December 23, 2005

The end of the period. A new contraceptive will soon let women stop menstruating.

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. What do the fellow lady monkeys think of this? I personally would love to no longer have to deal with the monthly pain and burden from "the curse"! The article also raises concerns about the elimination of periods. On the one hand, advocates say, it's all about providing women with choices and giving them control. We've already been manipulating Mother Nature for decades, so why stop now? But detractors say menstrual suppression is a reckless and profit-driven enterprise -- or, as one women's health expert calls it, "the largest uncontrolled experiment in the history of medical science, hands down." Even the "fake period" of those on the birth control pill serves a purpose by mimicking the body's natural cycle, says Rako. "Menstrual bleeding is the only way a woman's body can rid itself of excess stored iron, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes," she says. "The fact that women have regular bleeding is one of the factors that likely contributes to their having lower incidence of heart attack and strokes than do men before women are menopausal."

posted by art vandal 18 years ago
  • ?? My wife has been using contraception that does that for many years. How's this new?
  • Here's the link to the Museum of Menstruation mentioned in the article. Not an extremely well-put-together site, but some neat content. My GYN told me that the placebo week was because the elevated hormone levels during the other three weeks led to a higher cancer risk. Of course, it's all moot now since the hysterectomy. Set an empty place for me in the menstrual hut!
  • Hunny, in hell I have to read this post everyday. /shudders
  • Ah, but will art suffer? Menstrual Art
  • I've considered "stopping" my period before. You can do it apparently by just skipping the placebo pills in your pack. But I decided that I like having my period as it is proof that I'M NOT PREGNANT. I enjoy knowing that I'm not pregnant. If I didn't have a period at all, I'd be constantly worried. No thanks! (And yes, yes, I realize that you can be pregnant and still get your period in the beginning, but that is a pretty remote chance.)
  • kittenhead has bopped the kitten right on the head. I too like having my period every month as a notice that I am keeping my raging reproductive system under control. however, I also have a healthy, regular and relatively painless monthly experience. that said, I am all in favor of the technology being available. I am rabidly pro-choice, which to me means just that, all possible (healthy) choices should be made available so individual women can make their best decision on reproductive health. btw, I consider the birth control pill to be THE best invention of the 20th century!!!
  • Agreed, medusa! That, and the immersion blender. I heart my new immersion blender.
  • "Menstrual bleeding is the only way a woman's body can rid itself of excess stored iron, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes," I thought this had been debunked and that it's the presence of estrogen itself which explains the lower rate of cv disease in pre-menopausal women (and the rate rising to roughly the same as men after menopause). Anyone have any info on that? I do know that the claim that men who donate blood regularly (as a kind of poor-man's menstruation) have a lower rate has recently been refuted.
  • The argument for cessation of periods is couched in feminist notions of choice and control, says Prior, but you can't truly have either when you don't have all of the information, the regulatory bodies aren't demanding it, and the pharmaceutical industry stands to make billions by pushing the drug through. Like there isn't an enormous feminine protection industry on the other side about to lose billions if they do. "The menstrual cycle is really the one thing that all women have in common," says Joan Chrisler, a social psychologist at Connecticut College in New London, Conn., who specializes in women's relationships with their bodies, "and I'd feel very sad if we took this away. We'd no longer have this connection to nature and to each other any more." Gee whiz. And all this time I thought it was having a twat. This kind of fatuous fembabble makes me want to beat baby seals with a bible. Been suppressing mine for years, and wouldn't change a thing.
  • *cowers in fear as feminist friends tear eac hother apart* *wonders if this is what will happen in the thread* Either that, or abusing quidnuc's corpse...
  • the pharmaceutical industry stands to make billions by pushing the drug through And stands, as an industry, to lose billions in painkiller and other drug sales if this drug becomes widely used.
  • Menstruation: outright evidence of Unintelligent Design.
  • Yes, an experiment. From what I know about menstruation from acquiantances, all women maybe be equal due to it, but not all respond and experience it in the same way. I know women that suffer very mild inconveniences, a few others that basically have to dissapear for a couple days to cope with it. Coming up with an 'all-in-one wonder product' that will surely be marketed to young people with the glowing promises of no more missed swimming classes and no more ruined white pants is dangerous, at best. /chalk another one on the 'things for males to feel guilty about'
  • "The menstrual cycle is really the one thing that all women have in common," So menopause = no longer a woman? chalk another one on the 'things for males to feel guilty about' Because?
  • As in, 'All I have to worry about is my prostate while my partner, well...', self-deprecating-mode.
  • dear god no - thats not a good idea. that week when she's menstrual is the only break i get from her constant demands to mate. a man needs a break, i am not a machine!
  • Mr. Patterson, Sir, I hate you so much right now I am most literally frothing at the mouth. So much hate.
  • I think mrpattersonsir may have been indulging in a little pulling of the leg-type variety, although, obviously, I cannot be sure. mrpattersonsir, please flash your credentials at reception so we can run your vital stats (and any future attemps at humour, expressions of exhaustion, etcetry) through this machine with the blinking red and green lights on it. Christmassy, no? Thank you for your compliance, and please remember to remove your hat. It blocks the scanners.
  • Further pudendum to the above; I can spell "attempts" when sober, but were I not drunk this comment would never have been birthed upon an unsuspecting world. That is all!
  • I wouldn't miss 'em a bit. "Connection to nature" my ass. They're just annoying.
  • Vampires will not be happy.
  • I wish there were a way to accomplish this that wasn't reliant upon chemicals and horomones. *sigh*
  • So women who have had hysterectomies are no longer part of the "sisterhood of humanity" and forever unlinked from their fellow women? Speaking as someone who doesn't plan to have kids and who suffers from anemia, I'd be more than happy to say sayonara to the whole thing. I'd want to see more research, though. As the article mentioned, for years everyone said how safe and great HRT was, and now we know differently.
  • Pfft. Girls. Ewww! Hey Heeyyy! Ju-huh-st kiddin' ladies! Who loves ya?! Hah! Hey what's with the boards and the rocks and the gnashing of the teeth with the biting and the hair pulling, mw'hOYvenGlaven?!?
  • yep, there was definately some leg pulling going on there. nice to see it got an instant reaction.
  • And if you're not going to need those pesky feminine hygeine products anymore, why not use them to make some last-minute Christmas Tree Ornaments?
  • Son . . you got a pantie on your head . . .
  • I think he's part of the club.
  • heehee he said pantie... well I realize that mr patterson was kidding, but I have to warn you men that menstuation does not stop fornication, there are already "feminine protection" devices that enable mess-free boiking during the ol' dot. I am always horny during my period.
  • Secret Number 1 in Escortlandia. Though no escort will ever say she does this, and clients will say maybe other escorts do, but nobody he was ever with did it, because he'd be able to tell, there are not many willing to prop a male ego to the tune of 25% lost wages yearly.
  • Women on pills have been fooled for years into thinking they ARE having periods. When you take the sugar pills, you aren't having a normal period. You're having what is referred to as a "withdrawal bleed." Rather than your body thinking "oh, no fertilized egg this month, let's have at it again," it's your body thinking "Oh, hurray, these hormones mean I'm pregnant -- oh shit, I've miscarried." Essentially, monthly withdrawal bleeds mean your body thinks you're miscarrying EVERY SINGLE MONTH. Because most of our ancestors were having lots of babies and breastfeeding longer, the idea of having monthly periods except for a year or so worth of time to have kids would be strange to them. Our bodies are "naturally" supposed to have a lot fewer periods than a birth control pill would allow for today, including Seasonale.
  • Looks like a job for THE UNDERPANTS MONSTER!!
  • I hadn't thought of that, musingmelpomene! I had always been told that our periods were both necessary for good health and proof that we were in pretty good health, but what you said makes sense. I do worry about ending periods chemically, but I'm on the pill anyway so I have no room to talk about chemicals. I also get horny (and demanding) during periods. It's part of the fun!
  • As long as we're having brutally honest girl talk time: I took Depo Provera for a year. Loved not having to deal with periods. Hated the increased anxiety and complete and total lack of libido. (It's as if all the chips got taken off the libido pile, and stacked onto the anxiety pile.) Also, not to completely derail the thread, but am I the only one who has amortized out the cost of the birth control over N instances of sex (on average) - ran a quick mental cost/benefit analysis, as it were? And then thought, "Damn, that was SO not worth three bucks"?
  • The Spongeworthiness factor? Ouch.
  • I, as a male, would like to vote "Yes" for periods. Not for the period, but for the fertile time in between when the playground is slippery and the playmate is HOT.
  • I never thought of doing a cost/benefit analysis. I think it would be too depressing (using the factor of quantity, not quality -- I've always been lucky in the latter regard).
  • I don't think that is the appropriate angle for a real cost/benefit analysis: there are pertinent factors that are difficult to quantify but that really lie at the heart of the matter. during any given sex act one may expend X amount of energy/cost etc., in return for Y amount of pleasure, and yes, X!=Y, and many times X
  • thank mothra!
  • during any given sex act one may expend X amount of energy/cost etc., in return for Y amount of pleasure, and yes, X!=Y, and many times X I think you mean 'and many times X (energy / cost) > Y (pleasure), which sucks', right? Unless you're using an alternate meaning for the word 'sucks' and then... Never mind.
  • Check out the documentary Tehora if you get the chance. It's on this month's Sundance channel schedule.