I think the week of sugar pills had something to do, actually, with the Pope of the time... but I can't remember the history behind that decision.

It's been suggested to me that I could skip all my periods, but frankly I had such horrible experiences on birth control when I was younger that I never want to touch the stuff again. Not only that, I'm not keen to mess with my hormones at age 38 when I'd like to reserve the chance of someday being able to get pregnant. Not to mention that, as a migraine sufferer, I shouldn't be on hormonal birth control in the first place.

In my situation, even after the hemophilia alleles were found, my doctors' responses are yet another frustrating remind of how commonly "hormones" are still pointed to as the knee-jerk (and suboptimal) solution — even when the problem is not hormonal.