Living well with contraception

When using contraception keeping a diary of your mood, general health and any bleeding can help if you have any complications or want to change the type of contraception you use. For example, hormonal contraception can impact your mood, so if you experience a consistently low mood after starting, there could be a link.

Eating healthily and getting some form of physical activity five times a week can improve your general health. This can help ensure your contraception works effectively by supporting consistency and preventing certain health issues.

Menopause and hormonal contraception

You cannot know for sure you’ve reached menopause if you’re using hormonal contraception [link to hormonal contraception section]. This is because hormonal contraception can affect your periods.

  • Using the combined pill with regular breaks usually schedules a withdrawal bleed; this is not your natural period.

  • Continuous use of the combined pill can hide menopausal symptoms, like hot flushes and night sweats, and you may have minimal or no bleeding.

  • The progestogen-only pill, IUS, contraceptive implant or contraceptive injection can make your bleeds irregular or stop completely.

When should I stop taking contraception during menopause?

Generally, you can stop contraception either:

  • one year after your last period if you’re over 50 years old,

  • two years after your last period if you’re under 50 years old, or

  • when you reach 55 years of age.

Some people using progestogen-only contraception have no periods, so it can be hard to know if you’ve started the menopause or not. You can continue to use contraception until 55 years old.

If you want to stop contraception before this, talk to your doctor about a blood test to see if you have reached menopause.

Sex workers

The Dorset Working Women’s Project (DWWP) provides free, non-judgemental sexual health services to sex workers in Bournemouth. The project offers a range of support to help people working in the sex industry including:

  • information on safer sex, contraception and sexual health testing

  • promotion of positive sexual health choices

  • transport to the sexual health service for sexual health check-ups, treatment and emotional support.