New Oral Contraceptive May End Periods
(WebMD) Menstrual periods may soon be just another lifestyle choice for American women. The continuous oral contraceptive Lybrel was shown to be highly effective for eliminating monthly
bleeding in a yearlong study. The study was published in the December issue of the journal Contraception. After a year on the pill, roughly 60 percent of the women in the study experienced no periods and 20 percent had some spotting. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which funded the study, hopes to launch the low-dose oral contraceptive early next year, pending approval by the FDA. Wyeth is a WebMD sponsor. Birth control pills designed to limit uterine bleeding to just four times a year are already on the market in the U.S. But Lybrel is the first oral contraceptive designed to do away with periods.
bleeding in a yearlong study. The study was published in the December issue of the journal Contraception. After a year on the pill, roughly 60 percent of the women in the study experienced no periods and 20 percent had some spotting. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which funded the study, hopes to launch the low-dose oral contraceptive early next year, pending approval by the FDA. Wyeth is a WebMD sponsor. Birth control pills designed to limit uterine bleeding to just four times a year are already on the market in the U.S. But Lybrel is the first oral contraceptive designed to do away with periods."There just is no good medical reason for a woman to have menstrual periods if
she doesn't want them," gynecologist and study researcher David F. Archer, M.D.,
tells WebMD. "It really does come down to an issue of preference."
Dr. Zach's Comments:
- Hey Look! The Pharmaceutical Industry is at it again... taking a perfectly normal process, which happens to be essential for a woman's health, and creating utter chaos out of it. Obviously gynecology is not my area of expertise, but health is and this threat to your health needed to be addressed.
- I have to emphatically disagree with Dr. Archer as well. A woman's menses is a vital part of uterine health. Each cycle is completed with a sloughing of the old uterine wall to make way for new viable tissue. If the uterine wall does not degenerate and regenerate the risk for disease in the old tissue is going to increase. It's that simple. Do you want convenience now and disease later or good health now and good health later. When do we say enough is enough and start to allow the natural processes instituted by our creator to simply happen as they were intended.
1 comment:
Thank you Zach for the article. I am wondering what happens if you get pregnant? What are the long term effects? Why are we so quick to "do away" with natural things we find inconvenient? I wonder if we will see a rise in uterine cancer before too long.
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