More and more women are interested in skipping their periods. According to “Understanding Menstrual Suppression,” an article in the Association of Reproductive Health Professional’s (ARHP) online publication Health Matters, 2.5 million women 18-50 years old have some type of menstrual disorder. For these women menstrual suppression can be life changing. But is it appropriate for healthy women with normal menstrual cycles? The debate between drug companies and a few health care professionals can leave women confused in the cross-hairs.
Traditional Birth Control Pills and Menstrual Suppression
It is important to understand the role of traditional 28-day cycle birth control pills on a woman’s health and reproductive system. Traditional pills, whether a combination pill of progestin and estrogen or progestin only pills, work by preventing ovulation and blocking sperm as a result of thickening the cervical mucus. After 21 days of active pills a woman takes 7 days of placebo pills. At some point during the last 7 days she has a period.
This period though, is not the same as a period of a woman using no hormonal contraception. The ARHP calls it “withdrawal bleeding” because it is actually the body’s reaction to being without the hormones in the 21 active pills. This is the model that menstrual suppression drugs were built on. In fact, the website for Women’s Health Queensland Wide in an article titled “The Pill: Myths and Misconceptions” says that the only reason pills are packaged in a 28-day regimen is so that they are more acceptable.
The Menstrual Suppression Debate
Those who are okay with the idea of menstrual suppression say that there is no evidence that it is harmful. The ARHP stated that there was no evidence to support regular menstruation as medically necessary or that suppressing menstruation was detrimental to a woman’s health, in an article for Health Matters titled “What You Need to Know: Menstrual Suppression.” The article also states that there is no medical or health reason to bleed while on hormonal contraception and that the safety of menstrual suppression pills appears to be comparable to traditional combination birth control pills.
The problem with this line of thinking is that there is also no evidence to show that it is definitely not harmful. When Depo Provera was first introduced as a form of hormonal contraception neither the drug company, doctors, nor patients knew that it was causing irreversible bone loss which could lead to osteoporosis, until years later.
Those against menstrual suppression worry that the constant hormones and the absence of a period of any type could have an adverse effect on otherwise healthy women. Noperiod.com cites that it is possible that not having a period could build up iron levels, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and other diseases. They suggest that women who are suppressing their menstrual cycle should be tested to determine the levels of iron in their blood and also consider blood donation as a means of keeping it at a normal level.
Dr. Susan Rako, President of Women’s Health on Alert, agrees with this “iron theory” and also says that nonstop use of estrogen results in less available natural testosterone. Women’s bodies need a certain level of testosterone in order to build healthy bones, keep muscles strong, protect against depression, heart attack and stroke, keep hair shiny, and combat dry eye. It also plays a huge part in a woman’s sex life. Low levels of testosterone can cause a woman to have less interest in sex and make it less pleasurable for her. On her website she says pushing this idea of no more periods on women and especially teenage girls is “reckless” and that “manipulating women’s hormonal chemistry for the purpose of menstrual suppression threatens to be the largest uncontrolled experiment in the history of medical science.”
The Bottom Line on Skipping Periods
This is a fairly new concept as far as healthy women with normal menstrual cycles are concerned and there is a lot to think about. According to Noperiod.com, 100 years ago the average woman had 150 periods in her lifetime, while the average woman today can have 450 periods. This statement, however, does not take into account that 100 years ago women were having more babies and were also breastfeeding, therefore effectively delaying periods naturally. The truth is no one really knows whether or not it is safe to suppress the menstrual cycle using artificial hormones. At this time there is just not enough evidence to support either side. Because there is so little known about the long term effects of menstrual suppression, healthy women with normal menstrual cycles may be better off erring to the side of caution and leaving it to those who do it out of medical necessity.
Click here for more information on the drugs available that help women have less periods.
 |
