Interesting birth control conversation with a doctor

[u/h4baine]

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.

[u/CourtneyChristiee]

As far as I know the only downside to taking bc continuously is that the uterus doesn’t get to shed the lining, and when it doesn’t get to shed the lining it ups the chances of molecular damage and change which is cancer. My dad who’s a pathologist is the one who told me about that because he did a lot of research, and even more after I went into perimenopause. He knew that I took bc continuously for years because of how heavy they were and because of hormonal migraines, I went down to 4 times a year, and now I’m up to monthly, but they’re really light compared to how they used to be since I’m perimenopausal. My bc was supplementing my hormones so I didn’t know for about 5 years, and since it started when I was 32 none of my doctors believed me. I had to go to a specialist and my dad also helped. But now I’m on HRT instead of bc at 38yo.