TRENTON, N.J. – For young women with a world of choices, even that monthly curse, the menstrual period, is optional.
Thanks to birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives, a growing number of women are taking the path chosen by 22-year-old Stephanie Sardinha.
She hasn’t had a period since she was 17.
“It’s really one of the best things I’ve ever done,” she says.
A college student and retail worker in Lisbon Falls, Maine, Sardinha uses Nuvaring, a vaginal contraceptive ring. After the hormones run out in three weeks, she replaces the ring right away instead of following instructions to leave the ring out for a week to allow bleeding. She says it has been great for her marriage, preventing monthly crankiness and improving her sex life.
“I would never go back,” said Sardinha
Also see this sidebar to the story, which says a several drugs allowing women more options for manipulating menstruation should be approved by the FDA by June. Additionally, see this Seattle P-I story and this web site.
The AP headline is a bit confusing … as I understand it, for any woman on the pill, menstruation is already optional. John Rock, the inventor of the pill, decided they should be packaged with three weeks of hormones and a week of placebo pills to create an artificial menstruation cycle. It was a misguided attempt to make the pill seem more “natural” and thus acceptable to the Catholic Church, as Malcolm Gladwell recounts in this March 10, 2000 New Yorker article.
It sounds like they’re reporting a well-established trend, and not actual news.
well, i guess the news peg is the expected approval of Seasonique this week, and the two other drugs that should be approved next month.