Why the pill switchup at all? Why not just stop the periods altogether? (I know that’s what the newer BC pills are touting as a selling point–why wasn’t it done all along?) I’d think women would love that!
Or is it that, without a period, they would have nothing to complain about? (Ha! Just kidding. There are always us men. That must be why the periods were left in–to take some of the heat off of the guys, at least for a few days each month.)
That may be true of some pills, but not all. I’ve taken several kinds of BCP in my life and I never took the “white pills” and always had a period.
Personally, I’d rather endure a couple days of period than pee on a stick every month to know I’m not pregnant. Even though I’m on the pill, I don’t trust that it is going to work 100% (neither do the makers of the pill!)
The type I take has just a little bit of hormone in the inactive pills. It’s supposed to help with the cramps, although it’s not a big difference.
I only have mine one very three months. And even though I’m on The Pill the rest of the time, and even though I take the hormone “sugar pills”, and even though I stuff myself to the gills on Advil, I still usually get excruciating cramps.
I think my uterus is broken.
If you are nulliparous, I’d consider a very tight cervical os as another possibility. A baby or two trucking through there might leave it a little more patulent and perhaps decrease the pain. If you are done with procreation, have a chat with your gyne and see if she thinks endometrial ablation would help.
I’ve often said if men had the babies, there would be a max of one baby per procreator, it would be created early, and the uterus would be removed with the baby at (universal) c-section.
I would rather have cramps than this.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premenstrual_Dysphoric_Disorder
Gold, baby, gold!
True, but “barely able to squeeze out” is not a selection pressure on more pain, if anything it’s a selection for women with a stretchier cervix / vagina / stuff.
But human childbirth appears to be more painful and more risky than birth among other mammals. This is probably because of the speed with which we evolved our big heads.
Otherwise I suspect that there is a selection pressure for less pain, but it is a weak pressure. My reason for suspecting this is that if the mother is in excrutiating pain, she may writhe about, panic etc, which may negatively affect the chances of an entirely successful birth.
Er… does nulliparous mean “not pregnant”, or “not having kids”?
It’s doc-speak for “never having given birth to a kid”.
Oh, well, in that case- I’m only 20. I don’t think I should go mucking around with my reproductive system just yet.
I think you need to re-read my post, that’s exactly what I said.
In my case, when I try to ‘skip’ a period and don’t take that week off, I get cranky, moody, irritable and just plain out of sorts. I prefer three days of bleeding to dealing with that for three weeks.
Yes, you would.
I used to embrace and welcome my cramps because they meant “sweet relief” from the PMDD…I would feel the first telltale sign of cramping and I would be " Oh, God, YES, thankyou thankyou thankyou".
Then it’s not a “feature,” it’s a “bug.” 
It also has to do with us walking upright. That one gives us an asston of grief.
They aren’t acutally just “sugar” pills. They contain various minerals, most notably Iron, which women lose when they menstruate.
I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, where I don’t ovulate regularly. Therefore, my endometrium (uterine lining) keeps building up and when I do get a period, it’s horrendously painful because my uterus has to keep squeezing to get it all out. Sometimes I bleed for a month at a time, with painful cramps for a week or two straight. It’s excruciating.
The medical thinking used to be that women needed periods every month (actually, every four weeks) to keep us in working order. Nowadays (and isn’t it odd that we’ve got more female researchers these days?) the thinking is more along the lines of “Who needs periods anyway?”.
Back when I had a uterus, I found that walking regularly helped with cramps. And by this, I mean walking quite a long distance several times a week, and not just during my period. However, that might just have been coincidence.
Easier for you to throw them away than for someone who needs a daily routine to try to find something else to stand in for the pills.
My objection to it is that I get exactly the same result (no menstruation) if the BC isn’t working as I would if it is.
I think that’s only some oral contraceptives, not all.
A recent trend is to sit - or even lie down - during childbirth.