Posted on 05/24/2006 10:50:34 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
For young women with a world of choices, even that monthly curse, the menstrual period, is optional. Thanks to birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives, a growing number of women are taking the path chosen by 22-year-old Stephanie Sardinha.
She hasn't had a period since she was 17.
"It's really one of the best things I've ever done,'' she says.
A college student and retail worker in Lisbon Falls, Maine, Sardinha uses Nuvaring, a vaginal contraceptive ring. After the hormones run out in three weeks, she replaces the ring right away instead of following instructions to leave the ring out for a week to allow bleeding. She says it has been great for her marriage, preventing monthly crankiness and improving her sex life.
"I would never go back,'' said Sardinha, who got the idea from her aunt, a nurse practitioner.
Using the pill or other contraceptives to block periods is becoming more popular, particularly among young women and those entering menopause, doctors say.
"I have a ton of young girls in college who are doing this,'' says Dr. Mindy Wiser-Estin, a gynecologist in Little Silver, N.J., who did it herself for years. "There's no reason you need a period.''
Such medical jury-rigging soon will be unnecessary. Already, the Seasonale birth control pill limits periods to four a year. The first continuous-use birth control pill, Lybrel, likely will soon be on the U.S. market and drug companies are lining up other ways to limit or eliminate the period.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
When these women get cancer and die their family will sue the drug companies for their stupidity.
Stupid male question here...is that healthy? For the female that is??? 8->
Several young women have ALREADY died from the birth control patch. You can't fool mother nature. Those of us who had hysterectomies wish we could go back in time.
This poor misguided woman is not going to know the extent of her self-inflicted injuries until it is far too late.
Nope, if you read the fine print it is stored up for the time they stop taking the drug, then any slight misstep by a man will send her off in a six month long b$tchfest...
There are four freshmen girls on this pill? /ducking
Talk about taking big chances fooling around with our delicate mechanisms.
I don't think it's a dumb question. I don't think it's been studied well enough to know. It just seems like a bad idea to me.
There will be some unintended consequences for meddling in this cycle, of which sterility will probably be the major one. I'll bet it will be like a man taking testerone, where his gems shrink from lack of use. A woman who stops her menstrual cycle will sooner or later stop ovulating and then there will be hell to pay as the ambulance chasers step in and win megabucks lawsuits against the pharmacetical companies and doctors.
Man are women going to be pissed in 30 years when they find out what these hormones are doing to their body..
You're evil.
A nurse advised her to mis-use pharmaceuticals? The state board of licensing might be interested in that....
It's not nice to fool mother nature!
Not that I'm against anyone improving their sex life, but generally suppressing or altering the natural processes can have some unintended effects.
I don't think it's a dumb question either. Radically changing the way things work is just inviting trouble.
Even if we're wrong about that, wouldn't it be better for these women to have some science backing up the safety of induced amenohrea before trying it?
"Rocky Ground"
SD
the slippery slope of legalizing contraception.
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