Here is one for you girls who don't want children and don't want the monthly mess.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18745930/

It's been tried before, seing as how the "period" women have whilst on the pill is fake, and also pointless. However, it seems the market (i.e. women) didn't want to rid themselves of their periods, so the producers went onto making pills that "faked it" for them.

Understand it if you can *boggle*

Hmmm... strange. I know when you hit menopause and go on HRT if you take estrogen they also make you take progesterone so you'll menstruate. The idea is that you have to periodically get rid of the build up in your uterus or it causes problems. I wonder how they get away with that in BC pills?

I've been seeing ads for various BCP's that allow you to skip your period except for X times a year for quite awhile now.

I thought it all served some biological purpose and wasn't just an annoying bodily function. I'd certainly want a doctor to explain exactly why these pills are safe rather than just claiming that nobody has had problems (yet).

How do you know if you got preggers, if there's nothing to miss?

The female reproductive system is extremely complicated actually and relies on many different hormones to act effectively. The "traditional" birth control pill works by "tricking" your body into thinking that you are pregnant by giving you increased doses of these hormones, you do not ovulate - that is why you don't get pregnant.

Of course they finally realized after many years that you don't need massive doses of these hormones to keep you from ovulating and have subsequently decreased the amount of hormones in most "traditional" pills.

When taking the normal BC pill, the lining of the uterus doesn't build up as much as it would normally, because it is not getting ready in case of a fertillized egg coming on down the old fallopian tube - therefore your period is usually lighter, less bleeding, less cramping and the like.

The pills that are made to actually stop your periods are hormones that not only keep you from ovulating, but also keep you from building up any lining. Therefore, viola! no period.

It is not a safe thing, if you are not taking a pill to control your menstrual cycle, to not have periods. The build up of the lining can cause cancer and other maladies. However, if you are being chemically altered not to have a build-up, there is no reason why not having a period (as far as we know now) is not safe.

Ah, thanks for the explanation, Madie!

If a woman was to become pregnant while taking these pills, as an exceptional event, would she suffer from the extra changes made to the uterus?

If a woman was to become pregnant while taking these pills, as an exceptional event, would she suffer from the extra changes made to the uterus?

Probably nothing worse than what happens when she gets pregnant while taking a regular birth control pill.
Those new pills work by shutting down the whole cycle (same as happens if a woman goes through her menopause or as a child before she starts her periods). Should somehow a fertile egg develop then it would likely start the cycle. Or at worst there would not be lining in the womb to implant itself in and the woman would never know she could have been pregnant.


Eri