Not upsetting the Pope made me suffer for years

[Ontheboardwalk]

Just seen this article where it says for 60 years we were told to have a monthly break as to not upset the pope! Even with the pill I had to take Naproxen and major painkillers.

It was only when I got a female doctor who told me to take 6 packets at a time did my life change

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/contraceptive-pill-every-day-nhs-guidance-break-catholic-church-pope-a8737456.html

I’d like to add if it meant the pope accepted contraception I’d have been absolutely up for it!

I have often taken up to 3 packets st a time but I sometimes find that without having a period in between, my sex drive sometimes drops.
The fact it was done for approval from the pop is quite sad. Another reason I cannot stand religious institutions.

I think that article is a bit overdone.

It wan't one person who set the pill-free week.

And there is plenty of evidence to show that, at that time, women wanted the reassurance of a monthly 'period' and that the regimen was set in response to user consultation.

That was of course many decades ago, and arising at a time when hormonal control of the cycle was brand new. Now people are much more used to methods which suppress periods entirely and also the level of hormone in the pill is lower than it was at the time of introduction. Continuous taking of the old-style pills is quite a bit riskier than what it means with a modern one.

I took it continuously from 16 until 21 because I didn't want a period. I didn't tell my doctor.

Dr told me I didn't need to have a break so I didn't. Took pill continuously for years.

Well it didn’t work as a pope pleasing idea did it? So the religious institution didn’t actually have anything to do with the instructions given for taking the pill.

Maybe it was one hopeful catholic doctor who devised the pill schedule and then all the other scientists and doctors involved in prescribing it over the years took his word as gospel with no questions asked and no further research done until today. sounds like a bit of an urban myth to me.

I’m sorry you suffered OP. But I think it just shows how women’s health suffers from lack of research and concern for women’s experience. I also heard years ago that the gap was put in as otherwise women would find it too strange and unnatural that their periods has stopped altogether. Obviously doesn’t go for you or many many women who do run their packets together.

Some doctors just think they're God, don't they?

It really wasn't the decision of one individual. If you wanted to take the pill back-to-back and have no periods, this has been a perfectly normal way to do it (on the NHS).

This reporter sounds a bit out of touch, but science reporting in British papers is always a bit shit, and it must be very temptingly easy to elevate one doctor's vainglorious musings into something far weightier than it quite obviously is (if you stop to think about global contraceptive research)

I’d like to have been given a choice by my male drs. Take it every 3 weeks to give me reassurance I’d taken it as I needed to but suffer serious pain and bleeding or take 6 packets at a time. I was never given that choice, they wouldn’t prescribe more pills.

The idea was not to avoid upsetting the Pope, but that the Pope would see it as regularising the menstrual cycle and thus as a medicalised version of the rhythm method, which could then be passed by the Vatican as acceptable for Catholics.

It didn't work out.

House interesting as a medicalised version of the rhythm method. How good would that have been if it had been accepted