Women Should Prepare For 'Barrage' Of Advertisements With Introduction Of Contraceptive Lybrel, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 19 Jul 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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Women should "[g]ird" themselves for a "barrage of advertising and research highlighting the debilitating effects" of menstruation and the "joys of menstrual suppression" as Wyeth's oral contraceptive Lybrel -- which is designed to eliminate monthly menstrual periods -- reaches the market in July, Karen Houppert, author of "The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo; Menstruation," writes in a New York Times opinion piece (Houppert, New York Times, 7/17).

Lybrel, approved by FDA in May, contains a lower dose of synthetic hormones in a daily dose than traditional oral contraceptives and is taken 365 days a year with no placebo pills. The usual regimen for oral contraceptives is 21 active pills taken consecutively, followed by seven placebo pills (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/23).

Lybrel might be "good news" for the 8% of women who have "debilitating" menstrual periods, Houppert writes. However, the remainder of women might "be puzzled by the fuss" because most women "get used" to menstruation, which is "not a particularly profitable attitude" for Wyeth and other companies selling contraception that suppresses menstruation, according to Houppert.

"So what's a poor company to do?" Houppert writes, adding, "Re-conceptualize menstruation as a disease in need of treatment." She writes, "And what's a poor menstruating woman to do? Get cranky with the prophets who offer to cure us of menstruation; who minimize the complex interplay of hormones and their many roles in our bodies; who gloss over the still unknown long-term effects of menstrual suppression; who promise that cycle-free women are better lovers, mothers, workers. Or just don't buy" the pills.

"Someone cynical might suggest that research highlighting menstruation's distressing consequences bubbles to the surface every time the public feels anxious over women's expanding roles," Houppert writes, adding, "So take today's hoopla over menstrual suppression with a grain of ibuprofen" (New York Times, 7/17).

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