what's the safest way to control my period with the pill?!
Question: my doctor prescribed the pill for my excrutiating menstrual symptoms (havent taken any yet). i usually get my periods on each 6-8 of the month, and have been told to take it on the first day of bleeding. i was given my vacation week in the first week of july and am terrified at the idea of having to slap in a tampon every hour, before jumping in the cristal clear waters of cuba. what should i do to delay my period? skip the placebos or start the pill on another ideal day in my cycle? bonus question: what on earth happens with all that blood anxiously waiting to be evacuated if i chose to skip the placebos in week 4?
Answers:
I'll tackle the bonus question since the first person got it exactly right--you just skip the placebos.
That blood (or more correctly, endometrial lining) won't go anywhere until you have a period. However, one of the effects of the pill is to cause less endometrial tissue to form--one of the ways it prevents pregnancy is by thinning the endometrium to a point where it could not support the development of an embryo. So you might have a period that's a little heavier than usual if you skip one, but gradually your periods should get shorter and lighter the longer you stay on the pill.
Also, the safest pills for skipping periods are the low estrogen pills. This is because when you skip a period, you get an extra week of hormones. If you have estrogen-related side effects, they might get a little worse when you skip your period.
If you want to skip periods often, you should look into the lowest dose pills (Alesse, Mircette, and LoEstrin--I personally am on Mircette and I love it). Better yet, there is a new pill called Seasonale that gives you only four periods a year.
Other Answers:
Correct - skip the "sugar" pills and start right on a new pack of birth control.
You should be ok skipping your period once and awhile. The build up in your uterus will just wait to "evacuate" the next month.
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