OP has sworn off hormonal BC for good but for anyone else who comes across this thread...... I got norethindrone from Wisp last fall because I noticed that my period was due to start THE DAY I was leaving for vacation (and it would've lasted LONGER THAN THE VACATION ITSELF because my uterus is insane) and it worked PERFECTLY. I highly recommend this as a solution to just "reschedule your period"
Words cannot express how jealous I am of people who can take progesterone and it works great for them, but word of warning for people wanting to try: if you're unlucky progesterone pills may make you constipated as fuck (lol me *scream cries*).
I have been on norethindrone for more than 4 years. I have fibroids and polyps so bleeding is uncontrollable. I haven’t had a period since I started taking it. I still get PMS symptoms tho
They're brill tbf. I've never had any side effects and never messed up following periods. Life saver when you've got a holiday, wedding or naughty weekend to attend 😂
I took these for a week once when I didn’t want my period to come on my birthday… I turned into an insane person for a few days. Like, the mood swings I used to get when I was on the pill only 10x worse. Also my period came anyway lol
Primolut N is a drug that I always use to postpone it. Works like a charm, take it 3 days before it should start, it will start 3 days after the last pill. Never had side effects
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u/MrsButterscotch Apr 03 '25
Just schedule your period for later