I don’t remember how my power-browsing got me to The Well-Timed Period today, but I’d be tipping my hat accordingly if I did. I think it’s pretty much common knowledge that women can use birth control pills to skip inconvenient periods. What I didn’t realize is that there are people who advocated doing it all the time, and it seems like a very emotionally driven campaign. NoPeriod.com, a big menstrual suppression site, is a little bit low on facts but really big on horror stories about terrible periods coming at the wrong times. All of the empowering language is weird too and almost anti-feminist, really. It’s not like menstruation is forced upon women to oppress them, and since it’s a natural occurrence, it seems like feminists would be more inclined to embrace their periods as a sign of what a woman’s body is capable of. That’s probably further than I’m willing to go in loving being a girl though. I don’t like my period, but I’m not sure I’d want to run the risk of filling my body with more hormones to get rid of it forever.
This is really different than the controversy over pills like Seasonale and Lybrel. For one, those are FDA-approved. The FDA won’t approve monthly-cycle birth control pills for non-stop use, and there are a lot of risks involved in long-term menstrual suppression. Most of the writing on these risks is about pills like Seasonale and Lybrel, and I wish I could find something good about renegade use of monthly-cycle pills. I guess it’s safe to assume that it’s at least as dangerous as the normal use of other pills.
NoPeriod.com is a decent resource, even though it doesn’t quite bring the facts about menstrual suppression like I want. Their useful period planner says I’ll be on my period on my birthday, so I’m thinking about using the pill to skip it then for just the one month. I’ll report back on that in a month and a half.
On an unrelated note, I got a lot of hits yesterday from people browsing the “safe sex” tag on WordPress. That warms my little heart.
Thank you for the link. A few points:
1. Continuous/extended Pill regimens aren’t meant to be used to skip periods, inconvenient or not. [Women on the Pill don't have periods for the duration of use.] They’re to be used to skip the monthly withdrawal bleeding episodes.
2. The NoPeriod.com site is run by Dr. Leslie Miller; she’s one of the main researchers in the field of extended Pill regimens.
3. Having a monthly period is not natural. It’s a recent (~100 yrs or so) development for women who live in industrialized societies. So it’s normal, but not natural. Having a monthly withdrawal bleed while on the Pill is also not natural (nor has it ever been). From the start it’s been nothing but a “designer” artifice.
4. If you’re already on the Pill you don’t have a period. Also, the Pill hormones are not in addition to your body’s hormones, they’re instead of. [The Pill works by suppressing endogenous hormone production.]
5. Brands like Seasonale and Lybrel have no effect on the menstrual period since women on the Pill (any brand) don’t have periods. All brands like Seasonale and Lybrel do is to either shift the frequency of the withdrawal bleed to q 84 days (Seasonale) or eliminate it (Lybrel).
6. Dr. Susan Rako is not a credible source. Briefly, the risk of menstrual suppression is different from the risk of shifting the frequency of, or eliminating, the monthly withdrawal bleed. There’s no evidence that either is detrimental.
7. “I wish I could find something good about renegade use of monthly-cycle pills.”
What would you like to know?
Thanks for the information, most of which I was already aware of from reading your site and NoPeriod.com. What you point out in #6 is exactly why I’d like to find a credible source that talks about the risks involved with menstrual suppression through monthly-cycle pills without advocating it at the same time. I learned a lot from your blog and from Dr. Miller’s site, but I felt like the information I got was probably colored by your position on the issue.
Heh, when it comes to advocacy, we’ll let Dr. Rako do that.
Seriously now, the only credible sources are the ones used by both Dr. Miller and myself, namely the specialty textbooks and literature.
I don’t know how much access you have to either, but one way is to ask your Ob/Gyn to give you some articles on topic. And any Ob/Gyn has a copy of Williams Obstetrics in his/her office. [Also, if your university has a medical school, you can use their library.]
Now, briefly, as I mentioned before, menstrual suppression and withdrawal bleeding suppression are two separate issues.
For menstrual suppression, other than planning a pregnancy, there’s no know medical benefit to having a monthly menstrual period. [You can find this information in any medical textbook. Try Williams.]
For withdrawal bleeding suppression: “Although there is no known medical benefit to routine monthly bleeding, women continue to be prescribed the standard 21/7 OC regimen.”
As to the slightly increased hormone exposure with some, but not all, continuous regimens, there’s no evidence that it poses an increased risk of adverse events.
I can tell that this is not the first time at all that you mention the topic. Why have you chosen it again?
This is very up-to-date info. I think I’ll share it on Twitter.