The End of the Period

[FVZA_Colonel]

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/health/article.jsp?content=20051213_117621_117621

The end of the period

A new contraceptive will soon let women stop menstruating. Is it the pinnacle of liberation, or a reckless experiment?

LIANNE GEORGE

For the average woman, life holds not two but three certainties: death, taxes and 35 years of monthly hormonal mayhem. Periods can be wretched. But from a young age, girls are comforted with the promise that the bleeding, cramping and radical mood swings are all part of the special alchemy of womanhood. Menstruation is -- to use the mother of all feminine-hygiene euphemisms -- a precious gift. Which is why the introduction of a new product that invites women to opt out of the whole ordeal is something of a cultural upheaval. Health experts are predicting that by this time next year, menstruation will no longer be an inevitable function but rather an optional feature, a bit like power steering or pay-per-view.

In 2006, a new oral contraceptive called Anya, developed to "put women in control of when or if they want to menstruate," is expected to hit the Canadian and U.S. markets. Manufactured by Collegeville, Penn.-based Wyeth Pharmaceuticals -- and currently pending approval by Health Canada -- Anya is the first low-dose birth control pill designed to be taken 365 days a year, without placebos (the hormone-free sugar pills taken at the end of every 28-day cycle). Early findings report that Anya is just as effective in preventing pregnancy as traditional oral contraceptives (98 per cent). And as an added bonus, since Anya provides a steady stream of hormones, it promises to quash a woman's usual cyclical fluctuations, virtually wiping out all the irksome symptoms of PMS.

The elimination of periods -- politely called menstrual suppression -- is an objective the pharmaceutical industry has been chasing for several years. In the fall of 2003, Barr Laboratories of Pomona, N.Y., introduced Seasonale in the U.S., the first extended-cycle contraceptive pill, with the slogan "Fewer periods. More possibilities." Unlike traditional oral contraceptives, which a woman takes for 21 days, followed by seven days of placebo pills, Seasonale is taken for 84 consecutive days, followed by seven days of placebos, which gives her four periods a year instead of the usual 13. Despite widely reported side effects, including irregular bleeding, Seasonale -- still pending approval in Canada -- has quickly emerged as a popular option in the U.S. Last year alone, Barr recorded Seasonale sales of US$87 million. Anya takes this concept and raises it to the next level.

So, for any woman who ever found herself staring down a Tampax vending machine without a quarter, the advent of a drug like Anya would seem an occasion for rejoicing. It will mean all sorts of choices for the next generation of adolescent girls. It will mean being able to customize their cycles to suit their lives. (Maybe she's an athlete who doesn't want to bleed during swim meets. Or maybe she just likes to wear white cotton capris.) It will mean no more tampons, panty liners or maxi pads with wings. No more Midol or hot water bottles. No more feeling not-quite-fresh -- even after a shower.

[Mind_your_head]

1. Why do I read the author's name as "Lyin' George"

I dunno....sounds pretty unnatural. I wouldn't use it. I wouldn't advise my daughters to use it either.

[OKNancy]

2. Athletes and dancers have been doing it for years

using the regular birth control pills. I did, loved it, had no ill effects at all.

Lots of things "aren't natural" Like Novocaine for a root-canal. Hooray for the un-natural and for the advancement of science.

[Conservativesux]

4. So is the "Pill". Thats all the world needs; millions of more people

If we had fewer people we wouldnt be is such a mess right now.

[Mind_your_head]

7. I'm not against 'conventional' birth control pills...don't twist it

With conventional birth control pills, a woman still menstrates regularly. As a matter of fact, birth control pills are often used to get early post-pubescent girls 'on a proper rhythm'.

As for the poster above, who suggests that dancers and athletes have been 'doing this for years'....ehm, menstrual cessation in highly active athletes is a NATURAL CONSEQUENCE of reducing their body fat to sub-standard levels. The body's natural response to something akin to starvation. It happens, but it's not at all 'healthy' or 'normal'.

[politicat]

6. Have done it, no ill effects.

Off label use of the mini-pill has been around for a very long time.

I used it for a couple years - and I was far more emotionally stable and functional. No PMS, no ups, no downs, no swings. No ovulatory fog - and no hundreds of used pads and tampons contributed to the landfills.

I went off the pill when my husband got snipped, but for this, I'd go back.

Electricity, the internet and telephones are unnatural. Condoms are unnatural. Heart surgery is unnatural. Birth control of any sort is unnatural!

Praise be for Unnatural!!!

[LeftyMom]

3. Depo Provera causes women to go without periods too

Of course, I was a freakin basket case and very ill the whole time I was on it and my best friend's ovaries never regained thier function after she stopped using it, so maybe menstrual supression isn't such a good idea. :shrug:

[Dave Reynolds]

5. My first wife did that with regular birth control pills,

she never had a period and actually lactated.

[Missy Vixen]

8. Okay, here's the contrarian view

>Health experts are predicting that by this time next year, menstruation will no longer be an inevitable function but rather an optional feature, a bit like power steering or pay-per-view.<

According to doctors at the University of Washington (where the study took place,) menstruation actually removes toxins from the body as well. Surprisingly enough, this is further down in the above article.

>In 1993, Margie Profet, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington, published a groundbreaking thesis asserting that, aside from its obvious function, menstruation serves to protect women against STDs and infertility by flushing out the reproductive system, ridding it of pathogens, bacteria and other sperm-borne toxins.<

I'm not sure I'd want indefinite suppression, even at my advanced age. I am worried about the effects on any woman's body of more pharmaceutically created hormone soup in the bloodstream.

IMHO, IMHO, IMHO.
Julie

[annabanana]

9. gotta go with you Julie..

The long term effects are a crap shoot.. And it hasn't been around long enough to trace effects through a generation or two... It may be just fine, but I'll tell you it creeps me out.