The possibility of eliminating periods with hormonal contraceptives had never occurred to me until January 2019, when the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare updated its guidelines on combined hormonal contraception. The update highlights the lack of health benefits of the 7-day hormone-free interval and states that women can safely skip it to avoid menstruating. A short Google search uncovered the fact that many users of the combined pill were already taking it without pause.
Prompted by this new information, I also went ahead to discover that the use of the combined pill without pause isn’t the only method to eliminate periods. While other hormonal contraceptives offer this possibility too, this isn’t exactly common knowledge.
So in this piece, I explore the menstrual cycle, the safety of eliminating periods with hormonal contraceptives, the different options, and the benefits of living period-free.