UK NEWS

DRUG TO HALT PERIODS WILL GET ALL-CLEAR

The contraceptive pill

Sunday May 20,2007

By Lucy Johnston

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(1)

HEALTH officials in the US are this week set to approve a new drug which can indefinitely halt a woman’s period.

Drug giant Wyeth, the manufacturers of Lybrel, hope it will be licensed in the UK later this year.

Lybrel is the first pill specifically designed to eliminate the fertility cycle, which many regard as central to womanhood.

Ordinary oral contraceptives are taken for 21 days a month with a break of seven days during which the woman has her period, preserving the biological rhythm.

But some gynaecologists argue there is no reason why women should continue to suffer the pain, discomfort and
emotional disturbance associated with menstruation. They say periods can be eliminated safely and easily and that it
is no different from treating the menopause with hormone replacement therapy or impotence with Viagra.

US drug watchdog the Food And Drug Administration is set to license Lybrel after trials showed it had no significant side effects.

Gynaecologists say they have been seeing a slow but steady increase in women asking how to limit and even stop monthly bleeding. Surveys show up to half of women would prefer not to have any periods, most would prefer them less often and a majority take prescribed contraceptive pills to reduce the side effects.

Dr Leslie Miller, a gynaecologist at the University Of Washington-Seattle who has carried out studies on women and periods, expects sales of the new drug to soar.

However, other experts believe blocking periods could be unsafe in the long term. Two weeks ago, the British Medical Journal carried a report from Baltimore health psychologist Paula Derry who said “menstrual suppression itself is unnatural”. She added there was not enough research to determine if the drug was safe.

Doctors who support Lybrel say there is no medical reason women need monthly bleeding and that it can trigger health problems such as anaemia and epilepsy.

They say women have been tinkering with nature since the advent of birth control pills in the Sixties, and now endure as many as 450 periods, compared with 50 or so in the days when women spent most of their fertile years pregnant or breast-feeding.

A spokeswoman for the UK’s Family Planning Association said it welcomed the extra choice for women.

PERIODS DRUG?

20.05.07, 7:28pm

I'm not a woman so can only guess how much a woman goes through during her menstrual cycle, but "if I were a woman" I would feel very much inclined to think long and hard about taking this new drug. I believe that "almost all" forms of medication have some sort of side effect and the fearful name Thalidamide is the first thing that leapt to mind!
alroy

• Posted by: alroy • Report Comment