GO RIGHT AHEAD!

These FIVE MEDICAL DECISIONS may sound iffy, but rest assured that research and experts confirm them as safe to make. What's more, each one could SAVE YOU TIME, MONEY, OR STRESS.

- MERYL DAVIDS LANDAU

Between our social media feeds, chatter from friends and family, and the 24-hour news cycle, we're inundated with info. Sometimes that's helpful, but when it comes to our health, it can make it hard to know what's truly OK. Here, we ferreted out five health care steps you may be hesitant to take that research shows are in fact perfectly safe.

IT'S SAFE TO... SUPPRESS YOUR PERIOD LONG-TERM

Whether you are disabled, are deployed in the military, are a transgender man, or just don't want the hassle of a monthly period, you can suppress your cycle with continuous hormones. Some people say this isn't natural or fear that it could affect future fertility or cancer risk, but a careful review of the evidence found nothing to bear out these concerns. Tamping down periods is fine even for a span of years, concluded a detailed report last year from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

When companies initially introduced the birth control pill in the 1960s, they added the placebo week for bleeding only to mimic a "natural cycle, thus making it more acceptable, says Oluyemisi Adeyemi-Fowode, M.D., a fellowship-trained pediatric gynecologist in Sugar Land, TX, and a coauthor of the ACOG guidance-but having the red stuff flow was never necessary, she says. Depending on your situation, periods can be suppressed with continuous birth control pills, an estrogen patch, a hormonal IUD, or a contraceptive injection. Some methods produce more breakthrough bleeding, and some have side effects (Depo-Provera, for instance, can impact bone density). If you want to take a period pause, talk to your doctor about which method is best for you.

IT'S SAFE TO... BUY A HEARING AID WITHOUT AN EAR DOC