this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Asklemmy
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If you're on hormonal birth control, you don't need to have monthly bleeding cycles. The sugar pill part of most hormonal birth control pills, was added so as to not scare people when their bleeding disappeared.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/birth-control/in-depth/womens-health/art-20044044
I learned this so late....
The primary purpose of the sugar pill is to maintain the habit of taking a pill daily.
The Team that Invented the Birth Control Pill - The Atlantic
https://archive.ph/enn5j
He told Rock to have his patients stop taking the pills for five days each month. Their hormone levels would return to normal, their symptoms would ease, and they would have their periods. Rock liked the idea. It would make the pill seem more natural, like a scientific version of the rhythm method.
So yes, your right, the sugar pill was added to help people count the 5 days of no hormones correctly.
But the only reason for the 5 day hormone gap in the initial recommendations was to make users feel more natural, and not think they were pregnant.
Though the history is fascinating, always worth a read!
The pill works by tricking the body into thinking you're pregnant. There is no reason why you could not take the pill (with hormones in it) for nine months straight.
Sometimes they recommend you go three months without a period. Apparently it can be healthier. And the body doesn't really know any better after you've got used to it.
Well .... TIL.
yup! I have endometriosis and was on the pill continuously ages 15-18. It doesn't work out for everybody, but it was a lifesaver for me. Debilitating symptoms went bye bye, and pretty soon I was back in school (after a few months' absence).