When I was younger I used to think it would be so great if someday women didn’t have to have periods anymore. I figured that surely science would come up with some way to do this. I mean, come on - who likes periods? Men certainly don’t - they could only benefit from women not having them. And for us they are just a pain (sometimes literally). I didn’t know if this would happen in my lifetime or not, or even when I was still young enough for it to matter to me.

Well, apparently there have been ways to avoid having a period for long lengths of time or even at all for some time now. Where have I been? Under a rock somewhere it seems!

The other day I read where many doctors and nurses have been avoiding their periods by just starting a new packet of their birth control pills right after finishing one, rather than to stop taking them for a week. I didn’t even realize that when you are taking birth control pills that the periods you have aren’t actually real periods. They are called ‘breakthrough’ bleeding.

Of course it isn’t a good idea to use a medication differently than how it is recommended to be used - but to at least know about these things in case something comes up where a period would be extremely inconvenient would have been nice. Remember in Sixteen Candles when the older sister is getting married and her period starts and the stuff she taking for cramps makes her totally out of it? That could have been completely avoided if she had known how to avoid or postpone a period! Nevermind that the movie would not have been quite so entertaining.

The drug company Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. released SEASONALE in 2003. It is some sort of extended-cycle oral contraceptive. And now they have just gotten FDA approval for SEASONIQUE. With SEASONIQUE you take a pill with levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol for 84 days in a row. Then go for 7 days with taking a pill with only ethinyl estradiol. And you only have a period 4 times a year!

Let me repeat that:

You will only have a period 4 times a year!

SEASONIQUE will be available by July this year. Cool isn’t it? Ok, its not exactly a cure for cancer or aging, a space colony, a matter transmitter or a time machine - but at least science has now accomplished one of the things I have always dreamed of!

Now, one question remains: will our health insurance will pay for it or not?

(Technorati Tags: SEASONIQUE, SEASONALE, period, health, birth control)