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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not understand why women bother with periods?

90 replies

StuckinTheMiddlewithYou · 03/04/2011 10:52

When you can take the pill straight through and skip it?

If you can't take the pill fair enough, both otherwise, why bother?

OP posts:
Olifin · 03/04/2011 12:12

Totally with SoH et al on this one. I was on the pill for 10 years before children. Must have tried about 5 different ones and never felt 'normal' on any of them: Weight gain and mood swings aplenty and 10 years of hideous acne which disappeared immediately when I stopped taking it.

I can understand why women with very troublesome periods might need the pill but otherwise, no. I much prefer having periods. I'm going to sound like a lentil-weaver here but I really like being in touch with my body in this way; knowing where I am in my cycle; understanding my moods and so on. I feel normal at last.

LDNmummy · 03/04/2011 12:12

Because it is incredibly bad for your body and can completely confuse or imbalance your body's natural hormonal system. This can lead to all sorts of serious problems if you do it over a long period.

WereOffToSeeTheWizard · 03/04/2011 12:13

Don't want cancer so don't take the pill and never have.

compo · 03/04/2011 12:18

I have a reason no one has yet mentioned

I don't want to see my gp/ nurse every six months, be weighed, told I need to lose weight, just to get the pills

BaggedandTagged · 03/04/2011 12:19

Don't want cancer so don't take the pill and never have.

But the pill reduces the chance of getting ovarian cancer.

solo · 03/04/2011 12:23

I love having my periods. I'm at the start of the menopause and hate the thought of 'losing my youth.' :(

hecate · 03/04/2011 12:23

I've got PCOS so my periods are all over the place. I have to take a course of pills every 3 months to give me a period. If you don't, then you have increased risk of womb cancer. According to my gynae.

So I assume that not allowing your body to go through the natural process of shedding womb lining ever few months has risks.

Abcinthia · 03/04/2011 12:24

The pill I'm on (the mini-pill) I take continually but I still have periods.

When I was on the combined pill, I tried to skip my periods and ended up bleeding for 24 days straight. After about the first week or so, the bleeding was lighter but still consistent. One of the reasons I went off it and on to the mini- pill.

Leverkusen · 03/04/2011 12:25

my mother has a brain tumour, perhaps due to use of the pill
Throughout her life. So I am staying away from artificial hormones!

NorthernGobshite · 03/04/2011 12:31

Because the pill is implicated in a female cancers. Because it is ARTIFICIAL and periods are NATURAL.

thumbwitch · 03/04/2011 12:34

But baggedandtagged - it INCREASES the chance of cervical cancer so you can't win on that score.

I don't want to take it again because it increases my chances of getting a DVT or PE - not my idea of a good time, for sure. Especially with living in Australia and having to do 24h flights home to the UK - extra dangerous with the DVT/PE thing. I didn't much like the progesterone only pill either - didn't like the side effects.

BaggedandTagged · 03/04/2011 12:41

Yeah I know- just pointing out that it's not a 1 way street, and actually, the stats can be very misleading when reported by the "meed-ya"

i.e. saying "doing X doubles your chances of Y" sounds scary until you realise that chances of Y are minute.

eg chances of getting cc- 8 in 100,000. Cahnces of getting it whilst on the pill. 16 in 100,000. Now, you're not going to back a horse on those odds are you?

thumbwitch · 03/04/2011 12:44

Agreed - it's damned if you do, damned if you don't with hormones and female cancers - but I'd sooner take my chances now with my own, having spent years on the mini pill (before I knew about my condition!) and not being particularly keen on that or the progesterone-only one in terms of side-effects. But mine were light in comparison with some people! And I always had a period anyway.

SlightlyB0nkers · 03/04/2011 12:59

I was on the pill for years and stopped a year before TTC and was a bit shocked by the change in my body. Sex was more enjoyable as there was more CM.

On the cancer bit, I'd hate to think Id contributed to getting a cancer because of a pill I took. I might have already :(
I'm less trusting of pills and companies a I'm getting older.

notsomumsie · 03/04/2011 13:12

Honestly I didnt think you could do this to yourself without having something seriously wrong hormonally. I hate periods more than most, I suspect, but theres no way on gods earth I'd take the pill continously to avoid them. Even now when I've finished with kids, I still wouldnt.

sofaqueenie · 03/04/2011 13:20

I was on cerazette since the birth of my son and have only just come off it (son now 15 months). It was the best bloody thing I have ever done.

My sex life is back, I don't give a monkeys about periods!

Conflugenglugen · 03/04/2011 13:21

Alouiseg, I agree completely. I love the cyclical nature of being synthetic-hormone-free. Those two weeks after my period - wow-weee! I will be sad to leave that behind, so I'm making the most of it. I had been on the pill for nearly 20 years, from age 19, so it was a revelation to come off it and realise just how much it was regulating, and flattening, everything.

Alouiseg · 03/04/2011 13:26

I wonder sometimes if anti depressant use or need is higher amongst women who take "regulating" hormones? If you get the up then the downs seem bearable. I know when I was taking an ad I felt completely flattened by it and wanted my ups back, knowing that the downs were over in days or occasionally just over a week.

Just thinking aloud really.

allegrageller · 03/04/2011 13:35

not sure Alouiseg- but certainly as a long term depressive, I find that artificial hormones make me much, much worse tbh.

cory · 03/04/2011 14:25

Took pill for maybe 10 yrs as a young woman. Blood pressure went sky high and has needed medication ever since, though it's over 20 years since I stopped taking the pill. Doctors did say at the time that they thought it was triggered by pill.

cookielove · 03/04/2011 14:30

i was on the injection, till i missed one (by accident) and had unprotected sex, so i choose to not go back on, that was in November and i am still waiting for a period, and right now i really would like one? just so i know i haven't fucked up my fertility

FluffyDonkey · 03/04/2011 14:42

Before getting pregnant I had a break between each packet (and so a period) because :

I'm in France where you have to pay for the pill (about 30 quid for 3 months). So I prefer to have a break between each packet meaning I only buy 12 a year instead of 17!!

I don't have heavy or painful periods so they're no problem

I once tried to alter the timing of my periods so I wouldn't be on during the holidays and taking packets straight through meant I bled slightly for weeks. Took ages to get back to normal.

megapixels · 03/04/2011 14:47

Huh? Because periods are normal, so not everyone feels the need to stop it for no particular reason?

Strange thread.

GandTiceandaslice · 03/04/2011 14:57

Severe migraines.
Now we have finished reproducing Wink DH has had the snip.

MrsTittleMouse · 03/04/2011 15:01

I agree with those who hate artificial hormones. I was always a bit wary of the pill, but went on it when I was going out with DH. Massive mistake. My libido went through the floor and took months to recover (even after stopping), I was really depressed. It was awful.

I have a great time when I am ovulating. Dh calls it "randy week". Grin There is no way that I am ever going to intentionally stop ovulating ever again. :)