12 maybe? Ugh, cramps, and doctors saying "just go take a hot bath" when I was living in a boarding house with no bath, and need to work and such.

A couple years ago I went on the pill for continuous use, and I wish I'd done it years ago (or more!). No cramps, no pms, no wasting 10% of my life or more feeling semi-crappy! I travel wherever, do whatever, and just don't have to plan to feel semi-crappy. It's the best!

Some folks have asked questions about the continous use issue, so I'll share a web-site if that's okay. It's a blog by an ob/gyn, and the right hand side has lots of links to birth control and continous use information. http://thewelltimedperiod.blogspot.com/

From what I've read, the bleeding while you're "on" the pill but in the off week is actually a reaction to estrogen withdrawal, and not at all like a regular period. On the pill, there's no build up of uterine lining to support a potential pregnancy, so there's no need to shed any lining.

Back in the 50s, the pill was invented for women with painful periods, and then everyone figured out, hey, no ovulation=no pregnancy, and suddenly everyone was using it. But the folks who'd invented it thought that women would be a lot more comfortable with the whole thing if they had a fake period, so they did the formulations with a built in week off from estrogen.

But there's no NEED to have a fake bleed.

If you find a pill formulation that works well for you, you can probably work with your doctor to do continuous use if you want; low dose formulations work great, but it's a matter of finding the right one for an individual woman.