![]() Gal called a “small segment” of the $1.7 billion annual United States market for oral contraceptives.īut Barr, which say it believes that there is a larger market for the pills, is sponsoring a Web site, that explains how the pill works. But even at that peak, Seasonale accounted for what Mr. Users have “periods” once every three months.Ĭarol Cox, a spokesman for Barr, said that Seasonale sales reached $120 million in the 12 months ended June 2006, before a generic equivalent by Watson entered the market. The drug maker Barr caused a sensation in 2003 by introducing Seasonale, a contraceptive regimen packed as 84 hormone pills and 7 placebo pills. In recent years, drug makers have come out with new pill regimens that tinker with the 28-day cycle by increasing the number of hormone pills, creating a shorter span of bleeding. The interruption of hormone therapy during the inactive part of the regimen induces bleeding that resembles a mild period but is, in fact, caused by unstable hormone levels. The pills are usually packaged as regimens of 21 days of hormone pills and 7 inactive pills. Still, since the advent of oral contraceptives in 1960, birth control pills typically have been designed to mimic the natural 28-day menstrual cycle to assure women using the pill that their bodies were functioning normally. Women who take any kind of oral contraceptive do not have real periods.īecause the hormones in pills stop the monthly release of an egg and the buildup of the uterine lining, there is no need for the lining to shed - as occurs during true menstruation. Yang, a holistic nurse and executive director of the organization.Įliminating menstruation is not a completely new concept. “The focus of our group is to create positive attitudes toward the menstrual cycle suppressing it wouldn’t be positive,” said Anna C. There has also been a backlash among groups that celebrate the period as a spiritual or natural process, like the California-based Red Web Foundation. Hitchcock, who is with the Center for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research. “You need to think about whether there are consequences we don’t know about for the whole body,” said Ms. The monthly bleeding that women on pills experience is not a real period, in fact. “We’re too busy.” Doctors say they know of no medical reason women taking birth control pills need to have a period. “We don’t want to confront our bodily functions anymore,” Ms. Andrist, a professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston. ![]() That dovetails with the findings of similar research conducted by Linda C. The company’s research shows that nearly two-thirds of women it surveyed expressed an interest in giving up their periods. approval in May, but has declined to discuss its marketing plans. The drug’s maker, Wyeth, said yesterday that it was expecting F.D.A. Gal predicts an onslaught of advertising meant to persuade women to do just that. Bernstein & Company.īut if the new pill, called Lybrel, is approved, Mr. “It’s not an easy decision for a woman to give up her monthly menses,” said Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford C. That viewpoint is apparently one reason some already available birth control pills that can enable women to have only four periods a year have not captured a larger share of the oral contraceptive market.
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