The Pill usually comes in a pack of 28, but only 21 of them contain any medicine, the other 7 are actually blank/”sugar pills”. They are different colors so you won’t get confused.

During these 7 days, you will have bleeding like a period, since you won’t be exposed to the hormones for those 7 days. This is called a “withdrawal bleed” because it happens when the hormones are “withdrawn” (taken away). This is not a real period since it does not have an egg in it since birth control hormones keep you from ovulating.

You can choose to just not take a pill at all for those 7 days, but it’s good to keep the habit of taking a pill every day.

You can “control your periods” by choosing to SKIP the blank/sugar pills. If you keep taking the pills with hormones in them, you can skip having a “withdrawal bleed”/fake “period”. If you have a vacation or important event at a certain time, you can take the pills in a way that allows you to control when you have a “period.” There are certain types of pills that let you have a “period” only once a season (Seasonique), or even once a year (Lybrel)! Ask your doctor.

This does not always work perfectly, however. Every body is different, and especially when you start taking hormones, you can have light bleeding or spotting, sometimes for weeks or months, while your body adjusts. If you are trying to control your “periods” but are having difficulty, talk with your doctor, since there are many different types of pills you can try, with different hormone doses.

Some women like the feeling of having a period every month, and others do not. It’s completely up to you. Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT need to have a period every month to “clean everything out”!! There is NO HARM to your health to never have periods again! All hormonal birth control thins the lining of your uterus, so cells do not build up as much.

If you keep skipping periods, at some point you may have some “Breakthrough Bleeding”/spotting, which means bleeding despite using the hormones. If it bothers you, you can do a sort of reset by giving your body 1 week without added hormones.

Like all other hormonal birth control methods, you need to wait at least 7 days for it to take effect. You are not protected from pregnancy until after 7 days of using this! So use backup methods such as condoms, abstinence, or even overlapping with certain other hormonal birth controls is fine.

Side effects include headaches, nausea, bloating, and breast tenderness. There are many different types of pills, so you can ask your doctor to try a type with lower hormone levels, which tends to have fewer side effects. There are also types that have different amounts of hormones in each pill of each pack, to try to better mimic your natural hormone ebbs and flows. These are called “Bi-phasic” or “Tri-phasic” pills, vs. “Monophasic” ones that deliver the same amount in every pill. These might be better tolerated since they try to simulate what your body naturally does during your menstrual cycle. The downside is that the lower dose pills might not be as great at regulating your “periods.”