News

Life without monthly periods has always been one of the few things women look forward to as they grow old — but thanks to a new birth control pill, Canadian women of all ages may soon be able to stop menstruating.

Obstetricians, gynecologists and researchers gathered in Vancouver on Saturday to hear discussion about Anya, an oral contraceptive being manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Wyeth. The pill is taken continually and without the seven-day gap other birth control pills leave for menstruation.

And while it has yet to be approved by Health Canada, demand for the pill could be high judging by the results of recent informal surveys.

Four out of five women who took part in a poll while visiting the Museum of Menstruation in Maryland said if they could choose to stop having monthly periods, they would.

Dr. Robert Reid, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said a recently published article in the medical journal Contraception also showed that approximately 50 per cent of women with no severe cycle-related symptoms would prefer to suppress their periods if given the option.

Reid was one of the speakers on an expert panel called Is it OK If You Never Have A Period Again? at the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology conference in Vancouver on Saturday.

The side effects from continuous contraception would essentially be no different than those resulting from a cyclic contraceptive, he said. The risks would be the same as the regular pill — a woman's chances of getting a stroke or heart attack would be higher if she were a smoker, for example.

However, the amount of estrogen in Anya is lower: 25 micrograms compared to between 30 to 50 micrograms for traditional birth control pills.

“You're not taking more (hormones), you're taking them more often,” Reid said. “You're taking a very small dose but you're doing it every day so there's not the cyclic rhythm, the ups and downs that you'd get with cyclic hormones.”

It won't be known what long-term side effects are associated with Anya until it's on the market. Reid said he believed Health Canada and Wyeth are negotiating the possibility of having so-called active surveillance, in which women who take Anya are put into a registry and their condition followed up on every six months.

There's no word on when the pill will be on the market if approved, but Reid predicts it will be in the next few months.

Currently, the closest option for continuous birth control is a Depo Provera, a three-month hormone shot.

And while the thought of never having to purchase feminine hygiene products may entice some women, continuous contraception has its critics.

One of the most vocal is Dr. Jerilynn Prior, an endocrinologist and the scientific director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research at the University of British Columbia.

“Menstruation, this amazingly intricate, carefully crafted cycle, is a vital sign of our health,” she told Macleans magazine last year. “To wantonly disrupt it is a horrifying thought. Regulatory bodies are saying, ‘We approved the original pill, so this must be OK. It's just taking the pill more frequently.' But even the original pill probably contains negatives we still don't really know about.”

Prior has also said that the continuous-use pill is just a way for pharmaceutical companies to jazz up an old product.

But Reid pointed out that while some might not find it natural to rely on hormones to suppress a period, there's no proof that menstruation is beneficial to women.

“There's no evidence that you're getting rid of toxins in your body; in fact there's some evidence that there may be a greater risk at getting an infection up into your uterus and tubes at the time of menstruation,” he said. “So maybe menstrual suppression would be positive in that sense.”