Opinion: On Skipping Periods and Birth Control

I've been leaving a lot of gaps in between my posts recently, haven't I? I guess I've just really been in chill-mode, wearing shorts and t-shirts and not into taking pictures of myself all the time. Is my self-obsession fading? NAH. I actually think being egocentric is a good quality to a certain point. Being in tune with your own wants and needs, never losing sights of your own goals, constantly evaluating whether something works for you or if it's actually dragging you down: yep, having your own self as the centre of your life is A-OK. Tell nay-sayers I said so! 

Although I think I bit off and swallowed a chunk of aluminium foil with my chocolate bar while typing this, so maybe being self-centered can be hazardous from time to time.

Selfies and ego-centrism are like peanut butter and jelly: yummy. PS get my Yeezy tank top here.

To continue on with the idea of having your own best interest at heart, I read an article this week that really opened my eyes about skipping your period (be sure to read the comments as well, lots of valuable experiences with birth control!). I know, not something I usually write about, but dude LIVE a little. In short, the author writes about taking her birth control pill for months in a row without taking the pill free week into account, which results in her skipping her period altogether. Because, as it turns out, the monthly bleeding you experience if you take hormonal birth control is a sort of placebo-bleed. 

Your uterus isn't dressing its walls with sperm-friendly mucus, so there isn't really much at all to shed. Also, there is nothing to "cleanse" your body from. In fact, the period you experience while on hormonal birth control was designed after research indicated that women feel like it would be unnatural to just cease menstruating altogether. Just so you know. Which I didn't. I mean, I knew my menstruation wasn't the real deal all the way and that it was actually being instigated by the pill, but I didn't know it wasn't necessary to take a breather from my trusty birth control once a month. I knew you could skip it once if you were going on holiday or something, but not that you could skip it months in a row. Now that I do, I'm sure as hell going to pop those suckers at least three months in a row.

I posted this to my facebook wall and all kinds of women shared their experience with me regarding birth control and skipping periods and it was awesome. Everyone's experience is different of course, and if you feel better while respecting that monthly SUCKFEST then by all means, be my guest (I'm kidding, of course). Some women did tell me their period is heavier after skipping it a few months, while others told me their menses had all but disappeared. I'm curious to find out what it will be like for me, but in the mean time I'm going to enjoy not cramping and headaching and bleeding, thank you very much.

I wanted to write a post on this because I think women don't talk about this nearly enough. I remember being a kid and freaking the fuck out about getting my period for the first time because I felt gross and sexual and burdened with responsibility in some strange way. While puberty and all the changes that come with it are probably always going to be a bit weird, I would like to reduce any type of sexuality- or fertility related angst as much as possible in my immediate surroundings.

REDRUM

There's this saying that goes "if men were the ones menstruating, they wouldn't shut up about it and we'd probably have movies and hero stories about that shit" and I do think there's a point there. Puberty and dealing with a maturing sexuality is probably a big deal for guys as well, what with random erections popping up suddenly. But I do think it's important to note the discrepancy between this being regular, monthly issue that a lot of women have to deal with reluctantly, yet most people I know not being aware of the option to skip it full stop (ok that was a long and strange sentence). We should know this! Our doctors should tell us! This should be part of our sex-ed at school, and written on those little flyers you laughed at when reading about the female condom (don't deny it).

So! More talk! What do you do for birth control? Why? Did you know you could just skip your period and be done with it? Were you as grossed out as I was by your first period? I mean seriously, 12 is way too young to become fertile (ew).