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Science

A Pill To Stop Female Menstruation 43

Posted by timothy from the in-rhesus-monkeys dept.
skinney writes: "Preliminary findings now suggest that it may be possible in the near future to reversibly suppress menstruation using new progestin antagonists, a class of drugs that includes the controversial abortion pill RU-486." If these pills make it to human trials and then to market, I wonder how much longer it would take for them to become over-the-counter.
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A Pill To Stop Female Menstruation

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  • fp (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I got my first period today!

    Now point me to the drugs and make it my last!

  • Frankly, I'd like to see some more work on developing birth control for men.

    Actually, researchers at the University of Newfoundland [www.mun.ca] have come up with a birth control pill for men. The odd thing about this pill is that it isn't taken orally; you put it in the heel of your shoe.

    It works by making you limp.

    <rim shot>

  • Hasn't anyone stopped to think that menstruation is a normal, cleansing part of a woman's cycle? So lame that it's seen as nothing more than an inconvenience.

    Some peoples' value system contains factors that go beyond just whatever happens to be "normal" or "natural." If your idea of a good life is to spend 12 hours a day hunting and gathering food, and having a child once per year in order to just barely counter the death rate, then by all means, do that. But the rest of us would rather enjoy life, and technological progress is what makes this possible.

    I realize some religeons think that certain mundane details of how life is supposed to work, are handed down by God and should be conformed to. But making it up as we go, and hacking those processes to work the way we want them instead of how they're pre-programmed, is getting pretty popular.

    Fuck the manufacturer's ROMs, I'll write my own. Said the meme to the gene, "We will bury you!"


    ---
  • "All other sex is sinful as it comes from lust"

    You say that as if it's a bad thing.

  • My girlfriend won't go anywhere near the stuff.


    Sorry, Slashdot posters are not allowed to have a girlfriend.



    And, inconvenient and messy? First, when something that naturally occurs in the body (when things are working NORMALLY) is seen as inconvenient, it really should make one question the adopted framework/society that would MAKE it inconvenient.


    You look forward to taking a dump then?

  • The Jewish opinion on menstruation has always been that it is natural but unclean thing. Women who were in the throes of it were to be sent to the "Women's House" out back and locked in there until they were no longer unclean. Men who cavorted with an unclean woman would also become unclean and would need to go to the Temple to become cleansed.

    To put this in a little more context (Book of Levidicus) Skin flaws of most sorts (lesions, rashes) were also unclean,(Lev 13:7-9;Lev 13:13-15) as well as rabbits (anything that walks on paws; Lev 11:27) and mildew (Lev 13:50-52) and nocternal emissions (lev 15:1-3;15-17).

    This is not to say that women are as vile as bugs, but that a number of things made a number of people unclean according to the laws written in the books of Moses.

  • Re:argh (Score:1)

    by juno ( 70153 )
    Certainly, menstruation is normal. Cancer is normal, heart disease is normal, murder is normal, love is normal. Normal != right/good. As to the cleansing effects of menstruation, this is still up in the air. Natalie Angier, in her book "Woman: An Intimate Geography" (highly recommended) discusses the interesting idea that menstruation actually saves energy versus keeping the uterus "primed" for pregnancy all the time, and notes that so far, no one has found anything that is cleansed, per se, by menstruation. I also do think there may be some credence to the idea that it is harmful for women to experience the hormonal fluctuations of menstruation so many times over the course of life, but not being an MD I can't offer expert commentary.


    Now to venture into the philosophical end. As a woman, I get very annoyed when people insist that I should find my most powerful feminine identification, indeed my most powerful identification as a conscious creature, through my reproductive organs and reproductive cycle. Is this really all that I have to connect with, my ability to carry children? What if I do not desire to do so? Are not my work, my thoughts, my relationships, more important in defining me as a person and a woman both? Recall that identification of woman with her reproductive system has not always been to our benefit-- for example, the root of hysteria, 'hyster', means uterus as it was thought that this mental illness derived directly from the female organs. If you find your menstrual cycle centering, well, more power to you, but I do not feel it prerequisite for centering myself.


    So, in that light, I do view menstruation as an inconvenience. Before I started taking the Pill, I usually had to take a day off each month at the start of my period because I felt so nauseated. Now that isn't so much of a problem, but still-- bloating, back pain, slight moodiness, interruptions in my sex life, bloodstains on my sheets-- where is the benefit? Since I don't plan on having children for at least another 10 years or so (I'm 20) why do I need this? It's getting in the way of the things that really do make me "connect with my inner self".


    I certainly agree that there could be a lot of improvement in society's views on menstruation-- it really peeves me how many people (men, mostly, but some women too) view the cycle as disgusting, frightening, and alien. I also think it is possible that freeing women from the monthly cycle, even temporarily, may advance our further acceptance as equal participants in society, because there would be less fodder with which to brand us as prone to irrationality, emotionalism, and arbitrariness, less with which to mark us as slaves of our biology. Recall, few discuss the hormonal cycles of men, because they are viewed as normal, as the default, and as in control. What if we could be viewed as similarly in control of this aspect of ourselves?

  • why is this story not on /. 's main page? hmm, weird.

    E.


    -
  • I first read that as "A Pill To Stop Female Masturbation". Now that would be useful!
  • Why is this story considered geek news? Hmm, weird. Oh wait, that's right... Slashdot: The soapbox for liberal slant.
  • I read recently (not sure where, perhaps in Discover?) that doctors have developed an injection that when given once a month supresses menstruation. Much easier and more convenient than the current workaround, taking birth control pills every day instead of skipping a week to induce menstruation.

    Part of why this is so interesting is because since women have stopped spending most of their lives pregnant, they menstruate monthly, which is actually not healthy; more periods (eg. not being pregnant often) is linked with increased incidence of endometriosis and cervical cancer. So not only would it make life easier for women, but could help prevent disease. I hope this pans out and gets into common use.

    As for being over-the-counter, I doubt we'll see that, since hormone-affecting pills can have serious side effects. I'd be more interested to see if insurance companies will cover the treatment; many currently do not cover birth control pills even when prescribed for non-contraceptive reasons. <rant>Oh, but they'll cover Viagra...</rant>
    ---
  • This brings up a question that is more scientific than moral/ethical, regardless of how it sounds: How much can we self-engineer ourselves before becoming an unstable system?
  • It's not *bad* to menstruate, but it's not especially great, either. As the article indicates, research is still ongoing. My understanding is, they're fairly certain (as much as they are about anything) that skipping a few periods is fine, and may actually be good (less hormonal fluctuations, less blood and tissue loss, etc.). At some point, women probably do have to have periods, but when is unclear. It may be 3 months, it may be 3 years.

    Obviously, IANAMD, so a gynecologist would be your best bet for finding out more.

    The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

  • The only thing that worries me about that is potential divorces. If you divorce (and people change, nothing's ever certain), the courts tend to be more sympathetic to the mother. Hence, you may find yourself with greatly reduced access to your children, and if you remarry, you may wish to have more children.

    I'd rather stick with currently available birth control, and if anything slips through, get it aborted. If you detest condoms (as I do, it makes me feel like my dick is numb), and your girlfriend doesn't have the organization neccessary for the pill (mine does, but were our positions reversed, I sure as hell wouldn't), there's still spermicides, diaphrams, and cervical caps, if you have no moral problems with killing anything that gets fertilized. But, if you're pro-life, that wouldn't be a viable option I guess...

    The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

  • Incidentally, I'm told that after 3 abortions, you begin to do permanent damage to your cervix, which affects (among other things) your ability to have children and leaves you prone to nasty infections.

    Hmm, I did not know that, thank you. That might alter my strategy somewhat.

    Current birth control methods still leave much to be desired, in my opinion.

    No arguments there :) Being only 20, however, I don't have to worry about a permanent solution for a little while anyway. Hopefully technology will continue to advance in the interim.

    The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

  • Why do people regard it as a mere inconvenience? Well, it's messy, it's inconvenient, and it makes life miserable for everyone involved. Why should we regard it as a good thing? See my above post, women are not supposed to be getting 12 periods a year, for years at a time. They're supposed to get maybe a couple, then get pregnant for 9 months, give birth, have a couple more periods, then get pregant again, until menopause or death (the latter probably from childbirth).

    Calling menstruation a "normal, cleansing part of a woman's cycle," is utter bullshit, and has only been normal since the advent of modern birth control.
    The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

  • There's also plenty of literature about how hormonal treatments such as the pill lead to an increased cancer risk.

    Yes, from pills sold prior to 1979, when dosages were orders of magnitude higher (like taking RU-486 every day). Since then, there has been no evidence whatsoever of increased cancer risk.

    First, when something that naturally occurs in the body (when things are working NORMALLY) is seen as inconvenient, it really should make one question the adopted framework/society that would MAKE it inconvenient.

    Okay bright guy, how do we change society so that painful cramps, bloating, and violent mood swings are not inconvenient?

    I don't even know what to say about "messy" - sounds like a hangup.

    *scratches head* Um, no. I happily go down on my girlfriend during her period, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. However, the fluids leaking from between her legs during her period are sticky and stain things red. That qualifies as "messy" in my book.

    Finally, as for Ms. Christine Northrup, let me leave you with a quote from her website [drnorthrup.com]: "Her pioneering work has shown that conditions such as PMS, endometriosis, breast symptoms, and uterine conditions are the language through which women's bodies speak of wounding they have experienced in a culture which has been unsupportive to women and to those values we call 'womanly.'"

    The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

  • Not so new, really (Score:4)

    by Galvatron ( 115029 ) on Monday July 30, 2001 @07:33AM (#2183543)
    In addition to RU-486, the same chemicals are in your run-of-the-mill birth control pills. In fact, you can get the same effect as RU-486 by taking a bunch of birth control pills at once. Don't know the dosages exactly, but I'm sure it's not too tough to find out.

    Anyway, my girlfriend already prevents menstruation by just taking the pill month-round. Ordinarily, one week of the pill is just a sugar pill, but if you instead take the full strength pills the whole month, you can prevent menstruation. My guess is, this is more or less the same idea.

    A couple notes for those of you who want to try this at home: first, yes, it is considered safe. My girlfriend has discussed it with doctors, and originally read about it in a medical article (her father's an ER doctor). In fact, girls really shouldn't be menstruating all the time. Up until a century ago, women would basically spend half their time pregnant from puberty to menopause (or until they died in child birth), so what's going on now is pretty unnatural.

    Second, make sure you have full strength pills. Many pills have stepped dosages, so only one week would actually be full strength, two weeks would be partial strength, and one week is just a placebo. You need the ones with 3 constant dosage weeks, and one placebo week. Just toss out the placebo week and keep taking the regular pills.

    Third, 9 weeks seems to be the limit for my girlfriend. After going through 3 sets of pills, even if she continues taking full strength pills, she goes into menstruation. YMMV, but this is probably not something you can do forever.

    The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

  • I have strong doubts about studies that say constant menstruation is a big "unnatural" health problem when I know there are plenty of other medical experts and gynecologists that profess otherwise (Christine Northrup for one), and would probably take offense at it being called utter bullshit. There's also plenty of literature about how hormonal treatments such as the pill lead to an increased cancer risk. My girlfriend won't go anywhere near the stuff.

    And, inconvenient and messy? First, when something that naturally occurs in the body (when things are working NORMALLY) is seen as inconvenient, it really should make one question the adopted framework/society that would MAKE it inconvenient. There's a bigger disconnect here than the matter of women's bodies not "behaving appropriately", so to speak. I don't even know what to say about "messy" - sounds like a hangup. Now, I'm only referring to things such as timing, flow, and to a degree, emotional sensitivity. I agree that there can be other symptoms that really are debilitating (including the degree of emotional sensitivity), but more often than not those are the product of other health imbalances.

    tune

  • argh (Score:3)

    by tunesmith ( 136392 ) <siffert@musewor l d . com> on Monday July 30, 2001 @08:16AM (#2183545) Homepage Journal
    Hasn't anyone stopped to think that menstruation is a normal, cleansing part of a woman's cycle? So lame that it's seen as nothing more than an inconvenience. In older spiritualities, pagan, native american, etc, menstruation was seen as sacred and a way for women to connect with their inner selves. It's sad that it as seen as nothing more than an inconvenience now.

    I can understand "exceptions" where some women's systems make menstruation some sort of risk, but this is obviously going to be marketed to all women in some sort of floaty commercial with muted pastel colors exhorting women to exercise their newfound FREEDOM...

    tune

  • Again our wonderful Western society tries to pull the rabbit out of a hat, and invent a pill that will give Joe and Jane Q. Public for free something that only superior training and discipline were able to achieve in some esoteric schools.

    I've read that DAO masters (mistresses ?) were able to stop menstruation by handling the energy in their bodies the same way as DAO men can have an orgasm without ejaculation thus sparing themselves from losing energy and being almost dead for some time after.

    Read these books:
    http://www.universal-tao.com/books/z_b_love_m.ht ml
    http://www.universal-tao.com/books/z_b_love_f.ht ml
    http://www.universal-tao.com/books/z_b_multiman. ht ml

    I think that we should approach it from different direction: only someone who is persistent enough should reap the benefits, and not the incompetent and lazy public.
  • As my SO and myself have already discussed, once we have the children we want, I will be getting a vasectomy. If you and your SO are married or plan to stay together for the rest of your lives, this is something you two should consider.

    Of course this causes some concern for me, but its safer for the guy to go through this than for the women to be fixed - sorry forget the name of the procedure on women.

  • That is a concern, definitely, but vasectomies are (potentially) reversable - any medical experts out there care to comment?

    As for birth control, yes, I'm lucky, my girlfriend is very good with the Pill. Though she fogot once, and we had to go without for a time, but better that than an accident. True, condoms are an option, but I'd rather wait a week than use one. Thank god I don't have to worry about taking a pill everyday. The chances of me remembering more than a couple days a week are pretty slim.

  • Do not underestimate the power of peer pressure and marketting, which have already destroyed most people's long term health. How many times have you seen banner ads with skinny late-teen girls holding out these size 30 pants in front of them with a slogan saying that you too can loose that unsightly 10lbs before school starts again, and that was from a website which purported to be responsible.

    Given FDA acceptance, and just a little bit of time, and you'll have most of the "modern" world living off the damn thing.
  • Here's a method that has always worked for my wife and I: the easiest way to prevent unwanted pregnancy is to force your girlfriend/wife to watch at least one episode of Southpark, and after that you won't see her for a week. Continued long enough this can avoid all the normal problems associated with failed birth control, eg pickle-jam sandwiches and offspring dropping out of school.
  • Male menstruation is reading on the can.
  • in the audience.

    Perhaps there could be a "Females" topic? (It is relevant to geeks, no?) Of course, Taco would probably come up with a dumbass logo, and then there goes the audience even further.

    Except Anne Marie, of course.

  • uhm. regular birth control does the same thing. the only difference is, with birth control for the last set of pills per month they give placebo pills. if you skip the placebos and take the next set of pills you will skip your period.

  • Is there some form of MALE menstruation I wasn't made aware of in sex-ed classes?

  • It's really too bad I can't use my mod points on this (yeah, I know why).. someone should mod this up if they see it; +1 Funny. =)

  • In older spiritualities, pagan, native american, etc, menstruation was seen as sacred and a way for women to connect with their inner selves. It's sad that it as seen as nothing more than an inconvenience now.

    I agree with you in that I feel that the older spiritualities did much more to celebrate womanhood as a whole. Part of this often inculded a culture around menstruation.

    But celebrating menstruation alone is not the same as celebrating womanhood.

    I'm much more concerned that modern cultures don't respect (let alone celebrate) my thoughts, my feelings, my view of the world, my approach to problem solving, the complexities of my relationships with others, my desires, etc. Celebrating my period is low on my list of priorities.

    My inner self and I do connect regularly, but I don't need to be on my period to do so. I meditate. Or I write. Or I talk to people about what I think the real differences are between men and women, and it turn learn more about myself as a woman.

    Now a little more respect for menstruation and its associated problems would be nice. Like when friends of mine are so overcome with the pain of severe menstrual cramps that they can't move, reactions like "it can't be that bad." are rather demeaning. Being able to talk about this openly in mixed company without all the men covering their ears and saying "Too much information." would be a real step forward.

    I have no problem with women who choose to stop having their periods -- I don't really want to have mine. Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I have to enjoy my backaches, my painful bloating, my inability to rely on my emotions for a week (I'm usually very down to earth, but while PMS'ing I cry easily -- which can be very problematic at work), my frequent urination, etc., -- and I have mild symptons. I can celebrate being female in general, without celebrating this particular aspect of my biology.

    There's a very big difference between using means to stop having periods, and treating menstruation as this dark, embarrassing, secret, shameful thing that we aren't supposed to let anyone be aware of, except in whispered euphemisms. This is a normal thing, but yet it is not talked about as one -- and I don't see a desire to desire to stop something normal as being inconsistant with wanting to discuss it normally. Ovulation is a normal thing, but birth constrol stops this -- and birth control is increasingly being discussed normally.

    Natural part of life? Of course it is. Now please treat it like one.

  • Regarding both forms of this drug:

    Many existing forms of hormonal birth control stop or greatly reduce menstruation (and its lovely side-effects) already. The Pill is often used on women who have severe cramps, and usually greatly reduces flow. (It's been described as going from a gush to a drizzle.) Similarly, Depo-Provara (the Shot -- a needle every 3 months) has a very common side-effect of stopping menstruation completely. While both of these have problems associated with long-term use, this article doesn't tell me what I'd really like to know -- how is this better than my current choices?

    The stopping menstruation without stopping ovulation does sound interesting, but I have to wonder about its side-effects. Without the build-up in the uterus, couldn't this lead to more ectopic pregnancies? And if you were to become pregnant while on this drug, how would you know? (It's very dangerous, for example, to take birth control pills while pregnant.) And couldn't the continued use of this drug while pregnant have adverse side-effects?

    I applaud their goal of trying to reduce endometriosis and the number of hysterectomies performed (both my mother and my mother-in-law underwent this) but I worry about this as a lifestyle choice.

    Frankly, I'd like to see some more work on developing birth control for men. My SO and I don't want children. Unfortunately, I'm terrible at doing things on a schedule. I was on the pill -- but after a few months I started forgetting to take them so often that it became useless. I can barely remember to get my oil changed every 3 months, let alone get a shot -- and I hate doctors anyway. And the Norplant (implant which provides birth control for 5 years) has some extremely adverse side-effects. (Most women experience CONSTANT bleeding.) My SO, however, is much more organized; I'd trust him to take a pill every day over me. Unfortunately, there's nothing available.

    Thinking back to my single life, though, I don't think I'd ever be able to trust any guy who said "Relax babe -- I'm on the pill"

  • Is there any other kind?

    StoneWolf

  • But there are plenty of guys who don't want their girlfriends to get preg...

    Never mind. I forgot who the readership of /. mainly consists of.
    ----------
  • Haven't you been to business school? The question we (males, i.e. ummm.... consumers) all want answered is, "Does it stop PMS?"
  • Stopping your period is not a new idea. As other posters have said, normal birth control pills can do that if taken a certain way.

    The real question is, what is the physical effect on your body when your body keeps ovulating but you have no period? Wouldn't this basically mean your body has no way of getting rid of the effects of ovulation? And what if you were to get pregnant? There'd be no uterus lining for the fertilized egg to attach to, which would, if I remember biology class correctly, increase your chance of an ecoptic pregnancy, right? Or, even worse, the fertilized egg attaching somewhere else besides a fallopian tube or the uterus - which causes even more problems.

    As a woman who has extremely painful periods (to the point that I cannot stand up straight some months during the beginning of my period) I can completely understand why some would choose to stop their period for an extended period of time. But there are other ways - that include stopping ovulation altogether - that seem much safer.

    I don't know. I guess I just don't see the point of stopping menstruation without stopping ovulation also...
  • Does anyone know of a chemical to inhibit sperm production? I only ask because this method of birth control should have fewer religious oppositions. It has been argued by the Catholic Church that hormone pills for women are okay, so long as they do not act as abortifacents, and are used in the context of a marriage not fully prepared for a(nother) child, or in the strict case of medical need. I know this differs from place to place (bishops do not all think alike), but nothing I can conceive (ha ha) says that a male pill would be abhorant to the Church if used in the confines of a loving marriage. Anyone?
  • Actually, the Church has recanted the teachings that pleasureable sex is sinful. If you look at CCC 2266 and CCC 2357 and CCC 2370.
  • wipe out 99.5% of the eggs you have a pretty effective method, but wiping out 99.5% of the sperm doesn't really gain you much

    Very true. I suppose you are correct. I was thinking more about if studies exist as to how males produce sperm, and if the trigger can be stopped. But, still, in numbers, you are correct.

  • hooray for no bleeding!
    hooray for no pregnancy and mucho sex!

    (sez the man whose wife, with few hormones, is due in october.)
  • All I have to do at work to get everyone to stay away from me is bare my teeth and scream, "PMS!" once. Word seems to spread fairly quickly after that, and I usually get a few good days of no one setting foot near my cubicle. Course, it could also have something to do with the fact that I have a picture of the software tester who blew away his office hanging in my cubicle, above a styrofoam Uzi my programmer made for me...but I digress...
  • well, its not like someone's going to MAKE everyone take this pill, it's just there as an option. It's up to the individual to determine what degree of control they want to exert over their (normally) involuntary bodily processes, and each new medical development increases the possabilities.
  • A VERY important thing to note, though, is that taking birth control pills all the time to control menstruation greatly increases the likelihood of pregnancy. Also, taking full dose all the time is not at all a good idea for most women- women have periods to flush out the uterine lining. You are simply wrong- girls very much should be menstruating every month. Additionally, it's a good indication to know if you're pregnant. If one is always taking full-strength pills, then one may become pregnant without knowing it because of not noticing skipped periods. This can cause extremely serious damage to the fetus. As always with something like this, CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR before trying anything. Seriously screwing up your reproductive system is not something most people want to do.

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