Women who skip their periods with birth control talk about the health, financial and practical benefits of never bleeding: 'It has improved my life'

Most people know that using hormonal birth control can lead to shorter periods and more manageable symptoms, including reducing cramps. One thing that might surprise you? If you’re using hormonal birth control, you actually don’t have to get your period at all.

It all comes down to whether or not you take your birth control pills continuously. In the typical 28-day pack, the last seven pills, effectively placebo pills, contain no hormones. (Sometimes they contain iron, which is lost from the body through bleeding.) If you immediately move on to a new hormonal pill pack instead, however, you typically won’t bleed at all. You can essentially opt out of having a period. And many women are doing just that.

Why some say it's great to not have a period

Sarah Joseph, who runs the website Parental Queries and lives in St. Louis, tells Yahoo Life that she learned about the strategy from a friend — and that her doctor gave her the green light to opt out. For the past three years, she’s been regularly skipping her period.

“It has improved my life,” she says. “Not only does it help me save money on feminine protection products each month, but I don't have to worry about mood swings and other side effects of a menstrual cycle. I found it easier to control my body, knowing I could manage when I want to experience my period.”

Gail Sideman, a publicist in the Milwaukee area, says she made the same decision, in order to avoid the “debilitating” headaches and irregular periods that came with her cycle. The experience, she tells Yahoo Life, meant “freedom” for many years.

“I would recommend going on the pill continuously, because it allowed me to be pain and cramps-free,” she says. “It also allowed me to be worry-free when it came to birth control.”

Jillian Amodio, a sex educator and social worker in Annapolis, Md., went on birth control when she was 14. She decided never to have her period, she tells Yahoo Life, due to “extreme pain during menstruation,” along with “irregular bleeding and heavy flow” that was severely affecting her quality of life and her ability to function in school.

Amodio was later diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition in which endometrial tissue grows outside the uterus and can cause extreme pain — something hormonal birth control pills can help with.

One Los Angeles resident, Ashton (who asked that her last name be withheld), says her period came with a laundry list of symptoms including joint swelling, fever, severe lower back pain, headaches, vomiting, painful bowel movements and gas, exhaustion and shortness of breath.

“This would result in so much pain that I missed work, school and outings with friends and was often stuck to my bed wearing sweatpants, thick pads, a heating pad on my back and Midol,” she tells Yahoo Life.

Although she had been on birth control already for four years, her gynecologist recommended that she take birth control continuously in order to skip her period and find some relief. Now that she’s in her 30s, Ashton — who was diagnosed with endometriosis — says she’s benefited greatly from being free of period pain.

“I never have to worry about whether I'm going to randomly spot or start having a period — I've been skipping for so long that I've probably only spotted for a day or two, maybe four or five times,” she shares. “I don't personally have any drawbacks to skipping, but I think for some people, the drawbacks are not knowing if they're pregnant or not and [that they] rely on their period as confirmation.”

Is it safe to skip your period?

According to Dr. Jennifer Wider, a women's health expert, there’s no medical reason to get a period while on hormonal birth control.

“During the menstrual cycle or a natural period, if a woman is not on birth control, the hormone levels fluctuate and cause the lining of the uterus to thicken and get ready for a potential pregnancy,” she tells Yahoo Life. “If there is no pregnancy or implantation, the lining sheds, along with blood, resulting in menstruation. For women on birth control, the endometrium, or the uterine lining, doesn't thicken, and the body doesn't prepare itself for a possible pregnancy."

With the placebo pills in birth control, Wider explains, bleeding results due to the drop in hormones. "The lining is soft enough to cause a bit of bleeding," she says. "The blood doesn't contain thickened uterine tissue.”

Dr. Staci Tanouye, an obstetrician-gynocologist, says that skipping the placebo week and going right to the next pack of hormonal pills can be done “indefinitely” for many people, though some who experience heavier breakthrough bleeding may want to take a week off hormonal birth control to shed any remaining lining. It’s safe because “birth control pills work to maintain a thin lining and prevent it from ever building up,” she says.

What are the benefits?

Experts say there are several benefits to not having your period every month, including a lower risk of ovarian cancer. “Continuous birth control is a treatment for things like PMS, PMDD and menstrual migraines, as it can significantly decrease the hormonal triggers that lead to these conditions,” explains Tanouye. “It can also be good for people with heavy or painful periods, due to any cause, to avoid bad periods all together.”

Painful periods can also affect attendance at school or work. Dr. Sophia Yen, the co-founder and chief executive officer of a birth control delivery service, Pandia Health, tells Yahoo Life: “The No 1 cause of missed school and work for those with uteri and of bleeding age is menstruation due to painful, heavy periods."

There is also the cost of period products. This is particularly a problem, known as as "period poverty," for the economically disadvantaged, since they often have to go without them. According to a study published in the Journal of Global Health Reports in 2022, "Two-thirds of the 16.9 million low-income women in the U.S. could not afford menstrual products in the past year," and half of them needed to choose between menstrual products and food.

Yen says, "It costs money for all these menstrual products," just as there are also financial consequences for "missed school and/or work."

The decision can also have other benefits. Many menstrual products are bad for the environment by adding to plastic waste, Yen notes, pointing out that "those with uteri and who bleed monthly use 10,000 to 13,000 menstrual products in their lives."

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