Should women take a contraceptive pill that stops periods?

Pill that ends periods sparks health row - Independent

Extracts:

"The imminent launch of the first contraceptive pill which promises to free women from the constraints of menstruation has pitched specialists on both sides of the Atlantic into a battle over what is "natural" and safe.

Lybrel, the first pill designed to eliminate the fertility cycle, putting an end to the mood swings and discomfort associated with periods, is expected to win a licence from the Food and Drug Administration in the US this month. In the UK, where it will be marketed as Anya, the US manufacturer Wyeth has applied for a licence which it expects to be granted next year.

The drug is designed to be taken continually unlike other oral contraceptives which are taken for 21 days a month with a break of seven days during which the woman has her period, preserving, albeit artificially, the biological rhythm.

The argument about whether the latest lifestyle choice to be offered to women is good for their health has already begun. Writing in the British Medical Journal, Paula Derry, a health psychologist from Baltimore, questions the wisdom of menstrual suppression and argues it is unnatural and potentially damaging.

Long-term safety has not been established and the argument that menstruation is obsolete is "illogical and unscientific", she says.

Her stance is supported by research in the US which has found many women view their periods as symbols of fertility and health. Rather than loathe them, they have a complex love-hate relationship with them. "

"Is menstruation obsolete?

Yes, says Professor Anna Glasier, head of sexual health, Lothian

"When I took the pill I took it continuously. Who wouldn't? Who would want periods? The idea that menstruation is normal is wrong. Since time dawned most women have been pregnant or breast feeding or post-menopausal - so they didn't have periods. Also, the idea that the period you have when you are on the pill is natural is also wrong. The pill turns the ovaries off and the period you have is a fake. The thing to worry about is the increased risk of deep vein thrombosis on the pill - but there is no evidence that a seven-day break each month makes any difference."

No, says Paula Derry, health psychologist, Maryland, US

"If it is more common today to have monthly periods than in the past that doesn't mean it is unnatural. We know that menstruation is what naturally occurs when women don't become pregnant. A menstruating woman is a healthy, probably fertile woman - whereas unhealthy, malnourished or massively stressed women are more likely to skip periods. Menstrual suppression is unnatural. A drug chronically over-rides the physiological changes associated with the menstrual cycle creating a hormonal environment that is not found in nature." "

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