Most women experience an irregular period at least once in their life. For the majority it is a common occurrence that happens due to stress, weight loss, fatigue and other difficult situations that cause irregular periods but many different types of birth control such as oral medication can also affect the irregularity of a period.
Women who use estrogen-containing birth control pills are at a 3- to 6-fold increased risk of developing blood clots. Blood clots may lead to deep vein thrombosis, heart attack, or stroke.
Overweight women are prone to irregular menstrual bleeding and BCPs straighten that out. It is true that BCPs, like most drugs, come with side effects. I remember a 30 year old woman who had a stroke while taking BCPs. She smoked too as I recall which further increases the risk. Then there’s the psychological side effects which can be quite miserable for the woman (and anyone else that happens to be around her). It is my opinion that if a doctor prescribes BCPs for legitimate medical reasons, it should be treated like any other medicine. I also think a study should be done to see if taking BCPs for actual birth control puts a woman at risk for contracting and then spreading STDs like HIV, Herpes, etc. I would bet money that any serious unbiased research would show that BCPs are, in fact, responsible for an increased incidence of STD transmission (especially in younger populations) due to the perceived lack of need for a condom. If that is the case, and I believe it is, BCPs should be treated more like cigarettes than medicine (when used for birth control at least). It’s a complicated issue but my bottom line argument is that, with regard to billing, it should be treated like a medicine if it’s being used as a medicine and we should make that distinction before we start calling women sluts.