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Read your letters responding to Would
you stop menstruating if you could?
Article
about the The Society of Menstrual Cycle Research conference in Pittsburgh
in the local Post-Gazette newspaper
Leslie Botha-William's response to Post-Gazette article
Comments of M. Clara Whitaker about the Post-Gazette
article
Web site
for The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
Press release from the menstrual suppression panel of the
15th biennial conference of
The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 2003,
stating its position on stopping menstruation
(Harry Finley, the MUM and writer of this Web site, is a member of
the Society)
In an effort to raise awareness about menstrual suppression and initiate
a dialogue among women's health practitioners and scholars of the menstrual
cycle, a panel was recently delivered on June 6, 2003 at the 15th Biennial
Meeting of The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(U.S.A.). The panel consisted of three papers, addressing menstrual suppression
from multiple perspectives. Authors of the first paper, Christine Hitchcock,
Ph. D. and Jerilynn Prior, M.D., reviewed studies that have been published
on extending the schedule of oral contraceptive pills in order to reduce
the frequency of menstrual bleeding. They concluded that we do not yet
have evidence to suggest that menstrual suppression is entirely safe and
reversible. The second set of authors, Alex Hoyt, M. A. and Linda Andrist,
Ph.D., presented results from a study of women's attitudes toward menstrual
suppression. They concluded that negative attitudes toward the menstrual
cycle were a better predictor of women's interest in menstrual suppression
than women's menstrual symptoms, suggesting the importance of psychosocial
factors in women's decision making about altering their menstruation. The
third paper, by Ingrid Johnston-Robledo, Ph.D. and Jessica Barnack, B.A.,
addressed popular media coverage of menstrual suppression. From their analysis
of print media, they concluded that regular menstruation is presented as
bothersome and even unhealthy. Advocates of menstrual suppression and its
benefits were afforded more space than opponents and risks. As with many
other health issues, women are not getting accurate, balanced information,
rendering an informed decision about this health care option difficult
if not impossible.
The notion that monthly menstruation is no longer considered a necessary,
healthy process, particularly for women who experience endometriosis and
severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS), was popularized after the publication
of the book "Is Menstruation Obsolete" by Elsimar Coutinho and
Sheldon Segal, in 1999 [read excerpts
from the book]. Women can essentially avoid or suppress frequent menstruation
by taking a standard oral contraceptive continuously without the 7-day
placebo pills. The typical recommendation is that women take this regimen
of pills for three months and then experience a pill-free week such that
they menstruate every three months. Another birth control pill, Seasonale,
is specifically designed to suppress menstruation, although it is not yet
approved by the Food and Drug Administration [of the U.S. government].
Women using this oral contraceptive will be on a schedule of active pills
for 84 days and then take placebo pills for 7 days. Menstrual suppression
was originally recommended for women with disorders related to the menstrual
cycle such as endometriosis, but is now being recommended to and practiced
by women without such disorders.
Members of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research have a range of
opinions about this complicated and controversial issue. What we do agree
on, however, is that:
1) More research is needed before women can make informed decisions.
Women and health care providers need to know more about the reasons why
people choose menstrual suppression, and the medical consequences of making
that choice. We need psychosocial research looking at women's attitudes,
concerns, preferences, and needs for information. We need well designed,
randomized, placebo-controlled trials of long-term oral contraceptive use
for menstrual suppression, examining women's experiences, bone health,
and risks for blood clots and strokes. These studies should include women
who are not taking any oral contraceptives, and not just compare women
on different schedules of active pills. We also need studies to assess
the recovery of fertility following discontinuation.
2) While we recognize that menstrual suppression may be a useful option
for women with severe menstrual cycle problems such as endometriosis, we
do not believe that continuous oral contraceptive use should be prescribed
to all menstruating women out of a rejection of a normal, healthy menstrual
cycle.
We are particularly concerned about the potential effects of extended
oral contraceptive use on adolescents, given their vulnerability during
development and the absence of data regarding the safety of this practice
for this age group.
Ingrid Johnston-Robledo, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
State University of New York (SUNY) Fredonia
Fredonia, New York 14063
June 2003
Read an article
about the conference in Pittsburgh in the local Post-Gazette newspaper,
which quotes from one of your letters on the Would you stop menstruating
if you could? page; and Leslie Botha-William's response
to the article. She opposes menstrual suppression and wrote this letter
to the editor of the Post-Gazette.] And read the comments
of M. Clara Whitaker, a clinical and research psychologist from the PUC-SP
University in Brazil. She has been studying cultural aspects of PMS and
menstruation in Brazil, as well as menstrual cycle psychology, for a number
of years.
I might add that recent studies of hormonal treatment for the symptoms
of menopause have shown unexpected increases in health problems for the
women taking the hormones. These increases probably played a part in the
panel's decision in the press release.
Web site for
The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
Article
about the The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research conference in Pittsburgh
in the local Post-Gazette newspaper
Leslie Botha-William's response to Post-Gazette article
Comments of M. Clara Whitaker about menstrual
suppression
news | first
page | contact the museum | art of menstruation | artists
(non-menstrual) | belts | bidets
| Bly, Nellie | MUM board
| books (and reviews)
| cats | company booklets
directory | costumes | cups
| cup usage | dispensers
| douches, pain, sprays | essay
directory | extraction | famous
people | FAQ | humor
| huts | links | media | miscellaneous |
museum future | Norwegian
menstruation exhibit | odor | pad
directory | patent medicine | poetry
directory | products, current | religion | menstrual products safety
| science | shame | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons
| teen ads directory | tour
(video) | underpants
directory | videos, films directory | washable pads | LIST
OF ALL TOPICS