How To Delay Your Period in a Safe, Effective Way

Here's the rundown on which methods work—and which ones definitely don't.

You know the scene: You're planning a big event, like a wedding or long-awaited vacation, and you realize it will fall during your period. A thought then may go through your mind as a menstruating person: Wouldn't it be great to delay my period—just for a few days?

While it might sound more like fantasy than reality, there are a few ways to postpone your period a bit—but is that even a safe thing to do? Luckily, Health had some experts in reproductive medicine weigh in. Here's what you need to know about delaying your period and how to do it safely.

Latin woman using contraceptive pills while checking her menstrual calendar app on the smartphone

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Is It Safe To Delay Your Period?

Changing a person's menstrual cycle is widely understood to be safe. It's possible to delay your period and do it safely.

Benefits of Delaying Periods

Having delayed periods can be beneficial for managing health conditions like:

  • Dysmenorrhea, a condition where you have a painful period
  • Endometriosis
  • Heavy menstrual bleeding

Delaying periods may also be helpful for certain individuals, such as:

  • Adolescents
  • Athletes
  • Military personnel
  • People with cancer
  • People with developmental or physical disabilities
  • Transgender and gender-diverse individuals

What Are the Risks?

Avoiding periods do have some potential risks. The risks include:

  • Changes in baseline fertility
  • Estrogen-related complications, such as hypertension or cardiac events for individuals with heart disease
  • Progestin-related complications, like a decrease in bone mineral density (BMD)
  • The side effect of breakthrough bleeding, bleeding or spotting that happens between periods or during pregnancy

Which Types of Birth Control Can You Use?

Two hormones, estrogen and progesterone, control the menstrual cycle. When you use birth controlwith those hormones, they keep your uterine lining thin.

Possible hormonal birth control options that can help you delay your period include:

  • Birth control patches
  • Combination pills, also called "the pill"
  • Vaginal rings

However, keeping a healthcare provider in the loop is a great idea if you plan to try any of these methods. You want to ensure you have their go-ahead and make them aware of any changes in your body.

Birth Control Patches

The birth control patch could technically be used continuously. You would use a new patch weekly and skip the week without a patch to avoid your period.

Combination Pills

Taking a longer break from your period by using the pill is based on how you take your pills.

Skip the Placebo Pills

A pack of birth control pills typically includes 21 pills with hormones and seven placebo pills. During the placebo-pill week, bleeding occurs. To keep the bleeding from happening, you would start a new pack—this is considered continuous dosing.

Take Pills Consistently

Another key aspect is using birth control pills to delay your period. Make sure you're taking the medication consistently—at the same time every day. Doing so can help prevent spotting, breakthrough bleeding, or even pregnancy. Of course, that's essential when taking active pills from your pack.

Use Monophasic or Extended-Cycle Pills

Though the combination pill is the best birth control method if you want to skip or delay your period, the kind of pill matters. Monophasic birth control pills—which contain equal amounts of estrogen and progesterone—are the best option.

Multiphasic or triphasic pills are typically associated with more spotting since they contain varying amounts of estrogen and progesterone, depending on the week.

There's also a specific type of FDA-approved medication called extended-cycle pills. These pills allow you to take up to seven weeks' worth of combination pills before taking a week of placebo pills to have some bleeding.

"This can be ideal for [those] who have endometriosis, or painful and heavy periods that interrupt their quality of life," Alyse Kelly-Jones, MD, an OB-GYN in Charlotte, N.C., told Health. However, using extended-cycle pills can still result in unexpected breakthrough bleeding.

Vaginal Rings

One of those methods is the vaginal ring—aka NuvaRing or Annovera. This hormonal contraception method is FDA-approved for use through the same cycle as the pill.

Annovera has enough hormones to be left in for a full year without changing it. The NuvaRing, meanwhile, only has 28 days' worth of hormones before it has to be replaced with a new one.

Remember, though, that this is not the FDA-approved use for these methods.

Are There Any Birth Control Options to Avoid?

Hormonal contraception is largely the way to go if you want a method of birth control that can sometimes delay your period. One to avoid is the arm implant, which can cause irregular bleeding that may not improve with time.

How To Delay Your Period Naturally

You may have heard somewhere on the internet that a few natural or homemade methods can help you delay your period. However, this is not the way to go.

"If you search online, you'll likely read about natural ways to delay your period, like consuming gram lentils, gelatin, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, or even green bean water a few days to a week before your period," Jodie Horton, MD, an OB-GYN in Oakton, Va., and chief wellness advisor for Love Wellness, told Health.

They may seem promising. "However, none of these methods are scientifically proven to work because drinking or eating special foods does not alter the hormones involved in regulating your period. They can, however, affect your teeth, gums, mouth, throat, and gastrointestinal tract if taken in excessive amounts," added Dr. Horton.

Other suspected remedies like ibuprofen or naproxen sodium (typically known as Aleve) can help to relieve cramps and reduce your flow if you've already started your period, but they won't prevent it altogether.

A Quick Review

If you want to pause your period temporarily, you can do so safely and effectively using hormonal birth control methods. Period delays can be beneficial for people with endometriosis or painful periods.

However, some risks include possible problems with future fertility and breakthrough bleeding. If you have any concerns or are unsure about which method to use, talk to a healthcare provider to determine the best path for your situation.

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8 Sources
Health.com uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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  2. American Academy of Family Physicians. Birth control options.

  3. Kaunitz AM. Patient education: hormonal methods of birth control (beyond the basics). In UpToDate. UpToDate; 2022.

  4. Cooper DB, Patel P, Mahdy H. Oral contraceptive pills. In: StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2023.

  5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. NuvaRing.

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  7. MedlinePlus. Estrogen and progestin (vaginal ring contraceptives).

  8. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Annovera.

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