Lybrel Offers End to Menstruation
New Birth Control Pill Offers Women Option to Skip Periods All Year
Lybrel is a new birth control pill that allows women to skip their periods completely.
On May 22,2007, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new product called "Lybrel". The drug is manufactured by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and is scheduled to be available in pharmacies in July 2007.
How Birth Control Pills Work
The concept behind all "standard" birth control pills, birth control patches, and the Nuva-ring, are that hormones are released into the system, causing the patient not to ovulate. Each of these methods includes 21 days of hormones, then 7 days where the patient does not take hormones. During this week, the patient will experience a period, though it may be somewhat lighter.
How Is Lybrel Different?
Lybrel is composed of the same hormones as traditional birth control pills. Specifically, each pill contains 90 micrograms of a progestin, levonorgestrel, and 20 micrograms of an estrogen, ethinyl estradiol.
The only different is that Lybrel is taken 365 days a year. Since there is never a time when the woman is not taking the pill, there is no period. Women have been doing the same thing for years: simply skipping the "placebo" week of sugar pills and starting immediately on the next week.
Does It Really Work?
It can take some time to achieve amenorrhea (the state of having no periods at all) when using Lybrel or another continuous method. According to the testing of Lybrel done by the FDA, only 59% of women were period-free at the end of the 12 month study. Others experienced spotting or "breakthough bleeding" (a period-like blood flow).
Similar results were found by users of Seasonale and Seasonique, another birth control pill which is taken for three full months followed by a placebo week. According to patients, it usually takes about six months for their periods to be regulated by the new schedule.
Is it Safe to Skip you Period?
According to Wyeth (the company producing Lybrel), 97 percent of gynecologists "thought it is safe to use oral contraceptives continuously, without a placebo phase, in the appropriate patient population," according to a Gallup survey of 205 obstetrician-gynecologists and 200 nurse practitioners.
Doctors have been endorsing the method of skipping the placebo week for years, and there have been no negative effects seen yet. Websites such as NoPeriod.com explore these issues.
Do You Need to Have a Period?
There is a lot of debate on this issue. For many women, it seems unnatural to skip their periods completely. In addition, some women cite that if they become pregnant while on the pill, they will not be alerted by a missed period.
Looking back at the history of birth control pills, the only reason that the placebo week was ever added was because the pharmaceutical companies thought it would be to radical to make a drastic shift in the way women viewed their reproductive cycles.
There is no scientific evidence that skipping your period has any negative effects on health or fertility.
What Are the Benefits?
Menstruation can be a painful process for many women. In addition to emotional impact, physical pain can lead to missed days at work and missing out on activities.
Sources:
FDA Press Release Stating Approval for Lybrel
Prescribing Information for Lybrel from Wyeth
