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Continuous-Use Contraceptives to be Introduced in Britain Within Months

By Hilary White
 
LONDON, September 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The first contraceptive pill that provides a dose of active hormones every day that would halt menstruation, could be in use in Britain within a few months, according to the New Scientist. The drug, called Lybrel, is lauded for its ability to interrupt a woman’s normal fertility cycle and entirely stop her menstruation, potentially permanently. Its supporters say that once freed from their normal biological functions, women will be better able to compete with men in the workplace.
 
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approved the drug in May based on the results of two studies. It comes in a 28 day-pill pack containing 90 micrograms each of a progestin, levonorgestrel, and 20 micrograms of an estrogen, ethinyl estradiol.

Traditional hormonal contraceptive drugs include placebo or pill-free intervals lasting four to seven days that stimulate a menstrual cycle. Lybrel is designed to be taken without the placebo or pill-free time interval. Women who use Lybrel would not have a scheduled menstrual period, but, the FDA notes, will most likely have unplanned, breakthrough, unscheduled bleeding or spotting.
 
Some studies have shown side effects associated with Lybrel, as with most hormonal contraceptives, can include blood clots in the legs or lungs, gallbladder inflammation, ectopic pregnancy, stoppage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain (stroke), heart attack, angina, liver tumours and high blood pressure. Some studies have shown association with cervical cancer.
 
Lybrel’s supporters say the drug, because it entirely halts menstruation, will “end the misery” and inconvenience involved and reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. 
 
In the Daily Mail’s Thursday print edition Jill Parkin, a columnist on women’s issues, decries the value system that pits women against men in the workforce at the cost of the “basic biology that makes us female”.
 
“[I]magne filling yourself with chemicals every single day, taken orally and so exposing your entire system to their effect. Imagine pushing doubts about whether or not you’re pregnant to the back of your mind as you check your Blackberry for messages on the train every morning.”
 
“Compromise is inevitable, but actually shoehorning women in to a man-shaped space is wrong...Scientists have pointed out that we weren’t designed to have decades of periods but to have prolonged breaks for pregnancy and lengthy breastfeeding. But certainly evolution intended that we menstruate.”
 
The Mail also quotes Dr. Marilyn Glenville, a specialist at the Women’s Healthcare Centre, St John's Wood, London, saying that there is no way of telling what the long-term consequences will be of the new drug and worries that the effects “could be more damaging than the traditional 21-day Pill.” She cites particularly the possible connections of the pill with cervical cancer.
 
“Countless women will jump at the chance to take Lybrel, not for its contraceptive properties but simply as a lifestyle choice...Ultimately, women will be continuously dosing their body with artificial hormones while suppressing the body's own, without so much as the seven-day break that the body gets when taking the ordinary Pill.”

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