No more menstruation?
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (my former employer of years gone by) has recently developed Lybrel, an oral contraceptive. What makes Lybrel different from other combination estrogen and progesterone oral contraceptives is that Lybrel is taken 365 days a year. No more of those sugar pills that give your body the necessary break from the outside hormones that it needs to have a monthly period. Lybrel stops menstruation from occurring at all, which according to many doctors is a perfectly safe option. According to Dr. Kurt Barnhart, Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at UPENN in regards to Lybrel clinical trials, "It is our hope that based on these findings physicians will begin to more readily initiate dialogue with their female patients about continuous therapy — helping to eliminate the misconception that periods are a medical necessity and to emphasize the safety and viability of menstrual suppression." Wyeth contends that women experience an increased quality of life due to not menstruating. You can read an article about lybrel here: article
Wow. Every day I am floored by the growing disconnect between the average woman and her body. The natural cycles, which seem to have been working for the female body for thousands of years is all of a sudden deemed unnecessary by the medical elite. We all know why we menstruate. In the typical situation, each month the body prepares for the possibility of pregnancy by delivering an egg from the ovary to the uterus. In preparation for the egg, the uterus builds up a nutrient rich lining. When the egg is not fertilized, the lining sheds, hence menstruation. It is a natural cycle, the ebbing and flowing of hormones. Personally, I become suspect when medicine attempts to eliminate a natural function that serves its place in the balance of our bodies. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
In addition, I wonder about the motivation behind the new drug. Bleeding is gross and bad and we should feel bad about it right, so let's just make it not happen? Are we going to get to a time when all women who are not trying to get pregnant medicate themselves so that they don't menstruate? Will it become even more of a taboo to be a bleeding person? I mean, it is already something that people have a hard time talking about and most of us do it. What happens when most women don't? Will those that chose to still bleed become ostracized and will menstruation become even more of a shameful activity?
-Jodi Nan
Email This Post
| 
Print This Post
| Other posts by Jodi
October 5th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
That is absolutely terrifying. As though it weren’t enough that doctors and formula companies constantly try to undermine the breast feeding mother…now they want to potentially impair women’s fertility…I just don’t get it.
October 6th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
This is disgusting! The quarterly period drug (seasonale?) was bad enough. I think my favorite part is this: “helping to eliminate the misconception that periods are a medical necessity.”
Periods are NOT a “medical necessity.” They have nothing to do with medicine. They’re like sweating when you’re hot or any other natural body function — none of which actually need the intervention of a doctor.
This makes me really, really upset. I find it hard to believe that the good folks at Wyeth sat down and said, “Let’s improve the lives of women! But how… I know, let’s stop them from menstruating!” That just doesn’t make sense. If they REALLY want to improve the lives of women, I’m sure there’s plenty of research to be done on actual diseases that afflict women…
October 8th, 2007 at 11:24 am
It upsets me that resources that might be used to cure actual diseases were used for this end. Now I realize that researchers were probably working on something else when they stumbled across this (usually what happens), but then resources were used to push this through pre-clinical and clinical trials. And from experience, I can assure you that this costs a lot of cash.
I also understand that women over time maybe didnt menstruate as much as we do now due to being pregnant a lot more often. I also do realize that cancers and other disorders have been on the rise and are very much so linked to changes in hormonal levels. Which makes me even more nervous about externally altering my hormone levels!
I hate the way it is being marketing. Not towards specifically women with debilitating periods, but all women, because like, bleeding is like, such a drag.