Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu
Side Bar

Delaying period for vacation

9 October, 2019
Question:

Wanted to ask how I can delay my period or lengthen my cycle. I am 45 years old, not on any pills, my period is around 24–25 days. I am going on 2 weeks vacation in August. And my mikvah would be a week before the vacation starts and the next period starts in the middle of the vacation. I would love to move the mikvah day closer to the vacation start day. Is there a medication you can recommend? Can it cause staining?


Answer:

Please speak to your doctor about taking progesterone (Norethindrone, also called Norethisterone) to delay your period.

The usual dose to delay periods with Norethindrone is 5mg (sold as the brand name Aygestin in North America or Primolut Nor in Israel) 2-3 times day, starting 3-5 days before you expect your period and continued for as long as needed to delay menstruation. Prolonged continuous use may cause staining, so it is best used for no more than two to three weeks at a time.

You do not have to observe your usual onot while taking the progesterone, since the medication is working to delay your period. You should treat days 2-4 after stopping the progesterone as an extended onah, during which you should abstain from relations. If you haven’t begun bleeding by the end of the extended onah, you should perform a bedikah then.

You can refer your physician to this article about using Norethindrone to delay menstruation:

Dean et al. Norethindrone is superior to combined oral contraceptive pills in short-term delay of menses and onset of breakthrough bleeding: a randomized trial. BMC Women’s Health volume 19, Article number: 70 (2019).

Please feel free to get back to us with any further questions.

B’hatzlacha!

This internet service does not preclude, override or replace the psak of any rabbinical authority. It is the responsibility of the questioner to inform us of any previous consultation or ruling. As even slight variation in circumstances may have Halachic consequences, views expressed concerning one case may not be applied to other, seemingly similar cases. All health and health-related information contained within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with your health care professional. The advice is intended to offer a basis for individuals to discuss their medical condition with their health care provider but not individual advice. Although every effort is made to ensure that the material within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the Web site user but should not be considered official. Advice for actual medical practice should be obtained from a licensed health care professional. For further questions or comments:  The Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Site is a public service of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. This project and others like it are made possible by contributions from people like you. If you have benefited from the service, and wish to enable us to help others, click here to donate.
Users of Internet filtering services: This site discusses sensitive subjects that some services filter without visual indication. A page that appears 100% complete might actually be missing critical Jewish-law or medical information. To ensure that you view the pages accurately, ask the filtering service to whitelist all pages under yoatzot.org.

Accessibility Toolbar