Comments on: FDA Approves Oral Contraceptive That Stops Your Period: Birth Control Pill Lybrel Halts Menstruation

By: Immanuel Schoenhals

Immanuel Schoenhals — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:22:03 +0000

This one makes sence “One’s first step in wisdom is to kuesstion everything – and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.”

By: Lively Women Q&A: What Happens to Your Eggs When You Don’t Ovulate?

Lively Women Q&A: What Happens to Your Eggs When You Don’t Ovulate? — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:42:42 +0000

[...] response to yesterday’s post about the new FDA-approved, no-period birth control pill Lybrel, Alicia asked this question in the comment trail: What exactly happens to your egg(s) when birth [...]

By: Kristen King

Kristen King — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:16:45 +0000

Great question, Alicia! I’m going to do a post all about it.

Dev, I tend to agree with you. Anything with unknown long-term side effects makes me nervous!

By: alicia

alicia — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:35:34 +0000

Speaking of cylical rhythms, and I’m going to really show my ignorance with this question (trust me, I tried to google before it came to this, haha), but what exactly happens to your egg(s) when birth control pills prevent ovulation?

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:02:48 +0000

I disagree with it. The menstrual cycle is very important and natural. It’s not pleasant, it’s painful, the side effects are not fun, but to stop it? No, thanks. It’s wrong. To me, it seems like a form of oppression being marketed as freedom — and what’s next? How else are they going to mess with our bodies? We had to fight hard enough to get rights to them in the first place, and now they’re taking away a basic function and telling us it’s “our choice” — but, of course, they don’t know side effects.

I believe the side effects will be severe. We won’t know that for 20-30 years, but I think the side effects are going to hurt all sorts of cylical rhythms, and also have effects on people mentally — oh, but wait, then they just get to put more people on even MORE medication and make MORE money off them!

By: alicia

alicia — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:42:16 +0000

OK, I’m probably going to contradict myself a million times here, but, here I go.

Unknown side effects aside, I just can’t fathom taking a pill to have a period only four times a year, or stopping it altogether. It’s just unnatural. Menstration is one of the things that make us women. We’re supposed to have periods. (This is actually why I stopped taking the regular ol’ old-fashioned birth control pill – I just got tired of the idea that I was preventing my body from doing something it’s supposed to do [ovulate].)

Too, the idea of trading my once-a-month period for who-knows-how-long sporadic bleeding and spotting doesn’t appeal to me. It kind of defeats the purpose. You can protect your best underwear when you know it’s coming – you can’t when it’s unexpected! LOL

At the same time, I empathize with women who have severely heavy and painful periods and nothing has worked for them. I recognize that taking this pill is up to them – it may turn out to be great, and if so, great for them!

For me, though, I’ll stick to other preventative measures.