Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Menstruation is Allah’s decree for women. Hence, a Muslim woman is not advised to interfere with her menstrual cycle by any medical means. Though it may be permissible according to some jurists, no one exactly knows what the side effects that may result in interfering with menstruation will lead to.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
It is not advisable for you to interfere with your menstrual cycles with medications. We never know about the adverse effects of such medications. Menses is a part of Allah’s decree for women; as such, it is not good to interfere with it.
Therefore, my humble opinion is that you let your natural course continue. Take a break from fasting while you are menstruating, and make up for the fasts you have missed after Ramadan.
Having said this, let me also point out that: there are some scholars who permit women to take pills to postpone or delay menses.
May Allah inspire us to act wisely while respecting God’s natural order of things.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.