A NOTE ABOUT SKIPPING PERIODS
Women have been manipulating their menstrual cycles
for years - to avoid bleeding on a special trip, a
wedding, or an athletic event - usually by skipping
the hormone free week (the sugar pills) of the pill.
Medical providers advise this to decrease painful
periods, excessive bleeding, headaches on periods, and
ovarian and fibrocystic breast cysts.
Here are answers to frequent questions.
Is it dangerous to not get a period?
Well, our bodies are made to be pregnant for 9 months
(no periods) and then breast feed for 9 months (there
was no bottle feeding in the stone age), and just when
our fertility returned, we ovulated and got pregnant
again! However, in our modern times most of us do not
spend our lives gathering nuts and rice and having 10
babies so that 2 or 3 can survive to keep the
biological race going.
So - we bleed more and don't have
to. "No evidence exists that menstruation improves a
woman's health or prevents uterine infections or
cancers." (Clinical Proceedings: 2003 April.
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals &
NANPWH).
What happens to the blood if I don't get a period?
When you are on birth control pills, you don't
ovulate, so the lining of the uterus does not thicken
for the implantation of a fertilized egg. The lining
remains thin, and breaks down only when the hormone
level is lowered by stopping the pills.
What are the drawbacks to continuous contraception?
If your insurance company provides for only 13 cycles
of pills yearly (a full calendar year) you will run
out before your next yearly exam is due - make sure
your health care provider ( me or whoever!) supplies
you with samples to make up the difference.
You may experience more spotting in the first 3
cycles, but this usually remedies itself after these
cycles.
If you rely on a monthly bleeding to assure that you
are not pregnant, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!! But few
pregnancies occur when the pill is taken correctly by
healthy women with no dietary or food absorption
problems.
Lynne Fiore, NP
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