Menstrual Cycle v. No Menstrual Cycle Pt 3

The more and more I think about it, the more I feel that women should strongly look into whether unnaturally stopping your menstrual cycle is a good thing. Would you stop yourself from urinating? Would you stop yourself from having a bowel movement? Would you stop yourself from sweating? So unless you have to, why would you stop your menstruation? Again, I know first hand what's it's like to have a very heavy flow and I mean very heavy. I know it's tempting to want to just get rid of your menstruation so that you won't have problems with a heavy flow, or have concerns about soiling your clothes, or losing so much blood that you need a transfusion, with problems from fatigue from losing a lot of blood every month, taking iron pills so that you can replenish the iron in your body that's been lost, etc. All of those are real symptoms and real reasons to consider using a birth control method that you think will help you deal with the blood flow.


But I want you to ask your doctor whether taking birth control is in fact exacerbating your symptoms or whether taking this birth control will cause other more permanent problems?

I was on the Patch. And during a presentation where my radiologist and I were presenting on uterine atery embolization or uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), I asked him that same question and he said anything that has hormones in it will cause an imbalance of estrogen in your body which causes your fibroids to grow. Anything means food, birth control pills, and anything else that is known to have added hormones in it.

Some birth control has more estrogen in it than others he said; some have none and some have a lot. Some of it just depends on the strength of the birth control you use. So check with your doctor about whether the birth control you use is helping or hurting you and make sure you know the long term effects of stopping your menstruation. Again, in the sidebar of this blog are books on the subject of menstruation and birth control. Take a look at them and purchase them if you want facts about either.

Thedy B



Thedy B

The Patch or Uterine Fibroids?

As I said in my previous blog, I was on the Patch. The Patch was my preferred choice of birth control to use so that I could use Accutane, a very strong medication for the treatment of severe acne. I was on the Patch for a couple of months I believe.

I'm not sure how long afterwards that I noticed it but I did notice it: break through bleeding or spotting. When I should have been off my period, I was experiencing spotting. I was told spotting sometimes happens with using the Patch (again, consult YOUR doctor on any of your symptoms and get proper medical advice). Spotting had never before been a problem for me. So it was a good chance that since I also had never used the Patch before, that the two were linked. But my GYN and I weren't sure whether my spotting was from using the Patch, from possibly not putting the Patch on the day I needed to replace it, or whether it was coming from the fibroids. I was hoping that the spotting was from using the Patch and not from the fibroids. My hope was that if I stopped using the Patch, then presumably, the spotting would stop too. So I was advised to temporarily stop using the Patch just to find out. Consequently, I also had to stop using Accutane, which was clearing up my acne. (see my first blog on this story).

The results: The spotting did stop after I temporarily stopped using the Patch so I discontinued using the Patch completely. Though the spotting stopped, my GYN still wanted to make sure that my menstrual cycle was otherwise regular and that the uterine fibroids I had were still asymptomatic, so she gave me a menstrual cycle calendar.

I'll tell you more about the menstrual cycle calendar in future blogs.

The Patch v. Other Birth Control methods

As I mentioned in my first post, I found out I had uterine fibroids while being treated for acne. Before I really delve into my uterine fibroid story. I have to talk about how birth control played a role in my discovery. As I mentioned previously, I had acne that I was treating with Accutane. The makers of Accutane required that I use some form of birth control. For me, abstinence is the first preferred choice of birth control, and the Patch is second on my list. But when I was told that I had to use a different form of birth control other than abstinence, I choose the Patch after considering all of the other then forms of birth control.

I choose the Patch for these reasons: The Patch was easy for me to remember when to replace it. I only had to remember to replace the Patch every week. It didn't require me to take any birth control pills. It didn't require me to take a pill daily. I hate taking and especially swallowing pills! Plus, I don't like the potential side effects with taking birth control pills, such as weight gain, blood clots, etc. I also don't like pain so I decided not to use Depo-Provera, the birth control shot. I don't like needles either: though I will tolerate both pills and needles if I absolutely have to, I will avoid them if possible. I also didn't personally like the idea of using a diaphragm with spermicide or really using any foreign instrument in my body. That's just me.

And though I hated having a menstrual cycle, I liked having a menstrual cycle. I know, I know: that makes no sense but I just don't feel comfortable using a birth control product that completely stops your menstruation I believe as a side effect of taking the product. I personally think that that's unnatural. Plus, to me, that birth control product is too new. I personally don't feel it's been tested enough and that we really know the total consequences of stopping our cycles. Again, that's just my personal belief. I'm not making a legal assessment of this product. Plus, I could use the Patch and stay on Accutane which again was clearing up my acne.

So those are some of my reasons for choosing the Patch. But it turns out, the Patch and my body didn't like each other.

But talk to you doctor and find out the right birth control products for you. There are plenty birth control methods out now. I recommend researching the issue first. If you are interested in learning more about birth control methods, check out this site or use the google search box on this blog and google the term.


Thedy B