Get newsletters, cool content and more. As long as you've started your period there's no minimum age. You don't even have to be sexually active to go on the pill.
Many women get prescriptions to help with tough periods or unmanageable acne.
Ask your doctor if this sounds like a good option for you. Basically, the pill tricks your body into thinking it's already pregnant, so you stop ovulating and your body produces a thicker cervical mucous which acts as a kind of plug at the cervix. The pill needs to be taken every day and at as close to the same time every day because each of those little pills has a dose that lasts 24 hours. There are over 35 different kinds of combined oral contraception all with different levels of the synthetic hormones estrogen and progestin, which are designed to mimic the hormones that our bodies already make. There are also oral contraception called mini-pills which do not contain estrogen.