Science marches on; now I can have just 4 periods a year!

[blondeatlast]

I'm no earthy type at all, but I can't see the point of having just 4 periods a year?

I'm a wife and mommy, and I EARN those 5 days a month!

Nice to know the pharmas are looking out for us. Who needs to cure AIDS, control Parkinson's or diabetes, when she can have just 4 periods and he can stand at attention 24/7?

I'm absolutely floored by that. WHY?

[LiberalEsto]

1. Dang!

They finally find a way to cut down on PMS, and it's too late for me!

[flamingyouth]

2. There's a woman at the U of Washington who's been advocating

....fewer periods for years now. Her theory is that women have fewer and later pregnancies now than we did before and that is why we have more menstrual-related problems. I don't buy it.

And I'm with you about the research... don't even get me started.

[blondeatlast]

7. Not to get political in the Lounge, but drug advertising has

GOT to go. No longer are they doing research on life-threatening and debilitating diseases, only on this kind of crap.

Pathetic.

[tjdee]

3. It seems REALLY unnatural to do that....

If left to its own devices, a period will arrive every month (unless you're like me, but anyway).

Messing around with the hormones and the chemicals seems wrong. I would imagine it screws with all sorts of internal things.

[politicat]

22. actually....

That's questionable. When we compare the first world diet and childbearing strategy to that of pastoral people and to hunter-gatherers outside of the first world, what we find is that women there have about 12-20 periods in their lifetimes. Between breastfeeding, amenorrhea due to environmental stress (like migration or dietary shortages) and pregnancy, and a late menarche and early menopause, the 12 periods a year that we experience seem excessive and terrible to them. Now, the question is "was this what our ancestors dealt with as normal, or is this an effect of the fact that modern pastoralists and hunter-gatherers have been pushed onto marginal land?" That, we won't answer without a time machine, but then again, it is very telling that the women in pastoralistand hunter-gatherer cultures consider us to be poor misfortunates whom the gods have cursed. They don't have a mythos that says "bleed once a month under the full moon."

I had a friend in university who was studying this and decided to experiment on herself using the pill to control until she was down to about a period every 3 months. Anecdotally, it worked well for her. (She used the regular pill to do it.) She felt more able to accomplish her goals and had fewer emotional disrupts. She's now doing a longitudinal study on the concept with 120 women.

I happen to run a 55 day cycle as it is so I don't see the point of using meds to lengthen it, but I could see how it would be a good idea for women who are anemic, who have the type of uterus that makes you want to sell it on eBay once a month, or for women who just don't want to deal with the inconvenience.

While I agree that drug companies do have their priorities mixed up, I think this is a good thing. If we can prevent things like endometriosis and other issues; if we can help break down the stereotype of the emotional little woman who is PMSing.... those are all to the good.

Personally, I don't see what's to love about a period. The only use I have for one is making sure I'm not about to breed, and since I'm monogamous, faithful and Mr. Pcat has had a vasectomy, it's not even useful then.

Isn't this an argument about choice? Don't we all have the ability to choose to do with our own bodies as we please? To me, it's just as repugnant to force a woman to have 12 periods a year when she does not want them and the technology is available to prevent most of them as it is to force her to bear a child she does not want. Who are you to tell me what to do with my body?

Pcat

[Book Lover]

4. I've always been suspicious of those press releases...

oh, I mean news stories.

I've been seeing the same story every six to eight months for the past two or three years, and I do not buy it. No one I know does this with their BC pill.

[supernova]

5. I do it

And I feel good. I don't have the monthly up and down mood cycles.

For me that usually meant a week and a 1/2 of depression and lack of energy. I'd stop exercising and eat all the wrong stuff.

This feels much better.

But whatever floats your boat.

[blondeatlast]

8. I can understand it's warranted in some cases, but you should have

seen the ad; beautiful, excessively cheerful women dancing around and four "periods" everywhere.

I have to take the pill to PREVENT stroke (yes, you heard riight) because I bled so much I became anemic and I already have a heart condition. It's actully LESS risky for me to take it than to bleed excessively.

[supernova]

11. So do I

have a heart condition. I was born with it. :hug: to a fellow cardy.

The funny thing is I still get PMS ghost symptoms every month. High carb cravings, headaches, though no cramps or anything.

It definitely cuts my expenses on pads and tampons.

[Book Lover]

9. Well, now I know one!

And I'm glad that it works for you. Myself, I don't undergo PMS, so I don't have the motivation you had.

[supernova]

10. How old are you?

PMS symptoms can get worse as you age. I didn't have much of a problem until my mid-30s. Then I just felt worse and worse every month.

What you have to realize is people have been doing this with the pill for years. Have a trip coming up? Your wedding? Just don't take the inert pills and start a new pack.

Brands like Seasonale are simply a more convenient packaging for those of us who wish to do that.

[blondeatlast]

12. It never occurred to me that it might be necessary for some people.

Please accept my apologies for the insensitive tone.

[supernova]

16. De Nada

It's not something people think about unless it affects them personally.

[Book Lover]

15. 35, and ever since I had my child

2 years ago, whatever minor PMS symptoms I did have disappeared. I guess my hormones are 180 degrees from where yours are. Then again, my mother and her mother had very easy periods and menopause also.

[restorefreedom]

6. Good to know their priorities are in the right place..

First of all, if the pharms are pushing it, then that's flag 1.

Also, the same drug used for birth control is often used to regulate these cycles. And that can be dangerous for anyone at risk for heart attacks, strokes, etc. just like the pill is a risk for such women.

Personally, I don't like screwing too much with Mother Nature. If, for whatever reason, she wants me to have 10-12 periods a year for 30-40 years for a grand total of about 300-400 lifetime, so be it.

OTOH, she also designed men to start, uh, on the downward spiral after 18 so she may be a tad uninformed.

Oh well.

I'll take my 10 a year and Astra-Zeneca or whoever can keep their drugs.

[Liberal Veteran]

13. But they don't tell you that one of the effects...

...is that you grow a mustache, have to shave your legs twice daily, and die at the ripe old age of 36 and if you do manage to become pregnant, you will have four times as many babies per pregnancy.

[supernova]

14. Well, I'm 42

so everyday is a gift. ;-)

[NightTrain]

17. Forgive my ignorance, but I thought women *hated* having their periods.

:shrug:

[Book Lover]

18. Not every woman does

Some link menstruation to their feelings of fertility. Not everyone has severe periods.

[politicat]

23. and some of us are scared s#!tless by our fertility.

The only good a period does for me is the sigh of relief that one of Mr. Pcat's little wigglers didn't somehow escape the knot, the cauterized vas, and make it into me, connect with the damn egg, and start dividing and attaching to the walls.

That's the first day, the first hour. The rest of it can just go away. I hate being fertile. I hate the potential that some thug could rape me and I'd be stuck having to do the whole morning after crap or worse, ending up having to have an abortion. I don't want children. Breeding is for other people. Ick. (But being under 30 and childfree, getting a tubal ligation is like trying to get gold out of Fort Knox.)

If I could find someone who knew what menstrual extraction was, I'd be an incredibly happy camper.

Pcat

[Bunny]

19. I did.

Except for the births of my two daughters, the happiest day of my life was the day I had my hysterectomy!

To each his own, I guess.

[SarahB]

20. There is some protection from less periods.

The one good thing about my spending most of my 20's either nursing or pregnant (and only about 2 years of periods in the course of 11 years) is that it will protect me a little. My mother had endometrial cancer a few years back (full hysterectomy, radiation, but cancer free now), so I did some research on the subject because there's a genetic link to some extent.
Here's an interactive health quiz I found.
http://www.wcn.org/interior.cfm?diseaseid=13&featureid=3

I'm very lucky to be low risk for everything except endometrial cancer where I'm average risk, but still not bad. Interesting stuff.

[Scout]

21. I'd rather have NO periods a year

when I was on regular birth control pills, used just for birth control, I almost NEVER got my period. I loved it!!! No cramps, no zits, didn't have to buy and carry tampons. Didn't have to plan my wedding, my vacations, my camping trips, my swimming/recreation/fun around having my damn period.

I never had really bad periods either, just normal ones (at least I thought so).

I had my tubes tied a couple years ago, so now I'm back to normal hormones and periods ... ugh. Plus, depending on how many women and how often I'm around them, my own cycle will "adjust" to match that of other women, so I'm totally not expecting my period and get it anyway.

I was thinking of asking my doctor to put me on the 4 periods a year pill just to reduce the pain in the ass factor.

I can't see the point of having 13 periods a year when I can have only 4...