Manipulating hormonal cycle?
Tl;dr: Has anyone using hormonal birth control tried to shape their cycle by taking fewer placebo pills, and having a longer time in between them?
Sorry for weird phrasings or typos, writing this during an attack.
Hormonal fluctuations are a huge trigger for my migraines. I have auras, so I use gestagen-only pills, currently Slinda. This brand has 4 placebo pills, intended to reduce breakthrough bleeding during other parts of the cycle. They are the last 4 pills of a 28-day pill board. Other than this, the pills are identical.
I'm currently on the end of my first month of them, and figured I'd skip the placebo pills to try and maintain a more continuous hormonal level, but I seem to get a hormone dip right about now anyway, 28 days into it. At least according to my migraine attacks. Previously I was on a IUD (Mirena) and had 21-23 day cycles, so I guess this is better, but I'd still like to see if I can improve anything.
I'm considering taking just one day of placebo pills, to encourage the body to keep the hormonal dip to a shorter period of time, and maybe also see if I can shape my cycle by taking the pill only at day 28, or maybe even later. Does anyone have any experience with testing this out?