no sex, no pills-- right?

[ciarajanae.livejournal.com]

i'm leaving my boyfriend to study abroad for three months soon. i'm taking birth control right now, but it's more expensive than i'd like and a pain to even get in my conservative backwoods town. i have two months left.

i was thinking about stopping the pills while i'm in london, since i'm not going to be having sex (waaaah), and then starting up again a month before i'm set to go home. it makes sense to me, but i just wanted to ask: can anyone see a problem, healthwise or otherwise, with this?

Comments

[sabbysteg.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that when you go off birth control your body will react strangely. Your periods will be getting back on their natural schedule so you may be caught off guard with the new cycle.

Other than that, I don't know of any problems that would make you want to stay on them when you're not having sex.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

I'd check with someone trained (your doctor, planned parenthood... you should be able to find somewhere you can call if you're not comfortable asking locally). I remember hearing something about how taking breaks can lower the effectiveness, but I'm not sure whether I am remembering this right, or if it refers more to not taking the pill consistantly on a daily basis.

Still, I wouldn't feel comfortable with taking a break without assurance from someone with a lot of familiarity with the subject that it is safe.

Also, not only might your body act weirdly because you've gone off them, as sabbysteg noted, but you may go through the initial adjustment phase again - if you had any annoying side effects during the first three months, plan to go through them again when you get back on the pill.

[lilyofthewest.livejournal.com]

The effectiveness that gets reduced is the protection against cervical, endometrial and ovarian cancer. Stopping and starting a hormonal method will give less protection than continuous use. Protection against pregnancy is unaffected, so long as the reccommended duration of pills is taken before resuming unprotected sex.

[lilyofthewest.livejournal.com]

One thing to keep in mind is that your cycle may not be regular if you stop taking the BCPs. When you restart, you should do it as though you are starting the method for the first time again - either on the first day of your period or the Sunday following that. If you period is irregular it can be difficult to know when to start, and if you do not do it as reccommended you will need to wait one complete pill cycle to have unprotected sex rather than one week.

[humaazul.livejournal.com]

HUGE PROBLEM HERE. going on and off of bc pills is one of the worst things you can do to your body. i always think "no boys, no pills!" and go off, and go on later (4 times now) and i have such horrible reactions and remember that it takes 3 months for your body to adjust to pills completely, and you don't want to go through the adjustment again (or most women don't). it's better to just stay on the pills if you're planning on going back on anyway, they really are very hard on your body and getting used to them is hard on the body.