Just wondering if anyone else out there has dealt with this and if there's anything to be done about it....

I've been on two different birth control pills over the last 4ish years....and previously before that on a few other BC pills also but that's beside the point...Over the last 3-4 years, when I've had a stressful month, my period won't start....I get all the moods, cravings, bloating, aches, cramps etc but no bleeding, not a drop...First I'd miss a month and then have a regular TOM the next month for about a year or so....Then a couple years ago I started to miss 2 months in a row with all the symptoms and no bleeding...Then last year I'd miss up to 3 months in a row and then have a regular period....NOW I haven't had a regular bleeding period since the end of May, so 4(?) months now including this week where I have all the symptoms and no bleeding.

I take the pills as expected, faithfully and do not ever miss one or take one later than expected in the day. I've never had a positive pregnancy test throughout any of these and I'm still not pregnant to this day (and don't want to be!!!)

I have no other symptoms that would lead me to visit a doctor about this. Nothing abnormal throughout the month....Has anyone else experienced this? Is this the start of perimenopause? Just wondering from others....

Well, when I turned 25 I started to have intense mood swings on the pill I had been taking for awhile. I switched to a different one and was fine. Maybe you just need a different formula? Or you could be having an iron deficiency.

I don't know how old you are but unless you workout like crazy causing too much of a calorie deficit it definitely sounds like the start of menopause.

alaskanlaughter,

I want to second the possibility of perimenopause.

About a year before I had my now one year old, my periods which were always a bit irregular got even more strange. 36 days, 25 days, 22 days 46 day etc...they were all over the place...and when I did get them my pms was worsening as well...nausea, sweating, insomnia, headaches, things I really didn't have years earlier with pms...

we tried to have baby number 3 and after 2 m/c it was discovered through labs that my progesterone was low. However I had had 2 healthy pregnancies in my 20s with not issue. Progesterone starts to decrease as we age and during early menopause, and my endo said it might be the start of menopause. I am only 33 now, but after asking around my dad's side of the family, I found that nearly all my aunts, grandma and cousins (many are older) have been done with the change by 40!

After having our third, my periods were like you were saying, just wonky and unpredictable. My pms was the worst it had ever been in my life! I don't even know if I was ovulating regularly. I was still looking for a BC, and had tried using progesterone cream to help with the awful pms...I stopped it after feeling awful on that too. ... I had a few close, light periods (like 17 days apart and began to count on that as my cycle...and ended up with baby #4!

My talked to my ob about this and he said its possible that I was just starting to go through menopause and he reminded me that I have to go a whole year without a period before I can go without BC. And its easy to get laxed about BC when your period is in the process of disappearing.

Of course we are still happy to welcome a new baby as I always thought 4 would be nice. But my lesson to you is if you don't want more, don't stop BC yet!

I would think, for me, that I would be even MORE vigilant about my birth control with disappearing periods LOL because I'd be worried every month that I might be pregnant otherwise

I don't get bad PMS symptoms but just enough to tell that they are there...I can tell I'm hungrier on the week without my pills, but not wanting to eat the whole kitchen....I feel occasional cramps but nothing horrible....stuff like that

In fact, if I wasn't tracking my period through my pills, I probably wouldn't even notice that this was the week I'm supposed to have a period...

I remember my mom needing her period supplies (although I don't know if it was tampons or what) well into her 40s or maybe even 50s...I was born when she was 36 or 38 and remember as an early teenager that she still had those in the bathroom...but I don't know any of my family on either side, mom or dad's, so I don't know about the other women

How old are you? Well, wait a minute, if you don't want to give your age out bear in mind that if you're under 35 you should get blood work and speak to you GYN about this. There are a number of things that could be reasonably serious (endocrine issues, primarily) other than perimenopause to cause amenorrhea.

As far as diet/exercise, yes, you could miss the odd period, or your periods might become irregular from physical stress, but you would need to be well below normal bodyfat to miss more than one (for a woman, generally her bodyfat needs to be into the teens before her period stops, we're talking fitness model bodyfat levels) especially if you're on BC pills.

I had similar issues before and my period stopped for about 10 months. My doctor said it's common in people who have been on BC for years, and that I shouldn't worry about it. At some point, my period did come back, but it's sometimes so light that it's almost nonexistent.

I would still follow up with your gyn to make sure.

I'm on Mirena, and my period is very irregular, which I was told by my OB/GYN was common. Sometimes I'll go months without anything, and then I'll have a day or two with some spotting. Sometimes I get PMS symptoms, most of the times I don't. I haven't had a real period since I had it put in nearly six years ago now. Definitely talk to your doctor about it though, just to make sure it's normal for they type of birth control your on, and that something else isn't at play.

I am 37 now, for the other poster above who asked...I don't mind sharing...And this started about 3-4 years ago, maybe less than that because now that I try to remember, I'm not quite so sure....maybe 2 years ago(?)

I've been on several types of birth control continuously for the past 12 years, with the exception of going off specifically to get pregnant....I became pregnant within 2 months of stopping the pills and went back on once my son was born...he is 8 now....i had the Ortho Evra patch that I LOVED(!!!) for years and then various kinds of pills, all with a week off to have a period

While 33 or 34 is early to begin perimenopause (I'm taking into consideration that you said this has been going on 3 or 4 years), it's not extremely unusual. It encompasses the time leading up to actual cessation, for a full 12 months, of your menstrual cycle, which for some women can be 10 years.

Considering you really don't want another baby you really should see a doctor and talk about what's going on and ask them about going on the continual dose pill so you don't have a period week at all -- or consider an alternative method and go off hormonal birth control altogether. The thing is, if you're not bleeding on your dummy pill week you don't really know what's going on. The odds are you're probably not ovulating but without a period you've got no guarantees.

Contrary to popular misbelief, there is no good reason for a woman to have a period if she's already manipulating her hormones.

My gyno takes patients off bc pills after 35. He says the risks become too high but maybe that's because I was still dabbling with cigarettes at the time and he didn't want to be liable.

I agree that maybe you should have some blood tests, I didn't think of endometriosis or something besides menopause.