Is regulating your menstrual cycle a good reason for birth control?

[Florida_mom]

And there can be instances where that is precisely what is needed: taking over the management of the system so that the normal system is relieved and can recover.

It is disturbing when it is flatly asserted that there can be no medical or biological use for these medications. That is flat out false (I am not a physician, but I am a life scientist), and I know of no doctrine of the Church that says a woman is to be denied needed treatment, not an authoritative doctrine in the area of biology and physiology.

Of course opting for such a treatment is a serious matter, from both a medical/physiological and moral point of view, because of the contraceptive side effects. And it is important that we are dealing with a side effect here, not just a cover story. A judicious application of St. Thomas Aquinas’s methods concerning actions with double effect seems to be indicated here, with due regard for the particulars of the case.

Blessings,

Gerry

While true, often there are other alternatives that do not involve a hormone contraceptive.

There is a book called Taking Charge of your Own fertility that is wonderful.

Also often there are dietary changes that can be made to ease the pain of menstration.

But I find too often that women BELIEVE they need to control an irregular cycle. There is a widespread range of what a cycle can be before it is considered truly regular.

There is a wide range (3-7 days) of how long menstration can last at varying flows before it is considered regular.

As with antibiotics and pain meds, sometimes physicians are too quick to cover up symptoms than to solve the reason for them.

I am in the school of thought to take care of the reason for an issue before considering medication for it.

I would never expect a woman to go through horrendous pain tantamount to labor just for the sake of menstuation.

But to answer the initial question–it is all in the definition of what is medically going on and while medical advice cannot be provided, it would be difficult to provide doctrine advice without sounding like the church expects a woman to suffer relentlessly each month.

Irregular can have a whole host of meanings. For many–that meaning is inconvenience.

I am not suggesting the OP is saying this. But it does occur. I went on BCP temporarily for irregularity before realizing how stupid it was (and not to mention that it went against the faith–I was unintentionally ignorant as a new Catholic.) I also did not like the side effects anyway. But my 30-35 cycles are actually normal.

 

[SMHW]

This is what the OBGYN suggested for my wife. I am wondering is this even a good reason for the birth control or if there is something else we could look at.

First of all, there is never a reason for artificial birth control.

Now there may, in some circumstances, be a good reason to give medications that have the unintended side effects of preventing pregnancy and failing to sustain pregnancy. Hormonal treatments commonly used for artificial birth control would fall in this category.

As you’ve already read, there are options to investigate.

 

[brigid12]

From what I’ve learned, taking the birth control is ok for medicinal therapy only; and a woman doing so would need to abstain from intimacy for the time she needs to take it (otherwise, with all current BC pills, a woman would be not only using BC against His Will but would very probably be killing babies that were conceived due to the primary way of avoiding pregnancy not working ).

 

[Arwen037]

The pill can regulate your menstrual cycle. Basically the body gets use to being on a specific cycle and syncs up to it. But is is my understanding you can take the pill for medical reasons, so it depends on why she is taking it. I have to be on it because otherwise I pass out and throw up during my period, and that makes attending class almost impossible. But sometimes it seems like doctors think all women should be on the pill.

 

[forever_always]

This is what the OBGYN suggested for my wife. I am wondering is this even a good reason for the birth control or if there is something else we could look at.

I havent read this thread, but I wanted to offer some advice (sorry if someone already mentioned this!)

I would look at something else! If she is irregular, there may be a more serious underlying factor… or maybe she is just REGULAR in her IRREGULARITY! By all of the “averages” I am irregular, but after tracking my temps and such, I was able to see that I was regular, but that my cycles were just longer than normal. Each woman is different. It seems rare to me to find a woman that follows all of the textbook answers…

Birthcontrol is often an abortifactant. Furthermore, when you want to have children (if you plan on it) you won’t know your wife’s cycle and conception will be nearly impossible for a while. Birth control gives you a “fake” cycle…

Just my two cents anyway… I have considered birth control for a while because of my irregularities… but I would urge you to give it time and to chart temps. =]

 

[LighthouseRon]

From what I’ve learned, taking the birth control is ok for medicinal therapy only; and a woman doing so would need to abstain from intimacy for the time she needs to take it (otherwise, with all current BC pills, a woman would be not only using BC against His Will but would very probably be killing babies that were conceived due to the primary way of avoiding pregnancy not working ).

I don’t know where this information comes from but it isn’t true. When taking BCP for medical purposes it is not required that the married couple abstains from relations. If both the husband and wife within the marriage decide to abstain I would think that’s fine but it is NOT a requirement to abstain if the reasons for taking BCP is for bona fide medical reasons such as cycle regulation or similar. Taking BCP for the prevention of pregnancy is a totally different issue however.