Thursday, December 22, 2005
No more red dot.

There is a pill coming on the market that will eliminate women's periods completely. Alesse is already on the market, allowing women to get something like 4 periods a year.
Both sides are claiming this to be huge. And it is.
For years women have casually used the pill to skip a period or two when it was inconvenient.

There are compelling arguments for both sides, and if you would like to read an article presenting both, click here.

On the one hand, you would no longer be a slave to the tampon/maxi pad industry which could be a major bonus, but you are just a slave to the drug companies, so its a toss up.

Women's menstrual cycles have been used against them time and time again for excuses why they can't do certain things, like be president or go into combat.
So telling women that if they want to do those things, they would have a much easier time doing it if they just took care of that nasty little problem, is that a great alternative?

If a woman "got rid of" her period, would that quell the mentality that women are unstable and not in control of our emotions?

No matter how many books and articles I read about how fabulous it is to be a woman and to have a cycle and to bleed, the bottom line is that it is a minor inconvenience at best and a debilitating issue at worst.

There is also a massive medical debate over what a period actually does for a woman, aside from staining her cute panties.
What effects could never having a period be?
We don't really know what the effects of being on the pill for 3 weeks a month could be, so now we want to go full tilt and see what happens when we are constantly pumping our bodies with synthetic hormone?

I know I personally wouldn't want to take it, but that's because my period isn't a huge issue for me. I can definitely understand why a woman would want to eliminate it.

So what do you think ladies?
Given the choice would you make your period go away?


10 Comments:

Blogger laura said...

personally (with no medical background), i think women have periods for a reason. i'm not sure that i agree with messing with something natural and instead fill myself with synthetic hormones year round. to me, that just doesn't seem safe. the regualr pill gives me migraines, which my doctor informed me can lead to strokes, so i'm currently unnatural hormone free, and i feel so much better. however, i also don't have debilitating periods, so aside from the creepy synth hormone factor, i guess i'm not a good judge.

Blogger Lo Lo Lova said...

I'm with rollerskater on this one. It's just not natural. Now, I've had awful, irregular, painful periods for almost 20 years now and I still wouldn't go period free. Plus the fact that I've read that even though you don't get the heavy period, you will still have spotting - and it may be often. So you'll still have to wear something to "cure" that. And you may not know when this spotting may occur! So, what? You just wear a pad or tampon every day? Yeah, THAT solves the problem...

Plus the fact that I need a good exuse to have a Wendy's Frosty and fries once a month...

Blogger Ubermilf said...

So, we should have fake boobs, fake noses, and artificially thin body, colored hair, whitened teeth and now this? Are we so awful that we should change EVERYTHING about ourselves?

Now, if someone has such debilitating periods that she would consider this, I'd hope her doctor would be discussing all the options and repercussions.

But just to avoid staining and inconvenience? No fucking way.

Blogger Gnomey G said...

I think it's just another way that American society is trying to clean up the human body--especially the female one. Think about everything we consider nasty that are a basic part of human existence--body odor and back hair are a few good examples. It seems as if we want to sanitize ourselves into some inhuman, robot oblivion.

Blogger Ubermilf said...

Gnomey, thanks! That's what I was aiming at.

Blogger Tumbleweed said...

I personally love the scapegoat of having a reason to be a total bitch a couple days a month! Women are superior to men and a period once a month is just a reminder of that. I look forward to it! Besides, some men are turned on by the though of getting their redwings. Gross!!

Blogger Scarlet Hip said...

I had a great response until I read Tumbleweed's comment about redwings. Now my mind is numb.

Blogger Sunny said...

I guess I'm against the majority here, but I'd totally do it. I don't believe that in order to be a womanly woman I need to bleed from the crotch once a month. No offense to those women who enjoy it, but I don't. At all.

I haven't read all the studies there are about this particular drug, but a pharmacist once told me that most of the pills in Europe are designed so the women who take them only get 4 periods a year. According to her (and she was around when this was happening), they did a survey of some people (mostly doctors) and asked them which option - periods once a month or four times a year - the US population would prefer, and more doctors (at that time mostly men) claimed that women here like having our periods. That's how she explained it to me.

(Warning, non-medical content ahead) I also don't think that women were necessarily designed to have our periods as often as we do now. For most of our history, women have been either pregnant or nursing for most of their fertile lives, and most pregnant or nursing women don't have their periods every month. Again, this isn't strictly medical, it's more an idea I hold because I like to think about things too much. Take it as you will - I'm not in a research mode tonight.

I don't have debilitating periods, but it's sure as hell inconvenient and if there were a completely safe alternative that would not affect my future fertility, I would absolutely take it.

I also should state for the record that I'm absolutely not disgusted with my bodily fluids, I'm not religious, I don't feel "dirty", I'm not uncomfortable with myself, I just don't like buying new underwear. :)

Blogger Jaded said...

The fewer periods you have ,the greater the risks of things like endometrial cancers become. It's important for a woman to shed the lining of the uterus. Chemically inducing fewer periods is one thing, but to eliminate them entirely is just a tad to unnatural for me.

Blogger ginonymous said...

fwiw:

i was on depo provera for years and years. it was one of my adventures in pharma that was totally ok for a change. i lost weight, my skin cleared up and i completely stopped having periods. for seven years.

it was a hoot, going in to the doc for a checkup, and having the nurse ask, "date of your last menstrual period?" and i got to reply, "uh, June 1995?"..

i never had any serious reprecussions from not having a period, not did i miss it. i am irregular (TMI, sorry) and it hurts hurts hurts. sometimes two days, sometimes 11. and anywhere between 3 weeks to 5 and a half apart. missing this isn't missing anything.

then again, i'm also not concerned about my future fertility.

so ask me again in twenty years if having been deprived of Aunt Flo hurt me, and i'll have more to add.

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