Delay Your Menstruation Period

Some female may wish to delay their menses cycle due to various reasons, such as wedding, holiday trip, taking exam etc. This can be easily achieved.

For female who are NOT taking oral contraceptive pills, you can take a pill called "norethisterone" which is a progesterone hormone. It is taken 3 days before the expected first day of the next menstrual cycle. The dose is 5mg three times a day. Just stop the hormone when you want the menses flow to start. Usually the menses will start 2-3 days after stop taking norethisterone. Side effects are not common, as it is only taken short term. Some known side effects include stomach upset and breast changes. If your menses cycle is irregular and you are not sure when will be the start of next cycle, then it's a problem. In this case you may want to start norethisterone many days earlier before the day of your trip. Don't take norethisterone continuously for more than 2 weeks.

          Example of Norethisterone. Not expensive.

For female who are taking oral contraceptive pills (OCP), you have to continue to take the pills with hormone in order to delay the menses. In a typical OCP, the first 21 pills are with hormone while the last 7 pills are "empty" without hormone. Normally when you take the pills without hormone, menses flow will start. If the period of time you don't want your menses to come falls between Day 1 to Day 21 of the pills, then just continue the OCP as usual. However, if it falls after Day 21, then after the Day 21 pill, you have to start a new strip of OCP from Day 1, without taking the "empty" Day 21-28 pills. When you want your menses flow back at anytime, just take the "empty" pills for 7 days.

     Example of OCP: Note the 7 empty pills in white