on the pill & skipping periods...

hiya girls....
just a quickie...
what ar any probs with skipping the sugar pills and skipping ones period?? will this case havoc for ones body??

When I was on the pill I found I could occasionally skip one lot of sugar pills and everything would be fine...try and skip the next one though and yeah it would play a bit of havoc! Would get spotting throughout the next cycle or it would just get all out of whack...

Everyone is different though so your body may react differently. I would suggest not skipping more than one at a time though, as much as I love not having a period every month it wasn't worth the worry of having spotting or the next 'period' arriving a bit early...

Fluff ... when i was on the pill years ago only time i worked out was ok (?) to skip would be when i went on holidays (omg who wants a period on a holiday i thought ;)) about every two years or so.

Well, i did skip two cycles in a row once and oh i felt so awful as my abdominal area became bloated or swollen looking, never did that again :rolleyes:

I personally wouldn't make a habit of skipping that's all ;)

I tried once ... and got my period at 11pm in a strange town and did not know where to find any tampons :(

So needless to say, I have never worked up the guts to try again.

Personally after that I have never wanted too. I keep thinking that if your body does this once a month, who are you to tell it to do it every so often. Not choking YOU, just that is what I was thinking. So I take comfort in the fact that I know EXACTLY when my period is coming and that I have organised it that it does come during the week, so that I have my weekends period-free ;) And I can take out my moods at work and not at home hehehehehe

I've done it a number of times over the years and never had any issues. :)
xx

Hi, just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. When I was first suspected with endometriosis, my GP suggested I skip the sugar pills for a few months at a time. I had one period in 7 months. As a treatment for endometriosis, after my lap, I was prescribed the pill continuously (no sugar pills). I remained on that for 3 years. I did have one period in that time, but my gyno assured me there were unlikely to be any adverse affects from not having a period each month. I didn't feel bloated or have any other side effects whatsoever.

HTH

I tired it, but I felt bloated and started spotted after missing one lot of sugar pills. Yucky...

Be careful with it, one of my mates got pregnant doing that ;)

I read an article a while back on this, apparantly its fine to do.
I think in some when they do get bleeding at strange times its because the hormones aren't enough to keep it right.

I was on a 3 month on, 1 month break cycle of the pill for my endo and cyst.* Other than seemingly turning off all emotions, and some spotting the further through I got, it seemed to be fine.* I know I certainly appreciated not having pain as often as every month.As for the actual period, it suprisingly doesn't seem to make it heavier or anything (which I thought it would given the additional 'build up' time).

I used to do it heaps without any issues. :)

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!

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.

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.