It’s 1960, and, with Twiggy plastered on magazine covers, the hippie culture beginning and the birth of the mini skirt, women have a new freedom.
This freedom is the freedom to choose the then-new birth control pill. Enovid, the first oral contraceptive pill was “hailed as a medical cure-all for social and political ills the world over,” according to the FDA.
Now, birth control has come to the point of no return. Or that is, no returning menstruation.
Seasonale and Seasonique are both birth control pills that boast fewer menstruation cycles in a year, according to seasonale.com.
Seasonale is “the daily birth control that’s the same but different,” which according to the Web site, offers the convenience of only four periods a year.
Seasonique is a different type of contraceptive — an extended-regimen birth control pill. This type of pill extends the amount of time between a women’s menstruation so she only has a period every three months instead of the normal month, according to the company’s Web site.
Anita Flick, a biological sciences professor, discussed birth control pills and fewer periods in a year.
“Recent research indicates that there is no true reason women need to menstruate monthly and that essentially three times a year or so is fine and they just take their pills straight through without interruption — they have to take the monophasic [all the same dose] for this to work well,” she said.
But with fewer periods also come side effects.
Common side effects found on both Seasonique and Seasonale Web sites. Nausea, vomiting, bleeding or spotting, and weight gain are just a few possible side effects. Some side effects may subside after three months of use. A complete list of side effects can be found on the birth control companies’ Web sites.
And despite the controversy concerning the reduced number of periods, science has taken it one step further.
On May 22, the FDA approved Lybrel, “the first continuous use drug product for the prevention of pregnancy,” according to fda.gov.
The FDA says Lybrel prevents women from having a menstruation cycle for a year because the pill does not use placebos like other traditional birth control pills.
Flick commented on the safety of a lack of menstruation — specifically on the effects of Depro Provera, a hormone shot that lasts for three months to prevent pregnancies.
“Think about it this way — one of the advantages of Depo Provera is the ending of your period — and we keep women on Depo Provera for extended periods [of time].” Flick continued to say, “As long as the other risk factors are absent [such as] smoking, history of blood and clotting disorders are absent, they should be fine.”
Alana Justice, a freshman in business management, said she approves of the reduced number or periods.
“It would be fine to only have four periods a year with birth control … I have heard that if you’re on the birth control hormones, you’re not ovulating every month, so it’s supposedly just as safe as having your period every month,” Justice said. “Hey, that way you would not have to deal with all of the monthly problems associated with a period.”