my girlfriend has been playing doctor with her birth control pills and i cant stop her.. help please!?

Question

basically she's been taking them as perscribed for most of the month (3 weeks on, 1 week placebo) unless it becomes inconvenient for her. She thinks she can regulate her period safely switching between taking the hormones and the fakes as she feels it's necessary. i have told her it can seriously mess with her head when she messes around with her natural cycle.. but she still has been abusing these pills and tayloring her cycle to fit her social calander.
Last month for instance our aniversery fell on one of the days her of her period. Instead of dealing with it she took her placebos 4 days early and forced her body to skip almost a week so she'd be off by the time our day came up. she does the same when she's on her period and does not want to stay there long.. she may only take 2 days of the right pill and starts taking the drugs again, cutting her period short. i'd like to know exactly what types of health problems she is at risk for so i can talk to her about what shes doing...

Answer 1

Health aside, she will come around, you ain't marrried yet. But remember the first rule of sticking it in! If you can't afford the kid, don't stick it in. Sounds like my second old lady, wanted to have a kid but the budget said no. She knew I would jump her whenever I got a woodie, but lied about the birth control. When I saw she was not using the pills, I just spanked the monkey to get by. That's why I had a third wife! And now that i'm so old my **** don't work very well, I'm looking for number four! Tounge OK. Weasel, not so stand up as it used to be. But I enjoy knockers! I can have a ball with a nice set of knockers.

Answer 2

Your girlfriend absolutely is messing with things. By taking the placebos 4 days early, she missed 4 days of active pills. Then if she skips some of the placebos and just goes straight to the active pills (are they in the correct order), everything gets screwed up. There's a reason that the pills are in the order that they're in and that they're 3 weeks on and 1 week off. You can't just take whatever pills you want when you want to. She's at risk for screwing up her cycle and lowering the effectiveness of the pill. It's one thing to use the pill to skip a period once in awhile, but it's a different thing to be changing the way that she uses them all the time. She's screwing with her cycle.

She would want to get the morning after pill because she may need it at this rate or else she'll end up pregnant. If she wants shorter periods, she can try seasonale or one of the other birth control pills that when used correctly gives shorter/fewer periods. But you shouldn't mess with the pill and regulate it yourself.

Answer 3

Any doctor will tell you that if you don't want your period it is safe to run two packs of pills back to back: I have been on the pill for 13 years and have always been told this by the various doctors I have seen. In the UK we don't have 'placebo pills' we just don't take anything during the seven day break. If running two packs back to back she should obviously just ignore the placebo pills in the first pack and begin the next pack of hormone pills without a break.

I do not know how many times it would be safe to do this consecutively. I have been told that in theory it would always be safe as the period you have when taking the contraceptive pill is not a 'real' period: it is chemically induced. The combined pill (the one I assume your gf is taking, pls check) tricks a woman's body into thinking it is pregnant. It would therefore be safe for it to say in this state for prolonged periods of time. Indeed with the contraceptive injection, which one of my friends used, a woman doesn't bleed for 3 months.

HOWEVER having said all this, it is MOST definitely NOT safe in contraceptive terms to shorten the 21 day pill taking period, as she is only covered during the 7 day break because she has taken the pill for 3 weeks previous to it. Doctors say it is extremely unlikely for a woman to fall pregnant in the 7 day break, but NOT if she has not taken her 21 days of pills (or been messing about taking them then not taking them). I have been explicitely told by a doctor that I must not shorten the 21 day pill taking period OR MY CONTRACEPTION MAY FAIL. If a woman misses just one pill in the week before her 7 day break she is NOT covered until AFTER her period! The pill is designed to work 21 days on and 7 days off: if you mess with it, it may not work.

I don't know about cutting her period short by starting the hormone pills too early. I am pretty certain it wouldn't negatively effect the contraceptive properties of the pill, but I think a doctor would say to have the 7 day bleed or run two packs together and don't bleed at all. A normal woman, who is not on the pill, has a cycle of 28 days on average and this is what doctors are emulating with the 28 day pill pack (hormones and placebos together).

From a personal point of view, I prefer to bleed every month because it feels more natural to me. I have run two packs of pills together on only two occasions in 13 years. I experienced a bit of 'break-through bleeding' in between my periods and so it really is pointless for me because instead of controlling my period I end up bleeding a little at random times - very inconvienient.

Answer 4

She should be fine. Lots of people manipulate their cycles using the pill. Doctors will say it's okay, but she should make sure her doctor knows about it. A friend of mine went on the pill before her wedding and her doctor told her to keep taking it to avoid her period which she would've had on the wedding day. Even though she did as instructed she ended up with break through bleeding for 3 weeks. Not exactly the result she was hoping for!

Answer 5

Well I'd stop having unprotected sex because these pills aren't 100% effective even when you're taking them as prescribed. Some pills are ok to use to skip one period but you can't just take them when you feel like it. The pill has to be taken regularly to be effective. There are many other types of birth control out there that may suit her better. If she doesn't want to deal with her periods then I suggest she use a birth control that completely stops them safely.

Answer 6

HELLO, DADDY!! No seriously, her cycle will be messed up and the pills will be much less effective as a means of birth control. In actuality, to take BCP correctly not only involves taking the right ones on the right days, but you should take them all at a chosen time every day.

Answer 7

actually this advice has been given to women by doctors too. It is ok to take your pill continuously for a while to skip a monthly cycle...but I would not think it would be safe to do it all the time. I don't think she is probably at a health risk though. Talk to a doctor about this so you can be certain.

Answer 8

Actually your girlfriend is not messing with anything to be honest. Her pill free week is not a normal period. No ovulation occurs and no significant fluctuation in hormones. There is no medical reason why women cannot take the pill consistently and have no pill-free time at all. It is purely so that some monthly flow takes place as when the pill was first launched it was viewed as neccessary for the acceptance of the drug.

Voice your concerns to your own GP and I am sure he will allay your fears. Very sweet of you to worry though! ;-)

Answer 9

I don't know bud, sound's a little like she may be wanting to get pregs to me. If you don't want that, I'd put my foot down or move on or you'll end up in a whole other world than where your at!

Answer 10

gee why do women bother these gynecologists when they can do it all on their own? she may be risking her chances of getting pregnant too besides messing with her hormones