Did You Know: You Don’t Need to Have a Period?

The first time a friend told me she used birth control to skip her periods, I thought “There’s no way – if we get a period every month, it means we’re supposed to get a period every month.” But as my friend continued talking to me about it, the better her “no periods!” life sounded.

I was more confused than anything. A trusted adult told me I was going to get a period every month for, basically, as long as I lived. I brought it up the next time I saw my doctor. I think I said something like “My silly friend from class thinks she can use birth control to skip her period every month. Can you believe that?” The doctor smiled and replied very kindly, “Many of my patients do that, and it really is safe!”

It was true then, and it’s true now: If you don’t want to have your period every month, you can use birth control to skip it. I asked Joely Pritzker, FNP-C, the Senior Director of Health Care for Power to Decide, and she said, “People may want to skip periods for lots of different reasons—medical conditions, sports, vacations, or they’d just prefer to not bleed every month.”

But how? How is it okay to skip your period every month? Joely was able to clear that up for me as well. “Certain kinds of hormonal birth control keep the lining—the inner layer—of the uterus very thin. When that lining stays thin, it doesn’t need to shed regularly to keep it healthy.”  

There are a few methods of birth control people can use if they want to stop having periods. They include hormonal IUDs and the shot. Some folks also use the pill or the ring. “It’s really about finding the birth control method that matches up best with the characteristics that someone’s looking for,” Joely explains.

If you’d like to try the “no periods!” lifestyle, make an appointment to talk to a provider at your nearest The Right Time health center. They can help you decide which method might work best for you and answer any of your more specific questions about what to expect when skipping your period.