Anyone else experience this?

[mrsz]

@greg1911 I was shocked actually. I didn't really track my periods closely beforehand so I couldn't even really tell you if they were regular before the HBC. Like, I had no idea. So I didn't know what to expect when I came off it. I was so surprised. I feel quite lucky, really.

In a fun aside, my husband was not at all surprised. When I got my period on the 30th he went, "Yep, right on time. You always get cranky at the end of the month." LOL!

 

[may161965]

@bernard222 Let me share this with you. First of all, I swear this is a worry with every woman in TFAB/TTC, myself included.
While I didn't take YAZ, I did take pills (i forgot the name) and had an IUD. I was on birth control for about 7 years, and for 3 of them I had no period. A glamorous time!
I got my IUD out in January, detected ovulation in February, got my first real period in March, and conceived in May. So, I am currently 8 weeks pregnant and due in Feb.
My personal advice would be to not stop birth control while you are comfortable taking it. Only stop birth control when you can comfortably think "If I get pregnant today, will it be ok?" If the answer is yes, talk to your GYN about getting off it. If not, stay on it for longer. You do need to give your body time to adjust once you get off birth control. For some women, it can take some time to ovulate while your body adjusts the hormones.

I know I'm not 100% close to your bc situation, but at least I can provide you my personal anecdote.

 

[bernard222]

@may161965 Thanks for sharing your experience! My plan is to stop taking birthcontrol 6 months before TTC and hopefully within that 6 months everything will be regular and i can temp and use opk's and see where i'm at before ditching the condoms!

 

[glp929]

@bernard222 Hold the phones.

This is VERY VERY important and I just had this conversation with my OBGYN.

I know it seems "unnatural" and that's what I thought but it is actually BETTER for women to be on birth control that prevents periods and ovulation.

Why you ask? Because actually it's the most natural thing. For nearly all of human history women rarely had periods and ovulation, because they just were pregnant. Over and over and over. One of my ancestors I discovered had 28 kids!

Ovulation/periods are actually extremely taxing on the female body according to my doctor and will shorten the lifespan of women overall. Also, birth control will allow you to remain fertile much longer than average because you are essentially putting the reproductive system on ice, on hold. Instead of keeping the engine running nonstop for decades before use.

So PLEASE PSA TO ALL WOMEN - birth control IS the more natural choice and is better for your health and fertility!

 

[missktl]

@glp929 Interesting point of view. I would love to see the sources of your OBGYN's claims about lifespan of women +/- birth control, and the idea of pausing fertility actually increasing the the time before menopause. I wonder if the lifespan increase is based on the decreased ovarian cancer as a result of HBC.

 

[smooth90]

@glp929 "Also, birth control will allow you to remain fertile much longer than average because you are essentially putting the reproductive system on ice, on hold. Instead of keeping the engine running nonstop for decades before use."

This actually isn't true. Your eggs WILL and DO age as you get older. Just because you're not releasing eggs to be fertilized (and on some BC you still do release eggs) doesn't mean that the eggs are on "hold."

 

[glp929]

@smooth90 I didn't mention eggs. I'm a biologist by degree. Of course your eggs age. But you'll have more and also your uterus etc won't be as overworked as it would be shedding every month

Constant spikes in hormone levels is really damaging to female body systems

 

[smooth90]

@glp929 You didn't specifically mention eggs, but older eggs have a huge impact on fertility, regardless of how "unused" your uterus is. And depending on which BC you're on, eggs might still prepare to be released and then "die" without being fertilized (IUDs, for example.)

Also, and no offense to your OBGYN, but the uterus seems to be pretty overworked when it's growing and pushing out a baby (especially 28 of them!) And I wouldn't say hormones are exactly stable during pregnancy and afterwards. Not sure why your doctor would be saying the hormones in our bodies, when left alone without birth control, will shorten our lifespan. I could definitely see some sort of possible correlation to stress/anxiety, but it would be the stress/anxiety that shortened the lifespan?

 

[bernard222]

@glp929 This is interesting! Thanks for the information, everyone is making me feel much better about my choice!

 

[koroman]

@bernard222 I've not been on it, but from what I read when I was researching birth control options, no bleeding when taking YAZ is really common.
I tried a lower dose progesterone only pill, and ended up with totally weird periods I couldn't predict and gave up on pills altogether.

From my perusing of TFAB people tend to recommend coming off pills and using condoms for a bit before starting to try so you can find your cycle again.

 

[bernard222]

@koroman My plan is to be off for 6 months prior to ttc! Hopefully things go back to normal in that time and i ovulate!

 

[lissieee]

@bernard222 It is extremely common for your periods to become light or nonexistent while on the pill. They are not even real periods - they are just withdrawal bleeds during the days when you're on the placebo pills. When the pill was invented doctors decided it would make women feel more comfortable to have this fake period rather than no bleeding at all. It will not affect your fertility! (I agree with everyone else that you need a new doctor...) And yes it has happened to me - was on the pill for many years (including a generic for Yaz) and my periods sometimes didn't come at all but most of the time were just extremely light. Again, just to reiterate... while on the pill you're not having actual periods at all so it doesn't matter one bit!

 

[bharati21]

@bernard222 Also on Yaz. Got on it for my horrible periods. Also have little to no period.

I've went off it twice, once because I had another undiagnosed medical issue and wanted to be completely sure it wasn't the Yaz (it wasn't), then later because I had no health insurance. Both times the horrible periods came back.

The other options or me was to do another type of birth control and skip the "reminder pills." Bleeding once a month just isn't necessary, it's not a true period. There is a possibility I have endometriosis, having a period would actually make the scarring worse and reduce my fertility.

 

[bernard222]

@bharati21 I was told to either take the 4 days off "reminder pills" or just start the next pack as soon as the other one ended since i wasn't getting a period anyways. I take 4 days off and end up smotting a couple days after the 4 days off, its strange.

I've read on here alot that if you have endometriosis to stay on birth control as long as you can untill baby makin time!