How to Stop Your Period With Birth Control
If you could do without bleeding from your vagina every month, you should know that there are ways to potentially stop your period with birth control. “There’s no medical reason why you need to get a monthly period,” Lauren Streicher, M.D., a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tells SELF. “You can suppress your period for years and years without a problem.”
Sure, some people view a period as monthly reassurance that they’re not pregnant or as a way to connect with their bodies. But if that’s not you, and you just want to stop your period, the good news is that birth control might be able to help you out.
First, let’s go over how your period generally works when you’re not on birth control.
During your menstrual cycle, your uterus builds up a lining made of blood and nutrients to nourish a fetus if you happen to get pregnant. If you don’t get pregnant during that cycle, your body expels that lining in what’s known as your period. You might already know that, but the exact way this happens is pretty fascinating and lays the groundwork for how to skip your uterus’s monthly temper tantrum.
While you have your period, your pituitary gland makes more follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which prompts follicles (fluid-filled pockets) to start to develop on your ovaries. Each of these follicles contains an egg. As your period finishes, one of these follicles continues to grow while the others are absorbed back into your ovaries. That maturing follicle gives off the hormone estrogen, which makes the lining of your uterus get thicker.
At this point, your estrogen levels top off and there’s a rise in luteinizing hormone (LH), which prepares the follicle to release the egg inside of it for potential fertilization. When this happens around the middle of your cycle, it’s known as ovulation. After ovulation, the follicle then produces the hormone progesterone to help your uterine lining get thicker and stabilize.
If you don’t get pregnant, the egg breaks apart, and your levels of estrogen and progesterone drop. As a result, you shed your uterine lining, have your period, and start the cycle all over again.
But OK, it's actually possible to stop your period with birth control.
Hear us out, because there are a few different ways of doing this. First, you want to talk to your doctor about your period, your general health, and your options when it comes to skipping your period. There are a few things they might suggest:
Some birth control methods are more likely to give you a nonexistent or barely-there period over time.
The hormonal IUD
The hormonal IUD is a little T-shaped device that is inserted into the uterus. Hormonal IUDs contain progestin, which works locally to thicken cervical mucus and reduce the lining of your uterus. (Hormonal IUDs also sometimes suppress ovulation, but that’s not a sure thing.) For some people, this results in such little uterine lining that their period straight up poofs and goes away. Since you can keep hormonal IUDs in for between three and five years (the exact number depends on the type), that can mean whole years in which you’re not getting a period.
Here’s the thing: You’re not guaranteed to not get a period with an IUD or implant. Taraneh Shirazian, M.D., an ob/gyn with NYU Langone Health, tells SELF it totally depends on the person. If you tend to have lighter, shorter periods when you’re not on hormonal birth control, you’re more likely to have no bleeding on a hormonal IUD, she says. “But if you have heavy periods, it’s less reliable,” she adds.
If you’re interested in getting an IUD to potentially stop your period, explain that to your doctor. They may recommend an IUD with a higher level of hormones. Either way, you may experience some spotting when you first get a hormonal IUD. This typically abates after a few months but may be annoying in the meantime.
The contraceptive implant
This birth control method (sold under the name Nexplanon) is pretty similar to an IUD in that it secretes progestin. There are a few major differences, though.
Nexplanon is a matchstick-sized rod that gets implanted into your upper arm, according to the Mayo Clinic. As with hormonal IUDs, the progestin in this contraceptive works to thicken your cervical mucus, cut back on your uterine lining, and possibly suppress ovulation. As a byproduct of the progestin's effect on your uterine lining, your period might diminish or disappear. You can keep Nexplanon in for up to three years, according to the Mayo Clinic, which is a solid amount of time not to deal with a period. But, again, there's no guarantee that your period will cease completely, so talk to your doctor about it first.
As with many of the other items on this list, though, you might experience breakthrough bleeding with Nexplanon. Unfortunately, basically everything with some pros has its cons, too.
The shot
Depo-Provera, also called the shot, is the brand name for medroxyprogesterone acetate, a form of progestin, the Mayo Clinic says. It’s delivered via injection (usually in your arm or butt) every three months. Depo-Provera works to suppress ovulation and thicken your cervical mucus to keep sperm from reaching any eggs.
This high dose of progestin involved can prevent the growth of your uterine lining over a long period of time, according to the Mayo Clinic. The result: “Many women don’t get periods on Depo-Provera,” Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale Medical School, tells SELF.
However, everyone is different. It’s entirely possible to get your period on Depo-Provera. You might not, or you might get some breakthrough bleeding for months as a parting gift before your period goes away. It’s really all about how your body handles it.
Other birth control methods can be used to skip your period—as long as you get the go-ahead from your doctor.
Combination hormonal birth control pills
Combination hormonal birth control pills use estrogen and progestin (a synthetic form of progesterone) to prevent pregnancy. The estrogen suppresses ovulation, and the progestin thickens your cervical mucus (good luck to sperm trying to get through that) and thins out your uterine lining. “A fertilized egg can only implant in the uterine cavity if there is a cushiony growth of tissue with ample blood supply,” Jonathan Schaffir, M.D., an ob/gyn at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. “If someone is not trying to get pregnant, then it is not necessary to have the lining become thick and vascular.”
The most common forms of combination pills have monthly packs containing 21 hormonal pills and seven placebo pills, the Mayo Clinic explains. In general, you usually get your “period” when you take the placebo pills. This is actually a withdrawal bleed that happens when you stop taking the hormonal pills, Dr. Minkin says. This withdrawal bleed basically mimics what happens in your body naturally when you don’t get pregnant during any given cycle, Dr. Minkin explains.
If you don’t want to have your period, you may be able to take the hormonal pills continuously without the placebo days, Dr. Streicher says, though it will depend on the type of pill you’re taking. While doctors generally agree that this is just fine to do, it’s important to point out that this differs from the prescribing information. So if you’re interested in doing this with the pills you take, you really should have a conversation with your doctor first to make sure there’s no reason that they think you shouldn’t do this. For instance, you can’t manipulate your period with progestin-only birth control pills because there’s no placebo week; taking them at the same time every day is central to not getting pregnant.
If you’re regularly skipping your placebo week, you may want to ask your doctor about an extended cycle birth control pill like Seasonique or Seasonale, which are both designed to only give you a period every three months.
Whether you opt for skipping placebo pills with a 28-day pack or take extended cycle birth control pills, be aware that breakthrough bleeding (when you bleed outside of your period) can happen when you first start trying to skip your period, Dr. Shirazian tells SELF. “It’s not an exact science,” she says. “Some women will still spot.” However, it should level off over time, she says.
The vaginal ring
The vaginal ring, or Nuva Ring, is a round piece of flexible plastic that you insert into your vagina, per the Mayo Clinic. It works pretty much the same way as combination hormonal birth control pills, minus the whole daily-pill-taking part: It uses progestin and estrogen to suppress ovulation, thicken your cervical mucus, and thin your uterine lining.
Nuva Ring is designed to be inserted and left in your vagina for three weeks and then removed for a week. At that point, you’ll typically have your period. If you want to skip that bloody rigamarole, you can theoretically remove the old ring at the end of the third week and put a new one in right away instead of going ring-free for seven days, Dr. Minkin says.
Again, you’ll want to talk to your doctor before you do this, given that this is a deviation from the prescribing information. You should make sure they’re on board with that plan. And just as with birth control pills, trying to stop your period with Nuva Ring may cause breakthrough bleeding.
The patch
Like the ring and the pill, the birth control patch (sold under the name Xulane) delivers progestin and estrogen to your body to help prevent pregnancy. It’s a small, sticky square that you wear on your butt, upper outer arm, stomach, or back, the Mayo Clinic says, so you can absorb the hormones through your skin.
To use this birth control method as directed, you apply a patch and wear it for 21 days before discarding it and going patch-free for seven days (when you’ll get your period). If you’ve decided to skip your period, you would take off the old patch and immediately put on a new one, Dr. Shirazian says. But you’ll want to talk to your doctor first, and there’s also a chance you’ll deal with breakthrough bleeding that makes you wish it were at least happening on a schedule. (See where we’re going with this?)
If you just CAN’T with your period anymore, talk to your doctor about the options at your disposal.
Don’t wait until you’re looking to stop your period for a specific window of time, like for a wedding or vacation. “Try to give yourself some lead time—if you can give yourself three months, that’s better than the month before,” Dr. Shirazian says. “The longer you’re trying methods to stop your period, the more likely they are to give you no bleeding.”
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