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A Pill To Stop Female Menstruation
skinney writes: "Preliminary findings now suggest that it may be possible in the near future to reversibly suppress menstruation using new progestin antagonists, a class of drugs that includes the controversial abortion pill RU-486." If these pills make it to human trials and then to market, I wonder how much longer it would take for them to become over-the-counter.
I got my first period today!
Now point me to the drugs and make it my last!
Frankly, I'd like to see some more work on developing birth control for men.
Actually, researchers at the University of Newfoundland have come up with a birth control pill for men. The odd thing about this pill is that it isn't taken orally; you put it in the heel of your shoe.
It works by making you limp.
<rim shot>
Some peoples' value system contains factors that go beyond just whatever happens to be "normal" or "natural." If your idea of a good life is to spend 12 hours a day hunting and gathering food, and having a child once per year in order to just barely counter the death rate, then by all means, do that. But the rest of us would rather enjoy life, and technological progress is what makes this possible.
I realize some religeons think that certain mundane details of how life is supposed to work, are handed down by God and should be conformed to. But making it up as we go, and hacking those processes to work the way we want them instead of how they're pre-programmed, is getting pretty popular.
Fuck the manufacturer's ROMs, I'll write my own. Said the meme to the gene, "We will bury you!"
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
The Jewish opinion on menstruation has always been that it is natural but unclean thing. Women who were in the throes of it were to be sent to the "Women's House" out back and locked in there until they were no longer unclean. Men who cavorted with an unclean woman would also become unclean and would need to go to the Temple to become cleansed.
To put this in a little more context (Book of Levidicus) Skin flaws of most sorts (lesions, rashes) were also unclean,(Lev 13:7-9;Lev 13:13-15) as well as rabbits (anything that walks on paws; Lev 11:27) and mildew (Lev 13:50-52) and nocternal emissions (lev 15:1-3;15-17).
This is not to say that women are as vile as bugs, but that a number of things made a number of people unclean according to the laws written in the books of Moses.
This brings up a question that is more scientific than moral/ethical, regardless of how it sounds: How much can we self-engineer ourselves before becoming an unstable system?
Got Rhinos?
Calling menstruation a "normal, cleansing part of a woman's cycle," is utter bullshit, and has only been normal since the advent of modern birth control.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Anyway, my girlfriend already prevents menstruation by just taking the pill month-round. Ordinarily, one week of the pill is just a sugar pill, but if you instead take the full strength pills the whole month, you can prevent menstruation. My guess is, this is more or less the same idea.
A couple notes for those of you who want to try this at home: first, yes, it is considered safe. My girlfriend has discussed it with doctors, and originally read about it in a medical article (her father's an ER doctor). In fact, girls really shouldn't be menstruating all the time. Up until a century ago, women would basically spend half their time pregnant from puberty to menopause (or until they died in child birth), so what's going on now is pretty unnatural.
Second, make sure you have full strength pills. Many pills have stepped dosages, so only one week would actually be full strength, two weeks would be partial strength, and one week is just a placebo. You need the ones with 3 constant dosage weeks, and one placebo week. Just toss out the placebo week and keep taking the regular pills.
Third, 9 weeks seems to be the limit for my girlfriend. After going through 3 sets of pills, even if she continues taking full strength pills, she goes into menstruation. YMMV, but this is probably not something you can do forever.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
I can understand "exceptions" where some women's systems make menstruation some sort of risk, but this is obviously going to be marketed to all women in some sort of floaty commercial with muted pastel colors exhorting women to exercise their newfound FREEDOM...
tune
skkkoooonnnggggkkk ptui
Here's a method that has always worked for my wife and I: the easiest way to prevent unwanted pregnancy is to force your girlfriend/wife to watch at least one episode of Southpark, and after that you won't see her for a week. Continued long enough this can avoid all the normal problems associated with failed birth control, eg pickle-jam sandwiches and offspring dropping out of school.
Perhaps there could be a "Females" topic? (It is relevant to geeks, no?) Of course, Taco would probably come up with a dumbass logo, and then there goes the audience even further.
Except Anne Marie, of course.
sulli
RTFJ.
It's really too bad I can't use my mod points on this (yeah, I know why).. someone should mod this up if they see it; +1 Funny. =)
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
Regarding both forms of this drug:
Many existing forms of hormonal birth control stop or greatly reduce menstruation (and its lovely side-effects) already. The Pill is often used on women who have severe cramps, and usually greatly reduces flow. (It's been described as going from a gush to a drizzle.) Similarly, Depo-Provara (the Shot -- a needle every 3 months) has a very common side-effect of stopping menstruation completely. While both of these have problems associated with long-term use, this article doesn't tell me what I'd really like to know -- how is this better than my current choices?
The stopping menstruation without stopping ovulation does sound interesting, but I have to wonder about its side-effects. Without the build-up in the uterus, couldn't this lead to more ectopic pregnancies? And if you were to become pregnant while on this drug, how would you know? (It's very dangerous, for example, to take birth control pills while pregnant.) And couldn't the continued use of this drug while pregnant have adverse side-effects?
I applaud their goal of trying to reduce endometriosis and the number of hysterectomies performed (both my mother and my mother-in-law underwent this) but I worry about this as a lifestyle choice.
Frankly, I'd like to see some more work on developing birth control for men. My SO and I don't want children. Unfortunately, I'm terrible at doing things on a schedule. I was on the pill -- but after a few months I started forgetting to take them so often that it became useless. I can barely remember to get my oil changed every 3 months, let alone get a shot -- and I hate doctors anyway. And the Norplant (implant which provides birth control for 5 years) has some extremely adverse side-effects. (Most women experience CONSTANT bleeding.) My SO, however, is much more organized; I'd trust him to take a pill every day over me. Unfortunately, there's nothing available.
Thinking back to my single life, though, I don't think I'd ever be able to trust any guy who said "Relax babe -- I'm on the pill"
I can spell. I just can't type.