abracanabra | (no subject)

From a NYT article about the new birth control pill about to be approved that will get rid of all "periods":

Eliminating menstruation is not a completely new concept. Women who take any kind of oral contraceptive do not have real periods.

Because the hormones in pills stop the monthly release of an egg and the buildup of the uterine lining, there is no need for the lining to shed — as occurs during true menstruation.

Still, since the advent of oral contraceptives in 1960, birth control pills typically have been designed to mimic the natural 28-day menstrual cycle to assure women using the pill that their bodies were functioning normally. The pills are usually packaged as regimens of 21 days of hormone pills and 7 inactive pills. The interruption of hormone therapy during the inactive part of the regimen induces bleeding that resembles a mild period but is, in fact, caused by unstable hormone levels.

Huh. I did not know that. Kinda creepy, actually. Best not to think about it, I suppose.

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There's actually some small amount of evidence that for women who plan not to have children, this sort of hormone therapy may actually be a *good* thing. The idea is that too *many* periods over the course of a lifetime can actually help stimulate some types of cancer (estrogen-related types of course).

I've heard this too. I think studies show that chance of cancer is decreased by 10% for each pregnancy due to the time that the body is not having menses.

However, I am still skeptical of so much unnatural tampering with natural biological function.

Well, the Pill's unnatural tampering regardless (and I'm very thankful for it)--what I didn't know until I read the article was that actually having no "fake period" is no more unnatural than the usual pill routine. Or at least that's what I took away from it.

The NYT article mentioned that--though they also said there was some evidence that the chance of other types of cancer went up, so it seems to be a balancing out of risks.

Yes. Some of us are told to skip the interim pills, such that our bodies don't try to devour us once a month. Womb-at!

You have a womb-at? That's scary--sounds like it has teeth!

Feels like it, too.

Aw, poor girl. I hope Seasonale works out well--the article mentioned it, too.

It's Yasmin, not Seasonale. But yes. Hopefully!

Hmm. Somebody on my friends page was talking about Seasonale. Thought it was you. Never mind!

I can't help but remember some short sci-fi story I read way back in high-school that was just like this. It was just a group of women sitting around discussing the post-menstruation era, but it raised some interesting points. I wish I could remember the name of it.

Eh. It's not a huge deal for most women--just an annoyance. Of course, back in the day, we'd have all gotten shuffled off to a segregated tent for the week, but at the time, that was probably a relief.

Pick anything and there's a sci-fi story about it, pretty much. Which is why I like sci-fi so much!