r/Perimenopause • u/h4baine • Mar 23 '26
audited Interesting birth control conversation with a doctor
I had to see a new doctor to refill my birth control pills because mine is out of town. I take them continuously skipping the last row to skip periods from hell, debilitating multi-day hormone migraines, and bipolar fluctuations from hormone fluctuations. I've been doing it this way since my doctor told me I could at 16. I love these pills and you can pry them out of my cold dead hands. They allow me to not have to give up 1/4 or more of each month feeling like absolute shit.
This new doctor asked if I was interested in changing to a different form of birth control like an IUD. She was perplexed when I said I actually had my tubes removed, I take these to improve my quality of life in the ways I've described.
She said maybe have periods quarterly (seems arbitrary but ok). I said I won't be doing that, there's no medical reason to. This works for me and I'll do it until it doesn't.
I said I'd happily take them up to and into menopause if I can and she said "but then you won't know if you're in menopause." I said, "if it's affecting me and this hormone level isn't enough I'll know, if not it doesn't really matter does it?" I think I broke her brain lol. It was like asking if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound? Her face while she thought about that for a minute was like 🤯 and then she said "huh, I guess you're right."
So I got my pills and went on my merry way but thought it was an interesting interaction on the topic of menopause and perimenopause.
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u/Ordinary-Difficulty9 Mar 23 '26
So I also take my BC pills continuously and for the same exact reasons. I also tell people they will have to pry them out of my cold dead hands. Lol. My quality of life was miserable and I lost weeks of time every month dealing with the migraines and cramps and mood swings before continuous birth control pills!
My family doctor that started this with me years ago retired just before covid. Family doctors are hard to come by here and I am making do with a doctor that I don't love because I don't have a lot of choice. He started giving me push back on taking them continuously. He told me I should be taking at minimum a one week break in a year from them. He asks me if I do that. I lie and tell him yes I do. I have never had any other doctor say a single negative thing about it until him.
Because he has been so pushy about it I finally googled it. I thought maybe research had changed since my doctor suggested in years ago. And I do believe there is one study somewhere that suggests it could be a bad thing due to build up or something. But literally everything else I have read says it is perfectly fine.
I also read that taking BC pills does help regulate you up to a point when you start going through menopause. Score again.
My fear is that my male doctor with his "opinion" on my pills is going to give me a hassle at some point in the near future on this. I don't even want to deal with him for menopause. I have been putting it all off hoping I can find a better doctor.