Anyone else taking Seasonale, the 3-month birth control pill? (TMI)

[Green_Cymbeline]

Is anyone else taking the new birth control pill, Seasonale? According to its site, http://seasonale.com/:

SEASONALE® is the only FDA-approved extended-cycle birth control pill…with the 91-day regimen of SEASONALE®, you will have your pill period once every 3 months, or just 4 times a year.

Apparently, having a period while you’re on the pill isn’t really necessary:

When taking birth control pills, the uterine lining is maintained and there is very little buildup. The uterine lining, then, does not need to be shed each month. This means that on birth control pills, there is really no medical need for a monthly pill period.

Asso from the site:

Early pill manufacturers just assumed that women wanted to have regular periods, and so the 3-weeks-on, 1-week-off routine was established.

So all along, we never had to have monthly periods! I’ve read that when the first pill came out, the manufacturers thought women wouldn’t want to take it if they didn’t have a period, so they created a monthly “fake” period. (And it’s taken them some 30 years to fix that! That could have saved our mothers from decades of suffering!)

However, with Seasonale, you should expect more spotting and breakthrough bleeding between pill periods than with a 28-day birth control pill. However, this is commonly only during the first cycles, and decreases over time.

So I just started taking Seasonale two months ago. I was so excited about the prospect of having a period only four times a year! How pointless to have one once a month if it is unnecessary. And think of all the money you would save on feminine products (that shit is expensive!) and not to mention that to pay for one round of Seasonale (three months) is the same as one month’s worth of regular BC pills (if you have health insurance with a set copay per prescription).

However, just as expected, I have been having the breakthrough bleeding for over a week now, which is a little annoying, but apparently this isn’t supposed to last over the long run. So it’s worth it.

So any other Doper women taking Seasonale? Any thoughts? If not, I would highly recommend asking your doctor about it. I was only the second person my doctor had prescribed it to.

[Green_Cymbeline]

Some more interesting information, from http://www.contraceptiononline.org/contrareport/article01.cfm?art=223:

**Despite substantial changes in dose and formulation, the standard OC regimen has changed little in the pill’s 42-year history. Early oral contraceptive developers selected a regimen of 21 days of active drug followed by 7 hormone-free days to mimic the average menstrual cycle. They believed such a regimen would be perceived as more “natural,” thereby making the new product more acceptable to potential users, prescribers, and the Roman Catholic church. The monthly withdrawal bleed also would reassure women using the pill that they were not pregnant.

Proponents of extended OC regimens contend that monthly withdrawal bleeding is unnecessary. Oral contraceptive users have limited endometrial buildup and do not require monthly shedding of the lining. Despite the appearance of being “natural,” the OC withdrawal bleed is medically induced and has no proven physiologic or health benefits.**

So it turns out we’ve been suffering through monthly periods while on the pill because it would be more acceptable to the Roman Catholic church!!!

ARGH!