Blurring of the genders. 'Cause remember kids, if it don't bleed it ain't really a woman. But then, also don't forget that you can't trust anything that bleeds for seven days and doesn't die. I'm getting mixed messages here.

Oh, if only I could partake. It gets tempting, every time another period-stopped shows up on the market, to give it a whirl, but my family has a long history of issues with hormonal treatments for periods [including the original Pill, which gave my mother wicked migraines and hospitalized her for three days]. I accept my period as an inevitability and pretty much just take it as it comes, but the chance to cut off the flow? Oh, my, yes.

Of course, I would immediately follow up by donning flannel, chopping off my hair, and buying a pair of Birkenstocks. That's how this works, right?

Do you smile and talk to your friends about the cramps, the mood swings, and the like?

Yeah, Eugene, I totally love to gossip about the pains of menstruation with my friends every month. And it makes me feel so totally "in."

What the hell? I love the way he manages to make it sound like having your period is like waking up to find yourself in the pages of The Gossip Girls, or The Clique. Oh my god! (squeals) it's, like, my dream come true!!

* * *

I've never had a really hard time with my cycle, and actually kind of like the rhythm of it. Since I'm not on hormonal birth control at the moment, I'm not going to rush out and get the new stuff. But (as has been said here before), as long as it's medically safe, there's no reason why women shouldn't have the option of foregoing their cycles if they want to.

My one worry is that a sort of stigma might become attached to women who choose to go on bleeding. Kind of like women who choose unmedicated, unhospitalized childbirth?? Thoughts anyone?

* * *

About femaleness. I remember being awed when I first got my period (I was maybe 14?) and realized I now had the capacity to be pregnant. It sparked a several-year obsession with midwifery, pregnancy and childbirth, and the cultural narratives of motherhood. So yeah, I guess you could say that my reproductive capacity (as evidenced, in part by my cycle) is a central part of my female-ness. Part of what makes me aware of my biological sex. But so do my breasts and hips, my clitoris and vagina. Hard to imagine how the cessation of bleeding would challenge my bodily identity.

And last I checked . . . "womanhood" is defined in our culture by a hell of a lot more than by our bodies. So I'm not holding out hope for the demise of "feminine" and "masculine" in the cultural lexicon. If I thought that by stopping my period, I could help erase the concept of gender from the planet, I'd probably run out and buy me some pills TODAY.

I'll define my identity myself, thanks.

It's the opposite of feminism (and humanism) to tell other people who they are.

The continuous use pill has been approved in the United States and is awaiting approval in Canada. At the same time, estrogen has been designated a known carcinogen, new research reveals how the pill alters the libido (possibly irreversibly), and more women are dying from strokes and blood clots and suffering extensive bone lose from new methods of hormone delivery. As pharmaceutical companies increase their market for lifestyle drugs and inform women that they do not need to menstruate, we must stop and look at the facts and consider what is not yet known and what kind of impact this could have. Just as in the past, ‘the personal is political’ and this battle over women’s bodies and natural processes could have devastating affects on a future generation of young women.

The pill companies want to get rich by telling you menstruating is so horrible. But really, your menstrual cycle helps keep you healthy. Estrogen is a natural anti-depressant. As your hormones ebb and flow, your moods can change but often in very positive ways. Some times in the month I am more creative, others more reflexive and definitely when I'm ovulating, I'm horny.

There are so many dangers to ending menstruation that we already know about. Ask the women who took Depo-provera and now have osteoporosis or the ones who didn’t get their period for more than a year after they stopped taking it. And there are also so many things we don't know about yet. Remember when they told menopausal women that taking hormones was the answer to all their pains? We don't know how this added estrogen will effect developing girls, and we know that there are male fish that produce eggs in some waters because of all the unprocessed estrogen we pee out when taking the pill. Women on depo have described the drug as a chemical menopause. Is dry vagina and no sex drive worth it to stop your period?

Also, as the pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars in profits every year promoting hormonal contraception, Aids, STD’s and HPV rates continue to rise. Research into other forms of birth control has been cut in half since the 1970’s and products like microbicides that could potentially offer protection against both sexually transmitted diseases and infections as well as pregnancy are stifled by the lack of funding. A revolution in birth control options that do not include hormones and protect against diseases is more important now than ever. The continuous pill is a drug promoted as making your life better that could cause a stroke, severe bone loss or lack of sex drive in order to line the already ginormous coffers of the drug companies.

While clearly some women who suffer from very horrible and painful menstruation would benefit from this type of medical intervention, can’t women with healthy periods embrace them? We don’t need more propaganda on what’s ‘wrong’ with our bodies and how they can be controlled by modern drugs and medicine. I feel reminded of the days when women couldn’t practice medicine because it was believed that if one touched meat when she was menstruating, she would spoil it. All the messages that are coming with the advertising campaigns will revolve around creating hatred of your body’s natural processes.

[O.K. so I have spent the last 3 years of my life researching this for a documentary and I am a bit passionate about it. But please learn about the continuous pill (and not from the pharmaceutical companies and doctors on their pay roll) before considering it.

so, uh if not having my period makes me more like a man, why didn't i get a raise and a promotion when i had my oophrectomy?

i 'lost' my period during two rounds of chemo (and then it returned) only to be squelched permanently. Amazingly enough i found things in common with my women friends even though i could no longer gossip and smile about the visit of my 'little friend'. its such a male view to assume we all talk at length about our periods and that it makes us feel cliquish and maybe even superior - sort of like gloria steinhem's quote about how if men got their periods they'd be boasting about it in terms of how long and how much. Perhaps if HE got his period, HE'd smile and talk about it and generally feel cliquish.

Now if only they would make these pills OTC, rather than the long request to daddy (doctors and pharmacists), I would be in business. As it stands, I may have to give in to the medico-pharmaceutical complex. It will be worth it to end what Eugene envisions as some sort of pajama party, but increasingly becomes like what Ann describes above.

On a completely silly note, did they really name this pill "Lybrel"--like the phonetic version of "Liberal"? ...Why? What message are they trying to convey? Stop menstruating and start supporting civil liberties?

Okay, does anyone else now have that instrumental song "The In Crowd" stuck in their heads?

I am also leery of hormonal birth control, as a personal matter, because it really screwed me up for the second of the two months I took it. Regardless of what you think about the benefits/harms of the pill, I am with Terra--I think we need to do more to research other methods (particularly barrier methods) and make them safer and more effective. And bring on the microbicides. Please!

Awesome post, Terra. I'm also in the "it it ain't broke, don't fit it" camp ;o).

Where can we find out more about your documentary?

And already the talk about hating our bodies comes out. Why do we have to be considered to hate our bodies just to want to get rid of a period? It's messy, it interrupts my sex life, it's painful, and it's generally irritating. What's to like about any of that? Just because it's natural to get one doesn't mean it's enjoyable.

I'd take one of those no-period pills if it weren't for the fact that I don't need birth control anymore.

great posts, anna and terra.

I've always been for blurring the gender lines. 1st wavers were not, except for the radicals--elizabeth cady stanton, matilda joslyn gage, lillie devereux blake. the 2nd wave was all about blurring the lines. and i've learned from the 3rd wavers the importance of acknowledging difference and demanding change to accommodate it, but i've always been cautious about emphasizing difference, because it seems inevitable that it is used to establish a hierarchy and impose discriminations. Now this issue makes clear that the patriachy is indeed invested in clearly defined gender differences. It sounds so dumb on the surface: "its arrival marks yet another step toward the blurring of the genders" but this statement is indicative of how important gender difference is in maintaining the status quo.

the above is kind of off topic, i suppose, but it's what came to mind when reading the post.

like you, anna, i appreciated the cycle of the cycle-- i had so much creative energy during those few days before menstruating that i amazed even myself. that's when I accomplished most of my writing. of course i'm one of those possibly stigmatized women who experienced unmedicated childbirth!!!!!!! as terra advocates, whenever possible, I'm for the natural over the pharmacological.

There was me thinking that the fact I have to take pills to stop my periods was a pretty good marker of being a woman.

There was me thinking having periods to stop was a pretty good marker of being a woman...

There was me thinking having periods to stop was a pretty good marker of being a woman...

There was me thinking having periods to stop was a pretty good marker of being a woman...

Yeah I felt "in" when I first got my period when I was 15 cause I was the last to do so, but I realized very soon after that that I could have happily gone another year or so without it. Now my birth control pills keep me regular and dry for the most part. The only reason I like to see it is to know I'm not pregger.

It seems to me, Kimmy, that there are two connected issues here. a) There's the unfair characterization of women who wish to be period-free as "hating" their bodies; b) then there are very real health concerns about the effects of hormonal birth control. These two get tangled up together when it comes to the medical-cultural history of pathologizing women's reproductive health.

So yeah, we have the right to live without our periods, but what are the cultural pressures and narratives surrounding that choice? If we're taking significant health risks because we just don't like our periods, that seems like kind of a bad trade-off. And it seems appropriate for feminists to raise the question of why we are altering the processes of our bodies this way. We don't have to dictate, in the end, what the "good" or "bad" decision is--but it seems legitimate to challenge ourselves to reflect on why we make the choices we do.

like you, anna, i appreciated the cycle of the cycle

Nice way of putting it Grace. Since I've had pretty easy cycles, it's a good low-key way for me to be mindful of inhabiting my body. Clearly, though, it's largely the luck of the draw. I have friends who really struggle with the ups and downs.

I've had sooooo many conversations with my female friends (and some male friends) about this pill in the last few months.... everybody's got an opinion.

A few years ago I stopped my period for about a year by taking the regular pill continuously because I have endometriosis and the pain was driving me insane and keepng me bedridden for basically the 1st and 2nd days of my period. But after dosing myself with hormones every day for an extended period of time, I decided I'd rather have the pain. I actually missed my period, not the cramps, but the feeling that my mody was doing what it needed to do. Plus that was around the time my mom got breast-cancer from hormone replacement therapy and I decided to go off hormonal contraception because I'm already at a higher risk for breast cancer.

I used to work for a market research firm and a few of our clients were pharmaceutial companies that were developing this (and competing versions) pill and trying to figure out how to market it pending FDA approval. The marketing really really really bothered me and I think as a result I have a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing.

And after having a lot of conversations with women who are freaked out by the continuous pill, I'm bothered by dialogue on both sides of it.

On the pro-pill side I'm annoyed by the anti-period talk. Like the "Yippee, periods are yucky, I'm glad I don't have to think about it anymore." Because while a lot of women(myself included) have a lot of issues with their periods, there's a difference between hating the pain and the complications and hating/being ashamed of the whole idea of it. And since most of the marketing that I saw at my old job was created by men, a lot of it had the "periods are gross" undertones.

On the other hand, I get annoyed with the touchy-feely "how lovely to be a woman" crap. Because on behalf of pre-pubescent, post-menopausal, and trans-women, I resent the idea that a period makes you more feminine or that you can't love being a woman while wanting to stop doubling over in pain 2 days out of every month.

having said all that, I think Terra made a lot of really good points and no matter what women decide about this pill, it's important to make informed health care decisions. Pharmaceutical companies don't want us to do that, so the hype about the pill isn't going to be totally straight-forward.

While I don't think this is particularly more dangerous than the pills before (since those periods are unnecessary anyway), there are always risks associated with taking hormones. I respect every woman's right to choose whether or not she wants to assume those risks and I trust that women who have access to the information necessary to make informed decisions will do so.

Ok, I'm done now. Sometime I start typing and my fingers just won't quit.

This confirms the idea I had before:
I surrender that people who produce these types of BC DO actually think (in whatever backwards way) that they're helping women. But that's because the only way for a woman to really be seen as powerful is to be "like a man" and menstruation is still seen as an icky thing that reminds men and women that they're different.

Whatever.
I'm not going to say that I enjoy my period in its entirety. There are aspects that are annoying, but even those can be comforting. What I do like about my period is that I always get it, it's usually on time and it lets me know that everything down there is ok. I don't want to have a baby right now, so it helps me keep that in check. Plus for a woman my age, it's a healthy signal. If I didn't get it, I'd be worried.

Plus I heard a doctor on the news say that these kinds of pills increase spotting, so you're really exchanging scheduled bleeding for unscheduled bleeding. Sounds like more of a hassle to me!
Though I actually heard another doctor say that there's no "medical reason" for monthly bleeding. Puh! By whose medicine?! Not nature's....

Personally, I would suggest not taking a new pill until it's been throughly proven. It's not worth the risk.

Thank you for posting this. I was waiting for the feminist viewpoint.

Call me divorced from my body, but I see nothing pleasant about a period. Pads are uncomfortable, tampons more so (I'm a little tilted). I dislike the cramps and the mood swings. And the actual feeling of it.

Nobody had to tell me any of these things. Nobody brainwashed me into thinking it. I came to that conclusion because I am a rational human being who can determine that it's better to not have to deal with the mess and the pain than to have to deal with it.

You may disagree, that's fine. But it doesn't mean I hate my body, it doesn't mean someone convinced me it was "yucky," and it doesn't make me any less of a woman to feel that way.

Isn't it ever possible to just disagree about something like this without drawing these conclusions about the people on the other side of the question?

I use the patch to reduce the number of periods I have to about three per year (those ones usually happening just because I'm too busy that particular week to get out to the pharmacy). The reason why pills like this and Seasonale/ique appeal to me is because they do away with the hassles that using the traditional hormonal methods for extended periods can bring, such as wrestling with insurance companies when it looks like you've been getting your birth control too often. However, reading up on Lybrel I"m hesitant to change because a) I'm a big fan of just putting on a patch and not having to think about it for a week and b) a third of the women dropped out of clinical trials because of "excessive" break through bleeding. So while the pill completely suppressed the periods of 59% of the final test group...that's a significantly smaller number than the original test group. So for now, I'm going to stick with just using my patch continuously until someone figures out a better solution.

"Isn't it ever possible to just disagree about something like this without drawing these conclusions about the people on the other side of the question?"

I certainly think that it is, Kimmy. My post was mainly a reaction to the ABC response that "It's unclear whether women will embrace this new pill, which contains the same formulations of estrogen and progestin used for birth control pills for decades, but its arrival marks yet another step toward the blurring of the genders." I was on my 'differences' hobby-horse.

I'm also personally leary of hormones and their possible effects, having had, like Colleen's mom, a probably hormone-induced breast cancer. Not fun.

THANK YOU, Kimmy. If I'd seen your comment before I posted mine I would have included this in that message. But I feel the EXACT same way. It doesn't take a lifetime of brainwashing to figure out that if something causes you pain you're not going to like it; it is something that rational human beings figure out by themselves.

Just want to reiterate that I in no way believe that all women should be taking hormonal contraceptives. Obviously, I'm for every individual woman choosing what works for her.

There is no FDA official forcing me to take Lybrel. Nearly every article I've read about the pill explains that the jury is still out on the long-term effects. Women are grown-ups who can weigh risks and benefits of taking a newly approved drug. I'm not trying to say I have undying faith in Big Pharma to tell me when their products are going to be harmful. But in this case, I think it's been made clear that there may be health risks associated with taking this drug.

Allowing women the choice not to menstruate is NOT the same thing as saying women's bodies are disgusting and filthy. I completely respect the choice of women who like getting their period -- for whatever reason -- and want to continue to do so. But I'm like Kimmy. For me, menstruating is not a big part of my gender identity. It doesn't make me feel "dirty" -- it's just an inconvenience. And yes, I absolutely love my body.

And this...

All the messages that are coming with the advertising campaigns will revolve around creating hatred of your body’s natural processes.

Like Amanda, I'm incredibly wary of advocating for anything on the basis of it being "natural." So much conservative religious and political rhetoric is built on the "natural." Contraception? Not natural. Any sex that isn't procreative, between a man and a woman? Not natural. Women not wanting to have children, not feeling maternal at all? Not natural. Etc. Etc. And while I can certainly understand the health-feminist definition of "natural" vs. the conservative definition, these lines can get blurred pretty easily, and before you know it, Tony Perkins is going, "Even the feminists think contraception is unnatural!" or some such thing.

For anyone who reads sci-fi/fantasy, there is a great short story by an author named Connie Willis in her collection of short stories called "Impossible Things." The story is called "Even the Queen" and it is about a world where women opt out of their period and the ones that decide not to are considered part of a cult called "The Cyclists." It is pretty entertaining (and mildly hilarious if I remember correctly, but it's been awhile since I read it). She wrote it in 1992. Anyway, the whole book is a good read but I thought I would pass it along if anyone was interested.

As for me, I just would feel uneasy not getting my period due to hormonal tampering. But that is just me, I have no judgment for women who "opt out." It's all about choice. :)

William Saletan wrote about this yesterday, saying that menstruation itself is "unnatural" 'cause women's bodies are biologically designed to be preggers all the time, anyway.

*headdesk*

But I get pissed off when it's implied that I'm self-hating or somehow out of touch with my body and my gender because I don't like the monthly visit from Cap'n Bloodsnatch.

And yet, it didn't take long at all...

[...]can’t women with healthy periods embrace them?

I am one of those women who had a regular, healthy period and usually I will go with the regular cycle of having a period every four weeks. Not because it's something I enjoy or *love* just 'cause I got a big ole womb, but because if I went straight through I'd go through my pills a lot faster.

What gets me about terra's post is in her rant against big pharma she lumps every woman into one catergory, as if EVERY woman taking any kind of birth control pill has a dry vagina and no sex drive. Sorry terra but I don't like it when men and the right wing lump us all together as if we weren't individuals so I'm going to pull myself out of your equation.

I have been on the pill for seven straight years. I went on the pill before my freshman year of college (helped by my mother who took me to her gyno:). I spoke with my doctor and she helped me pick out the best method for me because she knew there was a history of blood clotting in my family.

I am happy to say the pill has not affected my sex drive and I get just as wet now as before I took the pill. I will admit that I don't get that ultra horny sensation like when I had a few days before my "normal" period, but I don't mind that because it was just my womb going, "WE NEED TO FUCK RIGHT NOOOOOW SO I CAN GET A BABBBBBBBY!!!"

Seeing as the point is to NOT have a baby I'm totally okay with that.

Not every woman is the same. If there are women on Depo who have the dryness and the lack of sex drive well guess what, THEY NEED TO CHANGE THEIR BIRTH CONTROL. I shouldn't have talking to me like I'm a child who can't make up my own mind just because it doesn't work for another woman and someone has an ax to grind with pharmaceutical companies.

When it comes to menstruation it should be left to the individual woman. Some women find comfort in their periods and some find them yucky. And for the women who find them yucky there could be any number of reasons, not just necessarily that men tell women their periods are gross. That's what gets me about some of the counter arguments with posters just assuming that we should "discuss" this political as personal because it's always an outside influence that's informing women's decisions, not something they themselves are experiencing. They themselves might actually NO enjoy their own periods for reasons that are personal to THEM. It doesn't necessariy have to be "well it's because men are telling us we shouldn't like our periods." I know this might sound like sacrilege to some but it's true.

This might be TMI and I don't know about other women but my period doesn't smell so pleasant no matter what I do and when I'm at work I am fearful of other women coming behind me because it can get that strong. Sometimes it can be very messy and even though I'm on the pill I still get cramps every now and then and it's uncomfortable. I don't have cramps as bad as some other women who have serious medical conditions, but to me, what terra is saying is the equivalent to : "Well, we're only going to allow abortion for victims of rape and incest and health of the mother because they're the ones who REALLY need it, everyone else with a healthy pregnancy should just accept it as natural."

It's someone else dictating who should and should not be allowed to make decisions for themselves, for WHATEVER reasons. Just because you don't agree with them doesn't make them any less valid.

mirm, birth control is not going OTC pretty much ever. Know why? There are plenty of women who get high blood pressure from taking it, women who are at higher risk of blood clots or other bad side effects, and seeing a provider annually can catch the problem before it becomes too bad. Also, annual cervical cancer screenings (Pap smears) are important for sexually-active women. Bundling it is pretty easy.

On topic of the post, I dislike getting my period. Time was, I would bleed through a pad (back in middle school) and spend a day doubled over in pain & nausea. After I went on the pill in college, I'd bleed through a super tampon in 4 hours. I still would have cramps, but not as badly. Now I have an IUD that all but stops my menstruation.

I've never experienced this estrogen antidepressant thing. Then again, I also have had depressive mood changes in the week prior to my period.

This does not mean that I despise womanhood or hate my body. It means I find spending 1-2 days every 28-40 (I had a very irregular cycle) in pain to be unpleasant. It means I dislike the feeling of blood dripping. It means I dislike feeling mentally unbalanced at intervals I can't predict because my cycle is extremely irregular.

Is it me, or does the majority of women who say "It's great!" overlap with women who don't have endometriosis or other types of dysmenorrhea?

Just wanted to reiterate that I do not think that taking Lybrel (or otherwise choosing to stop your periods) = "hating" you body. And I don't think that periods a woman make.

What I was suggesting is that we should have a healthy dose of skepticism about how this pill is being marketed (Colleen, thanks for your post!). As with the HPV vaccine, and hormone replacement therapy, there are legitimate medical concerns about the effects of hormonal BC. Choosing to avoid hormones when possible doesn't mean we're automatically getting all glowy about the femininity of menstruation.

thisisendless: whenever this debate comes up, I think of "Even the Queen" ;o). Hilarious.

And P.S. . .

They themselves might actually NOT enjoy their own periods for reasons that are personal to THEM.

UltraMagnus, I agree. None of us are free of cultural narratives that inform our own personal "choices." I think skepticism is warranted on both sides of the issue.

Dang, wish I'd seen Ann's post before my rant. Darn:P Damn good post though, Ann!

Quick question: has anyone else ever not had the option of skipping the pretend period you get on birth control before? A few years ago, when I first started the Patch, my local CVS would not refill my prescription more than every 30 days, forcing me to take a week off and do the bleeding thing. I never really looked into this since I was happy to see blood as a sign I wasn't pregnant, but looking back it seems odd.

None of us are free of cultural narratives that inform our own personal "choices." I think skepticism is warranted on both sides of the issue.

So how a woman actually PHYSICALLY feels means nothing? annaj, I get where you're coming from but I'm going to disagree.

For the record, I love my birth control pills. They get rid of my menstrual cramps, they keep me from beig pregnant, and they're easy to use. This pill isn't going to make drug companies any more money than the normal birth control packs we take that include placebos - either way, you're buying a pill to take every day. They may charge more for this product if the demand sustains a higher prices, but wtf ever, eh?

And Lancastrian, I'm actually currently skipping my placebos. I did it for a while around my wedding, so I wouldn't be menstruating on my honeymoon, and I stopped because I was gaining weight - I wasn't sure if it was the constant pill-taking or if it was something else, but I figured it wasn't a big deal either way. I've skipped two periods so far and I don't feel any different. My period isn't a big deal anyway, so I'm not really sure if I want to bother buying 25% more pills over the year (since I have to buy the placebos with my current regimen) to skip my 3-ish day period that runs like clockwork. And I think I'm gaining weight again, which is odd because I decided to go vegetarian recently. I'll just wait and see...

I don't think that my period is "icky." I think that's it's painful and annoying. No, it's not exactly pretty, but I don't think "ew, blood" every time I change a tampon (in fact, I usually use sponges, so I'm clearly NOT grossed out by it).

Th