Do You Need to Have a Period?
A healthy menstrual period prepares the uterus for subsequent pregnancy. While periods are not essential for a woman’s overall health, they are considered a natural and healthy part of reproductive physiology. However, some medical conditions or individual circumstances may affect menstruation or lead to the absence of periods. For example, hormonal imbalances, certain medical treatments, pregnancy, breastfeeding, menopause, or the use of hormonal contraceptives can impact the regularity or presence of periods
In the case of hormone imbalance, there’s a need for regular periods or risk uterine lining gynecologic issues or uterine cancer.
Menstrual periods do not prevent infections or eliminate toxins.
Contraception is designed to prevent pregnancy, but along the way, disrupting ovulation can help regulate, if that’s the goal, or eliminate, if that’s the goal instead, menstrual cycles.
Often the amount of bleeding when you have break through contraceptive bleeding is actually very little blood lost. It’s thus not necessarily a medical problem. But lifestyle wise it’s better to have predictable and not have unscheduled bleeding.
Long acting contraceptive (LARC) methods are staying in the news, and the CDC states that Nexplanon contraceptive is the best contraceptive with the fewest failures. The Nexplanon rod is a progesterone only method with a failure rate of 0.05%. It is used for three years and has etonogestrel as the hormone in the implanted rod. Most women on Nexplanon will still have periods which is no healthier for the uterus than the lack of periods with medicated IUDs or the DepoProvera shot.
When you have periods that are unhealthily heavy, prevention of periods is healthier, for example in the case of getting an endometrial ablation. The are lots of studies that say we feel better when we have periods, but . We suggest seeing your gyno for a reproductive life plan, and deciding what method is best for you to use depending upon your current plans for pregnancy and birth spacing
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