on the pill & skipping periods...

[Phteven]

I do it all the time without any issues.
It's not actually a period, it's a withdrawal bleed. The physiology of a natural period and a pill period are totally different. The pill works by suppressing ovulation so unlike a natural period the time that you are most likely to get pregnant if you are on the pill is straight after your 'period' because you have been off it for 7 days. The worst time to miss a pill is after your 'period' so skipping periods reduces your likelyhood of getting pregnant.
If you want to skip period reguarly you should get a script for a bi-phasel pill not a tri-phasal pill because if you skip on the tri-phasal you'll probably get spotting. You might even want to ask for a script for one of the new extended cycle varieties.

I posted an article a while ago (a long while ago lol) about skipping periods. From a scientific perspective women have never menstruated as much as modern women do, we probably menstruate about 3 times as much as our ancestors did. In the past frequent pregnancies and breast-feeding supressed periodssothe female body is probably not designed to bleed with the regularity that most of us do. Lots of issues like endo, anaemia, PMS etc can be avoided by avoiding periods.

You're already altering your cycle dramatically by supressing ovulation the only difference that skipping makes is that you cease to maintain the illusion that you have a natural cycle.

There's a longer article here.

Mind you I keep meaning to getting around to getting my mirena put back in. it was wonderful, no bleeds at all after the initial one just a shame it fell out. Stupid cervix!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Depends on the woman. Some women can take the Pill full-time (no sugar pills) and bleed every 4 months. Others never do. Some bleed constantly. Some feel ill for missing a bleed, others feel great.

I have a Mini-Pill and don't bleed at all on it (continous taking) unless I am more than 12 hours late taking a Pill. That's what my body does. Other women still get bleeds every month or constant bleeding or...

Depends on the woman. Try it and see.

[SunnyRain]

What Onyx said.

The use of the Pill is commonly misunderstood. It doesn't trick your body into thinking you're pregnant or stop your period, it stops ovulation. The Pill wasn't designed as a cycle including 7 days of sugar pills, but early focus groups showed women felt uncomfortable about not "menstruating" so they added the sugar pills.

But it's not a proper period that occurs, as Onyx already explained. Theoretically you could continue from pill sheet to pill sheet without taking the sugar pills without ill effect.

That said, it can take a while for your body to adjust and you may experience breakthrough bleeding which can be pretty annoying. I recommend doing the full 28-day cycle (including the sugar pill) for 6 months before you start skipping the sugar pills. I don't know why, but that has worked for me in the past but if I try skipping the sugar pills as soon as I freshly begin taking the Pill, it goes a bit haywire.