Hey look ladies, you could have only four periods a year with Seasonique!

www.seasonique.com...

I was watching this commercial with my girlfriend and it just didn't sit right with me, messing with nature like that.

For as long as I've been alive women have had a monthly cycle, I'm not sure how it was before 1971. I mean however you want to look at evolution, nature chose this for women. Sure it all sounds all honky dorry on the surface, but I'm worried about the possible side effects. Will our baby be born with a penis growing out of it's forehead? Will the PMS build up for three months, at which time she'll turn into Joan Crawford, throwing Ajax around and whipping me with a wire coat hanger because I left the toilet seat up? I don't need that. Will she start foaming at the mouth or spontaneously combust? Why is it necessary for medicine to mess with a woman's body like this?

Believe me, I know women don't like to be told what to do with their own bodies, and as a man, nothing happens to my body that I can relate to a period other than the fact that I have to drop the kids off at the pool at exactly 7:15 every morning, and if I don't have my sports page that's kind of like PMS for me, but still it's not the same thing.

What do the women think? Is this good or bad?

Peace





[edit on 19-9-2007 by Dr Love]

Originally posted by Dr Love
....that I have to drop the kids off at the pool at exactly 7:15 every morning, ...
[edit on 19-9-2007 by Dr Love]

This had me rolling in the aisles



Back to your question..

Being a married man, I can say my wife would probably like the idea of it.

Whether or not anything would transpire, thats another thing.

And yeah, my worry would be the same.. all that built up anger waiting to let loose. *** shudders***

Is there a legitimate conspiracy to be formulated and presented here or should I move this to the Health & Wellness forum on BTS so people can joke around?
.

I guess not!

The only conspiratorial angle I could see is wondering what this could be doing to womens' bodies. I haven't heard from one woman yet, so I guess they don't care.

Move away!

Peace

I don't see what the problem is with it. I was on it a while ago (Its called Seasonale here), and from all my 'period' problems, this set of pills was almost a miracle. The one you should be wondering about is Depo Provera. IMO That crap will sterilize females. It almost happened with me. All the dr's did was put me on more BC. I'm kind of irritated at that, but once they put me on Seasonale, I was very satisfied. The only issue I have with it, and the reason I stopped, was the hefty Price tag: When I was covered by parent's insurance it cost me 45 dollars. Without insurance, I believe it's 140-160 dollars. But IMO it's almost worth the cost for the 3 month supply.

What happens to the egg cells?

Do they just wait in reserve waiting until the woman allows them to have a period? ANd if that is the case, will users of this birth control drug have menopause when they are 70 years old?

I hate how 'medicine' keeps finding 'wonder drugs' that since there is no real way to know the long term effects of which, the population becomes the guinea pigs.

New 'technology' must be better than old. Maybe humanity should wait a hundred years to see how the original birth control pills effect the woman's body long term before they start to try to make a 'better' formula.

Seriously, has pill form birth control even been around long enough for most long term users to have gone into menopause yet? Would a woman who started taking the Pill in 1960 as a teen, and has been using it every day since for 47 years, have gone through menopause yet? I don't know...

DocMoreau

Or even more sinister, do they filter the 'hormones' out of the water at sewage plants? Or are the birth control hormones possibly polluting our waterways, and affecting the environment? Yikes...

I've read in various places over the years, and you can Google it, I'm sure, that before "The Pill", a "regular" monthly cycle is not what the majority of women had. Even now, I know many women who have never been on regular birth control and do not have a monthly cycle. It was in fact "The Pill" that created the "28 day cycle" in women. The female body has a period when an egg is released and not fertalized. If an egg is not released that month, no period. Birthcontrol forces your body to "think" it's pregnant and not release an egg. Our bodies do not automatically spit one out every month, if we are not on BC and ESCPECIALLY if we never have been.

Well, back in 1998 my Dr told me how I could do this with my pill, by skipping the sugar ones.
So, I thought, awesome, only a couple of periods a year.

6 months later I suffered a pulmonary embolus directly related to me having taken extra hormones that made my blood thicken.
So at 28 I ended up having a huge clot in my lung, and number of little clots that offshot to my heart, kidneys and various places, thankfully not my brain.
I was an unusual case, unknown to me before, I carry the gene for haemochromatosis so monthlies are kinda therapeutic for me.

Didn't turn out so good for me but convenience seems to outweigh the risks for most.
Suppose thats why I tried it, I was unlucky, but lesson learnt!

Originally posted by DocMoreau
What happens to the egg cells?

Do they just wait in reserve waiting until the woman allows them to have a period?

It doesnt kill the period completely, we get one once a season (hence seasonale, etc), where egg is released like a normal menstrual cycle. The hormones used in birth control, the pill, depo, the patch, use hormones to fool our bodies into thinking we're pregnant, thus preventing the menstrual cycle to even begin. The eggs don't even get out of the ovaries. The last week of the 3 month pill deal is a week of 'sugar pill', no hormones at all, so normally this is when the period should happen.

I think the worst ones out of the whole lot are Depo Provera (Shot) and the patch. I've had hormonal issues since I tried the shot (When I was 16, now im 23, that should tell you something), and I nearly died using the patch (Now the patch has been proven to create blood clots in the legs, and dislodge and go to the heart, and has killed quite a few women)

[edit on 19-9-2007 by Chiiru]

a woman's menstrual cycle can cause much pain...

yes this pill may be a good thing (because it will lessen the number of periods a woman has a year), but, at the same time, it can also be a bad thing (because of any side effects)...

it's a touch call that only a woman can make

As much as a PITA having a monthly period is, it's what our bodies are designed to do. I'm not sure I like this trend of trying to remove us from our natural cycles because they're "inconvenient."

Perhaps there is a conspiracy in here somewhere: for millennia, men have beens suspicious of women's periods. They used to think that being around a woman on her period was a sure way to taint their manly energy. Women used to be segregated during that time as being unclean. Some religions still treat women as unclean during this time.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seems to me to be another way to keep women's uncleanliness from bothering men for all but four months out of the year.

I don't like my monthly cycle, it's a pain. It's messy. I eat too much chocolate. But trying to change it will change reproductive biology in ways we probably can't imagine at this time.

Why not just get a hysterectomy? Sheesh.

I am not crazy about the idea either. Like I always ask: Did nature have it wrong?

there have been theories that the reason women live longer is because they have a monthly cycle.

While some women are not regular, some are. either way, whatever will be will be.
but then, teh garbage in our environment may be affecting those who are not regular, and need help. I think all the hormones given to livestock is doing awful things to us.

I don't take the pill, and I hope I won't have too.

my cousin was on the pill for 8 years and is having so many reproductive issues. I find it hard to believe it doesn't do something to you.

There was a time, when we all lived in small villages, that all the women in the village had synchronized periods, because we lived closely together, smelled the pheromones of our sisters, and the moon affected us more because we didn't have all this artificial lighting.

In my opinion, the main reason for irregular periods is modern life, not anything having to do with misprogrammed biology.

If we all started living extremely green without electricity in small enclaves, women would all be regular and on time, together.

IMHO...don't mess with mother nature.However..iam not a woman who has severe problems with her monthly cycle.It just comes and goes like clockwork, with guaranteed migraine headache on day 2.Thats it.I don't take medication of anykind, and I never ever will.
Iam sure there are women who this may help, or feel it is the correct choice for them.Not me.
There is always a risk of side effects immediately or years down the road.Too great a risk in my opinion.

[edit on 19-9-2007 by AccessDenied]

I'm perfectly fine with this.

I've always sympathized as to how inconvenient that must be for women.

Regardless, don't we already do things that are unnatural?

Good Question! I only read the opening post, but I agree with you Dr Love. I would not choose to mess with my body in this manner without knowing what the long term effects could be. Don't get me wrong...I'd dearly love it if the monthly cycle would go away..and I think I'll embrace menopause

I'm not sure this is a good thing, but I can see women all over the place doing it for convenience. Women go through hormone cycles each month, it's a wide range with highs and lows....where would they be if we no longer had a period? What if they get stuck on the don't touch me or you die cycle? I wouldn't mess with something that's suppose to happen...believe it or not.

[edit on 9/19/2007 by jensouth31]

my female group of friends and i talk about this one...we just thnk its weird just to whole no period for a while thing..i just find it odd. we're supposed to have them you know no need to stop it. do they even know the long term effects?? ehh i wouldn't use it..im a trooper i can handle cramps and laziness and bloatiness and headaches once a month..it makes me realize i am alive.

Pills just don't work for me, well maybe I should say they don't work for because I can't remember to take them. Now this new pill does sound intriguing if I was a very active and much younger person, however as I have learned from experience, the good also comes with the bad.

I can't speak about this brand of pill, but years ago, after my first son, I started to take the Depovera birth control shots, by the second month I literally stopped having a period and didn't have one for over a year. What I did notice was water retention and weight gain. Then I decided I wanted to get pregnant again, stopped the depo shots and well the first six months of period after the last shot were absolutely the most excruciately painful times I could ever remember.

supposedly it's perfectly okay not to have your periods, but I feel that stuff is just building up and when you finally do have one, it's going to be quite heavy and painful. But like I said that was years ago, perhaps they've made improvements with the pill.

I LIKE having monthly periods and have already had one clot so far from some mysogynistic idiot's having given me the Depo w/out my consent!!! BTW have gone after her medical liscence and expect to be successful in getting this (Depo) EXTREMELY dangerous form of BC THAT DOESN"T WORK for 30% or more of women who take it ---off the market!!! Can't speak for Seasonale but it sounds very dangerous. I wouldn't reccommend it for anyone who doesn't have hellatious periods. I am an MD myself and used to do research on this subject. They LIE to the public more fluently than most people tell the truth. If you knew the types of people who conduct and/or fund research on this, you'd NEVER entrust yourself nor a loved one to their TLC. I've had what feels like the worst most prolonged PMS I've ever experienced since this involuntary dosing with Depo AND am preg again --WITH TWINS ---experiencing worse complications than I've ever experienced. If you ask me the people who promote this stuff are Nazis and should be deported or interned.:bash:

[edit on 19-9-2007 by jfkshtrsdau]

[edit on 19-9-2007 by jfkshtrsdau]

reply to post by jfkshtrsdau


I would most definitely agree with your comments on Depo and how dangerous it is. I've had a lot of issues since I stopped the shot, and all the doctors wanted to put me right back on it, which was met with an infuriated "NO"
Seasonale, as a previous 'user' of it (Like i said in my earlier post, it's expensive so I stopped lol), I never noticed any issues, I think I was more regular on seasonale than I ever was before. It really helped me return to a sense of normalcy for the most part. Although now things are acting up a little but for the most part back to the usual.