A Journey through Treatment and Pregnancy

After spending a few days researching continuous birth control therapy, and finding some interesting information, I finally came to the realization that this form of treatment, although still experimental, was worth at least trying. The trick was to stop my period entirely until I was ready to have a child. So I gave it a shot.

A few weeks before my well deserved vacation I had gotten my period on March 12th, and began my therapy. The entire time up until this point I was still under threat of suffering from the knife like pain I had experienced the October before, so of course I was still taking my double strength Naprosyn.

While on my vacation, I began taking my second box of birth control without the break on April 2nd. All was fine until the day after we returned from our cruise. On April 8th I experienced what is called breakthrough bleeding, which was what my GYN had warned me would be a possibility. I just didn’t expect it to begin so soon.

In growing up, a girl is always told that having her period means she is moving onto being a woman. I know when I finally got my first period when I was 12 years old, in August, 1986 I totally freaked out. I didn’t want to be a woman, I just wanted to be a girl. I remember crying that day, not because I was in pain but because I was no longer a child. I truly believe that for a girl, this is truly her first step towards responsibility, especially personal responsibility.

Growing up, girls can be told a few things about missing their period; 1) you’re pregnant, or 2) something is wrong. However, no one tells girls that having their period nearly 500 times their entire life may not be such a good thing. Probably because it’s not so widely understood that there are studies that are starting to find that women in modern societies seem to be more susceptible to breast and reproductive cancers because of the amount of times they menstruate their entire life. I’ve included the following link for everyone to read, and it really opened my eyes:

News in Science: Skipping Periods May Cut Cancer Risk