Thanks for Four Years of Awesome
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Blogged Around Philly: Farewell Edition
Photoist
Dear Phillial: I went on birth control long before I began having sex because I had really bad problems with my menstrual cycle. In the past, my sexual partners have insisted on using condoms, despite the fact that I was on the pill (and then on the ring). I've recently begun having sex with someone without condoms (we've both been tested and we're clean), but it occurred to me that I don't know whether I need to use a back-up contraceptive on my week off, since the doctor who put me on birth control in the first place didn't feel the need to tell the fifteen-year-old she was prescribing the pill to. What do I do for those seven days?
Your concern is certainly merited! When you're young and in love, it can sometimes feel like even looking at your boyfriend the wrong way could result in an unwanted zygote settlin' down in your Young Teenage Uterus. We realize that our description unintentionally sounds like some camp '60s movie. We refuse to apologize for this. We blame our repeat visits to the Philadelphia Video Library for "Midnight Movies"
To those men (or women) not in the know about what said reader is asking, let's have a little talk about the Birds and the Overbearing Pharmacological Industry Giants.
A woman taking hormonal birth control (That's 'The Pill' to you laymen or women) will take a week of inactive 'placebo' pills in the fourth week of her cycle, enabling her to have a normal period. At first glimpse it might seem that a week without the Pill = a week without protection. Fortunately for us, outward logic is wrong in this case. The 'placebo week' of the pill not only enables menstruation (an unwanted side effect for some!) but constitutes a necessary part of the hormonal 'soup' that prevents you from having a bun in the oven.
How? Essentially, when you take hormonal birth control, you're tricking your body -- with the right amount of estrogen and progrestin -- into thinking that you're pregnant. Fun, right? This affects your body in two ways: first, you stop ovulating, or producing an egg to get fertilized, and second, the mucous that covers your cervix (the gateway to your uterus) becomes thicker, so that those wily little spermatozoa don't have an "in" to that precious uterus of yours. That 'week off' with placebo pills is simply a part of that cycle. It's not necessarily vital to functional birth control (I'll explain below), but you're certainly protected during your off-week.
You don't have to trust Phillial, though. According to the Ortho Tri-Cyclen website, "As long as you have taken your pill correctly (at the same time, every day), you are still protected from unplanned pregnancies even when you are taking the placebo pills." So there you have it.
P.S. -- Interestingly enough, it's possible to forgo periods entirely! All you'd have to do is skip the placebo week, and just go straight ahead to the next pack of pills. It's not recommended for the long run -- it's certainly a 'Don't Try This At Home' gimmick that could backfire if you're the type that needs a period to know you're not pregnant. However, if you're looking forward to a weekend in Vegas or honeymoon in the Hamptons that you'd rather not have interrupted by that pesky Aunt Flo, it's a convenient way to avoid that whole darned menstruation business altogether.
Please note that Jessica Haralson, our local go-to gal for all things sex, is not a medical professional. Please consult your physician before altering your birth control regimen to affect your menstrual cycle.
Image via Skip Morrow and the Art of Humor.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit