Posted on 05/21/2006 7:16:33 PM PDT by lauriehelds
TRENTON, N.J. - 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.
Most doctors say they don't think suppressing menstruation is riskier than regular long-term birth control use, and one survey found a majority have prescribed contraception to prevent periods. Women have been using the pill for nearly half a century without significant problems, but some doctors want more research on long-term use.
The new methods should be popular. A non-scientific Web survey for the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals found at least two-thirds of respondents are bothered by fatigue, heavy bleeding, "really bad cramps" and even anger. Nearly half said they would like to have no period at all or decide when to have one.
For some women, periods can cause debilitating pain and more serious problems.
Two recent national surveys found about 1 in 5 women have used oral contraceptives to stop or skip their period.
"If you're choosing contraception, then there's not a lot of point to having periods," says Dr. Leslie Miller, a University of Washington-Seattle researcher and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology whose Web site, noperiod.com, explains the option. She points out women on hormonal contraception don't have real periods anyway, just withdrawal bleeding during the break from the hormone progestin.
According to Miller, modern women endure up to nine times more periods than their great-grandmothers, who began menstruating later, married young and naturally suppressed periods for years while they were pregnant or breast-feeding. Today's women may have about 450 periods.
Still, surveys also show most women consider monthly periods normal. Small wonder: Girls learn early on that menstruation is a sign of fertility and femininity, making its onset an eagerly awaited rite of passage.
The period is "way over-romanticized," says Linda Gordon, a New York University professor specializing in women's history and the history of sexuality.
"It doesn't take long for women to go from being excited about having a period to feeling it's a pain in the neck," said Gordon, author of "The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America."
She says caution is needed because there's not enough data on long-term consequences of using hormones continuously. Gordon notes menopausal women for years were told that hormone drugs would keep them young — until research uncovered unexpected risks.
"People should proceed very cautiously," she says.
Today's birth control pills contain far less estrogen and progestin than those two generations ago, but still increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and blood clots. The pill should not be used by women who have had those conditions, unexplained vaginal bleeding or certain cancers, or if they are smokers over 35.
But there are benefits from taking oral contraceptives too, such as a lower risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer, osteoporosis and pelvic inflammatory disease. And forgoing periods means no premenstrual syndrome and a lower risk of anemia and migraines, says Dr. Sheldon Segal, co-author of "Is Menstruation Obsolete?" Segal has been involved in research for several contraceptives.
Almost since the first pill arrived in 1960, women have manipulated birth control to skip periods for events such as a wedding, vacation or sports competition. Female doctors and nurses were among the first to block menstruation long-term to suit their schedules, said Susan Wysocki, head of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health.
"They were then more comfortable recommending it to their patients," said Wysocki, who uses a vaginal ring to prevent menstruation.
The idea gained momentum after Barr Pharmaceuticals launched Seasonale in November 2003. It's a standard birth control pill taken for 12 weeks, with a break for withdrawal bleeding every three months. Amid wide acceptance by doctors, sales shot up 62 percent last year, to $110 million.
Publicity for Seasonale made women wonder, if just four periods a year are OK, why have any at all?
Users of Pfizer Inc.'s Depo-Provera, a progestin-only contraceptive shot lasting three months, usually are period-free after a year or two. There's now a generic version, but the drug can thin bones.
And many women have been getting extra prescriptions so they could continuously stay on birth control pills, the Ortho Evra patch or the vaginal ring, rather than bleeding every fourth week. That schedule was set by the original birth control designers to mimic normal menstrual cycles. But the extra prescriptions have led to insurance company hassles.
"What Seasonale did is get rid of that nuisance," says Dr. Peter McGovern of University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
New extended-cycle contraceptives will do the same. Wyeth is hoping by late June to get Food and Drug Administration approval to sell Lybrel, its low-dose, continuous birth control pill; approval also is pending in Canada and Europe.
Also in June, FDA should decide whether to approve Implanon, a single-rod, three-year contraceptive implanted in the upper arm that maker Organon USA has been selling it in Europe for a decade.
Berlex Inc. is developing its own birth control pill for menstrual suppression.
Barr, aiming to be a leader in extended contraception, last November bought the maker of ParaGard, an intrauterine device that blocks periods in some women. Barr's new product Seasonique, a successor to Seasonale, likely will get federal approval at week's end.
Dr. Patricia Sulak, who researches extended contraception at Texas A&M College of Medicine, applauds this new trend. The doses in standard pills are now so low, she said, that having seven days off them raises the risk of pregnancy.
"This redesign is way overdue," she says. "It's going to be the demise of 21-7."
Don't try to tell anything to the current crop of young women. They will be quick to call you a dinosaur and to tell you that birth control is "just hormones and completely 'natural'" ... and they are so self-indulgent that nothing ... nothing ... 'inconvenient' [like a menstrual period] can be tolerated.
{sigh} I am reminded of my late mother-in-law often saying Why must [you / or fill in the blank] climb fool's hill so often ... ?
he heheh hheh hehhhhe hehhh hhehhe
You're absolutely right!
Still, those that could be good Moms ... probably won't indulgence in this nonsense ... clean up the gene pool? Or demand it be covered by insurance as another form of infertility giving us all LESS in coverage?
Wouldn't surprise me to see serious side effects surface twenty or thirty years down the road, right about the same time as those side effects from hormone experimentation by our athletes. I predict a generation or two of real mental and physical basket cases.
Gee, somehow I survived it every month for the past 30 years (when I wasn't pregnant or nursing).
Now your my kind of man!!!
Sexy, Sexy!!
Now, only the HEADACHE remains...
Oh, sorry, I was thinking ALL women.
Single women rarely use excuses to avoid sex...
I was thinking the exact same thing. Usually women start having problems with thyroids in their 40's and 50's. This may start a whole new generation of thyroidal problems such as toxic goiter or Graves' disease for women in their 20's. Unfortunately, once that starts, these women will be taking medication for the rest of their lives to offset those problems. Becoming pregnant could become very difficult after that.
really? it's the PMS that kills me : )
Most doctors say they don't think suppressing menstruation is riskier than regular long-term birth control use,That line jumped out at me also.
Well, there's a couple understatements if ever I heard oneNo kidding. Yeesh.
Well blow my dress up! Look what I could have missed but it's too late now!
Did you read the article?
I've done the 4x a year thing for years and years, started back in basic training in 1992 and never looked back, with the full blessing of my ob/gyn. Went off it last summer so hubby and I could conceive and was pregnant within the month. (Imagine our surprise. And we now have a very healthy son.) Many of my friends and female relatives have done the same thing with the same results.
What I've found with friends/relatives who can't conceive are those who wait until after 35 years of age, have high-stress jobs, etc., and those that are impatient. It can take as long as 5 years, with or without a history of taking the pill, to conceive naturally. Yes, 5 years, with no reproductive problems from either the man or women. Yet the fertility business has led us to believe that one year is the mark for infertility. Of course, they get more business that way.
If you spend any amount of time reading about ovulation you'll know that ovulation - the actual act of a follicle bursting to release an egg, is slightly damaging to the ovaries, month after month, year after year. Not ovulating as much, and therefore not having a "regular" cycle is okay. Biologically, women are meant to be pregnant most of their fertile years, and therefore, don't ovulate very often. The pill mimicks the process of pregnancy without having 16 children in the process. As a result, you have less risk of some types of reproductive cancers. Further, with the 4x plan, you have less "ups and downs" in your hormones which means less PMS, less bloating, etc.
I think the fear of the pill, as well as fear of menstrual suppression started with high-dose pills years ago and began this whole nonsense about the pill being so damaging. That and anti-contraceptive groups, along with ignorance, misuse, and idiots who smoke and take the pill (esp. those 35 & over). Those who do can get bloodclots which are often fatal.
Bottom line? Please read more on the subject, and read lots of unbiased, scientific research. And as always, there are some women who just can't tolerate the pill - short-term or long-term. Just like there are other meds that some can't tolerate. Me? I can't take any cold meds or sinus/allergy meds. Over the counter or Rx. Yet millions do so and have no problems.
Can you please back up your "rumor" about teens, the pill, and breast cancer, with some facts? Thanks!
Here are some links that I googled using *breast cancer*, *birth control* *teens*:
http://www.preventcancer.com/patients/med_avoid/pill.htm
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21236
And, yes, I know that there are studies showing no connection, but I am suspicious when the groups are one's that promote abortion and contraception. They have too much stake in it to say that the very thing they are promoting is bad for people. The reasoning behind the incomplete first term pregnancy, for whatever reason, makes sense, so that gives it some credibility to me. Enough so that I wouldn't consider taking the risk just for convenience sake.
Took about sixty seconds as I recall.
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