Taking Hormone Medicine to Lighten or Stop Periods: How to Care for Your Child

Health care providers can use hormone medicine to make someone's periods lighter, come less often, or not come at all. These medicines may also help with cramping, moodiness, headache, acne, and bloating. They come as a pill, patch, shot, vaginal ring, skin implant, or intrauterine device (IUD). Many (but not all) of these medicines also prevent pregnancy.

• Your child should use the medicines exactly as the health care provider directs.

• Keep the information that comes with the medicine so you can check it if you have any questions.

• For the first 3–6 months, your child should expect some spotting or bleeding. But overall, it should be less than the monthly or other bleeding they had before taking the medicine. They can use a pad or tampon as needed.

• Be sure to ask your health care provider if the medicines also act as birth control. Share this information with your child.

• If your child is sexually active (even if their medicine can be used for birth control), they should also use a condom to protect themselves from STDs (sexually transmitted diseases, also called STIs or sexually transmitted infections).

• Your child should not smoke. Smoking puts them at risk for serious side effects from certain hormone medicines and many other medical conditions. If your child needs help quitting, go to teen.smokefree.gov or call 800-QUIT-NOW (800-784-8669).

Your child:

• can't take the medicine as directed

• has spotting or bleeding, cramping, headaches, nausea, mood changes, or breast tenderness that lasts more than 6 weeks (These symptoms usually get better after someone has been on the hormone medicines for about 3–6 months, but it's still important to check in with your health care provider.)

• is gaining weight

• gets acne or had acne but it's gotten worse

• gets a yellow color to their skin or eyes (This can be a sign of liver problems — a very rare side effect of certain hormone medicines.)

Your child has lower leg pain, chest pain, trouble breathing, weakness, tingling, trouble speaking, or vision problems. These can be signs of a blood clot, which is an extremely rare side effect that can happen from certain hormone medicines.

Why would someone want to make periods lighter or not get them at all? Having lighter or no periods can help someone who has:

• very heavy or painful periods

• bleeding between periods

• severe PMS (premenstrual syndrome)

• trouble using pads and tampons because of physical or developmental challenges

• endometriosis (tissue that is like the lining of the uterus but grows outside of the uterus)

• anemia (low red blood cell counts)

Is it safe to stop periods? If a health care provider says that hormone medicines are safe for a person, it's OK for them to not have monthly bleeding. If the person stops taking hormone medicines, their periods will start again.

What problems can happen from taking hormone medicines? Most people don't have any problems taking hormone medicines. If side effects do happen, they are usually mild and can include headaches, bloating, moodiness, or breast tenderness. Hormone medicines don't lead to infertility (trouble getting pregnant) or cause cancer. Very rarely, more serious problems can happen.