I can understand your desire to delay or reduce the frequency of periods. And your method of skipping active pills has been used in the past, there is even a formulation on the market which is designed to help women have only four periods per year.

Unfortunately, as you have experienced, one common side effect of this method is breakthrough bleeding.

Returning to taking your birth control pills as directed will not put you at increased risk for pregnancy. But of course you will have monthly menstrual cycles again.

The good news is there are other methods that can reduce your bleeding frequency or the amount of bleeding. The iprogesterone-based intrauterine device (IUD) as well as depo provera injectable contraception have both been shown to induce either absence of periods or lighter flow. There are, however, side effects that you should discuss with your gynecologist before deciding on a birth control method.

I wish you the best.

Test Doctor