Some Pills Make You Taller and Some Pills Supress Your Period

I just ended a conversation with a patient about the possible ill effects of hormonal contraception. Then when I sat at my computer, I found an e-mail from my collegues at the Red Web foundation. It included a link to a strong editorial article about the questionable saftey and effectiveness of medically induced menstural suppression written by Leslie Botha.
It was published on www.womensnews.com

If you are considering any kind of contraception or switching to a new form, you have got to read this first.

This is the link and I have copied half the article below--
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2845/context/archive



This month, doctors are being trained to implant a contraceptive in women's forearms that can suppress menstruation for up to three years. Leslie Botha says research on such menstrual suppressants is inadequate and women should think twice.
Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Forty years ago I lauded the introduction of the birth control pill.
At that point I saw the Pill as a way for women to gain crucial control over their family planning and attain the time and energy for life pursuits beyond labor, delivery and all the joys of child care.

Today I stand with a growing number of academicians, researchers, educators and activists who are concerned about extending synthetic contraceptive use to do away with normal menstruation.

The marketing of such drugs upon unsuspecting women has been going on for more than 15 years.

Norplant arrived in 1990; it was six silicone rods inserted into the skin of a woman's arm effective for up to five years. In 2002 it was quietly taken off the market in the United States because of complaints of menstrual irregularities, headaches and nausea, scarring from botched insertions and removals which led to hundreds of lawsuits. Norplant is still widely used in other countries.

Then came Depo Provera in 1998: an injection suppressing the period for three months.
Seasonale arrived in 2003, reducing women's periods to four times a year. Lybrel was introduced in 2006, eliminating a woman's period for up to a year.

On July 18 the Food and Drug Administration approved yet another form of contraception that will eliminate the menstrual cycle for three years.
Implanon is a medical polymer single rod the size of a matchstick that can be implanted under the skin of a woman's upper inner arm where it secretes synthetic hormones that will suppress the production of natural hormones for up to three years, depending on body weight. Implanon's maker, Organon International, is beginning to train doctors to administer it this month.

Side Effects and Significance
Organon states that this product has been successfully tested on 250 million women in 30 countries for the past eight years without significant side effects.
So why worry?

Well, first there is the track record on this kind of claim to consider.
Some of you may remember, for instance, that side effects reported by Puerto Rican women in the 1960s were dismissed as "psychosomatic" in the rush to get the first birth control pill on the U.S. market.

Then came 100 premature deaths linked to the Pill, Senate hearings and Barbara Seaman's groundbreaking 1969 book "A Doctor's Case Against the Pill" about the dangerous side effects. Not until 1988, however, did drug companies, at the FDA's urging, remove the original high-dose oral contraceptives from the market. Also, what exactly is a "significant" side effect?
Implanon's disclaimer says "the most common side effect is changes in bleeding pattern ranging from amenorrhea (lack of a period) to spotting (chemically controlled bleed, not a natural bleed) and-or irregular or prolonged bleeding."

It appears that "significant" side effects encountered by women are dismissed as "insignificant" by the industry.

Currently over 100 million women worldwide use oral contraceptives, but there are no studies on how the elimination of the menstrual cycle for an extended length of time will affect our reproductive system as well as our health.

Some have argued that women will benefit medically from fewer menstrual cycles. The real question is, can that response be safely produced with artificial suppression?

Read the rest of this article---
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2845/context/archive