How to delay/lighten my periods?

[tusma]

Hey everyone; I'm 17 years old and I usually have really heavy periods. Heavy flow, cramps, fatigue the whole 9 yards. Using the MC app I am tracking my periods and when my periods are predicted to come. Me and my friends are planning to go on a 2-3day weekend type holiday in July and our tickets have been booked. This is exactly when my period has been predicted to start. I want to know if theres anything I can take to either lighten my periods (by a lot) or stop it completely that month. A lot of my friends take contraceptive and say that it helps them with their periods and theirs have become much lighter. I'm a bit hesitant on using contraceptives regularly though, as I've heard they can do some damage long term. I am really adamant on finding a way that I can lighten my periods/stop them at this time because I really dont want to have to deal with the stress and anxiety over when its going to come and how heavy it will be on a holiday. Any suggestions from people much wiser than myself? :)

[Chima7]

Unfortunately the only way you can impact when your period comes is with hormonal birth control. I am using the Mirena iud to manage my bleeding and for me it has been the only thing to make it much lighter. Birth control pills didn't do that for me. However the only good thing about the pill was that I was able to skip my period if I needed it by starting a new pack when I was supposed to have my placebo week. But that only works if you're on a monophasic pill which is one that has the same amount of hormones the whole month. The triphasic pills are the ones that have the "tri" in their name (e.g. Ortho Tri Cyclen) and which have different levels of hormones every week. It doesn't work to skip with those so I wouldn't recommend it.

Since you're not leaving until July, this is the perfect time to start taking the pill because you need at least a couple of months to adjust and to be able to skip your period by taking a new pack when the period is due. If you're going to do it though, you literally have to start with your very next period in order for it to take effect in enough time.

One time I went to my gyne to ask about going on the pill to stop my period the next month when I was on vacation. She said it was too late by then because the only way to impact your menstrual cycle is if you start taking the pills at least a couple of months before the big event. Otherwise you won't make any impact if you start the pill at the wrong time and you'll have bleeding anyway and it may be worse than a regular period if you started taking the pill at the wrong time.

So that's my suggestion is to get to a gyne now and get on the pill with your very next period so you can hopefully get on that schedule and skip your period in time for the vacation. You can always quit taking it at some point in the future when your pack runs out if you don't want to stay on it. I would recommend the mirena but you may not be able to handle the insertion because that's really painful and it scares a lot of people away from trying it. I've had 4 of them implanted and although it's agony, I would still do it again for the simple fact that it's been the only thing that has helped me with my bleeding. Nothing else I tried made any difference for me. But for you I'd go with the pill first to try it out. You may find that it does cut down on your bleeding and you may want to stay on it for that reason. You never know.