Depo-provera shots also eliminate periods. So does skipping the placebo pills in regular birth control pill packs. And the Mirena IUD reduces or eliminates periods for many women.

I really don't see what the big deal is. If having a monthly period keeps you in touch with your feminine self and inner goddess, then by all means use a form of birth control that lets you have them. If you think of your period as an inconvenience or you have heavy, irregular and painful periods and/or bad PMS, use a form of birth control that stops them. It's called choice.

Instead of being concerned over the physical/mental/social/political ramifications of stopping one's period, it would be nice if more research were put into just what being ON the pill (or shots, or anything else with hormones) actually does to a woman's body. I was on the pill for 20 years and went off around 8 months ago. I finally decided enough is enough with low libido, difficulty losing weight, etc., etc. Now I get lousy periods and would love to be able to do away with them...but I won't go back on the pill again. It's not a worthy trade-off for me.

but even in the pill's early days, doctors advised patients to skip the sugar pills when they had events coming up (beach vacations, weddings, etc.) that made menstruation inconvenient.

Wouldn't you have to start the next set of "real pills" immediately? My understanding was that the "sugar pills" were just place-holders for counting the days. When I was on the pill, I routinely skipped those because I can count very well on my own, thank you, and I still had my periods.

Forgive me for being a clueless man, but isn't the absence of a period (amenorrhea) a health problem?

I think it's a sympton of a problem only if it happens naturally. A woman who doesn't menstruate naturally probably isn't ovulating, so she could be having fertility problems. A woman on the pill doesn't want to ovulate.

The bleed that occurs monthly when on the Pill, by taking your sugar pills or taking a break from pills, is not a menstrual period. Your are not ovulating on the pill, your body thinks it's pregnant. When you withdraw the daily drip feed of hormones, the womb reacts. But it is not a menstrual period. I'm all for choice and I choose not to take the pill. See more here:

http://www.womhealth.org.au/healthjourney/pill_myths_misconceptions.htm

The minute I learned that birth control pills were engineered back in the 60's to mimic a regular period, and that the pill period served no physiological purpose at all, I stopped taking the placebos in my pack. I haven't had a period in almost 5 years and gave birth to a healthy baby girl in January. What the FDA is approving with Seasonale and now Lybrel is not a product, but a practice. You don't need these products to eliminate or decrease your number of periods; you can do it with any commercially available birth control pill, and it is as safe as taking the pill always was. I am surprised at the number of women who say they need their periods to feel feminine. Especially for women who have very difficult, painful periods, this seems needlessly self-sacrificing.

My objection to this drug has nothing to do with being "in touch with [my] feminine self and inner goddess" and everything to do with concern over the long-term effects and risks of taking synthetic hormones. Read books by John R. Lee, MD, if you want to learn more (http://www.johnleemd.com/ is a good place to start).

Salon ALREADY had this article on November 24, 2003 (yep, a whole four years ago), just Google Salon and Seasonale.

I was "menstrually suppressed" for "dysfunctional uterine bleeding" - an almost nonstop period - it was a bit expensive, so I thought, well, I'll just stop taking these pills, and if I start having problems again, I'll go back on them - ultrasound and everything had checked out okay - exactly 27 days after I took the last pill I had a regular period, and have been having regular periods ever since. I'm in my 40s - my periods are lighter and shorter (so far) than in my teens, 20s, 30s - no cramps, no PMS - the advertising I've seen so far for menstrual suppressive hormone use is directed at younger women, it seems, not 40-somethings..

Kind of makes me laugh, "what, you want to libel my ovaries? I'll see you in court..."

Am I mistaken? Feminist women would take this? That seems so odd. I was explicitly told it was men that were afraid of a woman's menstruation.

CrunchyFrog, yes, they would go immediately to the next active pills, not just not take any at all.

And why does not wanting a period (which can be uncomfortable, messy, and inconvenient just as easily as it can be glorious, relieving, celebratory, etc.) make one "afraid"?

I'd stop my period if I could do so without side effects or putting synthetic things into my body. I have no use for it, so for me it is just an inconvenience.

After recently being diagnosed with endometriosis at age 35, I decided to take my doctor's advice and try Seasonique. Even though I've suffered with ridiculous amounts of severe pain, vomiting and other unpleasant menstrual side effects for YEARS, I was still leery about not having my period regularly. I wondered if I'd still be a woman, how would my body handle it, etc. I'm not sure why I felt this way, but I've since decided that my worries and fears were unfounded. After two months of pain-free living, I feel like a new woman. I don't think I'm making a statement about my feminist views or about womanhood in general. It's not a patriarchal society that has made me "scared of periods," it' s the suffering that I've endured that makes me afraid.

I have amennorhea (spelling?). No doctor has ever taken the time to sit down with me and explain what this is - I've had to do all the research myself. No one's even used the word "amennorhea" to me, just given me birth control pills to start me bleeding at age 19.

Eventually, I got tired of the side effects and went off. Now I get my period four or five times a year. No one but me is remotely interested in how this came about. From doctors, I've gotten the message that the period is a pretty unimportant occurance, so I should just do whatever works for me.

Will I wind up with cancer or something dire? Maybe. I'll take my chances. I hate my period. If it was guys having monthly cramps, mood swings and bleeding, I'm sure a pill to suppress it would have been invented much sooner.