stopping periods once and for all?

[geekgrrl]

I've just started my first period since ds was born 11 months ago. After over six years with hardly any proper periods due to having babies, breastfeeding etc. I feel so depressed that this has started again. I have all the children I want, dh is getting the snip next week, the thought of pointlessly bleeding & being in pain every four weeks for the next 20 years is so depressing. I had toxic shock syndrome as a teenager so shouldn't use tampons (though I do anyway as I find pads so useless & uncomfortable). I used to have really really awful periods of the puking & 'high as a kite on feminax' variety before having children and really dread this coming back. But even if they end up being less painful I just don't want to have them, the bleeding, the inconvenience, the worry about TSS...
I take the mini pill at the moment - was sort of hoping it'd stop my periods but no such luck - but would of course like to stop once dh has been done.
I'd tried Mirena but had a bad reaction to it so it had to come out again. Any other medication that might stop it? Also, has anyone had the intra-uterine ablation done?

I don't know anything about intra-uterine ablations (sounds pretty gruesome though..) but I have a friend who is on the combined pill and hasn't had a period for years - she just keeps taking the pill without a break. I'm on the combined pill and I just have a period every three months or so (I like to check things are still working!)

It's not a long-term solution I know - but you could try it for a while?

There is a new contraception pill available in the USA, but not sure about in UK yet... See here . The logic is that having years of monthly periods is not biologically normal & is even bad for a woman's health. "Seasonale" would change that; you'd take a daily pill and only have a period every 3-4 months.

Im on the depo provera (sp?) injection. I haven't had a period for over 4 months now. You only have to have it every 12 weeks.

thanks ladies. Sounds like there is some good stuff out there. I just hope that my GP is sympathetic and doesn't think I should accept it as being part of being a woman blablabla...
zebra, I'd heard this before too and that a high percentage of women are anaemic as a result. Well, it certainly doesn't feel like a particularly healthy thing.

Bit radical, but.... what about a hysterectomy?

Mind, if you have a hysterectomy, no reason for your DH to be "done"

I was under the impression that hysterectomies for bleeding were only done as a last resort nowadays. I've read that taking away the womb can lead to later prolapse of bladder and/or bowels - maybe Aloha knows more about it, with her journalist's hat on.

On Depo I didn't have a period for about 4 years! Marvellous. It does have the usual potential weight gain, loss of libido issues associated with (all) hormonal contraception. But then so do children! You can also have the implant (lasts 3 years?) which I believe has the same effect.

I remember reading it was perfectly OK to continue with your pill without breaking for a period, and they only suggest you do that to make you "feel normal" HA! But the constant up and down of hormones can actually be a problem. Every time I took my weeks break on the pill I would get a bout of thrush as a result of the hormone change.

I was also going to suggest you take the pill continuously - three packets without a break - thus reducing your bleeding to four times a year, but see your husband is having a vasectomy. Is that because you didn't want to take the pill? Do you have particularly problematic periods?

yes I did have really dreadful periods, haven't had a proper one for donkey's years now so I suppose they could be better, but still.. I can't take the normal pill yet because ds is still bf so take the mini pill where you don't have a break and have a period anyway (though before my last pregnancy I took the mini pill for 5 months and just seemed to have continuous spotting, great - not). Dh is having the snip because we don't want another child under any circumstances. Maybe I should try Depo? Am just a bit worried that I might end up spotting all the time again and then having to wait for the hormones to work their way out of my system.